Reflection on CCHS Teaching: Day One

Reflection on Teaching: Day One

I completed my first day of my multi-day teach today, and while it went all right, it certainly could have gone better.  I think the most challenging thing about these two classes is the motivation.  It is hard to convince them to do the work because they just aren’t interested and don’t want to be at school.  I don’t them that well yet, so I can’t really cater to their interests, the best I can do is take what they give me in the classroom, and run with it.  I tried to that with our story and mini discussions throughout the lesson today, but because they’ve never had a discussion before, it’s hard to take all of that into account at once.

Getting the class to read and have on topic discussions was also difficult due to classroom management problems.  There were a lot of kids sleeping or with their heads down, and there were lots of side conversations going on.    Heather suggested that tomorrow I start off class by warning the students that if they get too chatty, I may move them, or if they’re sleeping that I may have them stand for the rest of the class.  It sounds like an excellent idea, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to follow through on the threats because I’ve never seen Heather follow through on any.  It is also hard to do much classroom management because I only know the names of a few students in the class.  The seating chart I have for the class isn’t necessarily accurate, because the students move around, and I haven’t had many chances to interact with the students and learn their names.

I’ve also decided to switch gears as much as I can.  Central Crossing has a policy that any copies must be in at least 2 days in advance, so deciding to provide additional or different materials to students based on formative assessment can’t happen on a day to day basis, but I will be making some small changes.  I’ve put all the students names on strips of poster board, and when I’m asking clarifying questions about the reading, I’ll be drawing their names from a cup.  Realizing the students won’t particularly like this strategy, I’m also going to write a few “stock responses” up on the board that I found on Yvonne Hutchinson’s website.  They require students to say something, but also provide them with examples of what to say if they are confused, don’t want to participate, or weren’t paying attention.  I worry that students will take advantage of these responses and feel as though they now don’t have to pay attention, but I also hope that it will help more of them to feel comfortable speaking up in class.

Another thing I would change if I got the chance to go back and redo this lesson is I would have chosen a different story.  I think I would have used “All of Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury, rather than “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker.  While I originally thought this story would be universal enough to allow every student to make ties to their own heritage and history (which it still might, we’ll have to see how discussion on the third day goes), I’m now thinking that it may be too long for the narrowness of the theme we’re talking about.  Granted the first half of the story is not as interesting as the second half.  I think they would have been more interested to read “All of Summer in a Day” because it’s only a few pages, and has a very open ending that they could debate and talk about.

Another thing that I noticed while teaching was my level of comfort between first and second period.  I didn’t experience this last quarter during my multi-day teach because my mentor teacher last quarter only taught one of each class, so there was no opportunity to double up.  I found that after having done the lesson during first period, I was able to make some minor adjustments to what I was doing second period, and because I’d already taught the lesson once, I was much more confident in my teaching during second period.  I asked slightly different questions, and asked the students to write down slightly different things between the two periods.

Survey Report & Lesson Plan

Introduction to the Classroom and Curricular Context

My classroom is at Central Crossing High School, as part of the Southwestern City School district.  My focal class is a Freshman Silver Dyad (intervention/inclusion) team taught English and Studies class during 1^st and 2^nd period.   This means that my mentor-teacher has arranged the class to follow a mostly lecture and recitation format supplemented by seatwork, with occasional teacher-led discussion.  The students are heavily scaffolded in all of their activities, focusing on basic reading and writing skills.  They have read aloud short stories, young adult novels, and plays, and they have written short responses to reading, five paragraph essays, as well as other informal writing.

Students’ Backgrounds

The Silver Dyad inclusion class has an average reading level of about third grade, though it ranges from about first to eighth grade level readers.  I found through my survey that most of the students really don’t like their English class, though in general they do see the use of taking English.  I’ve also found that they don’t have much confidence in their reading, but don’t know what they need to improve on.  My mentor-teacher helps take some of the burden of reading off of the students by reading everything aloud in class, so the students will never have to worry about completing reading for homework that they’d struggle to understand.  The students in the class are very social, and have no qualms about talking in class about topics that aren’t related to the class work.  I think they could be motivated to talk because I found through my survey that most of them have big dreams regarding what they want to be when they grow up.  This means they obviously have interests, and if those interests could be integrated into the classroom, I suspect they’d be more likely to have discussions.

General Introduction to the Lesson Plan

I struggled to come up with a lesson plan that would center on an easy to read story that had good discussion value.  I presented my mentor teacher with a list of stories that I’d found that I thought would work, and she thought “Everyday Use” would work best.  I want students to learn about the value of heritage, and the different ways of appreciating it because they have such varied background themselves.  I found that the students aren’t used to having discussions, and assume that my mentor-teacher is the discussion leader in their class, because they’ve never had enough of a discussion to determine if one of their peers could be a discussion leader.  I want to scaffold them into a discussion in my lesson, and give them a chance to talk and make their own meanings out of a text to move beyond the understanding that there is only one correct interpretation.

