Excitement Wins

 I don’t go into practicum next semester because I am stopping to get my middle school certification. So being a professional in the education field seemed far off to me until Professor H. mentioned that after her class we should be ready for the last stage of our learning. This statement really woke me up to the fact that I will be student teaching in about a year. Soon I won’t be in class with a teacher to guide me through the ideal classroom or talking with classmates about how we think a class should be run. I will be out doing it, which is exciting and nerve racking all at the same time.

I am extremely excited to put into action all the concepts we have learned. I know you’re thinking we already had a chance to do this, but I taught in an ESL classroom where the curriculum was unrelated to my content. It was still a worthy while experience given how much a learned about clarity, structuring a lesson, engagement, and reading strategies through the implementation of my lessons. However, I want the chance to make UBD lessons in my content. Already, I am thinking about doing primary source analysis or other close readings with the post it notes and coding the text strategies provided by D&Z (114-115). I am also anxious to incorporate current events into a classroom along with non-fiction books through the use of literacy circles and book clubs too (200-214). Even using the textbook seems interesting to me now that I realize there are specific strategies (like “checking out the textbook”) that I should be using to help student digest the assigned content (148-1551). I am also excited to structure more engaging lessons. Before this class, I didn’t know how to use cooperative learning or how to make a mini lecture engaging. Now I have the tools to do so. For instance, the packet we received with various cooperative learning structures is something I will always hold onto as it is a quick cheat sheet for varying my lessons because even though Prof. H. said not to over use cooperative learning, I will be using it a fair amount in my class so as to avoid lecturing. I think using the cooperative model along with independent strategy like the one D&Z provided is a much better way to structure the classroom for it makes the students actively take part in their learning. I just need practice find the best balance for using these strategies. Nonetheless, being able to envision how to make engaging history lessons makes me feel more confident as I feel like I now have the tools to scaffold my future students learning towards a more critical stage of thinking.

At the same time, my nerves come from the fact my first year of teaching will be a huge challenge. K mentioned the first year is incredibly lonely starting out in a new environment with no allies. The classroom management article reminded us that many times we won’t have the best of plans. If we can get “10 minutes of real teaching” it might be considered a win (79). The same article also reminded me that I am uncertain of how exactly I will manage my own class because such a topic is only something we can only truly learn by “trial and error” (77). While the parent panel displayed the challenge of communicating with people who want the best for their child, but lack the educational knowledge we are learning. Simply put, there will be a great deal of adjusting because our classes can’t prepare us for everything that is to come.  

In no way has the realism of this class diminished my desire to teach. If anything this class made me feel better about going into my final years here at RIC. I remember last year discussion my anxiety in one of my blogs and I concluded that at least my anxiety is a sign that I care enough to eventually figure out the answers to what was making me nervous. As much as I wanted to figure out the answers to everything that made me nervous, I didn’t always know where to look. Nor was I even familiar enough with all the educational language for me to even pull off a proper search. At least now I feel like I know what to actually focus on when doing a search, what tools to use when creating a lesson, and what actually fits into my educational philosophies (more on that in my summative!). So while I feel a little daunted thinking about all the challenges that lie ahead the confidence in my ability to teach outweighs this feeling. I do realize some days everything won’t go smoothly (my first lesson is a good example of this) other will be good (my second lesson was closer to this feeling). I just need to remember that starting off as a first year teacher means I will make mistakes, but each of my mistakes provides an opportunity to reflect and learn from it. Though given how hectic I hear the first year can be, I wonder when exactly I will make the time to process everything that is occurring around me? I think the in-depth reflections I do for this classes each week will be rare at first. Instead the reflections will be more in line with the notes the teacher in the classroom management article made when she jotted down information to herself on a 3X5 card in between classes (78). However, I do know more reflection needs to happen. So when I figure how to manage my new schedule effectively, I will make time for more reflection (and it will be a lot sooner than the phases of teaching as depicted below). 

Image from:

http://blog.whatitslikeontheinside.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

D&Z Final Chapters

 Chapter 11 connected with me a great deal because I hyper-analyzed what I would do with a “struggling” student through my observation paper last week. I am still not a fan of this term (read prior blog) however, I did appreciate that D&Z gave me more to think about on this topic.  

My prior definition only covered one kind of struggling learner, but D&Z’s reading also showed other types. The introduction of Chapter 11 describes the students who couldn’t do the work originally because they had issues imaging the reading. With the help of their teacher they eventually persevered (233-34). This situation is semi-similar to the situation I analyzed in my observations in that the students didn’t give up. What interests me more was Samone, the only student who was” averse” to reading (235). According to D&Z, most of the struggling readers analyzed in a study had something they enjoy reading except for her. In my desire to rid myself of the term struggling learner I drastically narrowed the definition so Samone technically wouldn’t be included under my revised definition. I am still going to avoid the use of that word, because I still don’t like the connotations that come with it. I will just have to add sub-categories to this term. Doing this will avoid the use of “struggling” and will help me get a handle on what is the students issue because I am taking a closer look at the student to then work with in an empathetic manner.  

Think more about Samone, I actually wonder if there a book Samone just hasn’t been introduced to yet that would cause her to enjoy reading? Thinking back on how I came to enjoy reading, I realize that the excitement of another played an important part. Many of the books I read in school bored me. I never found the contents riveting and I don’t remember my teachers’ getting excited over the material either. Reading was just another task we had to do.  Due to the idea that all reading was like school (i.e. boring) I didn’t read on my own until middle school. What changed all of this was the Bridge to Tarabethia. I came across the story through one of my friends. During a classroom presentation she just become so excitement about the book it was literally contagious. Soon after her presentation I gave it a try and loved it. I used to think it was because the story was so good, but those who read the book know it was just a decent story. Over the years, I came to believe that it was the excitement of my peer that made the book seem better than it was. I had it in my mind that because she loved the story, it had to be good. Now, this obviously isn’t the most critical attitude to reading once could have, but I still think seeing other people’s excitement is important. Passion is what gets others interested especially if you are lacking some. So even though book club conversations was not among the list of most “crucial” stratigies to implement with “struggling learners,” I actually think it should have made the list given the power of passion students can develop from simply listening to their peers (237-238). 

I think the most important strategy mentioned by D&Z this chapter is self-monitoring (240). Earlier in my observation reflection I spoke about how I would be available to help my future students after school. I think staying after school is still necessary, but if I don’t use class time or after school time to teach the student how to self-monitor they might just start to become too dependent on me. They need to learn how to think for themselves and self-monitoring is the way to do it. The idea of using sticky notes reminded me a great deal of the strategies used in chapter 5. However, coding the text is used for more than just marking when you are confused as the passage on self-monitoring seemed to indicate. They can also use it to think about what interests them, strikes them as important, or contradicts there thought (115). I want the students to come away not just being able to get through a passage, but really connecting to it as well. This should definitely be possible too if we follow point five of the “Key Stratigies to Help Struggling Readers, “which is to give the all readers something they can be successful with (236). As we saw in Kenya’s class she allows some choice for students, which can cause them to choose something that will be more at their grade level. If the reading level is something that doesn’t overly challenge the student they should definitely be able to use that task to make other connections. However, even if it turns out the student is challenged by a task, we could always give them extra time to figure out their confusion and then re-read the text to make connections. I keep stressing this because all learners need to be able to critically think about the text they are comprehending and I think that making these connections is a clear way of doing so given how much more thinking needs to occur when this happens. My only concern doing this is how do you get group back on same page again?

