For ease of navigation and readability, feel free to use the links below to skip to a specific post. Descriptions for each assignment and response are given under the links.
To read the blog responses in order, in their entirety, please continue reading below the links.
To read the blog responses in order, in their entirety, please continue reading below the links.
A response to an article detailing the process of constructivism producing conceptual change in students.
|
Response Title: "Learning about Critical Pedagogy"
A response to the introductory chapter of Dr. Joan Wink's Critical Pedagogy. |
Response Title; "Where's My Dictionary?"
A response to the language of critical pedagogy as presented in Chapter 2 of the Wink text. |
Response Title: "Krashen the Critical Pedagogue"
A response reflecting on one of the critical pedagogues detailed in chapter 3 of the Wink text. |
Response Title: "Reading is Fundamental"
A response to the importance of reading and specific ways to implement critical pedagogy in the classroom. |
My position statement detailing my current belief about student learning; this post is also my current Philosophy of Teaching.
|
Blog Post #1
Read the article titled Teaching for Conceptual Change and respond to the following questions.
I was surprised that the children held onto their old ideas for so long. I suppose I thought that children were quick to pick up on new concepts but I didn’t realize that their piecemeal ideas about the world were so deeply rooted and difficult to change. I was pleased to see that the teacher did not immediately move into her planned unit after the first experiment but rather gave the children time to further investigate, helping the teacher see other issues or misconceptions that would need to be addressed while also giving the students time to reflect on findings and try to work out their own explanations. Realizing that experience is the best teacher helps to make the best teachers in our classrooms. We trust what we have experienced over what a scientist stuck in a lab has to say about our experiences. Often it is hard for us to connect a scientific principle to the reality we have lived every day. A constructivist teacher allows her students to take their existing knowledge and connect it to freshly learned concepts in ways that help make sense of reality. Rather than presenting a body of knowledge for memorization, a constructivist teacher will take the new knowledge and build it on the existing foundation, to build on the students’ current understanding of the way the world works. The student is more likely to accept and truly understand a new concept if they feel they have had a part in reaching the proper conclusion. The traditional model would have the student memorize the new concepts without addressing previous misconceptions or knowledge, thus leaving the student with often disparate understandings of the world around them.
|
Blog Post #2
What is Critical Pedagogy and Why Does It Matter? Read chapter 1 of the Wink text and respond to the following prompts:
Response Title: Learning about Critical Pedagogy
I wholeheartedly agree "that education is in critical condition." I dream of a classroom where all standardized tests are used as lining for bird cages, but I'm afraid that will only ever be a dream. Although that is not the focus of this chapter, I needed to mention it because of how strongly it resonated with me, and how I believe that critical pedagogy ("teaching and learning that transforms us and our world for the better") is the only way that I can overcome - or at least not be so overwhelmed by - the challenges of working in a profession so filled with bureaucracy but which is also building our future leaders, thinkers, lawmakers, scientists, doctors, workers, parents, and teachers.
I admit it rather shocked me that Dayna did not do any of the required writing assignments throughout the semester in the story that Wink presented. I would understand if she had used her watercolor in place of the final assignment, but you can’t simply abandon the rules to pursue whatever you want. I feel that Dayna should have participated in earlier assignments rather than asking Wink to “trust the learner.” Although Dayna’s outcome was well developed, the professor had no way to check her progress and help her through struggles or challenges. Had Dayna been struggling, she would have had no means of recovery since she only submitted a final assignment. It is very likely, to, that Dayna might have had an even better grasp or understanding of the material had she kept up with the assignments during the semester. I would hope that I would be understanding and supportive if any of my students came to me with an alternative idea for completing an assignment, but I don’t believe my students could learn absolutely nothing from completing an assignment the way I have it described in the syllabus. I hope that I can address the different learning styles of all my students throughout the course of a semester or year without a student feeling the need to completely abandon the structure I have created.
