Inclusive Philosophy for Teaching

Literacy instruction is at the forefront of my passion as an educator.  Reading comprehension and the ability to communicate effectively can open innumerable doors for students in the academic world that exists after high school and the professional world beyond that.  My goal is to provide students with opportunities to read, and to encourage them to refine the necessary skills to do so proficiently.  Proficient mastery of a skill like reading means something different for every student.  Gifted students for whom reading comes easily require access to numerous and increasingly complex materials with which to hone their comprehension.  Students who struggle to read or hate to do so need an impetus to read, but they also need the right type of books in order to find success.  Those students who have special or additional needs may require a more universally aligned approach to reading, or a teacher who chooses to think outside the box.  For me, this will mean an adherence to the principles of universal design.  Each student’s pace for reading will be individualized, as well as his or her methods for reading achievement.  Students will have access to a variety of materials that encompass all reading levels.  They will also have the option to select graphic novels and books on tape. 

Inclusion will be the foundation of my classroom.  This term extends to students with special or additional needs, those with particularly gifted young minds, and most importantly students who bear invisible scars from life experiences foreign to their peers.  Each of these students is struggling to navigate the world in their own way, and they need a place where they feel safe and accepted.  As a majority of our classroom activities will be discussion based, it is essential that each student feel valued for their unique opinions and backgrounds.  I will not tolerate mockery or exclusion of any kind.  I want each student to enter my classroom and see it as a space where they are free to express themselves and their viewpoint without fear of their peers or me.  According to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “The pursuit of full humanity cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity; therefore, it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relationship between the aggressors and the oppressed.  No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so.”  Our classroom will be a community dedicated to the unlimited exploration of literature and its impact upon our interpretation of the human experience through in depth discussion and freedom from judgment. 

Students know best what makes a classroom functional for their personal needs and safety, both physically and in a mental capacity.  In order to help students be more mindful of inclusion, we will decide the rules of our classroom as a group at the end of the first week of classes.  While there will be basic rules in place, I will open a forum for students to share what rules they most want to see enforced in our class.  Much of the content that is imparted in literature classes is discussion based, and our rules will specifically reflect the atmosphere in which we will discuss.  I do not seek to define or limit my students ability to think for themselves, but will rely on Bandura’s theory of observational learning to model problem solving and critical thinking strategies for my students.  Ultimately, I may have knowledge my students do not, but they will have had unique experiences to share.  Our classroom is a forum for sharing knowledge in the interest of growth for everyone. 

English 323: Teaching The House on Mango Street

Immigration/Migrant Workers…How Do We Teach It?

Given the state that we live in i.e. Washington State, immigration conversations have the potential to be very touchy.  We have an interesting mix of conservative and liberal political viewpoints, but we are also home to a huge presence of migrant workers due to the concentration of agriculture.  Therefore, given the fact that I plan to teach in the agriculturally dense Eastern half of Washington, I would want to scaffold this type of discussion adequately before putting it on the table for class discussion. 

Initially, I would want to know exactly what the composition of my class was, and whether I had any students who had direct experience with immigration or seasonal work visas.  Rather than polling this an entirely intrusive way during large group discussion, I would offer the students a journal prompt asking them for their personal definitions of “immigrant” and “migrant worker” in order to assess their interaction with or understanding of the terms. I would personally review their writings and proceed with the lessons from there. 

I would preface any such discussion with a classroom forum to agree upon rules for discussion of sensitive issues. This will allow the students to take ownership of the rules and to ensure that the class takes sensitivity extremely seriously.  Respect is of the highest priority, but in order for a discussion to be beneficial the students must agree to keep an open mind.  Immigration is an issue that many students’ parents will have strong opinions on, and their children will follow suit with equally strong but perhaps less well-informed opinions.

Ideally I would like to structure the lessons in a variety of ways.  Students would have the opportunity to complete individual work and research, to cooperate in pairs, to explore multiple opinions in small groups, and finally to discuss as a large class group.  My ultimate goal would be for students to hear opinions that were different from their own, and to research the larger issues surrounding migrant working families and immigration in the United States.

