Teach Lessons Thoroughly, Not Quickly

As teachers, we often feel the pressure to get through the entire curriculum in a year. We strive to cover all the lessons we’re supposed to get through. It can be overwhelming!

I am blessed at my school because we ability group our students and have a lot of flexibility in our teaching. Some of my coworkers can cover most if not all the curriculum because their students grasp new concepts quickly. Other teachers push forward to the next lesson at the expense of their students. Still others with supported classes or mixed-level classes struggle to keep up.

While we may feel like we need to keep up with our coworkers or get through the entire curriculum, this is often a disservice to our students.

I understand that some administrations may be less flexible about what teachers cover in their classrooms and may push their teachers to cover a certain number of lessons before their satisfied. If this is the case, you may need to get creative with how you adjust your lessons so that your students are truly learning.

Teach for Comprehension, Not Coverage

However, if you have any flexibility in your teaching, I encourage you to teach concepts for comprehension, not coverage. It is not enough to cover a lesson if your students do not understand it.

I believe that many teachers lose sight of the importance of learning in school. Learning should be our priority, but it is often replaced with getting through our lessons and finishing the curriculum. It is too easy to shift our focus.

We must prioritize learning in our classrooms! This means that we may not get through every lesson or topic on our year-long plan. However, it is so much more important to have students understand the lessons we have covered than it is to have them hear every lesson without understanding.

Teaching Students to Write Quotations

I taught my students how to write quotations this year. Honestly, it was a concept they should have already known, but they didn’t. So, I taught them the rules of how to write dialogue, showed them examples, had them turn quotes into quotations, and finally had them write quotes with tags on their own.

Many of them failed the lesson.

I expect students to cite evidence on other assignments on a regular basis. If they didn’t know how to write a quote, it would have been a problem for the rest of the year because they would have lost points on many of their other assignments.

I had two choices. I could move on since I had already covered the topic or I could review the concept until they understood it and could put it into practice. I chose the latter.

For the next few weeks, I reviewed how to write quotes at least once a week. I changed how I taught the lesson. I used different learning styles. I gave students ample opportunities to practice with immediate feedback.

Finally, their skills started to improve. After a few weeks, they were able to write quotes correctly a majority of the time. Now, when they do other assignments that require them to cite evidence or write a quote, they know how to do it correctly.

While it can be frustrating to have to teach a lesson multiple times, it is worth it to make sure your students understand.

Don’t go through your curriculum too quickly. Teach your lessons until your students understand.