Wink’s reflection on how her children learned to read, leading to her late-blooming passion for reading, quite delighted me. I have been reading since around the age of three, and have been hooked on books my whole life. I used to get in trouble for staying up at night reading with a flashlight under my blanket. I don’t remember if I learned the letters and sounds first, or if I worked backwards from the stories and pictures, but I find it interesting that, even at so young an age, the way in which we are taught something affects our attitude towards it. I was the opposite of Wink in school – I read every assigned page and then some! I completed chapters and assignments ahead of time; I worked extra problems; I even got old textbooks from teachers or yard sales and worked all the problems in them. I couldn’t get enough! I loved, and still love, to read, because reading is an integral part of who I am and how I learn. For reading and all other subjects, it is obviously important to make sure that each student is connecting to the material in a meaningful way, otherwise they will drudge through their school experience much like Wink, maybe making good grades but never going beyond an assignment to pursue learning for the sake of learning. Literacy is crucial to every subject, and as a science teacher and a book lover I feel the need to find ways to promote literacy and make reading more enjoyable for the students in my classes – even if that means deviating from “normal” topics.
Wink brings my fears to light: “While intrigued by [discovery, exploration, and inquiry], many teachers find themselves at a loss in terms of how to structure these kinds of learning experiences in their crowded, assessment-driven classrooms.” I am one of those intrigued teachers. It is obvious that the students learn better when they are actively engaged rather than passively receiving the information. So how do I begin to unlearn my experiences and find ways to actively engage my students?
Most of my educational experience has been based on the transmission model of pedagogy, akin to the behaviorist theory of learning. The teacher talks while the students take notes and try to understand as much as they can. I hope that this is not how I am categorized as a teacher. I feel that I will try to plan my lessons using the generative model, what I would call the inquiry or constructivist method. I would like my students to work together with me to develop their own knowledge and understanding, with me guiding them. I want them to get their hands dirty, ask each other questions, and want to know the answers simply because they are curious. I want them to teach each other the material until they know it better than I do. The only times I can remember feeling like this in a classroom were generally in a laboratory setting, and a few times in English classes as we used different methods to explore our understanding of themes in novels. My earliest clear memory of this was in 4th grade, when we were asked to make an interactive book report over a book we had read during the summer. I chose Jacob Have I Loved and used an oatmeal canister to build a book capsule, and added characters from the book. I cut the side, and when you unrolled the side I had (unskillfully but painstakingly) drawn one of the critical scenes. I also remember a time in an AP English course where we had to draw a representation of the poor guy who turned into a bug in Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Hopefully as I read more of Wink and other educators, I hope that I will learn how to take this generative model and develop it into the transformative model, where the students will take their knowledge out into the community, into the world outside the classroom, and use it to transform the way they live and interact with others. The only time I feel I have experienced this is in one assignment for AP English Literature. We had read Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and decided as a class to do a Reader’s Theater. We elected classmates to be specific characters and chose which lines we felt were important to the story. Finally, after scripting, casting, and a bit of costuming, each class filmed their versions and we spent time viewing the creations of the other classes. The videos were also made available to teachers in other English classes and our Speech/Oral Communications and Drama classes. Besides taking ownership of our own learning experience, we also shared what we had done with others outside our classroom. (Side note to my classmates about this one – if you’ve never read the book, I HIGHLY recommend it. Had I picked it up myself I might have found it pretty depressing, but if you read it with an open mind and an ability to find the crazy humor in some tragic situations, it is actually funny. My favorite line was actually a whole chapter: "My mother is a fish." Anybody read it and agree/disagree?)
As far as learning/unlearning/relearning goes, I have tried to recall a specific instance in my education where I feel that this cycle happened, but nothing comes to mind. I’m sure it has happened, but I probably did not articulate it and so it does not stand out. If I think of something, I will come back and add it.
What is Critical Pedagogy and Why Does It Matter? Read chapter 1 of the Wink text and respond to the following prompts:
- Describe your initial response to what you read. What surprised you? What stuck out to you? What questions do you have?
- Dr. Wink focuses in this section of the text on 3 pedagogical models. What is your understanding of each of the models? Where have you seen these models in your own lived experience?
- When have you learned, relearned, and unlearned? What was the experience like for you?
