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Pedagogical Stance: Academic Engagement & Excellence

What are the ways to reach academic engagement and excellence?

I believe that once we have built safe and inquiring classroom communities, the critical next step is to energize those with learning.

 

To present students with meaningful learning experiences with clarity of purpose and always communicating to them that who they are and what they can do is important and relevant.  

Create Authentic Learning Experiences

Why?

To Ensue Enduring Understanding

"The problem is the “twin sins” of typical instructional design in schools: activity-focused teaching and coverage-focused teaching. Neither case provides an adequate answer to the key questions at the heart of effective  learning: What is important here? What is the point? How will this experience enable me as a learner to meet my obligations?" (UBD, 3)

Support Cognitive Clarity

Why?

The more the clarity, the more the persistence in effort.

“Cognitive clarity is often taken for granted by adults, who have a clear sense of the importance of what they are trying to teach. Unfortunately, many children have little idea what they are trying to do or why anyone would want to do it.“ (Cunningham, 88)

Be a Warm Demander

 

Why?

Communicate to Students that they are Important 

"The purpose of insistence is not to demand compliance. Rather, teachers insist that students are respectful and hardworking because respect and hard work create an environment in which academic engagement and success can flourish." (Bondy , 146)

Teaching Practice

 Online Teaching Spring 2020

Grade: 4

Medium: Online

Topic: Industrial Revolution

Please click the link above to access detailed unit plans.

Farstrup, A. E., Samuels, S. J., Cunningham, P. M., & Cunningham, J. W. (2002). Chapter 5: What we know about how to teach phonics. In What research has to say about reading instruction (pp. 87–109). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Bondy, Elizabeth & Ross, Dorene. (2008). The teacher as warm demander. Educational leadership: journal of the Department of Supervision and Curriculum Development, N.E.A. 66. 54-58. 
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