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