MDT Winter 2010 Lesson Plan

Teacher(s): Jan Krueger

Date: 2/8/10-2/10/10

Title/Topic: The Importance of Heritage

Suggested Grade Level(s): 9

DAY 1

Objectives and Rationale	This lesson is designed to guide students through the procedures of reading, questioning, and analyzing a text.  The guiding concept centers around the importance of heritage, and what kinds of actions and beliefs are regarded as valid ways to show an appreciation of one’s heritage. I can… Make predictions about what will happen next in a story. Summarize what has happened in a story. Infer symbolic and thematic meanings to help me understand characters’ values. Use examples from the text to support my opinion.
State Standards:	Ohio Standards: Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies Standard 1.  Apply reading comprehension strategies, including making predictions, comparing and contrasting, recalling and summarizing and making inferences and drawing conclusions. 2.  Answer literal, inferential, evaluative and synthesizing questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade-appropriate print texts and electronic and visual media. Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard 5.  Analyze an author’s implicit and explicit argument, perspective or viewpoint in text. Reading Applications: Literary Text Standard 1.  Identify and explain an author’s use of direct and indirect characterization, and ways in which characters reveal traits about themselves, including dialect, dramatic monologues and soliloquies. 7.  Explain how foreshadowing and flashback are used to shape plot in a literary text 10.  Explain how authors use symbols to create broader meanings. Writing Applications Standard 6.  Produce informal writings (e.g., journals, notes and poems) for various purposes.
Materials Needed:	What texts, materials, websites, and equipment will you need to implement your plans?  Please include materials that students and teachers may need. Intro Activity Questions Student Copies of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Teacher annotated copy of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker List of discussion starter questions Paper, pencils Dry Erase Markers
Context:	This lesson series falls in the middle of a unit on The Miracle Worker.
Procedures including: • Opening •Activities • Closure	Opening: Introductory Activity: What’s in a Name? (10-15 min) 1.  Ask students to get out a sheet of paper.  Give short writing prompts one at a time, read aloud.  Let students know they will be sharing these with the class, and then turning them in: What is your first name and why do you think you were named that? What do you think your name means? If you could change your name, would you? Why or why not? What would you change your name to, if you could (school appropriate, please)?  Why would you change it to that? 2.  Have students turn to a partner and share what they wrote with each other. 3.  Ask if any students are willing to share what their name is, why they were named that, and what they think their name means.  Follow-up by asking if they’d change their name, why, and what to. 4.  Have that student call on another student to share their answers.  Let about 3-5 students share. 5.  Ask students to write 2-3 sentences on what they think heritage means.  Then ask then to rate 1 to 5 (5 being highest) how much they would like to know more about what other people think heritage means. Activities: Begin Reading “Everyday Use” (25-30 min) 1.  Pass out copies of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker to students. 2.  Have students keep their “What’s in a Name” pre-writing out, to write thoughts down on when we pause. 3.  Explain that we’ll be reading the story out loud.  I’ll be stopping at several points so we can think about what is going on.  Students will be using a ‘popcorn’ style of reading aloud.  Explain how this is done, if students don’t already know. 4.  Read the story, stopping along the way at discussion points (labeled in Teacher Text) Closing: Wrapping Up (2-3 min) 1. Collect copies of “Everyday Use” 2.  Have students hand in Intro Activity paper, along with any notes they took during the story and discussion. 3.  Let students know we’ll be continuing with the story tomorrow.
Assessment:	Formative Assessment: 1.  Throughout the reading I will be gauging the students understanding of the text by having them make predictions, summarize, and think about questions they have.  They will be encouraged to write down any thoughts they have during these brief, informal discussions. 2.  Intro Activity will be collected, including the answer to “What is heritage?”  and their interest rating.  This will serve as the pre-test.
Justification and Reflection:	Why are you teaching what you’re teaching in the way that you’re teaching it?  Why this topic?  How does lesson relate to your students’ interests and attitudes toward reading and English language arts? How are you demonstrating an understanding and responsiveness in terms of race, culture, gender, class, sexuality, and other differences? How does this lesson relate to past and future lessons and fit within the overall discipline? List (in a reference page) any resources that helped guide the construction of the lesson. For example, Beach, R., Appleman, D., Hynds, S., & Wilhelm, J. (2006). Teaching Literature to Adolescents may be the foundation for a lesson on teaching strategies for understanding narratives. I structured this lesson so that it follows a similar read-aloud format to what the students are familiar with.  The read-aloud format is useful in aiding comprehension of the material, and allowing me to guide students into thinking about and developing an envisionment of the text.

DAY 2

Objectives and Rationale	I can… Infer symbolic and thematic meanings to help me understand characters’ values. Make predictions about what will happen next in a story. Summarize what has happened in a story. Use examples from the text to support my opinion.
State Standards:	Ohio Standards: Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies Standard 1.  Apply reading comprehension strategies, including making predictions, comparing and contrasting, recalling and summarizing and making inferences and drawing conclusions. 2.  Answer literal, inferential, evaluative and synthesizing questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade-appropriate print texts and electronic and visual media. Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard 5.  Analyze an author’s implicit and explicit argument, perspective or viewpoint in text. Reading Applications: Literary Text Standard 1.  Identify and explain an author’s use of direct and indirect characterization, and ways in which characters reveal traits about themselves, including dialect, dramatic monologues and soliloquies. 7.  Explain how foreshadowing and flashback are used to shape plot in a literary text 10.  Explain how authors use symbols to create broader meanings. Writing Process Standard 1.  Generate writing ideas through discussions with others and from printed material, and keep a list of writing ideas. Writing Applications Standard 6.  Produce informal writings (e.g., journals, notes and poems) for various purposes. Communications: Oral and Visual Standard 1.  Apply active listening strategies (e.g., monitoring message for clarity, selecting and organizing essential information, noting cues such as changes in pace) in a variety of settings.
Materials Needed:	What texts, materials, websites, and equipment will you need to implement your plans?  Please include materials that students and teachers may need. Student Copies of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Teacher annotated copy of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker List of discussion starter questions Paper, pencils Dry Erase Markers
Context:	This lesson series falls in the middle of a unit on The Miracle Worker.
Procedures including: • Opening •Activities • Closure	Opening: Review (3-5 min) 1.  Have students turn to a partner and work together to summarize what happened in the story “Everyday Use” so far. 2.  Ask for a group to volunteer to summarize yesterday’s reading for the class. Activities: Finish Reading “Everyday Use” (30-35 min) 1.  Pass out copies of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker to students. 2.  Pass back Intro Activity/Notes sheet from yesterday, so students can continue to write down thoughts. 3.  Finish reading the story, stopping along the way at discussion points (labeled in Teacher Text) Overflow: 1.   Ask students to turn to one or two other people and discuss the concept of heritage.  Some guiding questions/statements: Are their any items in your family that symbolize your heritage? Why can passing stuff down from parent to child mean so much? Why does it cause drama in families sometimes? How do you think parents should handle this matter? Describe a disagreement you’ve had with a sibling or good friend about who should get to have a certain item. 2.  Before students leave ask them to write down one sentence on what they think was their best contribution to the discussion, and one sentence about something they found interesting that someone else said.
Assessment:	Formative Assessment: 1.  Throughout the reading I will be gauging the students understanding of the text by having them make predictions, summarize, and think about questions they have.  They will be encouraged to write down any thoughts they have during these brief, informal discussions. 2.  If time allows, I will be walking around during the small group discussion at the end of class to listen in on students’ discussions.  They will also be required to turn in their two sentences regarding the discussion.