Overall, as I sit here still thinking about different reading strategies, I realize there had been a drastic shift in my thinking. Earlier in the semester when I read the UBD chart that asked me to take into consideration what the enduring understanding is for my class, I just thought of the knowledge needed for my content area (12). However as I think about that chart now, I know ideas like self-monitoring will fall in that list too. I am not quite sure when I actually learned this lesson, but I know D&Z helped me along that path. Realizing this lesson is important for all educators though given how much reading occurs in our subjects, which is why I think more educators should read this book in its entirety, At the very least they should read chapter 12 given how it was a summary of most of D&Z's major points.

Links

1. http://www.thoughtfulclassroom.com/PDFs/lsis-help-for-struggling-students.pdf

Observing in an ESL Room

What?

During my first day of observations, the teacher asked the students to work in groups. Their assignment was to define one word, write down a couple of synonyms, and provide a non-example of the word. Then to show better understanding of the material, they were asked to use what they defined in a short sentence. Mr. P allowed the students to choose their own groups, which resulted in a couple students working on their own. These students weren’t of particular interest to me until I realized one of them didn’t finish the work sheet in the allotted time.

So What?

In the end, the struggling student finished the assignment with my help while all the other students were presenting their answers. This student genuinely wanted to complete his work, but needed someone else’s input to do so. I was proud of him for eventually answering the last two questions under my supervision, but then quickly started to worry because I knew he missed all of the information his peers were presenting. It seemed like this student just kept falling behind. Maybe this student will catch up on his own, but we all know how hard it will be for the student to complete the readings without a clear knowledge of key words.

I also worry for the student because he is very quiet. Thinking back on that day, I walked near this particular student on my way to helping another pupil who called out for my help. When I passed the more quiet student’s desk, he kept looking around instead of focusing on his work. Unlike the louder student, the individual who I am now analyzing never yelled out for my help nor did he turn to any of his other classmates for assistance. During my other observations, I noticed that he didn’t interact with his peers much before class started either. I am almost positive that his shy demure kept him from openly displaying his confusion right away and I am certain his timid behavior made him incapable of inserting himself into a group when people were choosing their partners. However, since it was a group assignment, he should have been appointed a group for the sake of consistency.

I wonder if working in a group would have helped the solo student more. Doing work with your peers can allow students a chance to receive more individual attention than they could receive from a teacher. Plus, a student performing the work correctly is modeling their thoughts and actions on the subject to an extent, thereby showing other students good thinking strategies. However, working with others doesn’t guarantee more understanding as our discussion on cooperative group work showed. In a scenario where group work was solely used, the student could have just copied the group answers down without any understanding. With words on his paper, I wonder if I would have been able to notice this student’s confusion or if he would have fallen through the cracks that day?  

I want to make clear that Mr. P. did help that student. During the activity portion of the class Mr. P. guided him through the first two questions. On the one hand, making sure the student had the definition and synonym is important because that portion of the activity helps the student answer everything else. However, finding the synonyms and definition was also the easier part of the activity. All the students had to do was look everything up in a dictionary and read the example sentence in their textbook. It was actually a problem a few of the students had at the start of the activity. I feel like modeling how to do the activity or clarifying the first steps may have saved the students some confusion at the start so we could have gone around and challenged the students with the harder material.

Regardless, I appreciate the fact that Mr. P. reached out to this student while still respecting the needs of the whole class. Mr. P. probably realized he could have spent a much longer period of time with the student I later observed, but left the student to work on his own because other groups also needed Mr. P’s attention. It always frustrates me when a struggling student can’t have the full attention of a teacher, but I am coming to appreciate it is the job of the teacher to be there for everyone. Still, even though I understand why a teacher moves on from helping a student, I can’t stop wondering how the child would have finished the assignment without my extra guidance. Better yet, how badly would his ego have been damaged when he was told to present and only half the activity was done? So even though I understand what happened that day, I am still bothered by it.

Now What?                                                                                                                                                                        

I was already thinking about this as I was preparing for the lesson I taught last week. So, to help students with the more analytic work, I made sure to model the basic thinking process in the hope of avoiding simple redundant questions. I also ended up assigning students to groups this class. I did this out of the hope that working together give the student the extra support I wouldn’t be able to as I worked with other members of the class. Furthermore, I had in my notes that I needed to walk around visiting every group. With each group, I had the goal of paying closer attention to nonverbal language. I attempted to have it be more of a cooperative learning experience, so I assigned roles. One of which was a coordinator, who had the job of including everyone in the conversation. However, I used the model one of my previous teachers taught me (and that was apparently the wrong way to do cooperative learning), so it really doesn’t surprise me that this student didn’t come out of his shell. He really wasn’t forced to because the structure I implemented didn’t encourage it. I just made him to sit near people without taking into consideration personalities (I honestly just tried breaking apart the trouble makers). I am believe that because I actually understand different ways to implement a more cooperative atmosphere, I will be able to better help this child during a group activity if my next lesson calls for one. Also to encourage a community of learners, I will defer to Mr. P’s judgment about whom the shy student feels most comfortable working with so that I can allow the student to be part of a community during my next lesson. I figure doing something as simple as think-pair-share in a comfortable environment will allow him to have a voice in the next class. I realize this is a small step, but for a student who normally doesn’t speak, I think this is an important first step. If it is possible to fit into my next lesson, I might work on teaching students how to have more of a voice in a conversation as well. If it doesn’t fit in, then I know this is something I would do if I was there longer

In terms of my professional identity, I need to be careful with how I think about a struggling learner. Much of my language used earlier was closer to feeling sympathy for the student rather than empathy, i.e. when I said I worried about his ego and his shy behavior. I think calling this type of student a struggling learner will automatically connotate sympathy from me as it makes me think of someone who tries, but just can’t succeed and thereby harder to properly care for them. I am going to call the student I am thinking of now a persistent learner to elicit a more positive way of thinking. In using the term persistent, I am less likely to lower my expectations because I re-channeled my perspective of the situation so that the student will be able to succeed. To properly care for this type of student I am also going to have to make myself more available. In order to keep my expectations high, such a student does need extra help. This means I will offer to be at school 30 minutes before class and an hour after to give the persistent learner the care one actually needs.  

Lastly, I decided I will need to care for my other students a great deal more, especially when I have my own class. I will again make sure to visit as many students as possible during my next lesson when I assign them an activity. However, in the long term my only solution thus far is to check in with myself during the middle of the week to see who I have been overlooking. I remember Mr. Laplante mentioned how he overlooks the teachers in the middle so that is his focus this year. I am wondering if his strategies may be applicable to how I could deal with my own students. I think I am going to ask him this question the next time I see him. I also think I need to ask my cooperating teacher exactly what he does to balance the success of his class with the long term success of the struggling student. 

I feel a little more content about working with this particular student in the short term. Though until I get some more feedback about this topic, I am not as content about my long term success with balancing this type of learners’ needs with the rest of my students’ needs.

A Time to Retrogress

This week I decided to take a step back and comment on the book club reading we did a few weeks ago. It was of high interest to me, but I decided to focus most of my attention on the inquiry chapter that week. So in an effort to really digest the book club chapter here are my thoughts.

