The Why of Lesson Planning

This week's reading stressed even more the reason why. Why we do the things we do. Why do we write lesson plans. Why are we teaching what we are teaching. I never really thought about how does this relate specifically to your community. I thought about it in the broad sense, sure. Agriculture is important and effects every part of our lives. But why specifically does Johnny care to learn about agriculture. Why is learning about milk production important to Johnny. Understanding community need is important.

It is important to be relevant. The biggest comebacks of students is: "When will I use this in the future." (Which I may be one of the guilty parties.) It's important to explain to them why they are learning a particular topic. Milk production is relevant because the student needs to understand where milk comes from. Something that would be irrelevant to a student here in the US would be something like koala reproduction, as koala's don't live here in the US. You wouldn't teach in-depth forestry if you didn't really live in a forested area. Relevance and community based need are important when designing our lesson plans.