Jen's Blog 3

The part of the instructional design process I still have questions about is assessing not my learners but the instructional design process itself. I am think that the two learner assessment and assessing the instructional design are so closely related that it is hard for me to isolate the two. I have yet to complete this section of my project but I think that I have to keep in my mind they are different and look at the two accordingly. I do think that it is easier for me to identify the pitfalls in an isolated lesson opposed to an entire process. As a teacher I am constantly assessing the lesson what I could have done differently, what misconceptions my students still have, and what if any further teaching I may need to develop. This is a formative assessment of each lesson. This however is not a summative assessment of the entire instruction or the big picture. This project and readings has made me realize that this is a down fall of mine. I also thought I was assessing my instruction because I looked so critically at each lesson or sub-skill. I now realize that I need to assess the big picture. I do look at the data and try to bring it back up in quick reviews. I need to dig deep and ask why and think about how to change the big picture like I do for each lesson. The one thing that I really connected with was the learning environments chapter. That chapter was nothing new to me but just reiterated for me the need to match the content to the learning environment. There always a push to try this type of lesson or this type of tools in the classroom. Many of them are great but do not work for everything or every student. I often get pressured in trying to use a lesson model or teaching tool that just does not work. I try it out and it does not work but I have the fear of not using because that is “what you should be doing”. It is not that I am not willing to try but there are some things that are not appropriate for 6 and 7 year olds. That is a great tool for the upper grades. It just really validated to me that changing your learning environment is appropriate and should be done to meet the needs of your learner and the content. My understanding of instructional design has not changed much but rather has deepened. I always considered students’ needs and assessment I just did not do them in the depth that we have looked at. My understanding was very surface level and I feel now I have deeper understanding of the process and how to go about it. I do not think that I could go that in depth for every lesson but it is definitely something to consider when I am developing a unit or mini unit. Also it would valuable when I see a problem in the classroom. The various approaches are a tool for me to use as a problem arises. I would say another change is knowing the name for many of the process. As teacher we do some form of the step every day naturally without even thinking about it.It is important to know the step so that it is not getting skipped. It is also important to know other perspectives and methods to go about. I knew the importance of learner analysis and task analysis but I did not know the different approaches and step to take to conduct them. I was winging it basically. Reading the book and class discussions has helped me further my understanding of these components.