For our first assignment in my freshman composition course, I wanted them to select an article of their interest and choosing to use for their discourse analysis. After reading and discussing The Declaration of Independence the previous class, last week (our fourth class meeting together) students wrote a response to "What do you think the founding fathers intended the American Creed to be?" After a brief discussion and a too brief introduction to Padlet where we could capture our ideas, I asked my students to search for an article that connects to the themes we had identified in the historic document (e.g. equality, liberty, pursuit of happiness).
And the plan collapsed.
I watched my students attempt their (figurative) leap from incomplete scaffolding to grasp a crumbling ledge. Students' hands popped up with questions in some parts of the room while elsewhere they sat gazing into their computers for answers. The supplemental instructor and I visited students one on one, working our way around the room to coax students in the directions we had begun to travel the previous class period: topics such as free trade and the collapse of agreements, equality and the current questions about equal pay or discrimination, and freedom and the discussion of immigration and DACA.
After bailing water the second half of class, I asked students to complete an exit slip with their topic of interest and the questions they had at that point.
It was obvious to me that I needed to repair the scaffolding for this new group of students, but I was so stuck in what went wrong that I had difficulty focusing beyond the stack of slips with students' topics and questions. Fortunately, chapter 7 of The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros (@gcouros) gave substance to my work. His description of the eight things to look for in today's classroom gave me pause as I considered how I was creating opportunities for voice, choice, time for reflection, opportunities for innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, self-assessment, and connected learning.
I wanted these characteristics in my classroom, but having already planned the end of the semester, I was missing the incremental steps of establishing the classroom culture that warmly invited students into these conversations and periods of reflection. My intentions steamed ahead of community. I attempted choice and critical thinking without building solid foundations that would make students' voices and connected learning meaningful. Though it was mid-year for K-12 students and teachers, and a second semester continuation for my pre-service candidates, it was a new course and a fresh start for me and these freshman composition students. I needed to know where they were so I could meet them there, something at this point in the year in my previous teaching positions I have not had to do.
The exit slips indicated that students needed much more assistance with finding articles. I located ten articles that I hoped would honor students' interests while providing for rich analysis. Categorized into general themes of liberty, equality, and pursuit of happiness with topics ranging from discrimination of people with disabilities to wage gaps to DACA to opportunities for happiness, articles would provide choice but in a way that kept this first assignment manageable.
This teaching mis-experience sank my spirits and no amount of positive interactions that day changed this feeling until I worked on a solution. The bigger lesson from that day was this: In the deepest part of me I want to be a good teacher, but more importantly I need to really see and know my students in order to do so. Only then can we build a classroom in which we can solve these problems together.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Friday, January 19, 2018
Welcoming the Spring Semester
Welcome 2018!
This new year and new semester prompted me to consider what I want to be and do in 2018. Determined to be more and better in this year than I was in 2017, I began January 1 with reading, reflecting, and enjoying family time. Each day is an opportunity to shape who I am and want to be. My new and improved routine did not begin on January 2. Some weeks into 2018 and the first week of spring classes, I'm still figuring out how to get up in time to stretch or have coffee, wake up children, read a news blog, make lunch, get ready for the day, and leave the house to drop off the high schooler before work. After a few days of saying, "I think I need to start my day earlier," I reset my alarm. Baby steps.
Many things stay the same when you work within an academic calendar. I have ongoing projects with accreditation, research, and writing that stretch along the August-July continuum rather than the calendar year. Yet, new classes in the spring semester revitalize me with opportunities for curricular revision. And this semester, two pathways to enhance my understanding of students and partnerships have presented themselves in very different settings. One is within my freshman composition course; the other is in my secondary English methods course.
The second semester Writing Studies delves into discourse communities, and in my particular learning community cohort the focus is civic engagement. I began planning for this course in November while attending the National Writing Project Annual Meeting. At that time, I was introduced to the PBS documentary American Creed and worked with instructors who had previewed the film and developed resources. It was with even more good fortune that I learned the director of freshman composition at my university had received a grant for including service learning in the Writing Studies courses. My course will analyze historical discourse, which will unfold as an exploration of today's discourse and the needs in our local communities.
My affiliation with the Illinois Writing Project and my participation with the National Writing Project College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) placed tools in my hands that will deepen this exploration of discourses in the composition class. These argument-writing resources provide a framework for putting texts in conversation with one another and a foothold for students to engage in these conversations with each other. Being present, being open, and being responsive allowed me to make the connections necessary to plan this semester. I hope that what the freshmen experience within the class is as meaningful as planning for them has been.
