So, after being out for a few days for both professional and personal reasons, I feel like the end of the year is going to be a whirlwind. We have just over 30 days of school left, including finals and I worry about covering all content areas. How does one go about handling this? Is it better to cover every content standard in a “watered down” way or is it better to go in depth and miss out on certain standards? I feel this is something that most teachers could struggle with, but I wonder how everyone deals with it? Does it vary from year to year? Do you assess you student population to figure out which would be best? Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Hi Jesse,
This is quite a delinquent response to your post, but better late than never, right? ; )
I have found that it is not necessary to sacrifice coverage for depth. Rather than thinking about it in a dichotomous sort of way, I look for tasks that do double duty. That is, complex and worthwhile tasks that engage students deeply in whatever content/concepts we are exploring while providing the opportunity for connections that are necessary along the way. I have found over the years that good tasks, though often messier than some traditional kinds of textbooky things, allow students to grapple with concepts, procedures, and sense making and that I don’t have to sacrifice standards at all. That said, if faced with the choice of breadth or depth, depth usually wins–I’d rather students actually leaving with something that they own rather than a convenient fiction because “I’ve covered it.” Cheers!