Brandi Burtts
Drama Educator
Be Demanding
Touchstone 1- I use standards to guide every learning opportunity.
Standards are there as a guide to help educators meet the requirements needed for students to advance. Here we focus on "unpacking" or breaking down the standard. This allows teachers to focus on all of the little pieces of a skill that students need to achieve before they can ultimately claim mastery of the skill. In my theater class I currently use the National Core Arts Standards. These align vertically throughout a child's primary, middle and high school years. Each of these standards is built in a way that prepares the students for the next year while helping them to grow as learners. Please check out this helpful link on how to unpack standards in your classroom.
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Follow this link to connect to The National Core Arts Standards that I follow.--------->
Touchstone 2- I ensure students set personal learning objectives for each lesson.
In addition to setting high, yet achievable standards for our students, we must also guide them to set personal goals for themselves. ​ These goals should be set daily, weekly, and yearly in terms of short and long term goals. What we provide in the classroom are stepping stones to help a student achieve their highest potential. By having students set personal goals they are challenging themselves to learn. As stated in The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching, "Student's need to see the big picture, they need to know where their lessons, units, courses and academic careers are heading," Goodwin and Hubbell (2013). If we help our students set small goals and they achieve them one at a time, eventually that will help them to reach their higher or long term goals. In my classroom, I like to have my students set a weekly goal on Monday. At the end of each class I ask my students to reflect on what they have done that day, and if they did something that is getting them closer to their goal. This keeps them constantly thinking about the long term and they feel like they are accomplishing something greater than just a 40-minute class.
In order to help our students set goals that work for them we can help them to set S.M.A.R.T goals. Smart stands for....
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S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Relevant, Rigorous, Realistic, and Results Focused
T = Timely and Trackable
When our students achieve their goals, we achieve ours.--->
For more info on S.M.A.R.T goals check here------------>
Touchstone 3- I peel back the curtain and make my performance expectations clear.
Being a teacher is one of the most difficult yet rewarding careers one can choose. We can easily become overwhelmed with issues such as too many students or unexpectedly changing classrooms. Peeling back the curtain allows us to go in with some level of organized chaos. When we set clear expectations for our students and provide them with insight to how we will be assessing their work, we see that they achieve what we asked and it becomes easier for us to look at what they have accomplished or what they need to work on. Providing our students with a rubric establishes a clear and easily assessed criteria. This "removes the mystery around how they will be graded. This process afforded an opportunity to let students know that any one of them could earn an A" Goodwin and Hubbell (2013).​
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Take a look at this rubric that I created in order for my students to clearly understand what I was looking for in their summative assessment.------------------>
Check out this site that can help you create the perfect rubric!
Touchstone 4- I measure understanding against high expectations.
In Item 4 of The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching we look at how we measure understanding against high expectations. In order to measure our students’ abilities, we must focus grades around student learning. Goodwin and Hubbell (2013) express that "one of the most prevalent ways that teachers soften expectations for students is by making allowances for effort, ability, behavior, and attitude". As you can see above, I have created a rubric for this class’s summative assessment. In it I have addressed effort as part of their grade. In a classroom with one answer I see how effort or attitude might soften the students’ ability to grow. But in a theater classroom, we are asking students to push their personal boundaries. When addressing such personal subject matter, I find it important in each assessment to let students know that their efforts do not go un noticed. However, I find it is important to focus the majority of the summative assessment entirely on the students’ ability to achieve the skill.
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NOTE: When I mention that we push the boundaries of our students on a very personal level, we are really teaching the human condition in its most natural form.
Read this article on why theater study is so important.
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