Anthology Ch 3 & 7

Chapter 3 gives us a small history of lesson plans. Tyler's model (1949) is still implemented today. It's starts with the objective and moves forward from there. It asks you to put an indicated amount of time for each activity, as if learning were on a time schedule. An estimated time is good as a frame of reference for a teacher, but I do not think one should be limited to a 5 minute introduction, 15 minute lecture and so forth. The time gauge does not take real classroom factors into context. I'm also an advocate for backwards design. This method works oppositely, having evaluation placed at the end. I feel it is more important to decide what it is that you want your students to get out of the unit/lesson first and build upon that. It is also important to incorporate concepts they want to learn about as well!

Chapter 7 discusses the need for classrooms to be more adaptive the changing world around us. Change is always easier said than done it seems. Over the course of the semester, we have been studying different approaches as well as the 'historical' aspect of TESOL. Before, curriculum was more set in stone and not easily adaptive. That is not so much the case now, we're moving towards an environment that is focused on learners learning how to learn and is a LEARNER-CENTERED approach. The quote at the beginning struck me as important and relevant to what I've been talking about.

"We are, in my view, face with an entirely new situation in education where the goal of education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning. The only man who is educated is the man who has learned how to learn; the mean who has learned how to adapt and change; the man who has realized that no knowledge is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security. Changingness, a reliance on process rather than upon static knowledge, is the only thing that makes any sense as a goal for education in the modern world. (p. 69)

I could not put it any better myself or agree more, honestly. Education, as well as the rest of our world is continually evolving. This is does not mean to say that old approaches cannot still be used or that they aren't effective. It's just that we, as teachers, need to be open to flexibility and willing to LEARN from our students as well.