DAY 3

Objectives and Rationale	I can… Examine and discuss differing perspectives. Infer symbolic and thematic meanings to help me understand characters’ values. Summarize what has happened in a story. Self-assess my contribution to a group discussion. Use examples from the text to support my opinion.
State Standards:	Ohio Standards: Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies Standard 1.  Apply reading comprehension strategies, including making predictions, comparing and contrasting, recalling and summarizing and making inferences and drawing conclusions. 2.  Answer literal, inferential, evaluative and synthesizing questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade-appropriate print texts and electronic and visual media. Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard 5.  Analyze an author’s implicit and explicit argument, perspective or viewpoint in text. Reading Applications: Literary Text Standard 10.  Explain how authors use symbols to create broader meanings. Writing Process Standard 1.  Generate writing ideas through discussions with others and from printed material, and keep a list of writing ideas. Writing Applications Standard 2.  Write responses to literature that organize an insightful interpretation around several clear ideas, premises or images and support judgments with specific references to the original text, to other texts, authors and to prior knowledge. 6.  Produce informal writings (e.g., journals, notes and poems) for various purposes. Communications: Oral and Visual Standard 1.  Apply active listening strategies (e.g., monitoring message for clarity, selecting and organizing essential information, noting cues such as changes in pace) in a variety of settings.
Materials Needed:	What texts, materials, websites, and equipment will you need to implement your plans?  Please include materials that students and teachers may need. Student Copies of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Teacher annotated copy of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker List of discussion starter questions Paper, pencils Dry Erase Markers Everyday Use Discussion Web
Context:	This lesson series falls in the middle of a unit on The Miracle Worker.
Procedures including: • Opening •Activities • Closure	Opening: Have Discussion Web drawn on board. Review (3-5 min) 1.  Have students turn to a partner and work together to summarize what happened in the story “Everyday Use.” 2.  Ask for a group to volunteer to summarize the story for the class. Activities: Discussion Web (15-25 min) 1.  Explain to students what a Discussion Web is, and how to fill one out.   Students will be thinking of reasons to answer both sides of the question.   Remember to try to have an equal number of reasons on each side. 2.  Have students get into pairs and pass out Discussion Web worksheets to each pair (Remind them to write both partners names on it).  Pass out copies of “Everyday Use” and their notes from the previous days so that student can refer to the text.  Students will have 5-10 minutes to fill out the worksheet. 3.  Have pairs share their top reason for each side of the argument.  I will write these on the board. 4.  Put student pairs together (so now they’re in groups of four).   Explain that students will now be comparing their reasons, and coming to a group conclusion.  Remind students to keep an open-mind while discussing, and let them know they’ll have a chance to explain disagreements with the group when we discuss as a class.  Students will have another 5-10 minutes to work. Whole Class Discussion (7-10 min) 1.  Ask groups, one by one, to share their conclusion.  Ask them for the reasoning that led them to this conclusion.  Ask if there are any opposing reasons that complicate their conclusion. 2.  If all groups came to the same conclusion, play Devil’s Advocate, and challenge the class on their conclusion.  If some groups disagree, have them challenge each other, providing them with some example challenge questions if necessary. Closing: Self-Assess & Exit Slip (7-10 min) 1.  Have students get out a sheet of paper.  Remind them to write names at the top. 2.  At the top of the page have them write their group’s conclusion, along with the top 3 reasons for this conclusion.   About halfway down the page have them write whether or not they agreed with their group’s conclusion, and if not, what reason(s) stopped them from agreeing. 3.  One the other side of the page ask students to rate their contributions to the discussion with their group. Tell three things you did.  (ex: I had a lot of ideas and shared them with the group; I helped my group find reasons in the text; I listened carefully to what my group members said; I didn’t feel like doing this activity and drew pictures instead. 4.  Have student look at their Intro Activity where they wrote down what they thought heritage meant.  Ask students to write 2-3 sentences on how their understanding of heritage has changed from that original definition. 5.  Have students hand in their copy of “Everyday Use,” their note/intro activity sheet, their discussion web (with both partner’s names on it), and their self-assessment.
Assessment:	Formative Assessment: 1.  I will be walking around during the small group discussion at the end of class to listen in on students’ discussions. Summative Assessment: 1.  Students will be handing in discussion web.  This will be used to demonstrate their thought process for the discussion. 2.  Students will be handing in their group and individual conclusions, as well as a self-assessment on how they participated in the discussion. 3. Students will be evaluating and changing their definition of heritage and handing that in.  This will serve as the post-test.

References for Lesson Plan:

Newell, George.  Class discussions and notes.  11-27 January 2010.

Tierney, Robert J., John E. Readence. “Discussion Web.” Reading Strategies and Practices: A Compendium. 5^th edition. Ed. Virginia Lanigan. Allyn & Bacon.  2000.  310-314. Print.

Walker, Alice.  “Everyday Use.” Literature and Language.  Ed. Barry Bernstein. McDougal Little.  999-1008.  Print.

Justification and Rationale

I chose to teach “Everyday Use” in this way, partly due to suggestions from my mentor-teacher.  She told me that these students couldn’t be expected to have read and understood a book, unless it has been read aloud and explained in class.  So the first two days of my MDT have been structured so that students will be reading aloud the story, and I will be asking them differing levels of questions at various places in the story.  The final day I will be using a discussion web to scaffold them into both a small group and a class discussion.  I recognize that the students aren’t used to, don’t know how, or aren’t comfortable participating in discussions, so I’ve designed the lesson to teach them how to participate in a discussion and given them what is hopefully a safe space and safe topic to discuss for the first time.