I think The House on Mango Street would be an excellent literary companion to any such discussion.  Cisneros’s main character, Esperanza, characterizes her own life in a relatable personal narrative that interacts with her immigrant background in a subtle but compelling way.  Students would be able to empathize with Esperanza’s experiences as a young adult, and would hopefully be more willing to understand her experiences as someone who was not born in the United States. 

Perhaps the most important thing I can do as an instructor in a lesson of this type is keep my own personal bias as far removed as possible. Students are impressionable, and they have surely developed some of their own opinions based on the viewpoints of people they respect.  While I do want to provide them with useful information, I hope to train them to form belief systems on their own.  Adolescents are constantly interacting with the world in new ways, my job is to provide them with helpful information and resources to form an identity and an opinion that they have a sturdy foundation for. 

English 323: Monster Blog

I finished Monster and immediately had to access the Internet and the end of novel questions to make sure that Steve was appropriately released from a prison sentence.  I spent most of the novel pulling for the kid who has done what we all did at one time or another, chosen to associate himself with the wrong people at a horribly inopportune time.  Throughout the story I kept telling myself there was no way he could be convicted based on the evidence presented.  As I began to process that in my “rational”/“adult” brain I was immediately haunted by how the Young Adult audience this book was intended for would interpret the story Steve was telling. 

First off, they would probably not be as familiar with the ins and outs of the legal system the way that I am, not that I am an expert, but I have read a lot of crime novels in my life time up to this point. Secondly, it really is unclear exactly what has transpired for 80% of the novel.  Steve acts in an incredibly guilty manner and seems fairly sure of his own guilt.  One thing I remember about my adolescent years was overwhelming guilt about the rules I had broken—no matter how minor they were.  Ultimately I think students of all background will relate well to Steve’s plight.  Jail is the most looming of all punishments for bad behavior, and what Steve truly learns is that one mistake could cost him his entire youth. 

Monster is written in a coming of age style, and it is very easy to follow visually.  We have been working the past few weeks on how to break down texts for students who may be struggling readers.  Yesterday, Dylan showed us one that involved drawing particular pieces or lines of text.  I think this novel would be an excellent opportunity for students to visualize the unfolding action.  Steve uses descriptive detail and movie style blocking that could enable students to process the scene more fully than complex literature. Additionally, it would be a great opportunity to bring in some outside research on the legal system in an applicable way for students. 

Students between the ages of 11-18 have many life experiences that are never documented in the literature they read.  Monster portrays one of them, but normalizes many more.  Steve is neither a criminal nor a member of a gang, instead he’s a high school aged student who wants to make movies, but who is also a little desperate to find a place for himself.  I think that’s the baseline desire of every middle and high school student.  They want a comfortable place to express themselves, and if they cannot find a healthy outlet—they will turn to any avenue to find acceptance.  This goes back to my teaching philosophy. I want my students to find that refuge in my classroom among the books.  Steve’s film instructor clearly provides that outlet for his students, and he supported Steve even after he was arrested.  Steve not only felt safe in that environment, but it also provided him comfort when he could not be physically present in it.  By giving our students the tools necessary to succeed in the often-scary environments outside of school, we give them the opportunity to escape and to rise above their circumstances regardless of what they may be. 

English 323: Exploring Teaching Strategies

I am one of those unintentionally arrogant people who has given very little thought about how to help others read, but has sneered in noticeable derision when faced with someone whose reading skills are not up to par.  I imagine that if I were not privileged to have the instruction I have embarked on these past few months, I would have entered my first classroom in a manner extremely similar to that of Kylene Beers.  Because reading has always come naturally to me, my immediate reflex is to encourage students to “read it” and “read it again” when problems with comprehension arise. 

