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.
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