Since I don’t really know what the students’ interests are, beyond what they want to do when they graduate high school, I’m hoping that a discussion of heritage will at least relate to all the students in some way.  My introductory activity is designed to pull students in, and get them thinking on a little deeper level about what kind of things regarding family carry meaning.  The students seem to really enjoy talking about themselves, so the introductory will give them a chance to talk about themselves and bring their own experiences into the classroom in a positive way.  By allowing them to talk about themselves I’m hoping that this ability to bring their own lives into the discussion will carry over to the discussion on the third day when they debate the differing ways of valuing one’s heritage.  Because a heritage and family traditions are something that everyone has is some form or another, I’m catering to all the different groups of students in such a way that everyone should have at least one thing they can talk about if they so choose.

This lesson doesn’t really fit in with what the students are doing in the days leading up to and the days after it.  My mentor-teacher set aside a block of days for me to do my multi-day teach, and didn’t mind if it didn’t relate to what the students are currently doing.  The class is reading The Miracle Worker right now, so the lesson will fall in between acts in the play.   I will most likely be using the play to explain the time period of  “Everyday Use,” but not for much else.  I may be able to pull in some examples from the play, but they don’t relate enough for there to be strong connections betwee

Reflection on Central Crossing High School

Now that I’ve been in my school for a little longer, and have gotten to experience more of the classroom culture and procedures that help the run, I feel more able to talk about my experience at Central Crossing High School with Heather.  The aspect of her classroom that I find to be the most interesting is the team taught dyad classes.  All of Heather’s classes are team-taught with Melissa, a social studies teacher.  I find I interesting how they’ve structured their class to maintain the team taught atmosphere and develop a more cohesive curriculum.

World History and English were always my favorite subjects in high school, and I would have liked to be in a class that combined them the way Heather and Melissa do.  I really like the way they take the time to be sure their lessons will connect to each other’s lessons.  For example, Melissa’s History class is just starting to learn about the Russian Revolution.  They’re learning about Nicolas II, all his children, and Rasputin, and how the monarchy was overthrown and replaced but the Soviet regime.  To pair with this, Heather’s class is starting to read Animal Farm.  When I talked to Heather, she said when they did this unit last year, they had a couple days where they taught with the wall closed, rather than open.  This meant that instead of teaching to the double class once, they closed the partition and each taught to the singular classes, and then the classes switched.  Heather said it was really interesting to observe how the students who had Melissa’s class first made the connections between the history and the novel without much prompting.  She really likes how the structure of the dyad classes makes it easier for students to make these connections, and how working closely with Melissa has made that kind of team teaching possible.

I know we’re not supposed to be making comparisons and judgments about our two placement schools, but there has been one aspect of my schools that has been vastly different and intriguing to me, so I thought I’d explore it.  One of the big differences I’ve noticed between Central Crossing High School and Westerville Central High School doesn’t have anything directly to do with teaching or instruction, it has to do with the level of social interaction that I see.  The teachers at Central Crossing, or at least my mentor teacher and other teachers I’ve met, seem to be a lot more social that those I encountered at Westerville Central.  My mentor teacher at Westerville Central would always eat lunch alone, and while she would talk to other teachers in passing in the hallways, she wouldn’t engage in extended conversations that didn’t relate in some way to the workplace.  At Central Crossing the teachers I’ve met have been very social.  They talk about their personal lives, and spend time together outside of the workplace.  Heather eats lunch down in the teachers lounge with a whole group of other teachers from various subject areas.

This observation is interesting to me because I felt more comfortable at Westerville Central, and more like a teacher, but during my time at Central Crossing I’ve felt much more like a Student Observer.  My feeling is that Central Crossing would be a more pleasant place to work as a teacher than Westerville Central because the teachers seem to have built good, solid relationships, both personal and professional, with each other, while at Westerville Central I didn’t witness much of this happening.  I suspect I was more comfortable at Westerville Central because I didn’t know anyone, and hadn’t built relationships with any of the teachers there other than my mentor teacher, but since this was the norm, I didn’t feel out of place.  At Central Crossing I think I feel like and outsider and an intruder because the relationships they’ve built are an integral part of their day, and help to bind the school community together.  Just to be clear though, I’m not saying that Westerville Central doesn’t have these types of social interactions happening, only that with my previous mentor teacher, I never witnessed any.  Nor am I saying that every teacher at Central Crossing has the same level of social interaction that I’m witnessing with my current mentor teacher.

Report of Interview with Mentor Teacher

Heather Barnes has taught since 1997, and has taught freshmen English at Central Crossing High School, in the Southwest City School District, since it opened in 2002.  She got her Bachelor’s from The Ohio State University and “was one of the last groups to be certified to teach with a bachelor’s only.”  She later went on to get her Master’s in Educational Leadership from the University of Dayton.  She always knew she wanted to be an English teacher.  Her grandma was an English teacher and she knew that “being a teacher would allow [her] to have a family and a career.”

Heather’s first period class, my focal class, is called a Silver Dyad, and is an inclusion class, working on reading intervention.  The average reading level for this class is about third grade, though it ranges from about first to eighth grade level readers.  Her other two classes are Gold Dyad classes, which are more like honors classes.  Heather’s classes take place in a very interesting environment.  She team-teaches with Melissa Fischer, a Modern World History teacher.  All of the freshmen classes at Central Crossing used to be taught in triads of English, History, and Business, but now Heather and Melissa are the only ones left.  They’ve “fought to keep [their] class structured as a dyad.”

Both Heather and Melissa feel that there students make connections more easily between history and literature in their unique set-up than they would if the classes were taught separately.  This is evidenced by the fact that they plan their lessons together to be sure that the topics align as well as possible.  For example, the Gold Dyad classes have just moved into a new unit.  Melissa’s class is studying the Russian Revolution, and Heather’s class is starting to read Animal Farm.  Heather said when they did this unit last year “you could really tell which kids had Melissa’s class first, because they made the connections between the Russian leaders and the characters in the book without any prompting from me.”  The joint planning, and often joint teaching, really seems to benefit the students and aid their learning by helping them to more easily make connections between subject areas.

