Donald Rumsfeld: Known Unknowns In The Classroom
Donald Rumsfeld is credited with this quote from a Press Conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002.
“The message is that there are no "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.”
I would have told you that I thought I was employing best practices in my classroom (already) before …show more content…
Formerly, I didn’t allow the children to negotiate the language of mathematics as deeply as I do now. I didn’t allow children to explore as many vehicles of language as I do now. I didn’t understand how important it was to broaden my understanding of the word “text” and to use that knowledge to explicitly teach how to decipher graphs and charts and other math organizers the way I do now. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much the students enjoyed and learned from working thoughtfully on paper, then sharing their ideas with their shoulder partners, the group, and with me. It was impressive to me how their precision in communicating mathematically improved with this more efficient practice.
I’ve learned so much about BDA strategies for coaching and lesson planning. The shift of my lesson planning has transitioned from objectives created with the teacher manual and the state standards as the central focus to a more student-centered approach guided by the principles of the 4-Lenses of Learning. I’m more cognizant of increasing the students’ desire to learn by meeting their basic human, social, language, and meaning-centered needs. Of course the standards remain a guiding document but the delivery system to meet the challenges of those standards is what is
“The message is that there are no "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.”
I would have told you that I thought I was employing best practices in my classroom (already) before …show more content…
Formerly, I didn’t allow the children to negotiate the language of mathematics as deeply as I do now. I didn’t allow children to explore as many vehicles of language as I do now. I didn’t understand how important it was to broaden my understanding of the word “text” and to use that knowledge to explicitly teach how to decipher graphs and charts and other math organizers the way I do now. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much the students enjoyed and learned from working thoughtfully on paper, then sharing their ideas with their shoulder partners, the group, and with me. It was impressive to me how their precision in communicating mathematically improved with this more efficient practice.
I’ve learned so much about BDA strategies for coaching and lesson planning. The shift of my lesson planning has transitioned from objectives created with the teacher manual and the state standards as the central focus to a more student-centered approach guided by the principles of the 4-Lenses of Learning. I’m more cognizant of increasing the students’ desire to learn by meeting their basic human, social, language, and meaning-centered needs. Of course the standards remain a guiding document but the delivery system to meet the challenges of those standards is what is