5. Application of Content
“The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.”
Standard Components
Skill-building
Experiential
Perspective-taking
The content is applied in ways that scaffold problem solving skills.
Learning is meaningful and engages students in a
The experiences students have engaging with the content allows them to grow and expand their perspective and ability to tap into the perspective of others.
meeting the standard
One of my main motivators as an educator is the idea that I am sending problem-solvers out into the world. I care deeply about equipping my students with the cognitive, somatic and sensory skills they need to engage in learning and growing for the rest of their lives. Because I aim for such a holistic impact on my students’ problem-solving abilities, it doesn’t really matter what content area or interdisciplinary project I am working within the confines of - I will always incorporate the same structural development around how my students think.
An analogy I have come up with to use with my students posits knowledge as the equipment and understanding as the game. Aside from maybe tag, most games are pretty impossible to play without some type of ball, goal, glove, racket, etc. So to play the game of understanding, you need to acquire some knowledge. The more knowledge you accumulate, the more types of games you can play. Content is the knowledge, how it's applied determines what students will understand because they know it.
It is my goal when planning my units and scaffolding my material to weave deeper key teachings throughout, engaging students in processes that build up their thinking skills and guiding them to develop their own process of problem-solving that works best for them.
