Navigating the Maze

"Students can hit any target they can see and holds still for them."
                                                                                         - attributed to R. Stiggins

From my own experience, I am a true believer in clear expectations and goals being essential for success as a student. A student needs to see the path for success and be reassured that he has the ability to walk the path. A teacher needs to lay out the path clearly and then walk alongside with encouragement and correction to shepherd their students along the way.

There are a lot of different ways a teacher could lay out a course for a student. As I am in my 6th year of post-secondary, one of my least favorite is the typical "course-outline". They are so full of information that the important information is easily lost and the most-important information tends not to be included. Also, oftentimes the "path" given in a course-outline is simply course-outcomes that are written too formally to be of any use coupled with due dates and weighting of assignments. During my recent practicum experience I realized students were in need of a clear graphic-organizer for each course which clearly and simply communicates and breaks-down the course content.

This used to exist for students in the form of a textbook table of contents. Instructors simply followed the assigned textbook and tested in accordance. As we have thankfully begun to move away from this, this step-by-step course breakdown simply doesn't exist anymore unless created by the teacher.

In my experience, students are left with course outcomes, a textbook, supplementary readings, hand-outs, class discussions, class activities, classmates, class websites and twitter feeds, Edmodo, etc... to piece together what they are going to learn and how they are going to succeed. What they really need is a table of contents and timeline. This is something I plan to ensure my students have. It will look different depending on the age and abilities of the students and the course content, but it will be given.

That last statement is easier to say then do. The challenges of new courses and grades to teach without appropriate preparation time likely lays ahead of me, but I am making it a priority to provide students with a course "table of contents" and timeline. They need to know how to get through the maze!