Response Title: Learning about Critical Pedagogy
I wholeheartedly agree "that education is in critical condition." I dream of a classroom where all standardized tests are used as lining for bird cages, but I'm afraid that will only ever be a dream. Although that is not the focus of this chapter, I needed to mention it because of how strongly it resonated with me, and how I believe that critical pedagogy ("teaching and learning that transforms us and our world for the better") is the only way that I can overcome - or at least not be so overwhelmed by - the challenges of working in a profession so filled with bureaucracy but which is also building our future leaders, thinkers, lawmakers, scientists, doctors, workers, parents, and teachers.
I admit it rather shocked me that Dayna did not do any of the required writing assignments throughout the semester in the story that Wink presented. I would understand if she had used her watercolor in place of the final assignment, but you can’t simply abandon the rules to pursue whatever you want. I feel that Dayna should have participated in earlier assignments rather than asking Wink to “trust the learner.” Although Dayna’s outcome was well developed, the professor had no way to check her progress and help her through struggles or challenges. Had Dayna been struggling, she would have had no means of recovery since she only submitted a final assignment. It is very likely, to, that Dayna might have had an even better grasp or understanding of the material had she kept up with the assignments during the semester. I would hope that I would be understanding and supportive if any of my students came to me with an alternative idea for completing an assignment, but I don’t believe my students could learn absolutely nothing from completing an assignment the way I have it described in the syllabus. I hope that I can address the different learning styles of all my students throughout the course of a semester or year without a student feeling the need to completely abandon the structure I have created.
Wink’s reflection on how her children learned to read, leading to her late-blooming passion for reading, quite delighted me. I have been reading since around the age of three, and have been hooked on books my whole life. I used to get in trouble for staying up at night reading with a flashlight under my blanket. I don’t remember if I learned the letters and sounds first, or if I worked backwards from the stories and pictures, but I find it interesting that, even at so young an age, the way in which we are taught something affects our attitude towards it. I was the opposite of Wink in school – I read every assigned page and then some! I completed chapters and assignments ahead of time; I worked extra problems; I even got old textbooks from teachers or yard sales and worked all the problems in them. I couldn’t get enough! I loved, and still love, to read, because reading is an integral part of who I am and how I learn. For reading and all other subjects, it is obviously important to make sure that each student is connecting to the material in a meaningful way, otherwise they will drudge through their school experience much like Wink, maybe making good grades but never going beyond an assignment to pursue learning for the sake of learning. Literacy is crucial to every subject, and as a science teacher and a book lover I feel the need to find ways to promote literacy and make reading more enjoyable for the students in my classes – even if that means deviating from “normal” topics.
Wink brings my fears to light: “While intrigued by [discovery, exploration, and inquiry], many teachers find themselves at a loss in terms of how to structure these kinds of learning experiences in their crowded, assessment-driven classrooms.” I am one of those intrigued teachers. It is obvious that the students learn better when they are actively engaged rather than passively receiving the information. So how do I begin to unlearn my experiences and find ways to actively engage my students?
Most of my educational experience has been based on the transmission model of pedagogy, akin to the behaviorist theory of learning. The teacher talks while the students take notes and try to understand as much as they can. I hope that this is not how I am categorized as a teacher. I feel that I will try to plan my lessons using the generative model, what I would call the inquiry or constructivist method. I would like my students to work together with me to develop their own knowledge and understanding, with me guiding them. I want them to get their hands dirty, ask each other questions, and want to know the answers simply because they are curious. I want them to teach each other the material until they know it better than I do. The only times I can remember feeling like this in a classroom were generally in a laboratory setting, and a few times in English classes as we used different methods to explore our understanding of themes in novels. My earliest clear memory of this was in 4th grade, when we were asked to make an interactive book report over a book we had read during the summer. I chose Jacob Have I Loved and used an oatmeal canister to build a book capsule, and added characters from the book. I cut the side, and when you unrolled the side I had (unskillfully but painstakingly) drawn one of the critical scenes. I also remember a time in an AP English course where we had to draw a representation of the poor guy who turned into a bug in Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Hopefully as I read more of Wink and other educators, I hope that I will learn how to take this generative model and develop it into the transformative model, where the students will take their knowledge out into the community, into the world outside the classroom, and use it to transform the way they live and interact with others. The only time I feel I have experienced this is in one assignment for AP English Literature. We had read Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and decided as a class to do a Reader’s Theater. We elected classmates to be specific characters and chose which lines we felt were important to the story. Finally, after scripting, casting, and a bit of costuming, each class filmed their versions and we spent time viewing the creations of the other classes. The videos were also made available to teachers in other English classes and our Speech/Oral Communications and Drama classes. Besides taking ownership of our own learning experience, we also shared what we had done with others outside our classroom. (Side note to my classmates about this one – if you’ve never read the book, I HIGHLY recommend it. Had I picked it up myself I might have found it pretty depressing, but if you read it with an open mind and an ability to find the crazy humor in some tragic situations, it is actually funny. My favorite line was actually a whole chapter: "My mother is a fish." Anybody read it and agree/disagree?)
