I've always had a question: As an educator, how structured do I want my class to be? After this week's observations, I realize that the answer isn't quite that simple. Above all else, I have to consider my students. I was fortunate to see classes on both ends of the "structure spectrum."In one class, I saw an extremely structured environment, with the teacher guiding the students through the lesson in steps. It is my fear that in a classroom that is too structured, students will feel constrained in what they can and cannot do. Here, the students were engaged and attentive. This was in large part due to the classwork, which involved personal responses. It is very important to connect the classwork to the personalities of each child in any class, but what I took from this is that structure doesn't have to stunt the creativity of students the right kinds of assignments are given. The next class I walked into was quite different, in terms of structure. They were having a class discussion about a character. Students were just as engaged as the previous, more structured class, yet the class wasn't "off the hinges," a fear of less structured classes.
What does this all mean? It follows with what Chapter 7 of Subjects Matter says about knowing your students. You must know what they can and cannot handle, and this will dictate what level of structure you bring into the classroom. So as an educator, I don't believe I should dictate structure in my class. I'm here to teach the students and it is their classroom
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