I actually don’t like that the chapter was entitled “Book Clubs.” I might be getting too nit picky here, but another term the authors used in place of book clubs was “reading circles” (201). I like this more generic term, because it made me realize you can apply this to many other types of text. For instance a shorter text like a times magazine article could still work. I am really happy the authors used a different word choice to help trigger the transferability of this structure. I always envisioned my classroom with some sort of current events learning center, but I never really knew how I would actively incorporate it into my classroom. Doing this center in terms of the literacy circle described makes sense to me because I can now carry out the discussion oriented aspect of my initial vision. For me the current events center was important for the students to read about, but also have a meaningful conversation because the information I would provide would typically be a policy or topic that could be debated, i.e. immigration, voting rights, war, environmental issues, etc. Although, this now leaves me wondering how I will engage the students with the more weekly happenings of the news. The two might become blended with the use of a researcher, which is my favorite role out of all the different assigned jobs students can have (208). I love it because this student has the ability to really engage more in depth with the news to see how history is alive.

I think using a book in class can be a great idea too though depending on the choice. It will take more time; however as long as I have the right book, I am fine with taking some time away from the traditional curriculum. One of the books I actually really want to go read right now, and potentially use, is Fail-Safe (203). It would fit into a unit on the Cold War quite well given the circumstances of the time. Though, what I like most about the book is that it has such a provocative ending that provides for great discussion as D&Z described. It definitely doesn’t sound like a dry text. I had a freshmen history teacher who gave us a list of books to choose from and they were all just a boring recreation of facts regarding the war of 1812. It was like another boring text book, which as we saw through D&Z’s prior chapters, doesn’t help encourage reading. Unsurprisingly to D&Z at least, I along with majority of the class, sparknoted the assignment. Although, what is stopping a student from doing this even with a book club? A quick solution is just making students reference the pages of the information they address in their notes (though I am sure there are still shortcuts there too). I think better solution relates to this experience for it shows just how careful I do need to be when picking a text in order to motivate students. This just reaffirms how I will need to read the books ahead of time myself with a critical eye to the content. Although, l sometimes wonder what it is students will actually like to read. So I am happy I came across good reads, it’s a website that reviews books. Some of the reviews are from high school aged individuals (my target audience)! So getting actually feedback from this age group will also help me in making my decision of what to include (see below link). I am also thinking I might have a suggestion box early on in the year. It is another way to get feedback on other possible motivating texts. Though I would make clear to students that they can’t pick a book they already read. Having the student write their name on the suggestion would help me coordinate to avoid that issue.

I also enjoyed how D&Z suggested the assessment be used so as to keep students motivated. As the authors were bemoaning the need to assesses, I had to laugh when they said let’s figure out how to do assessment “without wreaking them (the book clubs)” (211). At first, I thought they were exaggerating about how assessment could harm a student’s reading. Then thinking back on some of my experiences in English class, I realized they made a good point. I had a few teachers that made me read a book, but in order to see if I was doing the reading I would have random quizzes. Rather than read for what was interesting, I was forced to read for mundane knowledge level questions. Those classes always tended to bore me because we were being forced to regurgitate information rather than really think about the text. So using assessment like the checkbrick provided at the end of the chapter is so much better because it actually encourages discussion thereby acting as a sort of intrinsic motivation (214). This also made me realize that the goal of my lesson under the UBD structure will probably have to be vague. I say this because when I give the students control of the lesson to make connections and question on their own, there really isn’t much I should be specifying to them aside from my desire to have them think about a certain content critically. At least that is how I am interpreting it. At the same time, I am thinking students do need some guidance in order to relate the content to why the book was assigned or was important. By guidance, maybe I am thinking more along the lines of a proper structure or procedure like the variety of strategies D&Z provided in chapter 5. For instance, coding the text leaves everything to the student’s opinion, but it is based on codes previously taught (115). At some point though, I feel the reading should have some final activity that puts into focus why so much class time was spent on the book (an issue D&Z didn’t cover that deeply). So at this time, I wonder just what assessment to use to meet my more specific goal under the UBD method of planning without “ruining” the reading? 

                

I am sure the first time I ever run one of these, I will come away asking many more questions given the intricacy of this task. However, this chapter made me excited to use a technique that has such a great potential to motivate and incorporate current events.  

Side note: what is the difference between a reading learning center and a literacy circle? I realize the skills one works less on content, but how does this differ from the expository learning center?  None of my searches come up with a clear explanation (see link #2).  

Links

1.       http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/historical-fiction-for-teens

2.       https://www.teachervision.com/learning-center/new-teacher/48462.html?detoured=1

Parent Panel

Disposition is something we talked about in past classes, but it was an idea that came to life after the parent panel.  We had to be respectful and empathetic to an individual whose viewpoints tended to insult us. Many members of the class chose the safe route and just didn’t speak to her. Disengaging is a wise decision (especially when you don’t have to be a part of the conversation), but what should we do when we have to react to an unpleasant situation off the cuff? I say situation too because  one of the promising practice sessions I attended showed how it won’t always be the parents whose viewpoints conflict with ours (see the second to last paragraph of my promising practice letter for more information). It is a vexing problem that just keeps coming up.

  For now at least, I am going to tackle the parent part of the equation. After really thinking about the content of the panel most of what we heard boiled down to some sort of an emotion. You heard the mother warn us that there would be plenty of hostility on the parent’s part because it is the parent’s job to protect their child. Less obvious was her desire to form a relationship with her child’s teacher again to ensure the best for her offspring’s education. Even after the panel, the story Prof. H told us about the worst parent her husband dealt with was a conversation born out of frustration. Thinking of conversations in this light, reminded of the discussions I had as an intern with the victim services department at the AG’s office. The content of most discussions varied based on if it was an assault, molestation, theft, or rape. However, I started categorizing victims based on their verbal response (i.e. hostile, calm, depressed, scared, etc.). For each categorization, I then created a sheet that had the best strategy for dealing with each kind of emotion given the line of profession I was in and then memorized it. When panicked myself (yes, I do poorly when people start crying in front of me), I find that pausing and taking a deep breath was just the transition I needed to address whatever situation was thrown my way and remember my strategies. Given the success I had with this method during my internship, I am tempted to create another list when I start teaching. I might even be able to start now given that some strategies for emotions are transferable across the board (i.e. when dealing with hostility it is best to disengage and give the speaker space). Still, I wonder what kind of categories teachers have for parents and what strategies they use when speaking with them?

I know before last week, one of my labels was “the helpful parent.” The label helpful was pretty one dimensional. Under this categorization the parent was willing to work with me to further the education of their child. Yet, we saw during the panel that the desire to further a child’s education can take many forms. One mother wanted the best for her child at the expense of others. While this same individual held a lack of appreciation for differentiation despite the fact that she has children who learns in different manners. Rather than celebrate these differences she spoke of them in a horrible manner, which I am willing to bet is something her child picks up on. At the same time, this mother is the head of the parent’s committee at CF and clearly wants to be involved in her children’s education. She is technically helping, but at the same time I hesitate to say she is completely helpful. Misguided might be a way to describe it. I say misguided because it seems some of her logical flaws did come from a lack of knowledge on the subject. For instance, in the hallway she made clear it that she had an extreme dislike of the inquiry project we observed the student teacher utilized because not everyone is learning the same thing .She went on to say later that we weren’t really seeing much teaching happening either. Right away this made me think about the “transmission mode” of teaching Wilhelm (42). Here the teacher has control of the class, but under this method the students merely regurgitate information. Also, the students are all technically on the same page then, but very low level learning is occurring as Wilhelm later shows. Yet, this is the type of education most people are used to seeing. I didn’t grow up with it and neither did the prior generation. So I don’t think most parents can see how useful inquiry can be during a short observation because of just how foreign it is and how subtle the learning really is until you talk to the students. Just because someone isn’t writing in their journal right away doesn’t mean they aren’t on task. Pausing to think through what is occurring next or asking a classmate about their work is still of value. The first is collecting their ideas (which might be done slower than their neighbor, but hey they are still thinking!). While the second was able to have a debate about what should be included in the project as both had different opinions. To be fair, the section we observed got off to a slightly slower start then I would have liked, but I appreciated what the lesson allowed for whereas this parent was too annoyed with everyone being at different points to really entertain the potential of the lesson. If the parent were to come to me with these complaints, the parent is technically trying to help her child. However, the class can see this complaint isn’t entirely accurate.

