It Depends

Teaching often requires making decisions regarding instructional strategies that are tailored to individual student needs, While we know general principles regarding pedagogy and practice, the readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles of the students we serve often change what we need to do so that we can include the individuals who make up our classes. During the professional development sessions regarding Writer's Workshop and the Six Traits of Writing, we have tried to ensure that lesson plans, no matter how comprehensive, allow latitude to change and differentiate instruction based upon what we see from our students. Unlike the mantra of the popular press, there is no "silver bullet," no single instructional strategy that will work for all students, that will solve all of the problems facing an underperforming school, or that will certainly raise achievement. Instead, we try to emphasize that teaching is a combination of knowing one's craft, watching one's students, and then making critical decisions about what will work best at a given moment in time. How one proceeds depends on the instructional objective, the instructional strategy selected, and the students' response to that strategy. Sometimes things work out as one plans. Other times one needs to make changes. It depends.

S.T.S