In evaluating the success of an educational program, our first inclination is to use our past experiences as a basis. Even better is to assess how successful our children are as a measuring tool. It is every parents dream that their children will grow to be successful adults, and we hope their school education will help with the preparation. For this to work, schools must operate in the world of the 21st Century.
The Internet Generation
If your children are in school now, they are N-geners, or the Internet Generation. The question is, Are schools preparing the Internet Generation well enough? We are no longer an agrarian society where folks must work farms or assembly lines. What are those things that will define them? What skills must they have to compete and prosper? There are many answers, but lets hear what corporate executives are looking for.
Tony Wagner, in his article entitled Rigor Redefined (2008), asked a number of executive managers and owners what they need from the employees they are hiring today. The answers were surprising. As an example, one corporate president revealed that his first priority was to find someone who could as meaningful questions. He told Mr. Wagner that it is easy to teach someone the technical details of a job, but it is not as easy to teach someone to think for themselves and the ask relevant questions.
A number of these executives indicated they need to find employees able to work together as a team to find creative solutions for the immediate problems their companies were facing. All of these findings indicate a real need for teachers and educators to provide opportunities for students to learn to work in the real world. No more standard worksheets, it is more important to provide exercises that will give children a chance to think and solve real problems. Find ways for students to work in groups and to learn how to present their findings in both verbal and written form.
Redefine Rigor
It is critical that schools today review their current curriculums and modify them to meet the needs our children will have in the future. So often packaged curriculum materials are becoming the entire lesson plan, rather than a supplement for the teacher. And I am concerned that teachers have no need to consider the real world ramifications of a lesson because the entire plan is provided in Teachers Guides. It is also troubling that school districts are requiring teachers to report their lessons on weekly planning and pacing guides, making it difficult for a teacher to apply the lessons to the real world.
Great interaction between the teacher and the student is a key factor in the successful learning process. A student will do best when they sense that their teacher is aware of where they are coming from and how they can best learn. A teacher will do best when able to create and present lesson plans that are timely and relevant to the students situations.
Technology
Our students are part of the Internet Generation. For this reason alone, it is important for teachers to embrace the use of technology in our curriculums. We can show our students how the technology that comes so naturally to them can be used in the real world to effect a difference. We should be looking to integrate smart boards, classroom response systems, projectors for PowerPoint presentations, and even cell phones into our lesson plans. While it may be more comfortable to ignore the trend, in order to ensure the success of the Internet Generation educators must welcome the opportunity to use technology in our curriculum.
Integrated Learning
To avoid the dry and uninteresting approaches found in packaged programs and planning and pacing guides, integrate reading and writing into rich content. Use social studies and science to promote and practice what was learned in reading and writing class.
The current trend toward curriculum narrowing in social studies and science is sad indeed. Transfer those skills students need to practice and integrate them into everything else you are doing. Without sufficient social studies and science instruction, we are leaving our students bereft of essential background knowledge upon which other knowledge can be built.
Many schools are struggling to educate children in poverty. Nearly 17% of all students come from poor families struggling to survive. These children have less life experience knowledge and vocabulary skills than their middle and upper class peers. Leaving out rich and varied subject matters at the expense of reading, writing and math subjects only magnifies these differences as children in poverty have little chance to learn these subjects outside of the school environment.
We must take seriously the building of cultural literacy through social studies teaching so that all our children have a chance to a better life. Psychological research has shown that to learn something new, we must be able to connect it to something we already know. Building a broad base of knowledge is essential for our poor and disenfranchised populations, and these students depend upon our schools for this.
Viable research has shown that cultural literacy is highly correlated with academic achievement, which in turn is correlated to annual income. If our job as educators is to prepare children for the 21st Century, then we must attend to the building of knowledge, not just teach them to read, write and do math.
Donna Newberg Long, aka
Principal Donna has been an educator for over 20 years. As the founding principal of 2 schools, she brings a wealth of information to her consulting with teachers, principals and boards. Donna is available for consulting services for start ups and schools in need of help. Visit
www.AskPrincipalDonna.com for more information or call 303.280.5220 to discuss your schools needs.
