My Transition to a Learner Centered Class (Step #1)

In my first blog post ever, I discussed my transition to a learner centered classroom and how much it positively affected my teaching and my life in the classroom.   Today, I want to start to talk about specific things I did to make this transition, in the hope that you will be able to take something from it and make the same transition in your classroom.   
     When I decided to make this transition, I knew I needed to have a really concrete focus on what I wanted students to learn since my students would be working at different paces in my room.  Obviously, this would be the standards, benchmarks, Common Core, (call it what you will).  

    "Students can not hit a target if they can not see."    A quote that I found very useful as I made the transition.  To show my students the target they were aiming at, I used capacity matrices.   "A capacity matrix is a charting technique used to break down topic areas into steps for achieving a specific result."1-Taken from David Langford's Tool Time For Education, Langford International.  

In my matrices, I include the concepts students will be expected to learn in that chapter.  Students check off their prior knowledge before the chapter, and as we progress through the chapter, add to the matrix what they learned.   It really helped my students know what was important to know in the chapter.  Below is an example of one of my matrices.  

Aim:  Big Idea of the chapter
Focus:  General concept
Capacity:  Specific concept
Capacity Breakdown:  Details to help focus our learning



This gives both the students and myself a focus of what they are expected to know going into a chapter.  It helps them guide their learning so they know what they should be focusing on with each lesson.  The "Essential" vs "nonessential" learning.   Students know exactly where their learning target is and how to hit it.

  For me, it helps me focus on what I want them to do to show me their proficiency.  From this, I can create my assignments, menus, projects, and assessments (pre and post tests), so they directly tie back into the concepts that are important for students to know.

So......I know what I want to teach them.   The next step is to see what they know, or our starting point for the chapter.