The Importance of Content

Content is important to the secondary teaching community because it is why most of got involved in teaching. We wanted, according to the authors "to bring our passion for our field of interest to the churning masses of students longing for meaning and guidance (in our subject areas)." Now, I'm not sure if I agree with my paraphrasing or if I fit into this category of educator. What I do know
(according to The American Association for the Advancement of Science {AAAS}) is that learning requires engagement of the student in thinking, reading, listening and writing.

Our state mandated curriculum maps and "collar to the grindstone" standards absorbtion requirements force us to teach wide in our content areas. I think the current practice of "spiraling" through these wide content areas from the primary grades through middle school and onto high school is meant to develop mastery that can be displayed via standardized test results. Unfortunately, the "stick-to-it-ivness" of this process doesn't work.

The solution according to the authors is obvious. Go deeper, young teacher, go deeper into your content field. Find the big ideas that are most important for shaping young minds during the semester or year in which you have their attention, or at least their presence in your classroom. Get beyond the curriculum of mentioning and sink your teeth into what really matters. It is the job of all departments, and teachers to uncover the big ideas, the concepts, and major skills necessary to transfer the meaning of our readings, lectures and labs (in the case of science). The authors argue that one of the best ways to do this is through writing.

Writing to learn, as we've learned from previous readings, can facilitate the transition from the student's private experiential reservoir to the public linguistic reservoir with which they are confronted.

But, how to do this? More in my next posting. I've got to read further into my book.