Weekly Writing - Week 3

          I can remember three years ago when I was a State FFA Officer I had the privilege to travel to many different schools to facilitate something referred to as a “Chapter Visit.”  A chapter visit is essentially a day where state officers serve as the teacher and teach different skills connecting leadership and agriculture.  At Laurel High School there was a poster hanging up that said “Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.”  This quote stuck with me because it was a fun alliteration intertwined with a powerful message.  The message is this: if one plans ahead than their performance is automatically better.  This message holds true to every aspect of life, but especially to my current chapter of life.  This chapter revolves around learning about curriculum development and creating instruction.  Through my courses and readings it is obvious that in order for me to be a good teacher I must plan ahead.   

          In this week’s reading “Methods of Teaching Agriculture” by Newcomb, I enhanced my understanding about planning for instruction.  First in order to create the units of instruction the goals of what the students are going to learn must be defined.  Secondly, the teacher should have their own goals known as instructional objectives.  This helps to differentiate things between relevant and nice to know.  Newcomb also shared the three different domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective and how they are beneficial tools.  Additionally, when writing objectives they should use verbs that specify a behavior that can be observed and measured.  Several other many points that Newcomb mentioned where about how to create an interest approach and potentially connecting it to student’s SAEs and asking puzzling questions.  At the end of a lesson he mentioned that it is necessary to connect everything together and ask follow up questions to strengthen the student’s understanding.

          Another reading for this week was “Anticipatory Set/ Hook Research Base.”  This reading emphasized that the hook was to grab student’s attention and to engage as many students as possible.  Several methods that are great in serving as a hook are: Provocative questions, Review of previous lessons, pictures/ cartoons, stories, startling or unexpected statements, and referring students to specific visuals such as graphic organizer or thinking maps. 

          This week’s readings all connect to the quote that I remember for Laurel High School and remind me that in order to be an affective teacher I must plan ahead.  Additionally while I am planning I can make sure that I make my lessons practical and engaging by connecting the content to daily life!