Before RIC, I may not have seen the potential in the inquiry lesson either though. Just this semester we read about UBD, Vygotsky, Inquiry, Book Clubs, and so much more. So I think it is important I realize just how much more information I am in possession of for I will need to really take the time to explain this knowledge to most parents and why this knowledge impacts how I am running a lesson. I will want to use some of the theories by name in order for them to recognize I am an authority on the subject, but at the same time I don’t want to make them feel like their opinion isn’t of value. In the situation above, I painted helping as confining to my ideas on education, which isn’t entirely the case. I need the parent input too because parents know many aspects of their child better than I do (they did raise them after all). So we need to work as a team. Prof H. mentioned that being on an equal playing field could spark a more constructive conversation, i.e. like when she spoke to parents at the laundry mate. So now I am wondering, as the lines become blurred what defines a professional parent/teacher relationship?

On some level this analysis just made me worry about parents more than I was before. It seems like there are more ways in which a parent could parent a challenge than I originally thought. So even though I am now a bit more hesitant to allow a parent in my class when I first start teaching, I think the student teacher who early let my group observe with the parent was on to something. We can’t shut the parents out because of how valuable their help can be to a classroom. So we have to let them in and figure out from experience how to handle the situation (my time at the AG showed me just how invaluable learning from discussion really can be).   

              Since I still want to learn as much as I can about parents before entering the field and I found some links I want to share with everyone. The first gives a categorization of some parents, a scenario, and a strategy to work with the parent. The second is solely for principals working with difficult parents. Even though it is principles, I found a good deal of the information transferable. A poignant section was the one that said to deal with parents, you need to deal with yourself first. Hope you guys enjoy!

1. http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/9762-how-teachers-can-work-with-5-difficult-types-of-parents?page=2

2. https://www.nassp.org/portals/0/content/46790.pdf

Promising Practice Letter

                                                                                                 November 5, 2014

Dear Mr. A,

Thank you for taking the time to present “Teaching While Brown: Learning Under the Influence” during this fall’s promising practice conference along with your uncle. Listening to you discuss the racial barriers that still exit in education and what can be done now to help solve the problem was inspiring. Furthermore, it fit in well with the conference’s theme of culturally responsive curricula in STEM. The cultural aspect of your presentation became evident during the mental activity you asked us to do. After having us reflect on characteristics of our favorite teacher, you pointed out that race, gender, ethnicity or any other superficial trait possessed by the teacher was not among the list. Here race wasn’t an issue. Instead it all came down to how the teacher made us feel. To further prove your point both you and your uncle gave examples of teachers who didn’t look like you, but still impacted your life. All of which led to the assertion that urban students shouldn’t have to wait for a teacher who looks like them to come along and give them a quality education. Especially since most people who look like them at the moment, don’t go into education.

 As a student at RIC learning about how to become a teacher, my professors have spent a good deal of time showing us the potential of every child. I went into the profession partly to change students' lives regardless of who they are.  However, I soon found that being raised in an all-white public school setting led me to develop some subtle stereotypical thoughts that would be detrimental to my teaching all students well. A really important step in shifting my thinking process has been my going to CF and other urban schools. Of even bigger help is having discussions on this topic regardless of how difficult it is for people to speak about. This has been a long process for me and I still have room to grow like many other educators.  Although, it seems some educators have further to go than I do given the severity of the “us vs. them” attitude you highlighted through your personal experiences on the subject. Given the aforementioned, I think the opening activity really stood out to me because it is a quick, useful, and poignant way of showing other colleges that students can learn from anyone despite outward appearances.  

The conversation that addressed STEM really connected with me too, which I found surprising. As a future history teacher, I don’t exactly have to worry about the content covered under the STEM subjects. However, you approached STEM from the angle of increasing tests scores by improving critical thinking. Such a skill is one that can transfer to any subject and is one that I find incredibly important for students to develop. What really struck me though was that the majority of the suggestions (i.e. storytelling, relevance, and authenticity) are all ideas I am learning in my classes at RIC. Due to the time constraint, you weren’t able to go into much depth on your solutions. I agree at a quick glance that the ideas to increase critical thinking would work given all the reading I have done in my classes on the subject. However, reading about an idea and hearing about it from someone currently in the field of secondary education are entirely different. So even though you couldn’t add much more to what I have learned thus far, your authority on the topic reinforced that what I am learning as a future teacher candidate is something I actually should be doing as an educator. 

Despite siding with your educational philosophies, I can’t get past the stories you told about people who hold a conflicting view. The one that I keep thinking about the most was a story in which one of your colleges said the way to increase test scores within the school was to give the teachers “more white students.” You then become offended and responded to the other teacher in a hostile manner. My first reaction was to be angry at the other teacher also, so I can understand why you lashed out at this teacher. However, I am wondering if you were able to have a more calm conversation with this teacher later on down the road about his poor attitude? If so, how? If not, do you wish you acted differently towards this teacher at any point during your relationship? I ask because I am curious to know how you go about opening and maintaining a dialogue with a teacher who is part of the current problem. I would like to do everything within my power to help eradicate the gap in education and I think an important step in doing so is having these difficult conversations.

I look forward to your response. Already the information discussed during the session made me more confident in my approach to teaching critical thinking and broaching sensitive issues with other professionals.                                                                        

 Sincerely,

             Kendra King   

Chapters 9&10: Book Clubs & Inquiry Units

This week’s reading on inquiry units and book clubs complimented each other well. As D&Z’s outline of each method show, both put the teacher in a more facilitator role, allow for choice, encourage critical thinking, and utilize small group work. Furthermore, and apparently incredibly important, is that both can be assessed! I says this portion was critical to the authors because they decided to spend about fourth of Chapter 9 discussing just how to develop assessment methods and then revisited the topic once again in Chapter 10 (210-215, 227-229). I was tempted to focus solely on assessment as it is the subject of our next class. However, I decided to start analyzing the concept of “big ideas” again precisely because we will do a fair job discussing assessment next class.

 “Big ideas” is a topic we covered through the UBD material so I though chapter 10 would be a reiteration of concepts I already understood, but I was wrong. During the UBD reading I kept thinking that the big idea was literally a large concept, which lead me to think of historical questions on the national level. The examples given in the essential questions section reinforced my thought process, especially when the author asked “’When should the United States go to war?’” (77). However, D&Z’s Chapter 10 really showed me how big ideas could actually be on a smaller scale. On page 225 right next to the chapter title “Inquiry Units: Exploring Big Ideas” is a chart entitled “Kinds of Inquiry Project.” Among the list is a suggestion for the students to explore “their family history.” As much as I like reading about national history most individuals (myself included) will never make an impact at this level. That is fine though, because people can still make a difference in their town, state, neighborhood, school, family, etc. Yet when I think of a typical social studies class, lessons and projects encouraging individual engagement in the community (also known as civics) is typically missing. Just think of our observations of CF, there are no civics electives. While I realize history isn’t quite high on the priority list in the education world, especially since RI only requires students take 2 years of the subject, I wondered why schools don’t try to make the most of engagement during the short time history classes are mandated.  

