Understanding By Design in Fieldwork

Since this was a shortened week due to Veteran's Day and Elections, I thought it might be a good idea to spend the majority of today in other content areas. While I spent the opening block with Mr. D's AP US History class, I spent the rest of the day shuttling between a Physics class (Mr. E) and a Discrete Mathematics class (Ms. T). In short, today was interesting. As opposed to having a subject where there isn't always a cut and dry correct answer, math and physics largely cut out that gray area. There is a distinctly measurable result and both teachers seemed to be looking for that specifically. More importantly though, there was an important emphasis on the process of what they were doing. Both teachers were very procedural in their approach. That is; they opened the class with an introductory Do Now problem, scaffolded the mathematical processes, made sure the students were reasoning correctly and finally gave them a formative assessment with 1-3 questions based on the material they went over in class. In both classes, these assessments were exit slips.

Both teachers were into what they were doing and seemingly got the majority of students into it, as well. However, I noticed that the procedure they both used in their classrooms had almost become rote. These were good practices they were doing but both classes (outside of the content) were nearly mirror images of each other. Now, to be fair -- I haven't seen this process used throughout a whole year and I don't know if students react positively or negatively to it in the long run. I think it's also important to note that the content was presented very well and the students seemed caught up in their work. However, many years ago I used to watch a lot of Law & Order. Procedure, no matter how compelling the content is sometimes can get played out. I think it's important to be conscious of how we can make our teaching dynamic and not use a procedure as a crutch instead of a guide.

To be clear, I'm not saying that Mr. E and Ms. T used the process as a crutch. They both seemed like very intelligent, very conscientious teachers that got the best out of students on a day many of their classmates were already taking off. Their effort is admirable. However, it reminds me that in designing  my own lessons, I can't find comfort in sticking within set guidelines. The diagnostic questions of UbD mentioned in my previous post and the needs of my students need to be a guide. While procedure can be helpful, I think it can only take one so far. Especially in social studies.