What's Your Best Lesson of 2015?
What comes to mind when you think back on your instruction in 2015? Would you say you played it safe or you took risks? Did you try a strategy multiple times so you could tweak it or did you knock it out of the park on your first try? Whatever the lesson, it is worth taking time to reflect on it and consider what made it successful.
Undoubtedly, the factor that made it your “best” was the actual learning that took place on the part of the students. Most educators express sheer joy when they see their students “get it”. That is not surprising since most of us enter into education to make a difference and to help others learn. Have you taken time to consider what made the learning take place in your best lesson of 2015? This is an important thing to do so you can replicate the success in other lessons.
Consider these components:
Planning– Flying by the seat of our educational pants will work every now and then. But to be strategic about student learning, we need to be well planned. And then have a back up plan. For your best lesson, you may have researched the topic to increase your own background or used a new resource or strategy. In planning for our lessons, we create a vision of what we want students to know and be able to do. This vision is critical for getting students to learn.
Explicit Language– The specific we are with our language, the better. We can’t tell children to go and infer and expect them to be successful. We must model the way we infer, think aloud for the students, show them our thinking in order for them to tap into our vision of what we want them to know and be able to do. Vague language and lack of thinking aloud can derail what would otherwise be a good lesson!
Release of Responsibility– Educators like to talk but without allowing students to wrestle with ideas and do the work themselves, learning does not take place. We must release responsibility so the students can work on the work. Without the release to the students, the adults are the only ones learning.
Formative Assessment– Real formative assessment takes place in the act of learning. When learning is taking place, we can assess how far students have come with the ideas. Once we know what they know, we can adjust accordingly. This is the whole point of formative assessment…we want it to drive instruction!
Whatever your best lesson of 2015, take some time to reflect on it and unpack it. You could do this alone, with a colleague or in a learning community. It is time well spent to know what makes you effective and what made learning take place. The best of 2015 cannot always be captured in a score, so it is time to start talking about it so you have MORE to talk about in 2016!