I wanted to push ahead with the unit today There's a very important concept to teach--one that takes good time and attention. Yet the students have to catch up, catch up with their practice and catch up with letting the initial concepts sink in with strength. Many distanced from the classroom forget the amount of practice and time good learning takes. Many still think that if you say it, students will learn it, but educators everywhere know that's not how good learning happens. Good learning is a multi-modal approach that requires hearing, seeing, talking about, engaging with, and thinking--it takes time to embed important learning into your brain and be able to apply that learning in meaningful ways.
So instead of pushing ahead as I had planned, we'll have a study day. I'll scaffold a host of study options and let students move ahead with those options. I'll help those with questions, and I'll encourage students to help each other too. They'll use their unit guides as practice guides. Tomorrow they'll practice again, and then on Thursday and Friday I'll introduce one new concept and Monday and Tuesday the next new concept. After that, and according to the pacing guide, students will be ready to take the test. We'll see how they all do.
