Never Work Harder Chapter 2

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Susan Dugan on October 21, 2009 at 7:57pm

Chris, it is refreshing to hear another professional say they are overwhelmed.Teaching had become a very complex profession. What Roby Jackson is asking us to do is to dig deeper that merely stating the objective or focus of the lesson. Writing the objective on the board is a good first step, However,that is just the tip of the iceberg. The important thing is not writing the objective on the board, but that students will understand what they should be learning and why. Further along in the chapter, Jackson writes about how proud she was when her students had passed a test demonstrating that they knew the different types of sentences. However, a few weeks later they still could not use different sentence types in their writing. So what had they in fact learned?
Unpacking the standards is a worthwhile exercise for understanding content versus process . I, too, find the "Try It" paragraphs very helpful and address typical teacher questions.

Permalink Reply by Jay Reinert on October 21, 2009 at 8:42pm

I liked her process of analyzing standards. I think there is truth in it, but I would have to add the idea of using authentic assessments to see if students mastered or acquired the processes. Absolutely...I would say... when students are aware of the purpose, and nowadays, make a connection to it, they are more agreeable to try it, and more importantly, continue to put forth the effort to incorporating it into THEIR learning to do better.
WAY TO GO SHANE VIC...8 - 3

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Zinski on October 23, 2009 at 12:24pm

Unpacking the standards and analyzing content goals vs. process goals does sound like an important path to teaching strategies. It also sounds like it may often be difficult. Does anyone else think this book’s title needs to be changed? Maybe one doesn’t have to work as hard as the students once all the standards are unpacked, analyzed, and developed into plans and objectives, but this is a LOT of work that Jackson suggests be done, which will be time consuming, forcing you to work hard. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but it certainly makes the book’s title misleading.
I like Jackson’s approach to making goals concrete. If you don’t make the goal clear to everyone, how can you assess? I think the ideas of mapping out steps to mastery and the standard being the minimum to be mastered are worthy of contemplation. We really don’t want students doing work just because we asked them to do it, but because they have ownership of what they are learning. Is that too idealistic? Every time I find myself scoffing at something Jackson has written, the “Try This” section makes her ideas more realistic for me.
Jay, I like Carlos, although Shane aint too shabby.

Permalink Reply by Cindy Stafford on October 25, 2009 at 7:01am

This chapter helped reinforce the idea of deciding what the particular learning goal is and how to effectively remove the "fluff" from a lesson, which can save on planning time and make the best use of instructional time. Creating our first grade language arts benchmarks this past summer will prove to be beneficial since it addresses several aspects of this chapter. First, I think it was important that we coordinated the core curriculum standards with our current curriculum. This helped us clearly see what learning objectives we would be working toward mastery on in our grade levels over a particular period of time. The benchmarks seem like an effective assessment of those objectives/goals. I think this chapter was helpful for me because I do feel that communicating learning goals to students does help them understand the "why" and gives them some ownership of their learning in the classroom. I like to make this communication and more consistent part of my teaching.

Permalink Reply by Nicole Medvedik on October 25, 2009 at 10:50am

I agree with Cris in that being an elementary school teacher and posting the objective for each subject, everyday, can be a bit overwhelming. However, this chapter reinforced for me the idea of how important it is to have a clear goal each day that students and teachers are striving for and making sure the students clearly know the purpose to each lesson. I hate to have to answer every "Why do we have to learn this?" with the "Because I'm the teacher and I said so" type attitude.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Litz-Neavear on October 26, 2009 at 12:54pm

As I read this chapter, I had a similar reaction to Kathy's: this principle seems to be a lot of work! Jackson spent the summer planning her school year. My other reaction is that she seemed to have a lot of freedom with her curriculum. Perhaps those choices are more reflective of her discipline (secondary English) than her school district, but frankly, I like that we have a curriculum to follow. Additionally, although I understand why every activity we do should relate to the standards, I also don't think we should discount the benefits of those "fun" activities which make school an enjoyable place to be. Several years ago, one of my eighth grade resource room students frequently spoke about activities which had occurred in his sixth grade classroom. Not having read this book yet, I didn't think to ask him what he had learned in sixth grade. All I know was that here was a child who had experienced very little success in school, but was still excited about what had occurred here two years earlier. Can fun activities be aligned with standards? Of course, but aren't there some things kids learn which aren't necessarily quantifiable?

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Zinski on October 27, 2009 at 10:21am

Lisa, I agree. Each year I taught 4th grade the students and I did a Halloween play. We made a stage out of our classroom, rehearsed, and presented to parents and principals. Mr. Seals was able to make the sound of thunder and I recorded it for the show, so we even had sound effects. I remember Jeff Miller saying, after one performance, "Kathy, these are the kinds of positive things kids remember about their experience in school." Does anyone have time for a special project like that nowadays? Quantify that.

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Zinski on October 28, 2009 at 2:09pm

Chapter 3 really makes you take stock doesn't it? When Jackson said low expectations are about our beliefs in OUR abilities, it made it real personal. She said, "Our behavior reveals what we believe," and that beliefs are our filter that determines what and how we teach. These concepts make one reflect on what it is we each believe, and maybe it'll make us better prepare, persevere, adjust our methods, or come up with a committment to new beliefs. I love when she said that if we CAN teach we share ownership of the students' success and failure. There's no blaming anyone else. Gee, can I teach or can't I? Do I have a partnership with each child? I like her ideas, but I still think we're going to have to work hard (harder?) to be effective. I'm hoping by the end of the book I get the title.