As far as learning/unlearning/relearning goes, I have tried to recall a specific instance in my education where I feel that this cycle happened, but nothing comes to mind. I’m sure it has happened, but I probably did not articulate it and so it does not stand out. If I think of something, I will come back and add it.
- Julia H.’s comment
I also found her experience with reading interesting. I was actually the opposite. I love books as a child. I would make my parents read the same books over and over, so much so that I'd memorized them (I'd actually tricked an aunt into thinking I could read when I was about 3. Couldnt read a stop sign, but I knew the book.)As I grew older I fell out of love with books because I HAD to read so much.
I've only re-developed a love of reading in the last few months. I realized that if I want my own child and my own students to love reading I need to demonstrate that same passion.
Reading Dr. Wink's experience with late-readers and the different ways students learn to read also made me think of some of my students. I dont teach reading, so I don't know how they are being taught, but I wonder if "we" are teaching our students the same way and not considering they may learn in different ways...
Mary B.’s comment
Yes, Yes on the standardized tests lining the bird cage. I have to agree unfortunately that it will never come to fruition.
I too was a bit shocked when Dr. Wink wrote that Danya did not complete writing assignments till the end of the semester. I also understand that learning style played a massive part in why Danya did what she did.
Janelle S.’s comment
I am in the same boat with you on the way she handled Dayna! I was also shocked that she allowed her to just simply tell her to trust her and so she did. I would not have been able to do that. Especially with everyone else doing the assignments. Would it be "fair" for her to give her as good of a grade as the other students in her class?? I would have been happy to give "alternative" assignments but she just didn't do anything till the very end. To be honest, I am still wrestling with this perspective that she had with Dayna.
Donna W.’s comment
You have a very strong start to your blog. It reminded me of a piece a friend of mine just published today, so I thought I would link it here for you - http://www.edusanity.com/2014/02/20/coming-to-a-school-near-you-data-walls/
After you have fun with that, let's return to your question - "So how do I begin to unlearn my experiences and find ways to actively engage my students?" GREAT QUESTION! I have some ideas for you, but before we hit my ideas, I need you to know that Wink chapter 4 and our last weekend together will be full of even more concrete ideas.
And yes, even Wink herself states, "more and more educators focus their pedagogy on discovery, exploration, and inquiry. While intrigued by these ides, many teachers find themselves at a loss in terms of how to structure these kinds of learning experiences in their crowded, assessment-driven classrooms.” Again, your own history of observing teachers and the culture of schools may work against you in terms of implementing this model. And this model is HARD TO IMPLEMENT CORRECTLY. You really have to know what you are doing, have the kids "with" you (rapport, ets), and be willing to take some risks. It's not just about turning kids lose. It is about creating highly structured learning environments for them to explore while you monitor-monitor-monitor and adjust-adjust-adjust.
So ideas... First idea.... start small. Maybe just 1 or 2 projects a year with the goal of taking positive action in the real world with and for your students. And you may not even think about this model your first year until you feel more comfortable with your curriculum and your school environment. But always keep it in the back of your mind.... the goal here is taking positive action in the real world as well as taking into consideration a critical awareness of all the influences around the teaching and learning situation.... kids, teacher, classroom, school, culture(s), "system," news and media, history and culture, etc. and how they impact what is happening.
