Below is an excerpt from the actual program.
It is intended to provided you with a sense of components to
help you make a decision to purchase or not. The Effective
Teaching Power Pack 3.0 is a
serious program, but I have taken pains to present the
information and learning exercises in an easy-to-read and
understand format.
R. J. Kizlik
The first
section, "How
to Write Learning Objectives," is
the core component of the program, and in terms of size and
complexity, the largest component. The purpose of "How to Write
Learning Objectives" is to help you learn to be very clear in
your professional communications about student learning outcomes It
is designed to help you develop skill in writing learning
objectives that accurately describe what a student must do for a
teacher to infer that the student has learned what was intended.
The section on how to write learning objectives is the result of
many years of teaching others how to write objectives that meet
demanding behavioral criteria, or to select objectives written
by others that meet such criteria. The
acquisition of this skill is fundamental to all teaching designed
to lead others to acquire new skills or understandings, as well
as to the development and improvement of curriculum.
Competent teachers always have
in mind some written description or clear idea of what students
do to show they have learned what is intended for them to learn.
Student learning cannot be inferred by osmosis, reflection, or
wishful thinking; it never has and never will be. This section
of the program you purchased is about learning objectives; how
to compose them, recognize them, and improve them.
The second
section, "How to Write Effective Lesson Plans" is
intended to give you a sense of the components of a good lesson
plan by providing descriptions of the parts that are included in
most lesson plan modules taught in schools and colleges of
education. It
is strongly recommended that you read this section AFTER you
complete Part 1, "How to Write Learning Objectives." The skill
of writing learning objectives is a sub-set of the skills needed
for lesson planning. Without a doubt, learning to write
effective lesson plans is a skill that all new teachers must
develop and practice. There is no better way to organize the
content you teach and how you see yourself teaching it than
developing lesson plans that work. After a period of time, many
teachers do not need to develop lesson plans with the degree of
specificity described in this program. They "own" both the
content and teaching methods to the extent that much of the
planning they do is purely mental. With time and experience this
will also happen for you. It is a fundamental milestone in the
process of becoming a professional teacher.
The Third
section, "Teaching for Understanding"
seems at first blush to be a sort of a "no-brainer." After all,
we as professional teachers should always seek to help our
students understand what it is we are teaching. Fostering
student understanding is a core principal of the teaching
profession. This section is intended to give you some different
perspectives on what it means to understand, and provide some
ideas for differentiating teaching for understanding in such
content areas as social studies and literature from teaching
skill development in such areas as mathematics and writing. The
point is made as clearly as possible in this section that in
order for a teacher to infer that a student "understands" some
content (usually expressed as a concept) the assessment must be
based on more than an objective test. Teaching for understanding
requires teacher analysis of student writing, projects, essays,
and oral presentations. Teaching for understanding, as you will
see, requires more teacher time in the assessment than does
teaching for skills.
The fourth
section, "How to Write Assessments Based on Learning Objectives" provides
a description of what you need to do in order to ensure that the
assessments or tests that you develop are connected to the
learning objectives upon which they are based. Assessments are
ways that teachers determine whether certain conditions exist
that clearly show whether learning has taken place. In lesson
planning, it is absolutely essential that the actual assessments
you develop accurately reflect and measure the specifications of
the learning objectives. There is no alternative! This section
will show you how to do this, including what to consider as you
formulate assessments.
The fifth
section, "Teaching Methods: Pros and Cons" is
a list of teaching methods with information on their advantages,
disadvantages, and information about what sort of preparation
teachers must make in order to employ the methods effectively.
The methods are not described in detail, but are categorized in
terms of being primarily direct or indirect instruction. The
listed methods encompass a wide range of techniques used by
teachers at all grades and with all subjects.
The sixth
section, "Quick Tips on what Works" is
just that. This section provides some very brief ideas and
descriptions of both teacher and student behaviors that have
utility for teaching in a number of subject areas. It is not
intended to be any sort of comprehensive list, but presents a
consensus of experience and opinion of what works in a real
classrooms. It is neither comprehensive no so long as to cause
you to take notes, or ponder the deeper meaning of these little
gems. Were that the case, it would not make sense to call this
section "Quick Tips." Taken it face value, they present some
sound advice for a new or beginning teacher. Hopefully, they
will spur your own ideas and thinking about what works for you
and you own particular teaching style.
The seventh
section, "How to Select Instructional Programs" provides
a discussion with examples of what constitutes a complete
instructional program, how the parts fit together, and what
questions to ask of others, including sales personnel, education
administrators, teachers, college professors or others who make
recommendations to buy, adopt or otherwise cause a school or
school system to purchase and implement a particular
instructional program. Knowing the difference between a complete
program and anything else that purports to be so, but is not, is
very important. The information in this section will help
develop your professional thinking skills in this area.
The eighth
section, "Classroom Management Fundamentals" is
quite large and is
intended to give you some perspective about what works and what
doesn't work, including how to deal with the parents or
guardians of your students.. The examples and information presented are drawn
from a variety of sources, including personal experience of the
author, interviews with successful teachers, including National
Board Certified teachers, observations, journal articles, and
reference materials. As you will see, being successful in
managing your classroom is just one part of the total package of
being a successful teacher. You must also know your subject
matter content in more than one way if possible. You must be
able to translate what you know into forms that assist students
to learn. You must be able to plan effective lessons, and
actually deliver instruction, prepare and implement assessments,
and, yes, make preparations and decisions about the conduct of
students in a variety of settings. Effective classroom
management requires understanding the rules, knowledge of
basic principles of human psychology, plus common sense, and
consistency, Generally speaking, teachers get better at managing
their classrooms with experience and the willingness to learn
from mistakes and make appropriate adjustments.
The ninth
section, Classroom Management Traps gives
you a list and brief descriptions of all too common mistakes
that new and inexperienced teachers often make in managing their
classrooms. It is such traps that can make the initial teaching
experience for new teachers extremely stressful, and that can
lead to burnout and disenchantment with teaching. This section
also offers some sound advice regarding what to do about these
situations.
The tenth
section, "How to Rank Priorities and Goals" describes
a very logical and efficient model for ranking priorities and
goals. The model is useful for working in groups or on an
individual basis. As a teacher, you will find that
participation in various groups, and committees usually comes
down to making lists of objectives or activities and then
ranking them. This easy to understand, yet very powerful
technique can improve the process and result in more valid and
reliable results.
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