The Silver Dyad class, first and second period, is the class that will be my focal class.  Heather thinks this class will work out best for me simply due to scheduling reason.  This class has more flexibility with pacing, allowing me to jump in, as well as allowing me to go slower with the teaching so I can do better too.  Most of the students in the Silver Dyad come into Heather’s English class hating to read and write, so one of Heather’s goals is to, if not help the students enjoy reading, at least make it a task that is no longer so arduous.  One of the ways she works to accomplish this is by always doing all the reading for class out loud, this way students aren’t burdened with reading for homework that they’d struggle to understand.  Something interesting that Heather has noticed is that her “stronger readers tend to not like writing, and [her] stronger writers really don’t like to read.”  One of the ways she encourages every one to read is through peer pressure.  When the class reads aloud students call on one another to read, and when called on, the student must read at least one sentence before calling on someone else.

The thing Heather enjoys most about teaching is the bond that it allows her to build with students.  She is able to use this bond with students to help motivate them, which is one of the biggest challenges with her Silver Dyad class.  The students are also willing to be much more open in class discussion because they know that Heather cares about them.  I witnessed her bond with the students first hand when, during their five minute break between classes, students would come up to socialize with her, rather than go out into the hall to socialize with friends in other classes.  They talk to her about their other classes, their extra-curricular activities, and they social lives outside of school.  The students enjoy being around Heather, just as much as she enjoys being around them, and it shows through all aspects of her teaching.

Reading Conceptualization Paper

Growing up, I was just as likely to be found curled up with a favorite book as I was to be found outside playing with my friends.  I have always adored reading, as it provides an opportunity for me to escape my life and into a world of fantasy and magic, or to a place where people can change the world.  The genres of fantasy and science fiction are my first and deepest loves when it comes to reading.  To me reading is a way to enter a world where you can imagine yourself as the hero in a story, where you have special powers and abilities that allow you to fight evil and make the world a better place.  When the Harry Potter series swept the world, one of the biggest draws for me as a reader was that I could imagine myself in that world.  I waited and waited for my Hogwarts letter, and even when it didn’t come, I still had my imagination to take me places.  It engaged me in the story, and allowed me to create my own stories in the process.

While this model is easy to apply to fantasy, where the world has a magic system in place, but it can also be applied to just about any genre.  The idea behind reading holds true: the reader can put herself into the story in order to experience something she either never has before or never would have the chance to experience.  It is an exercise in changing perspectives in order to have new and different experiences.  I think for many students, fantasy, or whatever their genre of choice is, is the gateway that teachers should follow to get their students interested in reading.  Once they recognize that reading is not always a bad thing, then they will have more motivation to work through a text.

Even young students recognize that there seems to be a difference in what they want to read and what their teachers want them to read.  This dichotomy of pleasure reading and school reading is what I feel is the most important obstacle to overcome when we want them to engage with a text.  If teachers can find texts that will appeal to their students, then they’ve taken a huge step in helping their students to come to enjoy reading and perhaps not find it such an arduous task.  I worry that finding these texts that appeal to young adult readers will be difficult for me to do as an adult, but also that when I do find them, that teaching them will be met with resistance by the administration and parents.

As a teacher, I want my students to develop the same passion that I have reading, and as a first step in this direction, I want to show them that I have that passion.  I think it’s important for students to know that their teachers read for fun too, and in a lot of cases, what their teachers are reading for fun, and what their teachers read for fun as kids.  I plan on having some book shelves devoted to pleasure reading books, so that my students can check out books from there.  This will also help because I plan on trying to set aside time for sustained silent reading.  I found that the biggest reason I wouldn’t read was because I couldn’t set aside the time for it, so by providing my students with that time in class, I will be removing that obstacle at least to some extent.

The environment that students are expected to read in also contributes to their feelings about reading.  In kindergarten and first grade there was the giant carpet where your teacher read to you, and then in later grades as you began to learn to read there were comfy, poufy chairs that you could read in placed around the classroom.  And then when students reach middle and high school, suddenly reading is serious business, and you must sit in your uncomfortable, too small desk and analyze a text that you have no interest in.  When I have my own classroom, I want to have a special space a dedicated reading space to help communicate to students that reading doesn’t have to be an uncomfortable experience that they want to avoid like the plague.

Overall, I think reading is very important to the future of our students.  It is an important skill for them to have in the “real world.”  It provides them with an escape from their daily lives.  It gives them things to think about that they never would have considered before.  They can learn new things, and also learn what others actions have led to in the past.  They can internalize ideas, make connections to their lives, and reshape their thinking.  It gives them a way to build their vocabulary and provides them with topics and ideas to speak about.  Reading is so embedded in our culture that to even consider a life without it seems ridiculous.  I want my students to see all the possibilities that are contained within the concept of reading.

Initial Impression of Central Crossing High School

I don’t actually go to my placement until January 14^th, due to Central Crossings exam schedule, but to prepare for that, I taken a look at their school website.  The picture of the building on the website looks a lot like where I went to high school in Loveland: reddish-orange brick, new and clean looking.  They state that the mission for their school “in partnership with the community, is to enable each learner to achieve excellence in a challenging, safe environment while promoting a sense of belonging and mutual respect for our diverse population.  Students will demonstrate proficiency in academic standards, including communication skills and technical knowledge, as the staff will work to advance life long learning for all students.”  This draws off of Dewey’s theories and makes sense due to the diverse population that they referenced.  The district averages around 1660 students in classes everyday, with 14% Black, 2.1% Asian, 5.5% Hispanic, 1.4% Multi-Racial, and 76.7% White.  They are diverse in other ways as well, with 35.5% being economically disadvantaged, 8.2% having limited English proficiency, 13.9% having disabilities.

