Module
2:
Strategies for Teaching and Learning
in Alternative Education
Facilities
Mary Male, Ph.D.
San José State University
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Module Overview
| Understanding | Essential
Questions | Knowledge and Skills |
Introduction
“When I think back to all the crap I learned in high school” go the words to Paul Simon’s classic song of the sixties—as relevant to today’s teens as it was years ago—we can instantly identify the problem with creating an educational program intense and relevant enough to turn a student’s life completely around.
“Think different.” Apple Computer’s advertising mantra applies well to rethinking teaching and learning strategies for teenagers in trouble. In this module, teachers-in-training will explore their assumptions and biases, and apply research-validated teaching processes in creative and innovative ways to unlock the hearts and minds of the kids in alternative education facilities.
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Understanding
Traditional educational practices do not address the complex social-emotional, academic, and vocational needs of students in alternative education facilities. Teachers must be prepared to use novelty, humor, drama, art, technology, and therapeutic/counseling feedback in their teaching to address the diverse, intensive needs of students.
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Essential Questions
How can a student’s years of academic failure and low expectations for success be reversed by skillful teaching and management of the learning environment?
How can communication/counseling techniques be incorporated into curriculum and class procedures for maximum synergy of social/emotional and academic outcomes?
How do teachers build student resiliency and transform a student’s attitude toward self, family, and community through educational interventions?
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Knowledge and Skills
Students will:
Review practices from programs with demonstrated successful outcomes (increased graduation rates, reduced recidivism rates, and successful completion of alcohol and substance abuse rehabilitation, employment).
Apply “best practice” research-validated strategies in novel and innovative ways to create a climate for maximized student growth and learning in alternative education facilities.
Connect social-emotional and academic objectives in planning and delivering instruction, and in providing appropriate performance feedback.
Select curriculum which is culturally resonant, provides access to big ideas and crucial skills across a wide range of abilities, and helps students make connections between social/emotional and academic growth.
Design opportunities for their students to apply academic learning in service learning experiences.
Use technology tools which provide multiple avenues for taking in information, ideas and concepts; engaging with skills and concepts in innovative ways, and documenting their learning in multiple modalities.
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