I work now in a Catholic prep school and we got some in-service at the diocesan level (believe me, this is all new to me). And they had some handouts that I liked. Here’s one thing I’ll share with everybody.
(I teach Latin)
The questions are deceptively simple but I realized that it was constantly asking myself these sort of questions that pushed me to do what the circular dynamic below asks of us.
1. What are you teaching?
2. Why are you teaching it?
3. How are you teaching it?
4. Why are you teaching it that way?
5. How do you know the students are getting it?
6. What did you learn in the process of teaching it?
In a circle, each segment leading to the other, are:
Define philosophy, underlying curriculum;
Create learning climate.
Delineate intended learning outcomes.
Design instruction.
Deliver instruction.
Assess intended outcomes.
Improve instructional design.
In the middle is, “Integrate faith and values”. Even for a totally secular person like myself, there are faith and values in whatever I do and it pays to examine those closely, too.
Anyone on all the lists I’ve sent this to who would like to discuss these in detail is welcome to reply directly to me or, better, to my blog, where I will enter this immediately.