The diversity of the school will be an interesting environment to work in, as it is entirely different from my own high school experience.  However, working at Westerville Central last quarter, I felt that my class at least was relatively diverse.  I suspect that the biggest difference will be the resources that the school can draw on.  Westerville is a very affluent district, and was able to provide the latest technologies to classroom teachers.  The Southwest District doesn’t appear to be as affluent an area, so I suspect that the resource may not be as prolific.  But the building appears to be clean and new form the outside at least, so I’m guessing that they won’t be entirely lacking in resources either.

My mentor teacher is Heather Barnes.  The school provides teachers with the opportunity to have their own webpage through the school.  Heather has done so.  She teaches three blocked classes (periods 1/2, 4/5, and 7/8), one silver dyad, and two gold dyads.  She has described the dyad grouping as different levels.  She team-teaches with one of the World History teachers, integrating English and History into the same classroom.  I will be going for as much of the day as I can on Tuesdays and all day on Thursdays.  Hopefully this will give me a good sense of what the differing dynamics of a class can be.  My MDT will likely add another day or two so that the days can fall consecutively.

The website for the school provides links to the many extracurricular the school seems to offer.  There are separate pages for athletics, band and theater.  The links on the page don’t take you directly to the webpages, but instead provide a link to the webpage.  Seems redundant, but they are provided.

The school report was somewhat more difficult to find.  I took some clicking around on the main district webpage through seemingly unrelated areas.  Central Crossing High School is rated as Continuous Improvement.  I tried to figure out how the rating system works, and I think they are rated Continuous Improvement because while their scores/percentages may be high, they didn’t meet one of more of their AYP score standards.  It appears as though that failing is in the sciences, but I’m not certain on that.

Final Paper: My Philosophy of Education

While considering what my philosophy of education is, I found it useful to refer to the first chapter where it outlines that, “at the very least, a coherent philosophy of education is explicit about educational goals, methods for attaining those goals, and the justifications for both” (16).  I will be addressing each of these points throughout the paper in my exploration of my own philosophy of education.  In addition, relating to Jefferson’s ideals, I will be addressing how my philosophy of education reflects how I can prepare my students “for the three major dimensions of life: as individual persons, as citizens in a democracy, and as participants in economic life who must earn a living” (47).

Horace Mann envisions schools as a public good that would represent the values and beliefs of the public, and as “an arm of the government that could achieve social change” (81).  It is difficult to determine what values and beliefs are represented, but if teachers are supposed to represent the values of a democratic culture, which I believe we are, then the ideals I will be attempting to instill in my students are those of respect for diversity, differences, and a pluralism of cultures.   This means, among many other things, respecting differing races, religions, sexual orientations, genders, ethnicities, cultures, socio-economic statuses, and disabilities.  In the English classroom I believe this goal is best achieved by reading a variety of texts from various cultures, societies, and backgrounds.  By examining these texts, and the language used in them, students can begin to understand and respect the diversity present in America, and begin to think about the choices they will have to make, as they become voting citizens in this democracy.

I want to teach my students to become lifelong learners, because with how fast technology and science is advancing today, it will be important for them to be able to remain current with the times, a task that can only be achieved if they continue their education after their schooling years.  Dewey summarized this democratic ideal as “the all-around growth of every member of society” (224).  Only by becoming a lifelong learner can one hope to continue to have a positive effect of society.

I also intend on educating my students in a way that will allow them to have the greatest number of choices in their future career and life.  Every student has the potential to go to college and excel in whatever they put their mind to, so it is my job to give them the skills they need to succeed, but it is the student’s job to choose how to use the skills they have and what direction they choose go in.  While Conant felt that “less-able” students should take a vocational track to prepare them for their inevitable entrance into the laboring, working world, I am of the mind that a teacher should “equip each young person with the knowledge and kills to choose the best post-secondary step for himself or herself, and to have the preparation necessary to succeed at that choice” (223).  While standardized testing is a reality that teachers and students must deal with at this point in time, it is only a small, if realistically important, part of a child’s education.  Teaching to the test is a trap that too many teachers fall into when they become overwhelmed with what seems to be an overfull curriculum and a hugely diverse student population.  But, as Lemann critiques, “The purpose of schools should be to expand opportunity, not to determine results” (223).  So I plan to communicate to my students the importance of passing the standardized test, because as things stand, the tests determine the number of opportunities a student is presented with.

The system of testing that has been become an integral part of American education has led to some strict accountability measures for teachers, that can distract from other goals that teachers may have in their curriculum.  I think colleagues should work together to attain these common school goals, because there is no way that one person can know all there is to know about teaching.  This is only true within a subject matter, but also across the curricula.  As an English teacher, I can benefit from learning ways to integrate math, science, history, art, music, and foreign language into my curriculum in order to help my students make more connection between the material they’re learning, and as such, help them retain it better, and do better on the standardized tests.

The student comes first in my philosophy, because they have unlimited potential, and it is a good education, laden with critical thinking skills and authentic learning experiences, which will unlock this potential.  Students learn best through activities that address their interests, and not all students are interested in the same things, or in the same way.  This means that it is important to differentiate the curriculum in order to appeal to the greatest number of students, and to help the students understand why they are learning a particular skill, and how it may apply to their goals or interests.  This can become especially important for students who don’t come from or align themselves with the dominant culture and society.  They have just as much potential to succeed, but often have very different ways of learning that need to be met.  This means that treating students equally is not necessarily the answer, but rather treating each student as an individual in an attempt to take into account and “respond to difference among students that have consequences for learning” (404).

The best way to appropriately respond to the needs of various students, especially in a secondary classroom, is to have an open communication with them.  I will be asking all of my students at the beginning of the year what their interests are, and how they learn best, and will work their responses into my planning, as well as taking time throughout the year to reevaluate and see if any of those things have changed.  It is also important remember that if a student is not succeeding in my classroom, then it is time to examine what the possible factors in the situation are, and how I can go about improving the student’s chances for success.  The Cultural Difference Theory addresses the fact that all minority cultures have a culture that is different from that of the dominant school culture, and that this mismatch can lead to difficulties for a minority student.  This is a prompting for teachers to work together to determine how to best support these students, and to welcome their insights into the classroom.  When reading multi-cultural literature in an English classroom, the students from different backgrounds can bring a more in-depth understanding to the text.  However, it will be important to emphasize that the minority students aren’t representatives of their entire culture, just as the White, dominant culture students, aren’t representatives of theirs.