However, after reading Beers’ compelling introductory chapters to her book When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do, I feel properly chastised and emboldened to try new strategies to reach the dependent readers I will meet in my future of teaching. Beers mentioned wanting to equip her students with the tools necessary to “struggle” with a text.  I think this simple statement is incredibly poignant.  I don’t want to push information on my students. In the long run this will help them very little, but if I can provide them with some new options when reading becomes an impenetrable task—then I will have succeeded in encouraging them to continue pursuing reading and learning even outside of my classroom. 

One activity I particularly loved and can see myself using was Beers’ “Syntax Surgery”.  Poetry can prove particularly challenging to many students.  Often they view it as something that was designed to resist their attempts to understand it.  As a large, looming conglomeration of text whose structure often defies logic in pursuit of rhyme, I can understand their opinions.  Syntax Surgery visualizes the discussion of a passage or poem’s language, and it requires a group investigation of the individual elements that form a larger body of text.  Freire mentioned learning as a cooperative process between humans, and activities like Syntax Surgery allow students to communicate with their instructor on a level of inquiry and equality under the umbrella of learning.  The first step of understanding often involves taking something apart and analyzing it in a manageable way.  For students and reading, this means paring down assignments to a level that largely eliminates the intimidation factor.  A struggling reader would view even a four page single-spaced document as a daunting task.  Rather than leaving them to struggle on their own, I now have some implementable ways of breaking down a text for my students in a way that does not stress how much I know and how little they do.

As we use this semester to refine our teaching philosophies, I have uncovered a new element that will be inherent to mine.  I hope to promote a learning environment where my students enter the classroom with an excitement to explore rather than dreading English class because of the constant reminders of what they do not know.  Either way they come in with a knowledge deficit, but only one will result in positive results in the classroom. 

English 323 Friere and Blau - The Spirit of Learning and the Methods of Teaching

With no discussion to go off of for this blog post, I’m just going to provide a brief analysis of the readings I completed prior to Thursday’s class.  Additionally I will attempt to incorporate the prompt provided during Thursday’s class.

I found the Freire reading incredibly helpful from a teaching philosophy perspective.  The comparisons it employed were well thought out and easily applicable to daily classroom life.  I have certainly had teachers who used the “banking” method of teaching.  They viewed their students as empty vessels to be filled with any knowledge they deigned to provide to us.  As I enter the field of teaching, quite literally during the student teaching portion of my program beginning this week, I have really begun to evaluate in earnest what I want my teaching personality and approach to be.  While I can read, theorize, and imagine what my first days alone in the classroom will be like, ultimately the refining process for an educator is never finished.  Learning is an endless cycle of humility that relies on the combined skills and knowledge of multiple parties in order to function effectively.  However, I can already say that I want to tackle problems with my students rather than oppressing them under the reign of my vast and impenetrable knowledge.  I’ve included one quote I found particularly poignant from the Freire text: “The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity; therefore it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed.  No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so.” (p. 85)

Either in comparison to or in cooperation with Freire's writings, the Blau piece was structured in a very different manner than was the Friere piece, but in terms of classroom applicability—it was far more accessible.  I don’t think I will ever tire of reading classroom stories.  They are often uplifting even when the point is not necessarily to inspire but to warn.  I see classroom teaching as an opportunity to perpetuate my love of knowledge to a new generation of learners and teachers.  I highlighted, starred, and otherwise exclaimed over one passage of Blau’s writing especially: “How can one teach what one doesn’t know? As if the teaching of literature were essentially a matter of a teacher teaching to students the teacher’s own finished reading of a text and not what it means to engage in reading of a text, including how a competent reader proceeds with a text that is frustratingly difficult to understand.” (p. 23) I find this to be the crux of English teaching.  If I simply tell the students what I know, I am not encouraging them to pursue new, deeper, or different meaning for themselves—I am instructing them to take my word for it.  Learning requires curiosity and exploration to truly function.  When we as teachers stifle that creativity through rigid lectures or demands for them to search their knowledge banks for the “right answer” we teach students how to pass school, not how to explore and digest the complexities of the world they live in. 