A Google search lead me to a civics fact sheet (see below) which indicates that most states have civic standards embedded somewhere within other subjects that are often not included on state assessments. Rhode Island turns out to fall among most states, yet it looks like our standards are more clearly outlined (see below standards). Apparently, between 2008 and 2011 a civic specialist wrote a whole section of civic standards. Many of them specifically mention local level history too!  However, I put my excitement on hold because something doesn’t add up. So why create something so detailed and time consuming, but then never actually require it? According to one article, it is because of budgeting issues. The Department of Ed fired the specialist, which we all know occurred as this was the transition to the common core and other assessments (See below story by FairVote.org).

While I am jealous that assessment enables the STEM subjects to promote curriculum change, at least the standards I want are written into the Rhode Island education system (and not judged by a group of bureaucrats who know little about teaching!). As D&Z stressed, you must always justify your lesson based on the standards you cover, which will be simple now that I realize the depth of the civic standards in RI. Of even more help is the “back-mapping” strategy discussed (227). Here you are going backwards in your lesson to see what standards are incorporated into the lesson. It is like UBD in a sense because you doing something backward, but with UBD you are designing the lesson instead of undoing it. So looking at standards using this strategy does give me a leg to stand on to an extent. However, since I did make the jump to a change in curriculum rather than a change in instruction methods its seems standards and assessable lessons aren’t always the paramount issue in regards to creating engaging lessons like the past two chapters describes. The fact that civics isn’t its own class is case and point. Other factors like time, money, and administration, and the STEM craze probably heavily influence the fate of the history curriculum. Yet, given the problems that accountability creates for people who use inquiry lessons, would a national test on civics really help a civic class centered around inquiry? Probably not. So now I am wondering, what local schools actually have this more engaging philosophy of teaching and which don’t?  Better yet, are the schools without civic classes open to a change in curriculum and teaching instruction eventually?

Links

1. http://www.ride.ri.gov/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Instruction-and-Assessment-World-Class-         Standards/Social-Studies/RI_SS_GSEs_gss-HS_9-12.pdf

2. http://www.civicmissionofschools.org/the-campaign/civic-learning-fact-sheet

3.  http://www.fairvote.org/news/notwithstanding-budget-crisis-r-i-mustn-t-cut-civics-position-2/

*These are in the order I mention them above.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Learning Communities

Daniels and Zemelman were correct in there assertion that some of the practices teachers’ use to create a learning community would contain a “few surprises” (171).  Out of all the strategies, the perspective that really countered my preconceived notion was in regards to students creating their own class rules. (174). When I first read that the strategy was for “hold{ing} meetings with students to set rules for the class,” I just thought of how a teacher would do this in their classroom (174). I have thought of this issue at great length due to my CEP (below see how I would incorporate setting class rules with a lesson about government.) I didn’t realize the larger school wide response could also work in the same away. Reason being is that the feedback I get from most teachers about behavior management, is that I should try my best to avoid sending students to administration. For if I constantly have students in the principal’s office it looks like I can’t control the class. With this desire to look competent, I wouldn’t think to show administration an issue I was having with my class right away. I would definitely go to a more experienced teacher or mentor I trusted first, which is maybe how it eventually ended up with administration. If many teachers noticed the trend, the group of teacher’s then go speak to administration as there is strength in numbers. I keep saying administration was somehow involved although the principal or other members of the leadership positions were not explicitly mentioned in the section because I feel like for teachers to have a large group conversation, administration would have had to realize something big was happening at that point. Who knows, maybe no one ever notified administration. Regardless of what actually happened, I am curious about the politics within the school and how I will best negotiate my way through them later. As CF shows through its school wide approach to cultivating a new atmosphere, when all or the majority of teachers and administration work together change can happen for the better. So I see the value in working with administration even if I don’t quite have the politics figured out yet as each situation and institution will be different.   

Most of time though, chapter 7 was great for describing approaches I could envision myself using. In some of my other courses, I have been told you need to get the students to trust you. That is all fine and dandy to say, but telling me to do something and actually showing me the way to do so makes a huge difference.  I figured out a while ago that actually being able to speak with a student one on one would gain trust, but I have never known how to really implant this into a class without drawing attention to the student I was speaking with. Reading how the English teacher, Ms. Vaughan, had a small conference with all the students over a stretch of a few days during independent work completely cleared up that problem. Students get her attention thereby increasing trust because she can show that she cares in that station, but she also did the conferences in a natural manner.  All the students were receiving her attention. No one was being singled out and no one was being left out, which I think is important because it shows respect for all of her students feelings and needs. (173). I could go on about all the other ideas I enjoyed from this chapter, as most of the strategies gave good specific instructions for enactment, but I chose to focus on the trust aspect of the classroom because I see the sense in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According to his pyramid before any learning can occur a student must feel accepted by the environment where he or she works. I have personally experienced such a situation, as reflected in my literacy profile, so finding ways to enhance the caring of a classroom really excited me on a personal level.

 However, I believe that this section should be thought of in connection with the ESL Brief and Subject Matters, Chapter 5. Chapter 7 went into some detail about how to scaffold difficult work for students who are attempt a challenging task, i.e. small group work to learn from one another (178). However, I think more goes into choosing and teaching a challenging lesson so as to avoid frustration especially with less resilient students or students with some sort of learning disability. The ESL had just pages upon pages of suggestions for how to make a subject’s content, assignments, and class environment better for ESL students (3-8). Ideas like reinforcement, non-verbal delivery strategies, modified assessment were missing from Chapter 7, but present throughout the ESL brief because such notions are important to these learners ability to learn. If I don’t recognize that then I doubt an ESL student would ever really respect me enough to trust my learning environment as a safe place to learn. In contrast, Chapter 5 has a wide selection of reading strategies that could enhance a lesson to increase comprehension. I am sure some students will like some more than others, which is why having a variety to pick and choose from until you know their strengths is helpful. I personally enjoyed the before reading activities (102-112). I never realized just how many tasks I could give a student to get them in the correct reading mindset. Yet, starting off correctly will have a huge impact on how the student executes and understands the overall assignment. In an attempt to garner more success from my students so that they will want to continue learning, I will be sure to include more activities that formalize the students with the text now. Each of the other readings display that there is a great deal of information that goes into a learning environment.  I am feeling more confident about working with my future students because I think these readings have greatly expanded my idea of a learning community.

How to Create Rules & Teach About Government

Picture from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/08/we-people-%E2%80%94-constitutional-approach-classroom-rules#.UNum5vMPXf4.pinterest

Lesson plan Idea: http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=499

Advice From Strong & Subjects Matter

Many who read Strong’s Chapter 6 can quickly identify dull “busy work” as the reason for students’ lack of motivation. The picture Vader paints in the opening section clearly set the aforementioned scene (94-95). However, there is one sentence that I think was overshadowed by the overall portrait. On the first page Vader asserts that “By making students fearful of errors, both real and imagined, we reduce motivation” (94). Until recently I would do any school work despite the drudgery, but only so long as I received a good grade. Unlike the students primarily discussed by Strong, my lack of motivation stemmed form a fear of failure. Thinking back this attitude developed under the testing craze started under Bush. The school environment at the time sent messages to students that one grade was what mattered and not the overall picture. I learned to treat every test like this, which created a high anxiety to perform well. So I made sure to pick classes that I could get A’s in rather than be challenged. Clearly, I had the wrong attitude for any type of learning to occur. I am finding similar issues in today’s school too. For instance during a recent volunteer session that coached students on the how to pass Classical; entrance exam, I had to use half the session time to remind the eighth graders that a score does not define them. I had to do this at the start of every due to the negative vibes they were getting outside my class time with them. Their anxiety came on years before mine did, which is frightening given the negative results that can follow (below is a link to handle perfectionist).   