My philosophy of education focuses on the students, and their ability to enact social change using the skills that I will help to provide them with.  They are all individual people, who can succeed in whatever path they choose, and it is my job to prepare them for the future, but they will ultimately be the ones to make the choices that lead them on their path.  I hope that my emphasis on democratic ideals, such as respect for all people, in the texts that we read and the critical analysis that we do with those texts, will guide my students to be active members of society who push for change and equality.

MDT Self- Analysis

I thought that my teaching experience went really well overall.  The first day was awesome; the students were interested, engaged, and seemed to be actually enjoying the material.  From my Class Profile of Writers I noticed that this class had difficulty fleshing out their writing to make it interesting and meet required word counts.  That’s what prompted me to focus my lesson on tone words and descriptors.  I think explaining up front why we were focusing on this and how it could be useful for them really got the lesson off to a good start and gave the students some motivation for paying attention.

There are some things I would like to work on and change for the next time I teach.  The first day I spent most of the time (except when I was walking around during group work) up at the front of the room.  Part of this was because I was working with the Smart Board, and was locked down to where it was, but I could have moved around more.  I think that would have helped with students losing focus.  I tried moving around on my second day, but had a tough time with it.  I was reading and would lose my place, and students had backpacks and stuff on the floor that I had to watch out for to be sure I wouldn’t trip.  It is going to be a skill that I need to practice.

Something else I that I need to work on is structuring group work.  I think I made some positive changes from what the students were used to.  I assigned their groups, rather than letting them choose, which kept them much more on task during the group work than they normally are.  But I didn’t plan for what to do when some groups finished faster than others.  I tried to encourage them to make edits to what they had already written, but I was having a hard time coming up with specific prompting questions.  Since my MDT I’ve learned a few more techniques for determining how much more time students need, and how to push and question them more if they finished early.

I think I did a really good job of modeling and scaffolding what I wanted the students to learn.  I modeled note-taking and didn’t even realize it until Eileen pointed it out in her peer response.  I think the modeling of this showed students that we were both doing the work.  It wasn’t like I was putting it all on them to do because I was working right along side them.  I didn’t model as much on my second day, and there was a definite difference in the way the students responded and how motivated and engaged they seemed.

During my teaching I felt as though I took the role of lecturer briefly at the beginning of a topic, but then moved neatly into the position of a facilitator.  This happened more on my first day of teaching, when the kids were much more involved and contributing.  I prompted them with questions and they took the conversation and moved it along nicely.  I noticed that only a few people seemed to be contributing, so I was able to jump in and prompt specific sides of the room.  I did this with sides of the room so that students wouldn’t feel as though I was picking on just one or two of them.

When we shifted into group work and when we were working in the lab I was able to move around and help more one-on-one.  In the lab I worked on reading the last couple of lines the students wrote and trying to prompt them from there if they seemed stuck.  Because we’d discussed and brainstormed some in class the students all seemed to have pretty concrete ideas of where they wanted their writing to go.

I started the students off slowly in the writing process with tone words.  The first thing we engaged in was finding tone words in a piece of text, then we moved on to putting tone words into a piece of text that was already written (a poem), and then I had the students write their own text (a parody) by using tone words to help convey meaning.  From reading some of their previous writing assignment and then reading the assignment that I gave them, they definitely learned something new, or were at least more focused in applying something they already knew.  I think they grew as writers from this experience.  Their writing was more interesting to read and they even seemed to enjoy writing their final assignment.  I think part of this was definitely because they had something to say on the topic, but part of it at least was because they had a new set of tools in their arsenal to experiment with.

I think by time students are junior and seniors they’ve been beaten over the head with the technical aspects of writing, and so I focused my approach to teaching writing more on craft for them.  We worked on being more descriptive, because that would help them make their writing more interesting to read, and it would help them meet their required word counts (which is something I’d heard them fretting over in previous classes).  I also focused on just a couple small aspects of writing.  I had a really hard time narrowing it down at first, but I’m really glad I did, because even with just working on tone words and parody I still over-planned a little bit.

I think focusing on small aspects of writing is an approach that is essential to teach it in a way that students can both understand and apply.  By teaching in small bit you give students the tools they need to improve their writing throughout the year, rather than have a big writing unit and then not really focusing on it again after that, just requiring it.  I would love to implement a once a week writing workshop in my classroom, where once a week we focus on one or maybe two aspects of writing and give students a chance to practice applying that writing in relation to whatever the current unit we’re working on is.  This would help to teach students that writing is in everything they do at school and help them to realize the importance of it.

One thing I would change about my approach is I would have allowed more time for brainstorming.  I asked students to brainstorm and check out with me before they went to the writing lab, but I know I didn’t check everyone, and some students just headed down to the lab without doing any real brainstorming.  I wanted to show them the importance of writing down their ideas briefly before starting to work on a draft of their project, but most students didn’t seem to see the point and didn’t check out with me before jumping into their assignment.

3rd Reaction Paper: Session 11/11 – Chapter 10

This chapter focused a lot on teaching as a profession, and whether or not it is one.  What interested me the most was the exploration into what qualifies teaching as a profession and who decides what should be taught.  The text states “The authority for what should be taught in schools must ultimately lie with the public as well as with professional teachers and administrators.  Consequently, teachers must ultimately learn how to balance a great number of competing perspectives while focusing on the best interests of each child in every classroom” (323).  This concept of stakeholders is something that the English cohort has discussed in some of our other class meetings.