So that leads me to idea #2. Keep your vision of this model in place. What you might also ask is.... if there is proof that these alternative methodologies are successful why is it such a struggle to implement them into the traditional school system?
Well... there are many reasons, but three big ones spring to the top of my mind... first, the cultural archetype of teacher as "sage on the stage" is so entrenched that we know most teachers revert to that model within 6 months of starting teaching EVEN WHEN they know about all these other models and ways of teaching. The second reason is that the system of standards and tests and accountability actually encourage more traditional approaches and our students are used to traditional approaches. So teachers and students may struggle to move into these "other types" of learning situations. The third reason is that this is just a hard model to implement. Even Wink herself states, "more and more educators focus their pedagogy on discovery, exploration, and inquiry. While intrigued by these ides, many teachers find themselves at a loss in terms of how to structure these kinds of learning experiences in their crowded, assessment-driven classrooms.” Again, your own history of observing teachers and the culture of schools may work against you in terms of implementing this model. And this model is HARD TO IMPLEMENT CORRECTLY. You really have to know what you are doing, have the kids "with" you (rapport, ets), and be willing to take some risks. It's not just about turning kids lose. It is about creating highly structured learning environments for them to explore while you monitor-monitor-monitor and adjust-adjust-adjust.
I think the teacher's style of teaching does depend a lot on the topic being taught, the students' needs, the teacher's own knowledge and preferences, etc. But I do also wonder if teachers are being as critical as they need to be in selecting their approach to the classroom. I know I for one tend to fall in certain "ruts" and need to be jostled a bit to think about what I am doing sometimes. I might recommend just keeping this book and coming back to re-read it next summer. Maybe after a year on the ground (as it were), you can reconsider some of these ideas. Maybe spend a year getting your legs under you, build relationships in your district, then start small. One project a year might not rock the boat (for starters).
Idea #3. Even Wink had to do a few things to make her methods work. She had to build relationships (with administration, with parents) and she had to prove that she was a professional, knew what she was doing, and was making decisions based on the needs of her kids. Once you get that reputation in place in a district (in most districts anyway), you can make more decisions and have some more autonomy. But you do have to build that from the ground up by being professional and communicating and advocating. It's a slow process at start.
I have to end this response by telling you that your rang all my bells. Jacob Have I Loved was my favorite book in 6th grade. I just have read it 50 times that year. And I re-read As I Lay Dying every 2-3 years. It is an absolute favorite of mine from the point that kid drills holes in the mother's coffin and through her face. Ahhh! Love it!
Blog Post #3
The Language of Critical Pedagogy. Read chapter 2 of the Wink text and respond to the prompts:
· Describe your initial response to what you read. What surprised you? What stuck out to you? What questions do you have?
· In chapter 3, Dr. Wink shares the definitions of terms essential to understanding critical pedagogy. First, define the following terms in your OWN language: Critical, Pedagogy, Critical Pedagogy. Next, pick 3 additional terms to define using your OWN language
Response Title: Where’s My Dictionary?
My initial response, which based on last week’s blog is probably a common response among my peers, is that I NEED SOME DEFINITIONS! Examples are great and lovely and wonderful but I need the stability of a good, old-fashioned definition to help me make sense and extract meaning from an example. Wink even points out her own frustration that her professors used to give her books to read to answer her questions about definitions. I trust that her method of providing limited definitions and seemingly unlimited examples and additional texts will help us construct our own understanding of critical pedagogy and the language of critical pedagogy, but that trust is sprinkled with my frustration that she isn’t just telling me what I need to know – she is making me find it myself. Much harder, but also more rewarding.
Some of the examples that she presents are pretty shocking to me. To hear teachers label students as “a terrible problem,” to say that a student “doesn’t know anything” and shouldn’t be tested for a gifted program because his primary language is not English, or to compare “normal” students with the “stupid or crazy…kids” in the next classroom. I want to go up to these teachers and shake them and say, “Don’t you understand that the words you say and the decisions you make will affect these students for the rest of their lives?!?!” My blood is boiling! But I find myself thinking back over my experiences and finding times that I have made these same types of judgments about fellow students. It is painful to me to think of instances where I was the one calling students “normal” or going along with what seemed to be the generally accepted labels for students around me.