Luckily, the Strong reading displays important solutions to the problem of both kinds of “reduced motivation.”  To make work less dull a teacher can use assignments that encouraging creativity, like CRAFT. Strong gives a good argument for why this woks (97). However, on top of his reasons I also think CRAFT is particularly good for high school students because it allows them to pretend to be someone else. During adolescence, teenagers are trying to figure out who they are. Being in someone else’s shoes is a good way to for them to explore values and ideas that they can incorporate into their identity, which as we know anything that relates to a student’s life can raise to increased motivation. Furthermore, who you have the students writing about will make a huge difference. I never thought of the students acting as lawyers before the Supreme Court, but this could be an exciting task given how much is mentioned about the Courts as of late (100). Furthermore, it opens the students to a possible career choice, which some will be curious about as they are thinking of life after high school. Despite all the benefits of CRAFT, I never saw this used in my classes before or during any of my recent observations. I just have to wonder, why don’t teachers use this more?

CRAFT alone can’t increase motivation for failure avoidant student, but the teacher’s attitude toward grading can. Sarah, the math teacher who had the creative rubric, showed grading can be done in a manner that allows for her class to have a second change (101). Doing this puts the learning process first and the grades second because you aren’t putting so much pressure on one grade. I am not sure if I would suggest that everything handed in be allowed to a second chance because a teacher might not be able to grade that quickly. Plus, in the “real world” students will not always be given second chances. However for some of the bigger writing assignments that are new, I think it is something that should be used to ease student’s concerns. A teacher could maybe even work something into their testing system that could help a student’s overcome high text anxiety.  

The content of my reflection keeps straying back to high stakes testing and anxiety, but it’s an issue that will clearly affect all of us as new teachers. Fortunately, Strong isn’t the only author with ideas to help the student succeed. Previously, Subject Matters showed that there are different reading strategies that need to be taught in order for students to become better learners so that they could once more like learning (24-30). Daniels and Zemelman, also displayed that another way to make classwork more interesting was to substitute the reading for genres like nonfiction book rather than relying on the text book all the time (53). Chapter 3 went into great depth as to why teachers should supplement the text book (i.e. inaccuracies, difficulty level, poor design, etc.) (40-44). However, what I appreciated most from Subjects Matters was the section in Chapter 6 that explained how to use the text book so as to increase the student’s comprehension level. Let’s face it, we will all be using textbooks so we are going to need to know what to do with them. While all the activities seem useful, my favorite is the first one in which the teacher actually educates the pupils about the text book by having them explore the book and writing their findings in a graphic organizer (150-151). It is so simple, but could make a great difference in how the class paces their reading, organizes themselves for the test, and deciphers the text. Plus this fed back could even help me assign readings or classwork to the students now that I understand their frame of reference.

The advice from Subjects Matters will clearly have a large impact in my teaching as will Strong’s advice. I won’t say one is better than the other because the authors are both focused on different aspects of the learning (i.e. resources vs. assignments). What matter though, is that both resources and assignments need to be used so as to increase the student’s success, which is obviously the focus of each author and the reason I will heed aspects of their feedback.  

Link

1. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore008.shtml

English Language Learners

Before I read the assigned content, I already knew that learning a second language is a challenge for students. During my secondary education, I couldn’t even master French after taking it for six consecutive years. So I could never understand how ELL’s would be expected to learn a language and their academic content. I realize ELL students are given more than the 45 minute class periods I had to learn French, but that is only for their first year or so. My observations at CF reinforce my belief. As I previously noted, one of the teacher’s is learning Spanish to communicate better with her students because the students have issues understanding English. A lack of clear communication between teacher and students means that some students aren’t retaining as much as they could. As such, I always thought the students should be able to have classes in their native language until they made a better transition into their second language so the process would better for them.

Now that I have read this brief I never realized just how daunting it is to learn another language. Under the section entitled, “Differentiate the content” the ELL brief clearly outlined what ELL students need to know and by the end of that section my mind was spinning (2). Grammar, academic content, social skills, and all the subsets of these categories must be accessed in order for the student to grow as a student. I have thought about teaching many of these concepts to ELL students, but never thought about everything they had to do all at once. Seeing it plainly on paper is what caused me to feel extra sympathy for these students. Even though I think ELL students clearly need more time and attention, I am now re-evaluating just how much of my time and attention they need. I have never really thought about teaching the “social” language because I don’t see that as my responsibility to ELL students. I view learning slang as something people pick up as cues from their peers. There is no doubt in my mind that the students need to learn these words. Without the everyday slang, it will be hard for any student to fit in with their peers. As we all know, lack of friend's has detrimental effects on the student’s mental and academic well-being. So I am wondering, how much time should the student be spending with their non-ELL peers? Or was my original idea of keeping them in a separate classroom actually the better option? Have a let my sympathies for these students result in an over analysis of a simple issue? I need more time to process this before venturing at some firm answers.

In regards to academic content, the ELL brief in conjunction with Subject Matters helped me resolve some issues I have with teaching ELL students my subject language. I especially became aware of just how hard it can be to communicate with ELL students, when I was asked to help out in the all ELL room at CF a few weeks ago. Since then I have been troubled with the task of how I can reach these students. While I am still not entirely clear how to help a pupil who speaks close to no English, I realized many of the suggestions for helping ELL learners are similar to reading strategies that are prescribed for every student.  For instance, Daniels and Zemelman discuss how “prior knowledge is the main determinant of comprehension” (25). While the brief also advised to keep student’s background knowledge in mind when “differentiate(ing) the content” (3). The brief also mentioned the need for “variety,” which is a concept Daniels and Zemelman explore throughout chapter 4: “Towards a Balanced Diet of Reading.” From this chapter, I think the idea of using shorter texts to introduce a concept is something that would definitely be applicable to ELLs (60). It gives content at a rate that is unlikely to overwhelm them so as not to distract from the main instructional point. It is important to realize this overlap when planning a lesson. During many of my daily plans I will try to differentiate texts for the ELLs. However, I am now more apt to use a strategy that benefits more than one group of students because I will want to reach as many students as I can in one lesson (see an idea of a technique I would use that helps ELL and another group of students below). I am sure there are other factors I will need to take into consideration when focusing on my ELL students, but understanding how to balance the needs of many puts me one step closer to better serving all my future students.

               

Image taken from: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/232850243204256989/

*Last semester one of my teachers would use flash cards as a means to learn new vocabulary and I found it incredibly helpful. It was a simple activity, but using just a few of the same flash cards throughout the semester highlighted the information he really wanted us to know. He didn’t have pictures on the cards, but I know many visual learners would appreciate the extra touch. Also, as the brief mentioned ELL students would like it too because it enable them to associate the word better. Thus, I have an easy method of furthering students vocab with a tool that helps a couple different kinds of learners.

I also want to point out that I realize Pinterest isn’t exactly the most academic of websites, but I like looking at some of the education ideas there because some teachers will post some pretty creative ideas. The guess who game with historical figures that is on Jenifer’s blog is actually something I saw on Pinterest first.

