Battles of Students vs Curriculum-Based Instruction

Every day of the school year, educators are faced with battling student needs as well as demands of the curricular placed on them by the administration. Many quickly become overwhelmed as they push through the curricula but also see that their students need more than the allotted time to fully understand a concept being presented. The pressure then builds as peers are moving their classes on in curricula along with students and teachers both exhibiting stress over all that is expected to be covered in short periods of time. Often there is a split between teachers who throw up their hands and say, “My students come first;” and teachers who say, “We have to get this done.” All this does is lead to teaching frustration for everyone: students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Have you been there or seen this? The common denominator is that everyone is there for the students and wants them to have a complete understanding of the materials. Everyone involved can be coming at the instruction from a different pedagogy. Understanding your pedagogy and your students’ needs will possibly release some of this stress. 

What is your pedagogy?  Is your instruction “student-focused or curriculum-focused?” Gaining a better understanding of each of these forms of instruction along with knowing your students’ learning styles will possibly provide you some stress relief.  Starting with student-focused instruction, the teacher or instructor evaluates what the students need to understand the material and be able to apply it in life or outside the classroom. Some of the students may need additional support, more time, or need to look at the information from a different instructional approach. The student drives the timeline and the theory behind this is that they build a stronger foundation. Skills that are added later should not need as much time to master because they are able to use their applied knowledge. If you are more “curriculum-focused” the instruction is driven by the publisher? There are variables built into most curricula to deal with a large range of different instructional situations. Classroom sizes can vary from a few students to 30+ students in a class. Also, curricula may be designed for 60-minutes but schedules may only allow for 30-minutes of instruction. The real question is what is driving instruction during the day. Often teachers have one pedagogy but are working in a building where expectations are set based upon a different philosophy without them even realizing it.

When talking with teachers, the majority would probably say they are teaching because they want to help children learn. Even though that was their main reason for entering the profession, many have become very frustrated without really understanding why. Sometimes this might be because they themselves did not fully understand all the different philosophies that exist in teaching. Some might even truly believe they teach using one philosophy when really it is a completely different one. One way to find out what is driving your instruction is to STOP and LISTEN to yourself when you talk at lunch about how your class did in the morning lessons.  

Which of the following sounds the most like you?

#1 - “What a morning; we made it through the lesson. I have one group that is going to need a little more practice but the other groups seemed to be doing okay. I really liked how they were able to do a couple of problems with computers. Once we got them going the kids breezed through that center.” 

#2 - “What a morning; my class would not be quiet and listen! We needed to get that workbook page completed and I only had two students start it. They just wouldn’t listen! I’m not going to finish this unit by Friday. I do not know why they would think these students need to do problems on computers. Mine can’t even load the page.” 

Teachers who keep their focus on what the students are accomplishing and not stressing about what lesson they need to be on by Friday most often are more student-focused. They tend to be looking for better ways to serve their students and help them be successful.

Teachers who bring their frustrations about their class to the teacher’s room or to meetings tend to be curriculum focused and feel the pressure put on by the administration to have their students at a certain point by a specific date. Not realizing it, they are pushing the curriculum and their students’ behaviors digress due to lack of understanding. These teachers feel the curriculum must roll on and they hope students catch it when it spirals around again like the publisher says it will. 

Both groups would say they are there for the students. One group celebrates students’ learning while the other blames the administration for their students not learning. In many cases, teachers who change how they talk about their students with peers toward what students learn tend to have higher student success and are more positive leaders on their teams and in their buildings. The subconscious is very impactful of student learning. 

Order your copy TODAY!

Behavior - Discipline - Teach

Many teachers and schools struggle with student behaviors and discipline problems. This is not something new and there is really no magic answer. But you can possibly diminish teacher and administration struggles and frustrations with a few simple steps involving where you place your focus of instruction. There is no question that there are special students who bring challenges to our schools and classrooms in which special arrangements might need to be implemented for the safety of the student, other students, and staff.  What we are looking at is discipline disruptions and annoyance behavior that takes away from instructional time in the classroom during such things as lining up, washing hands, and other transitional activities. With a few simple steps, many of these frustrations and loss of instructional time may be relieved, therefore relieving some personal stress on staff.

If we are working in schools everyone in the building is a “teacher”  in some form or way. Therefore, if we are all teachers we need to remember that teaching children how to behave is part of our jobs. Telling someone what to do is only part of teaching. As educators, we know other elements need to be added such as modeling, practice, and sometimes review. Many times we assume the students know, but do they actually know exactly what you are expecting? If as teachers we assume they do not know then we can teach the expected behavior. To achieve this when a disruption occurs instead of stopping and talking with the student about it, “teach” the students what you expect to be occurring. If this disruption is something you have taught already, stop and give a reminder by using a question such as, “Is this the way we wash our hands?” If that statement doesn’t change their behavior it is time for a reteach.  

Looking deeper into this process, assessments are a daily part of education. Therefore use questioning as a form of formative assessment with the students. When you see a student running, asked them, “Did I see you running?” That’s it, and see what they do. Some will drop their heads, others will start walking, while others will go back to the end of the hall and walk. This puts the responsibility on the student and removes the school staff from disciplining to educating. With consistent efforts and reteaching when necessary, the simple question, in most cases, turns to behavior back to positive. 

Quite often it seems many problems that arise in classrooms, cafeterias, playgrounds, and school hallways are due to assumptions. We assume the student knows not to run in the halls, which is a common one. There are other routines we can assume the students should know how to do from year-to-year, such as checking out library books, paying for lunches, using the restrooms, turning in papers, and the list goes on. By changing our focus from discipline to teaching we change the words we use and turn the negative into a positive. Students come from all over the world into our building and at one time we could assume when they came to school all would know how to use the restrooms. This is no longer the case in the world we live in today. Therefore it becomes important as a school that we put everything into teaching mode and not assume they know how things are done. We should not discipline a person for dropping the toilet paper on the floor after using the restroom. We do not know if that child has ever been taught that in most cases in America it is okay to flush the toilet paper. Many places have a garbage for you to drop the toilet paper in, and there was not a garbage can so they left it on the floor. This may seem to be an extreme example yet it is observed in many buildings especially with younger students. 

As teachers, we are not there to discipline students but to teach. Only we often forget that teaching social behaviors is part of the instruction process. There is no question that many years ago there were social norms and expectations and the majority of families and schools and classrooms leaned on the leadership from the homes to develop those. Today we find a multitude of cultures and backgrounds coming into our classrooms therefore it becomes key we teach school and classroom expectations so everyone has the understanding and the ability to be successful. Often there are children who are “disciplined” for actions they had no idea were considered inappropriate. Now the question becomes who is in the wrong, student or teacher because we should not impose a punishment on something the person has no idea is wrong or unacceptable. Therefore it becomes our responsibility to include lessons on expected behaviors in our schools and classrooms.

By changing our focus from discipline to teaching we change the synergy in our teaching which then impacts the atmosphere in the building positively. By taking simple steps of examining the behaviors you struggle within your school or classroom you can then begin to develop instruction to address those situations and focus more on teaching concepts. Classrooms will have more time to focus on academics and not spending energy on the negative impacts of discipline.  

ORDER TODAY!