Surprise

"A key goal of Coach Wooden was the development of players who were creative, confident problem solvers. He wanted us to be so automatic in our fundamentals and so versed in the concepts that we were ready to quickly devise our own solutions from the constantly changing problems our opponents posed. Coach Wooden wanted, as he said, “to be as surprised as our opponent at what my team came up with when confronted with an unexpected challenge.”

-Sven Nater, a former player for Coach Wooden* (Nater & Gallimore, 2005) - cited in Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2007). //Schooling By Design//. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Tell us about a time when your students surprised you by what they came up with. Tell us what you think this means for how we teach, what we expect of our students, and how we assess them. Click the Discussion tab above.


 * Sad news: Coach Wooden has passed away. He was 99 and college basketball's most successful coach. For more on Coach Wooden see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/sports/ncaabasketball/05wooden.html?hp