More Than the Textbook

The benefits of literary works as a resource is something I want to debate. Early on in chapter three, Daniels & Zemelman, state that a non-fiction story can “give more {than a textbook},to make the information readable and memorable” (53). From the excerpts of A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation, I can see how the authors can make the argument that the story was “readable.” It was in straightforward language that was more enticing than most school textbooks (51-53). However, I don’t think a story makes the facts any more memorable after just reading the information. I read the excerpts from A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation about E=MC2 Thursday before class. Five days later, I just remembered two guys went out skiing and made an important discovery related to the equation. The specific information that I was supposed to remember eludes me. What I think needs to occur is an assignment that makes the students properly think about the new material. As I learned in my CEP class, memory is the residue of thought. If the students read the book, but give it minimal attention, then it will not transfer over into long-term memory (which is what happened after I read the passage on the formula). Thus, reading is only half the battle. It is a hard part of the battle for some teachers who only use textbooks given how boring the material can be. However, once something is read from either source (text or non-text book) you still need to make the student think before any sort of learning occurs. 

To be clear, the importance of learning is a focal point of Subject Matters; however, the process appears different than the one outlined in UBD. Subjects Matters revolves around the reader’s engagement and ability to process the new material. Arguments like the one I refuted above occur because the author is preoccupied with changing the “reading diet” of students reading first and foremost (51). As stated above I already think there is more to the equation, but applying UBD adds more layers to the process. Rather than question the readability of a text, a person following UBD first need needs to ask if the material is in line with what we want to teach the students. Or question if there are better options. In USB the tools are still a significant part of teaching students, but not all resources are correct nor should all lessons be designed around the resources the teacher will use. As such, the UBD reading focused far less on resources and far more on the how to set goals (USB, Chapter One).  However, I like the idea of spending more time on the goals because such a line of thinking can lay a better defense for why a resource is used in a class.  Just saying “national standards” wants teacher’s to go in more depth or saying “readability” affects what the pupils potentially retains isn’t enough (53). Both of these arguments leaves open the possibility of wasting time. The only way to figure what should be used is starting out with the goal.

Despite questioning the resources Subjects Matters presents in a more critical manner due to UBD, Daniels & Zemelman were still able to teach me a valuable lesson about picking content. Paying attention to specific factors like “short v. long,” “primary v. secondary,” and “classic v. contemporary” all have a decisive impact on the student and their reading experience (58-61). All of these will affect me as a teacher too, yet the concept of “mirrors and windows” captured my attention the most (59). According to Daniels & Zemelman students need to be reading some text that are different from their experiences, beliefs, and overall character to fulfill the windows requirement of the concept. Logically, including mirrors means that students must read texts similar to them in some way so that they are engaged and validated as a student (59). Thinking this over, my reaction to USB approached a fine line. I wrote about how I enjoy teaching from WWI onwards specifically through the lens of the United States. I still hold that preference, but in teaching my subject I need to be very careful not to let my preference drive all the material I present. After mulling over my book choices, I realize I lean towards the mirror side of the equation. Such a revelation is probably a factor as to why I enjoy US history the most. Yet, my experience at TS and CF confirm that not all my students will be like me. So this means that I will need to do a better job incorporating variety into my class. The first place to start will be by expanding what I read. Yes, that means book suggestions are more than welcome! For I know a few good “widow” books, but not enough to be able to effectively choose resources when it comes time to under the UBD method of planning.

I included this picture because it kept popping in my head as I was writing the last paragraph. The overall commentary about differences is a bit sad, but the implications of Einstein’s general statement always inspires me to value the diversity of all students.

*Image copied from this blog: http://alyssiakajati.wordpress.com/

Reaction to UBD

As I was reading about understanding by design, the content made sense to me. A large reason is because my professors at RIC already introduced me to the idea without putting the formal name to the concept subtly being taught. For instance, during a reading about how different educational philosophers view education, my FNED professor made the point that we, as educators, need to be thinking about how to actively engage learners with the skills being taught so as to gain evidence of their understanding. Also, in my SED 406 class last semester the professor stressed that the goals should be one of the first items addressed when creating a lesson plan. In fact, the template he gave us for such an assignment had the goals put before the instructional part of the lesson plan. These are just a couple examples, but the first two stages of UBD (evidence and results) were regularly brought up in FNED and SED 406. Each time I agreed with the sound logic of these method because I want my students to learn well and not by accident as this author states on numerous occasions (The Big Ideas of UbD, 7). Despite this desire and slight familiarity, I still have issues conceptualizing this theory into the reality of a yearlong curriculum.  

One difficulty stems from the fact that I fell into the second "sin of typical unit planning" well before I reached section A of the assigned reading (8). Back in chapter one, the author gave a visual representation about how to prioritize the curriculum (10). At first, I thought “great this makes so much sense; of course I can easily do that.”  Then I thought about how much history content I have to also cover in a year and I became far less confident. During my recent observations at TS the teacher I was assigned to, who has been teaching for years, constantly struggled with staying on top of the required material. By the time I left, she was over 100 pages behind in the text book from where her administration wanted her to be. If an experienced educator still hasn’t figured out a good solution for this problem, how is a novice teacher expected to stay on task?

When I stop letting my anxiety take hold, I can see that the teacher I observed didn’t exactly follow the guidelines set forth regarding prioritizing information. To be fair, the teacher spent many days trying to increase the “enduring understanding” of her students by giving close readings and critical thinking assignments. However, there were plenty of other lessons she wasted covering topics outside the priority diagram outlined in Chapter one (please see page 10) just to appease administration. A prime example for this is when she spent two weeks on ancient Egypt and Mummies. I find this unnecessary because the political scientist in me thinks it is important to choice topics that allow the past lessons of history to be applied to the present. Try as I might, I can’t think of anything relevant about Ancient Egypt. I really just prefer spending the most amount of my time reading about WWI onward as those lessons have the most obvious impact on our current society (at least in terms of the United States, Africa and the Middle East are a different story). Yet, most people I talk to never reach these significant eras because the educators run out of time. This problem seems to be a curriculum planning error that would need to be resolved through a restructuring of each district’s History agenda. A few schools have done this by including current event electives, but not many. I just hope I am able to become part of the more progressive schools or help led a campaign to negotiate the curriculum with administration because I won’t be able to stand covering topics just to appease administration at the expense of significant lessons.

Keeping in line with my political science roots raised one last concern in regard to resources. Reviewing the nutrition lesson at the end of the first UBD chapter displayed how the teacher didn’t think his book was well equipped to use the entire time (17). I feel like a large portion of my assigned classroom book won’t cover what I want in regards to current event either. Now the author of Subjects Matter makes the point that a wide variety of generas be utilized, such as “newspapers, magazines, websites,” etc. (15). I will probably resort to these most often. However, I start to wonder how costly will my constant copying be. Should I just have students read everything online? Will that always be possible? Though most importantly, I wonder about what content I will provide my future pupils with to read.  This weekend, I came across a NPR blog about the plague and how its lessons could be applied to the Ebola outbreak (see below link). It was an interesting read and something I would like to incorporate into a class if I were forced to be teaching the plague like the teacher at TS, but then I would spend forever researching the perfect article to give my students. Maybe, with time, I will get better at choosing resources, but that is not the case at the moment. Yet, time in the teaching profession is an immensely valuable resource. So I can’t always squander it trying to find the absolute best lesson. So once again, I am left wondering how should I handle curriculum design and where do I compromise?

The best answer to my final question comes from the end of chapter one in Subjects Matter. Specifically when authors says that they hear everyone’s criticisms towards the new fast food unit and respond with the logic that, “we’re not saying…that this is where you begin” (14). In my head, I have these great lessons. However all great lessons, like the fast food unit, take time. I need to continue to move forward slowly and work past my anxiety in a progressive manner like I did in this blog. Furthermore, I need to pay close attention to the content of Subject Matters as the authors do promise that the pages after chapter one will “show how content teachers can take steps-carefully and thoughtfully toward more promising reading (15).” I hope they keep their promise!   

