By: Megan Prats

5/15/2015

Because there are pros and cons to all things in life, the 2learn® Method is no exception. Even though the 2learn® Method is fantastically brilliant and extremely powerful, it still has its weaknesses. However, the 2learn® Method’s weaknesses become stronger when you learn how to avoid presenting them in the lessons.

The customized curriculum provides the student what she wants and needs to learn. And because the customized curriculum is always evolving, those wants and needs evolve as well. Thus, you can be in a lesson and half-way through realize that there is something else that you should be working on with the student. Then, when you make a detour another issue reveals itself and you decide to work on that as well. Once you make your second detour, you get so involved in this area of problem-solving that might not be very related to the first, that you even forget where you began.

For instance, my student has been working on the perfect tenses in Spanish. Her book described the past perfect tense as the pluscuamperfecto indicativo and then she started asking me about the indicative tense. I could have gone off in a detour from the perfect tenses and started talking about the indicative vs. the subjective tense to answer what she wanted during the lesson – what is the indicative tense? However, if I veered off into that direction, we would have had to have dedicated at least 30 minutes to learning the basics of the subjunctive tense, how to identify it, and how to distinguish it from the indicative tense, for her to be able to understand the answer to her original question. Because even though the customized curriculum called for a detour, I decided to not go over that subject because what she really needed was to focus on the perfect tenses and not be bombarded with more information that would make her even more confused. Thus, tailoring the customized curriculum to what she needed and helping her focus on the perfect tenses allowed her to get a more comprehensive and efficient understanding of them which allowed her to learn them more quickly.

The customized curriculum can at times pull you in many directions as the Need vs. Want article details. This article doesn’t put one element above the other; instead, it allows focus to dominate whether the dominant subject area in the customized curriculum is need or want based. Because the student learns a concept better when she is focused on it and doesn’t have to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together at different times, you should allow that focus to shine through the lessons. However, because the customized curriculum is always evolving, sometimes a detour would be the appropriate approach because maybe a detour is necessary for the student to understand the focus of the lesson. But in short, the best way to design the customized curriculum is to have a focus, foundation, and then allow the needs or the wants that appear in the moment to slightly modify that focus.

Critical thinking is a powerful tool as since it is the gateway to the infinite realm of knowledge, it allows you to see so many nuances in the student’s customized curriculum. There are lessons where I see about 10 different detours that the student and I can explore (all of which are important to the student). I have been guilty of losing a focus with the customized curriculum, taking the student throughout a maze of understanding, and then losing the student along the way. The focused approach thus seeks to allow a lack of adaptability in the lesson because sometimes being so adaptable is a poor strategy for the student. So, because the 2learn® Method wants to do everything that it can for the student’s learning, it recommends that you find a happy medium between adaptability and focus with the customized curriculum. In short, a solid approach would be to allow a main topic to be the focus and continue to return to that path throughout the entire lesson, even if you deviate down another. Find that right balance and you’ll be providing the student with a solid customized curriculum.

© Megan Prats 2015