Consider this:
You are asked to create a way to track school wide data. What questions would you ask before you begin this task?
- Is tracking preferred digitally or on paper?
- What data is being tracking?
- What is the goal for tracking the data?
- Who is the audience or who will have access to the data and analysis?
You would ask questions to help you gather the information you need and to determine the desired END RESULT...before you started. Most of you would naturally want to begin with the end in mind.
Now, think about any time you are creating something- a recipe, a puzzle, a letter or an email. When you begin knowing what you want the end result to be, you generally end up with a more polished and focused final product. Imagine just being give 1000 puzzle pieces and being told to "put it together" or just given a few ingredients and being told to "make it". It would be difficult to build a puzzle without knowing the complete image or to cook a specific dish with only an ingredient list. You need a general understanding of what you are supposed to be doing, along with guidance/instructions, in order for any of it to make sense.
How does this translate to instruction in your classroom? Think about the projects that you assign to your students. When you begin with a preview of the end, you are showing them the desired results so they are more likely understand what you are asking them to accomplish. As you move through the lessons, students will hopefully connect the dots along the way because they have a basic understanding of where they are headed. Think of each skill as an ingredient and each lesson as a step in a recipe of learning. Without knowing what the final dish will be, those skills and lessons might not make sense to a student.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Drive student achievement by BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND.
- Summit teachers- have student CLICK into their Final Products when you are introducing your next project. Explore the rubric and the task with them. Explain how each Checkpoint fits into the big picture.
- Non-Summit teachers- preview your units or projects with your students in a way that makes sense and show them the expected end result before you begin.
- ALL TEACHERS- review daily objectives and agenda before beginning your lesson to give your students an idea of what you want them to learn and how they will learn it right from the beginning.