What this category means to me- One of the major reasons why I found the idea of SBL so appealing about six years ago, was that it made SENSE to me that if I articulate my expectations for skill progression to my students in a clear, consistent and concise manner, then eventually, the skills that we practice will "click". And isn't this what teaching and learning is all about? Seeing that lightbulb go off with my students and then seeing them *apply* this new learning to further expand their skill set is a defining factor as to why I love coming to work every day. While the challenges are plenty is trying to get this "click" to happen, the benefits exponentially outweigh the risks, for both the student and the teacher. At the end of the day, if I do a good job articulating my expectations, my students WILL rise to meet them.
Why it's important to learning- I remember a few years ago as a faculty we spend some time during in-service talking about PURPOSE and why it is important to have a purpose statement up on the board. This seemed like a no-brainer to me as while Garett and I as teachers had a clear purpose, we never wrote it out. Duh. Why WOULDN'T we want our student to know WHY we were doing what we were doing in class that day? In this respect, inviting the students to join in the journey at the VERY BEGINNING of class was an easy shift. We simply communicated our pre-existing purpose on the white board via a purpose statement. In this way, the perennial question of "So, what are we doing today" is asked much less often and our students know that we are fully transparent in our purpose and we invite them to join in this classroom experience WITH us as active participants.
How what we know about the brain supports it- I had read Zull's The Art of Changing the Brain for a class that I had previously taken, and it really helped me wrap my head around how the brain works, especially when it comes to embracing the idea that my students are "natural thinkers". Its taken a while, but as Zull points out in regards to his own experience, I too have comes to the conclusion that I need to trust my students to think. They CAN think about complex world issues. They SHOULD think about them, read about them, write about them and then talk about them. Our Humanities Moodle page this year as the quotation from Socrates ~"I cannot teach you anything, I can only teach you to think." I see my KUDS and Learning Targets and Scales as vehicles to get students to THINK for themselves and communicate their thoughts in an effective manner. In fact, the more I work with ninth graders, the more crucial I see my role as a facilitator in regards to embracing power of ARTICULATION when it comes to KUD's , Learning Targets and associated Learning Scales. Ultimately, if my PURPOSE is clear, I am allowing and encouraging students to take risks and DO. I am encouraging them to be active in their learning and I am helping theme fill in the blanks when it comes to what they do and don't KNOW and thus, in tandem, we work together to UNDERSTAND the big picture of the class.