Being a pre-service teacher in a teacher preparation program, it is very frustrating to consider that while I am receiving the education and qualifications for teaching, other people who have not been educated in this way are given as much, if not more, weight to their input on what should be taught in schools.  I firmly believe that as a trained and ‘highly qualified’ teacher, my opinion for what should be taught in my classroom should trump whatever opinion is presented by less qualified members of the community.  I was given hope, however, in reading the primary source text, when the author cited a conversation with an older teacher where she asked “Who has the authority to decide what I teach?” and he answered “You do” (333).  This is a comforting reminder, that yes, as teachers we must consider what will be supported by the community, but ultimately it is our decision what we teach in our classroom and how we decide to teach it.

The beginning of the chapter gives some strategies that teachers can use to lend some weight to their authority in the classroom.  It refers to these strategies as “The Authority of Rules”, “The Authority of the Expert”, and “The Authority of Community” (303-4).  Basically these three authorities give teachers a lens through which they can defend what they are doing in the classroom.  The other aspect of defense that can be used, which is only briefly touched on in this chapter, is the use of standards.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned through writing the extensive lesson plans that are required of us, it’s that by identifying the state standards that the lesson addresses, you can almost always defend your choice of teaching materials and methods.  This idea was touched on in the primary source reading when the text states “Before you start teaching a unit that you think may be controversial, inform the parents and principle about what you’ll be teaching and explain how it fits into the school’s curriculum and standards” (333).  When you can cite specific reasons, such as standards, you provide a rationale for your methods and a lot less room for argument.

I think it can be difficult to teach social justice issues and from a social justice perspective in the classroom because of a perceived fear of what teachers are “allowed” to teach.  This chapter provides some excellent resources, and rationale to help guide teachers in defending their choices.  Because much of this quarter in our program has been focusing on teaching social justice, but has not addressed the fears and difficulties associated with doing so, this chapter I think was especially helpful to read because of the resources and rationale that it provides.  I have had a hard time finding what we’ve been learning to be useful because not only was I not sure how to apply it in the classroom, but I was worried about bringing up controversial issues in the classroom.  This chapter has been a huge help in focusing the barrage of ideas that we’re getting from all our other classes this quarter.

First Time Teaching a Whole Period: Reflection

I taught my first full period today.  I thought it went alright, but definitely not as well as I thought it could, though it did go better than I expected.  I began with a journal entry asking students to describe what they would be like if they were born the opposite sex.  I forgot to give them a couple of helpful directions, like who the audience would be, but overall I thought it went well.  I consciously used proximity to get a couple students to stop talking and get on task writing.  I think I guessed on the timing for this activity rather well, though it could have easily been expanded into a longer, more in depth writing assignment.  I’ve read the journal entries they wrote, and most of the students had really thoughtful responses, though a few didn’t seem to know what to write or how to give specifics, a one or two students I could tell were testing me in what they wrote.  I’m not sure how, or even if, I want to address that in the upcoming days.

The next activity I did was a snowball activity, asking students questions about what they believed in regard to certain stereotypical statements.  I had them retrieve their paper balls in waves, which I think was a good idea.  It kept them from all getting up at once, causing congestion and ultimately taking up more time.  I read out the statements and had them go to a wall that corresponded with the number on the paper they picked up.  I could have labeled the walls to give a little more visualization, but it didn’t seem to be a problem.  I wasn’t as clear as I could have been with directions when I asked them to analyze the class distribution, but when Trey called me out on it, I felt as though I handled it, just re-explaining that what I hoed they’d get out of the assignment was a sense of the distribution and what people may have been thinking, not necessarily asking them to share their own opinion.  I probably should have planned a little better for what questions to ask them about the distribution, beyond “what do you think this means.”  I used good wait time though, and then prompted them again a little differently.  I got some responses, but didn’t dwell too much on any one comment.  I just wanted to get the students thinking so that I could move into the real meat of the discussion that I’d planned.

After the snowball activity, I had them recycle their papers (though in hindsight, I could have kept these and made a graph to keep for later in the unit) and take their seats again.  I moved them into the discussion first focusing on getting them to identify different stereotypes for boys and for girls.  They were very lively, to put it mildly, and I felt like I was just trying to keep up with them as they shouted out suggestions for stereotypes.  Although I mentioned at the start of the discussion to raise hands in order to keep things a little more organized, they only did this a little bit, and only a few kids.  I gently reminded them a few times during the discussion, though it didn’t help much.  On the other hand, the discussion never got so out of control that it wasn’t manageable.

As far as the actual discussion went, I started out my writing the stereotypes the mentioned up on the SmartBoard.  When the discussion seemed to slow down I prompted them with leading questions to get them thinking in another direction.  I definitely don’t think I would have been able to do this part of the lesson without my comfort with Improv Theater.  After getting some stereotypes written down I asked the class if they agreed with them.  For the most part the answers were negative.  So then I prompted them to come with where these stereotypes come from.  They came up with the media really fast, but then seemed to get stuck.  I referred back to the list they generated and asked where specific stereotypes may have originated.  This seemed to work really well.  I’ve been having a hard time getting the students to think for themselves and not just beg answers out of me.  I think it helped that this was a topic that they were passionate about once they found the courage to discuss it (which didn’t take long at all).  I need to remember next time when I have big class discussion like this to maybe use a ‘pass the koosh ball’ strategy to keep the kids from talking over one another so much, and that I’m allowed to put a few of my own ideas on the board to get them talking.

I wrapped up the period with about five minutes to spare, which worked out well because Deb had a few last minute things she needed to cover, but for future reference I need to remember that I need to plan for more than I’ll have time to cover because when I’m nervous I will inevitably move through activity more quickly.  I probably could have given the students more time to write their initial journal entry.   All in all, I think this first attempt at teaching a whole period went quite well.  I’m less nervous about actually doing my MDT now, but I also know that the hardest part of it for me is going to be writing the extensive lesson plans.  I’m much more comfortable with a loose lesson plan idea so I can run with what the students give me, and not as good with writing down explicitly what I’ll be doing.  However, writing down step-by-step will probably be more beneficial for figuring out timing for things and help me to find my place if the lesson doesn’t go as well as today’s did.