In my secondary English methods course, five teacher candidates are continuing their program that began last fall. We weathered some obstacles in the fall course, including my attempt to add writing and research layers to an already packed schedule. We tried writing personal pieces with little time to develop them. We recorded teaching episodes but did not fully take advantage of the feedback feature that was available in the technology platform. After experimentation that resulted in marginal (if any) success, I should have been hesitant to try anything new this spring. However, I want to enrich the candidates' experiences in the program, and have prepared myself for the setbacks that might occur.
It has been a dream of mine to recreate my graduate research assistant experience of assisting a middle grades methods course taught in a middle school, often utilizing technology for backchannel discussions about classroom observations. At the least, I hoped for my candidates to observe in a school together at the same time so that we could unpack the observations in our weekly class sessions. Though possibly more than I should have hoped for, I also wanted a classroom space within a high school. I am thrilled that our new partnership with a local high school opens doors for that dream to become a reality. We meet in our high school classroom next week. As we discuss candidates' observations and unpack the assigned readings, it will feel different from our university campus space. I want it to feel different. High school is where they have chosen to be, and it is my responsibility to prepare them. Surrounding ourselves with the high school culture is only the first step.
Baby steps.
This new year and new semester prompted me to consider what I want to be and do in 2018. Determined to be more and better in this year than I was in 2017, I began January 1 with reading, reflecting, and enjoying family time. Each day is an opportunity to shape who I am and want to be. My new and improved routine did not begin on January 2. Some weeks into 2018 and the first week of spring classes, I'm still figuring out how to get up in time to stretch or have coffee, wake up children, read a news blog, make lunch, get ready for the day, and leave the house to drop off the high schooler before work. After a few days of saying, "I think I need to start my day earlier," I reset my alarm. Baby steps.
Many things stay the same when you work within an academic calendar. I have ongoing projects with accreditation, research, and writing that stretch along the August-July continuum rather than the calendar year. Yet, new classes in the spring semester revitalize me with opportunities for curricular revision. And this semester, two pathways to enhance my understanding of students and partnerships have presented themselves in very different settings. One is within my freshman composition course; the other is in my secondary English methods course.
The second semester Writing Studies delves into discourse communities, and in my particular learning community cohort the focus is civic engagement. I began planning for this course in November while attending the National Writing Project Annual Meeting. At that time, I was introduced to the PBS documentary American Creed and worked with instructors who had previewed the film and developed resources. It was with even more good fortune that I learned the director of freshman composition at my university had received a grant for including service learning in the Writing Studies courses. My course will analyze historical discourse, which will unfold as an exploration of today's discourse and the needs in our local communities.
My affiliation with the Illinois Writing Project and my participation with the National Writing Project College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) placed tools in my hands that will deepen this exploration of discourses in the composition class. These argument-writing resources provide a framework for putting texts in conversation with one another and a foothold for students to engage in these conversations with each other. Being present, being open, and being responsive allowed me to make the connections necessary to plan this semester. I hope that what the freshmen experience within the class is as meaningful as planning for them has been.
In my secondary English methods course, five teacher candidates are continuing their program that began last fall. We weathered some obstacles in the fall course, including my attempt to add writing and research layers to an already packed schedule. We tried writing personal pieces with little time to develop them. We recorded teaching episodes but did not fully take advantage of the feedback feature that was available in the technology platform. After experimentation that resulted in marginal (if any) success, I should have been hesitant to try anything new this spring. However, I want to enrich the candidates' experiences in the program, and have prepared myself for the setbacks that might occur.
It has been a dream of mine to recreate my graduate research assistant experience of assisting a middle grades methods course taught in a middle school, often utilizing technology for backchannel discussions about classroom observations. At the least, I hoped for my candidates to observe in a school together at the same time so that we could unpack the observations in our weekly class sessions. Though possibly more than I should have hoped for, I also wanted a classroom space within a high school. I am thrilled that our new partnership with a local high school opens doors for that dream to become a reality. We meet in our high school classroom next week. As we discuss candidates' observations and unpack the assigned readings, it will feel different from our university campus space. I want it to feel different. High school is where they have chosen to be, and it is my responsibility to prepare them. Surrounding ourselves with the high school culture is only the first step.
Baby steps.
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