The Competent Classroom
Aligning High School Curriculum, Standards, and Assessment - A Creative Teaching Guide

The Competent Classroom
Aligning High School Curriculum, Standards, and Assessment - A Creative Teaching Guide

The Competent Classroom
Aligning High School Curriculum, Standards, and Assessment - A Creative Teaching Guide

I remember it as if it was yesterday. Thirty-six 16-year-olds and one of me in an American literature class. I had just finished what seemed like a brilliant
and extended several-day lecture interspersed with discussion on early American Literature complete with examples from our text and primary sources I’d culled from journals and dusty library stacks. I then described the assignment. Instantly it was clear that the kids did ot want to do what I believed to be a deeply engaging piece of work. Slowly, it became apparent that the whole group was not going to do what I wanted them to do. I had two choices. I could insist, conveying that I believed my own professional judgment to be unquestionable, or I could stop and learn from them what the resistance was all about, conveying that they might have legitimate
concerns. Either choice seemed frightening.

Patricia A. Wasley, Ann Lieberman, Joseph P. McDonald