Link

1. http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/20/349271621/ebola-battlers-can-learn-from-venices-response-to-black-death

Chapter 1 & 2: Subjects Matter

                                                         

I appreciate that Daniels and Zemelan want “to see students overly worked up” about a subject as a result of their course reading (13).  Every teacher does. According to these authors, all educators need to focus on techniques that will increase comprehension rather than "decoding" or many students won't become passionate (22). There logic essentially states that since basic phonetic skills are completed in elementary school, high school teachers should move onto teaching the more challenging material that many pupils struggle with as decoding isn't really an issue at that stage of learning anymore (22). Wilhelm makes a similar point when explaining his choice for a teacher/learner centered approach to education as well, showing that Daniels and Zemelan’s notion has some support (39).

I might agree with all three authors, were it not for the illiteracy rate in the United States. According to a recent 2013 Huffington Post article, 21% of the adult population reads worse than a 5^th grader and 19% of graduating seniors can’t read at all (see below link). I feel like these student might have missed some of the basic decoding skills in their prior years that could have helped them read better. Another concern I have is for ESL learners. As my observations at CF show, there are students in mainstream classrooms who understand Spanish better than English. How would I best teach those student to read and keep up with my content? Daniels and Zemelman seemed to believe that students with phonetic issues already have resource teachers who will help them; implying that everything will be fine due to the special education department (22). However, if the aforementioned student is in my classroom, shouldn’t their reading problem be my concern too?

I suggest that lower skilled readers be taught in a manner that addresses both decoding and comprehension problems so as to maintain the high standards these authors advocate. For I feel giving an assignment geared to increasing comprehension won’t work unless the student can read English in the first place. As someone who was told early on in their school career that they can't hear phonetically, I take this issue very seriously because I know just how hard it is to read when sounds don't come together. Luckily this is a problem I overcame, but it still happens to me every now and again. A word I will use in everyday language will be printed on a page and I will be staring at it for 3 minutes trying to figure it out before the issue is clarified. When I was younger these reading blocks were more frequent so I found reading exhausting. I actually hated reading for quite some time because of just how bad I was at it. When I do start teaching, I hope my prior disdain of the subject is something I can advert my students from feeling. 

On a more positive note, I do agree with the fact that educators need to learn how to teach reading in a way that furthers critical thinking skills. For I now love reading because of how thought provoking some stories can be. Plus being able to think critically is just a good skill to have in general. Without this ability, people run the risk of making poor uninformed decisions that affect much of their life. I know before I was taught how to comprehend I couldn't make connections between what I read and what I learned. Meaning the reflective pieces we have to do right now to grow as an educator is something I couldn't sufficiently do before. Such reflective pieces is one of the most valuable aspect to learning, because otherwise how would a student really understand or remember what they learned? Therefore, these reasons make me think comprehension is something that teachers really need to focus on as well. 

Link

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html

Literacy Profile: Ballroom Dance

I am very proud to say I am literate in ballroom dancing; though until recently, dancing wasn't something I boasted about to others. The reason becomes obvious when looking at my motive for doing ballroom. When I entered the URI Ballroom Dance Club my freshmen year, there wasn't much thought put into the decision. As a requirement for all incoming classes, URI makes students participate in at least one extracurricular activity. Since mock trial and parliamentary debate were unavailable, I really didn’t have a strong desire to be an active member of anything. I later asked my friends what they chose (there answer being ballroom) and I thought, “sounds as good as anything else. I am in.” So off I went for an hour long class Wednesday evening.

  

I admit, following the crowd was not a good reason to dance and it highly impacted how skilled I became as a dancer. Since I was forced to join an activity, I did the bear minimum.  Whereas, the more passionate people attended the club from 5-9 PM, during which time six dances and some technique was (and still is) covered. At technique classes more one on one time was offered and the teacher really discussed how to make the dance look good. Since, I opted out of that last hour I didn’t know how to follow my partner's lead correctly, count music, stay on beat, or how to position my body during the dance. I had a general understanding that I should be on the right of the leader, but that was only because my partner would push me over there every time.

The better dancers also made more of an effort outside of the classes. Be it by themselves, with a friend, or at a social dance they put in many practice hours on their own time. Then they would come back with questions that they would converse to the teacher about thereby increasing their “declarative and procedural knowledge” as Wilhelm would say (47). Without much practice, all I could do was follow the steps, but typically only when my teacher was saying what should be done next. I say typically, because I even struggled to follow the sequence of moves since I didn't know all of the names of the steps. The last day of class when there were numerous complex steps that built of the basic, I did horribly. Since I had a thin grasp of the dances foundation I couldn't keep up with what my teacher was saying much to my partner’s displeasure.   

Despite my low interest and lack of practice, I continued to attend dance intermittently and performed in a subpar manner until my senior year. That year many of the experienced dancers were no longer in the club and the leadership changed. Now I know I am most at fault for not growing as a dancer earlier, however, I didn't end up caring about the club to put any effort into the skill until the change in members occurred. Under the old group the club was unwelcoming to new comers. On my first day of class many of the participates were frustrated that new comers didn’t already know how to dance. Furthermore, the skilled members didn't make much of an effort to include beginners in their conversations during class either. Really, it is a wonder I even went back sometimes. Luckily I did, and the club changed around the time I did too. Simply put the new president and younger dancers started to be more sociable and were helpful to everyone. With more of a connection to the club, I started staying later, practicing with others outside class, and attending socials.  One of our teachers, who owns a professional dance studio, even offered us discounted class rates when it became apparent the club, myself included, didn’t want to stop dancing during the summer (See below link for studio information).

Aside from having an increased appreciation for a variety of music generas and a wide knowledge of ballroom, I have gained some practical skills that impact my life on a daily basis. For one, becoming involved in dance has made me more personable. In any dance situation you have to be in close proximity with your partner. Because I dance so often at socials and other events, I meet many new dancers constantly. To minimize the incredibly awkward feeling everyone has when being in close contact with a stranger, I have learned the art of small talk quite well. Not everyone is receptive to polite conversation nor are people more skilled than I nice about dancing with a person below their capabilities. Before that bothered me, but now I know to just brush it off and keep dancing. They are only a small thorn when it comes to the overall picture, which is an attitude I keep in mind for anything I try now. So I have also developed a pretty thick skin due to dance.

 The importance of “humane” practice for increasing engagement will also translate into my teaching (Wilhelm, 21). When Wilhelm described how to teach reading during chapter two his support for Vygotsky’s learning-centered teaching showed he thinks a large part of the equation falls on the teacher’s method (31-53). My ballroom teacher used this same method, but as my early experience showed that wasn't enough. What I needed was to have someone create a safe and welcoming environment for me, which could have simply been done by being caring and patient. This clearly relates to the classroom. Wilhelm once said in an aside such an environment can increase new interests (21). With the experience of a poor atmosphere still fresh in my memory, I think atmosphere is more than a footnote. That feeling still makes me go out of my way to be nicer to the freshmen when I dance at URI. The current President does the same too, which is great because membership retention has increased with the introduction of this new club culture. So hopefully like dance retention, I can increase student retention (i.e. interest) through the use of my “humane” ballroom practice.

Links

1. Studio Information: http://dancinfeelin.com/

2. Video of Most Recent URI Performance: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=920111361337853&set=o.2200019120&type=2&theater

*The people in the second video are the people I currently practice with. There technique is a bit better than mine, but I can typically keep up with them during lessons.