APP2WassermanR

I am currently taking a course at Walden University titled “Designing Curriculum Instruction and Assessment.” In this course we are discussing the use of standards in education and making them useful. Most educators do not look positively on standards and usually see them as part of the frustrations that come with the job. However, the idea of the “Power Standard” was introduced by Dr. Douglas Reeves and was explained as standards built around the current standards while embracing the skills students will find useful in the future. (Laureate 2004).
Meeting your local standards while still teaching useful information for the future might seem like they should go hand-in-hand but they tend to be interdependent. This course has introduced the idea of “Designing Curriculum” rather than simply following the curriculum to integrate these ideas together. When designing your own curriculum it is important to utilize your subject’s standards while also evaluating what your students’ future subject’s standards. This is a major area where most teachers simply trust their curriculum guide rather than ensuring these futures standards are met through their own lessons.
Through the introduction of this course I have identified a power standard in a physics course. When utilizing the definition of power standard and identifying one of the most useful topics in the course I identified vectors and scalar quantities. This is one of the most useful tools to the majority of students because it can be used in engineering, construction, or simple geometry. There are multiple uses for this concept but students tend to fear trigonometry and the lessons that follow are usually just as intimidating and not very exciting. My power standard attempted to alleviate this problem by allowing for “real world” uses of their knowledge rather than simply learning mathematical skills. I included the use of planning trips on maps, building items in woodshop, and even opened up the floor for student input for lessons involving vectors.
Connecting real world experiences and allowing for students input gives these students a sense of pride in their educations and should eliminate the students saying, “Why are we learning this?” This year I am working with students that are more prone to say this. I have been placed back into Earth Science and half my schedule now includes special education. This is a huge shift from teaching seniors skills for college majors such as engineers or doctors to a more vocational outlook. However, this does not change my overall goal with all of my students, and that is to make them better off from when they entered my class as well as being able to recall information for future courses. Teaching Earth Science and especially the special education classes shifts my emphasis towards building writing, reading, and speaking skills while still apply the math and science needed for the course.
While reading the assigned excerpt from the book Dr. Reeves’ book, he emphasized that “Engaging Scenarios” have some simple commonalities. The included “allowing students to play a role in a real-world challenge,…reinforcement of academic standards,…include the arts,…and promote student understanding.” This excerpt also mentioned that non educators have a great ability to invent lessons that would include all of these attributes that would engage the most students. (Reeves 2001)
My first attempt to adjust a lesson in my Earth Science class was to change the requirements for a collage I have assigned in past years as an introductory assignment for the four branches or earth science. The students met the standards we needed to meet but the enjoyment in the task was average but most students did not learn anything more than what was originally introduced by me. This made some students feel as if they were only completing busy work and it gave little room for student diversity. My changes included: only giving the poster paper and requiring that the majority of the paper be covered, all four branches are represented, and that they would present their poster in the end. What I believe this will do is open the doors to creativity of the students, allow for teamwork skills, and will also give the opportunity to improve their public speaking skills. These are the skills that my students will find useful after my class, not how to cut and paste pictures to construction paper. Leaving the requirements open also allowed for the diversity of the students because it allowed the lower students to still fulfill the requirements while still leaving the door wide open for higher level thinkers.
Our instructor has allowed for us to submit this assignment to a blog. I elected to do this and while leaving open the forum to any topic that my post might insight, I would like to ask for ideas for topics or lessons that could meet the idea of the Power Standard while still engaging my students in my particular Earth Science Class.

Laureate Education (Executive Producer). (2004).Designing Curriculum and Instruction, Part 1-8 [Educational video]. Baltimore: Thorrnburg, D.

Reeves, D. B. (2001). What do all [engaging] scenarios have in common? In Making standards work: How to implement standards-based assessments in the classroom, school, and district (3rd ed., pp. 113–116). Denver, CO: Advanced Learning Press. Reprinted with permission from Dr. Douglas B. Reeves and the Center for Performance Assessment, (800) 844-6599, http://www.leadandlearn.com/