The power of the school improvement team lies within
the students who actively participate on it.
They are the customers of the school.
During our December meeting we were discussing the shift in the types of
writing (Common Core State Standards) we are asking students to do and how we
are teaching students to write. One way
to instruct students is to plan and teach backwards (Backwards Design). Show the student a benchmark sample and
analyze it through the lens of the standard or rubric, which should be aligned
to the standard. One student
enthusiastically said, “That’s why I am passing. I need to see what I am expected to do.” Isn’t the customer always right? It seems too simple but it works. In Grant
Wiggins article, How Good is Good Enough
(Educational Leadership 12/13), he writes about UCLA’s former basketball
coach, John Wooden, who won ten national championships. He mentions a Wooden quote which describes
how he provided instruction to his players.
“I tried to teach according to the whole-part method. I would show them the whole thing to begin
with. Then I’m going to break it down
into the parts and work on the individual parts and then eventually bring them
together.” This also reflects Hattie's work about giving students a "clear vision of what they are trying to achieve (M. Ehrenworth 2013)." Imagine if every teacher
planned with the thinking of John Wooden…I think our customer ratings would be
sky high.
