CA Assignment template

The tools, teaching strategies, and assessment ideas in this template were fascinating.  Some ideas had been presented to me in the first education classes I had taken, but I was never told why to use them.  It’s interesting to see the variety of assessments teachers can use to check for understand, or to deepen thought.  I think people often forget that reading comprehension, writing, and critical thinking must be taught.  These three skills don’t come naturally to the majority of students, and neither does the teaching of them.  In fact, I think reading comprehension is one of the hardest things to learn.  Writing and critical thinking require scaffolding, but reading comprehension, if not taught well, can become the biggest source of student failure.  Reading is still the number one source of giving and receiving information in school and beyond, and if a student can’t decipher text properly, they will have problems for the remainder of their schooling.  These skills aren’t just useful for school.  Students will need critical thinking, writing, and reading skills in their careers later on, and I think teachers should mention that.  So many students don’t go to college, but these things aren’t just for college-minded kids.  These are skills that everyone continues to use for the rest of their lives.  We have to be realistic about them.  Not all students are going to be able to master each of these skills, but if they have a good enough foundation of them and they continue to be taught with various methods throughout the 12 years of school, every child will be successful in the future.