English homework

The classroom that I visited was of fifth grade and they were learning about the continental drift theory. It was an introductory part of the lesson and the students watched a video on that. The students were not expected to derive the deep implications of the theory instead they are just expected to define what would be the consequences of the continental drift which led to the formation of the continents. They can research more on the topic depending on the level of their understanding. Some of the students might come up with more information which would be beneficial to the whole class as they would be presenting and discussing their ideas. The students generally expected to learn and create ideas as the current education system encourages experimentation and innovation. Any new strategy or feasible approach is welcomed. The students at the most basic levels were expected to answer some of the questions related to the topic like, “How will you give evidence that the continents have been derived from the same landmass?” or “How will you define the theory of continental drift?” which just includes the basic statement of the theory.

These goals were aligned with the local and state level standards as the core curriculum was devised from there only. There were specific guidelines of the topics as to what the students of a specific grade are expected to learn or should be learning. There is a governing body to define the topics relevant to be taught in the different grades. The assessments done on the topics are an important measure to understand how the students are performing. Any topic which appears to be difficult to the majority of the students of a grade is shifted to the next grade while the topic appearing easy should be shifted to the lower grade. The topics should be selected according to the general level of understanding of the students. They should be judged on the basis of how they perform in the tests.

In deciding the goals of the expected levels of the students it should be maintained that very tough concepts should not be introduced at a younger level. They might tend to give the students an impression that they are not good enough. Topics should be designed on the basis of the learning capabilities of the students. The topic that we are discussing in the social science classroom was of interest of the students and it also tells them about the formation of the continents which should be known to them. Education also gives information about the environment and social living patterns of humans and it is essential to introduce these concepts at an early level. The students should be learning things which they can connect to at a lower level and observe by general analysis. Things which are beyond the scope of observation and analysis are tough to the students of the lower grade. The core curriculum should be based on the knowledge of these concepts.