Problem of PracticeKnowing where youre going on any journey, optimizes travel. Knowing the destination means travelers can plan routes, side-trips, even stops along the way. Learning is just such a journey. In order to optimize the learners trip during the year they spend in my own classroom, I need to demystify where we are going and how we are going to get there. I need to teach transparently in order to let students in on the process. According to Jones and Jones research, students have thirteen distinct needs that, if met, increase motivation for learning. Those needs include: 1. The need to feel secure and important.2. The need to understand their learning goals.3. The need for time to integrate learning.4. The need to understand their learning processes.5. The need to receive feedback.In my practice, when I spend too little time reviewing the units learning goals or giving feedback, some students seem to misunderstand the point of instructional activities. Root Cause of Problem

Teens spend too much time in high school classrooms where lecture is the only method used to for instruction. I spend too little time setting up the learning activity and giving feedback, so students do not see a hands-on activity or project as teaching or learning.

Practices that result in the root cause.

Teens expect teachers to tell them what to learn [memorize]. Learning may not make sense to teens if they only learn what they are told to learn for a test. Teens do not read directions. When teachers do not lecture in familiar ways teens may not engage. Teens are worksheet experts. Teens may not recognize experiential or discovery learning. Teens take fewer risks as writers and thinkers. Teens become teacher-dependent instead of curiously independent learners.

Final problem of practice to be addressed

Clearly communicate what I want teenagers to learn over the course of the Art of Analysis altered book project (click link to read project handout).

Smaller chunks or smaller units of instruction are part of the clear communication I need to establish around the what I want kids to learn. My current unit plan focuses on analyzing artists choices and how said choicesthe whole lot of themaffect meaning and tone. That is a huge, year long unit of instruction. No wonder kids said in their final reflective letters that they werent sure about the goals for the project. What I need to do now, I believe is hone in on the mini-units, or the mini-lessons for reading and writing workshop as Rief and Atwell would say.

Works CitedAtwell, Nancie. The reading zone: How to help kids become skilled, passionate, habitual, critical readers. Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2007.Jones, V., and L. Jones. Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2015.Rief, Linda. Inside the writer's-reader's notebook: A workshop essential. Heinemann, 2007.