 

Grief

In many ways, this blog post is long overdue, but I have learned about the incredible blessing of timing in the past year.  It has been a long year in many ways, every day has held its own unique challenges and the unyielding force of unsolicited change has not always been gentle.  Truthfully, it has been an ongoing war between the good days and the bad days.  Every morning holds a conscious choice to press on, to move forward, but to never forget. 

My dad went home to Jesus one year ago today.  Honestly it still doesn’t feel real to type that out.  For the longest time I thought that if I could avoid accepting that it had happened, I would never have to deal with the unbearable pain that accompanied such a substantial loss.  However, choosing to face it and to fight those fathomless depths of grief has shown me a lot about myself, and even more about my God.  The purpose of this blog post is to take some time today to remember the man my dad was, and to publicly acknowledge the depth of the loss I, and so many others, experienced when he passed. 

I spent weeks, even months, hoarding quotes about grief.  I reveled in the beauty of those words that so aptly described the pain.  However, even as I characterized my grief through the borrowed words of others, and the wordless emotions I felt on my own, I began to truly understand grief and the grieving process for myself.  Grieving process, this is a phrase we use often, especially towards those who have experienced great loss.  I had never really considered what that phrase meant until I experienced it in my own life. This is what I have learned:

• Grief is picking up the phone to call someone who won’t be able to answer, and feeling the depth of that loss all over again. 
• Grief is seeing that beloved person everywhere and in everything.
• Grief is being forced to leave a store or stop on the freeway because a song comes on the radio and those emotions that are so carefully controlled spill over unbidden and without warning.
• Grief is needing a hug, a pep talk, a life lesson, a helping hand, a shoulder to cry on, or a smile from that one single person who could make anything in life ok again, but not being able to have it.  
• Grief is listening to a voicemail over and over again so you don’t forget how their voice sounds. 
• Grieving can steal your energy and mire you in a quicksand of despondency before you realize what is happening.
• Grief sucks. 

In spite of all these things I learned, from the poetic to the hysterical and the absolute melancholy, one stands out about the rest.  Grief is a journey; it is not a place to make your life.  For those moments of grief I have experienced or fought against in the last year have been equaled or exceeded by moments of pure joy at the hands of memory.  There is a process to grief, but there is also a time for that nonlinear path to come to an end.   I was incredibly blessed by the presence of my dad for most of 24 years, and I will never stop wishing that we could have had more time together.  However, they were an amazing 24 years.  He taught me measurable skills like refereeing, driving, how to make some ultimate “dad” meals like bean casserole and macaroni with ketchup.  Even more importantly he instilled in me less tangible gifts: a love for reading, Cougar pride, and an abiding love for the Lord.  There will never come a day when I don’t miss my dad, but I will not trade our beautiful memories for the anesthetizing clutches of grief any longer. 

Please, please don’t misunderstand me.  I think grief is an essential part of loss, and it is something everyone experiences and deals with individually.  I could remain in the stages of sadness and grief for some time yet, and it would be ok because of the depth of my bereavement, but I am choosing to embrace this life with the optimism and persevering spirit of the strongest man I have ever known. 

Thank you to every person who has come alongside me through this last year.  Your prayers, texts, phone calls, hugs, stories, and memories are all stored in my heart. 

I’ve also included a couple of my favorite quotes that I found this last year.  They helped me to feel a little less alone and express some of what I have not been able to say.  Hopefully they can serve the same purpose for others in times of need.

“God saw you getting tired and a cure was not to be. So He put his arms around you and whispered, “Come to Me”. –Author Unknown

“Grief never ends…but it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay.  Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith…it is the price of love.” –Author Unknown

“Grieving, like being blind, is a strange business, you have to learn how to do it.  We seek company in mourning, but after the early bursts of tears, after the praises have been spoken, and the good days remembered, and the lament cried, and the grave closed, there is no company in grief.  It is a burden borne alone.” –Ursula K. Le Guin