I feel like I need more time with this material, to soak in these definitions and maybe look into some of the resources Wink gives to start internalizing these terms and critically examining my experience to make the language of critical pedagogy make more sense and allow me to better understand how it affects the children in my classroom.
Now, for some definitions.
Critical: To be critical is to look at something, a text or a situation, and to be honest about how it makes you feel or think. A critic tells about the good and bad in equal measure. Someone who is criticizing me is pointing out how something I have done or said or some part of who I am does not fit with their vision of reality. Anytime I think of the word critical I always think back to my years of working in the writing center on my college campus, helping students learn to revise their papers by being critical and asking questions about their meaning, word choice, or sentence structure. I feel that asking questions, finding out the why behind something, is an essential part of being critical.
Pedagogy: I have always thought of pedagogy as being the teacher’s part in education. The teacher does or says this with the desired outcome of student learning. Until now, I never really linked teaching and learning together as pedagogy, although it now seems a pretty basic connection to make. How can we do pedagogy by looking only at the teacher and teaching methods, with the students being only a secondary concern? As a teacher, I hope that I never say, “I think this teaching method will work for me” instead of “I think this teaching method is a great way for my students to learn.”
Critical Pedagogy: Critical pedagogy is an honest and ongoing evaluation of how a teacher is teaching and how a student is learning. The teacher and other supporting faculty must be critical, and point out improvements that need to be made, assumptions that need to be reevaluated, and knowledge that must be made more accessible. Students are a key part of this criticizing process, because without discovering how the students are responding to ideas or methods in the classroom, true improvements can never be made. Critical pedagogy is understanding that there is more to the student/teacher relationship than just figuring out the best teaching method for each lesson or unit, that society and culture influence classrooms in substantial ways and that we must find ways to accept our students for who they are, rather than who we want them to be, and deciding how that affects our teaching.
Dialogue & Discourse: Dialogue and discourse are two of the words that I spent the most time with, because I have obviously never noticed the difference in these two terms. When thinking about dialogue, I have always thought about reading lines from a play. Dialogue to me was simply the words that were being said or written. Dialogue, however, is much richer than this. Dialogue is true communication. It might be between two people, where both parties are not just talking at each other, with ideas going in one ear and out the other, but rather both parties are honestly listening to and evaluating each other and figuring out how the opinion of the other changes their opinion of the topic/idea at hand. It might be between a reader and a text, where the reader does not passively scan the words, but looks over the text critically and figuring out how it relates to their current sense of reality. In a dialogue, the learner encounters the information, rewords it, internalizes it, lives with it, and decides what to do with it. In my previous understanding, I would have called these dialogues rather than discourses. A discourse, as I have come to understand (for right now, at least!), is a group of words that exhibit the thoughts and ideas of a group or class of people. Those who are most familiar with the word of a particular group are the ones who have the most power. They are the experts on what it means to be a part of that group. Again, I draw on my experience in the writing center. Students who came to me for help with learning parts of speech and sentence patterns sought my help because I was familiar with the words. I held the power in this situation. I was knowledgeable in the discourse of grammar, and so these students sought my help.
Hegemony: Honestly, I chose to focus on this term because of my recent (and first) reading of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I’m not sure that I had ever even encountered this word up until that point. I never stopped to look up the definition of this unfamiliar word, but as I continued to read, I constructed my own definition that a hegemony is the person or persons that have been chosen (or at least allowed) to occupy a place of power and to exert control over the lives of their “subjects”. This power results in the ruler(s) deciding which knowledge is most important. It allows certain people to be praised for their conformity to the hegemony’s concept of reality and certain people to be marginalized or punished for the nonconformity. It is a dictatorship in which those being ruled over can only succeed if they stick to the status quo.
I am certain that I will be back to read this chapter again at least one more time, to help better understand the discourse of critical pedagogy.
· Donna W.’s comment (three comments, compiled here as one)
I am glad you are shocked by some of the examples she gives. Let me give you another one that ties into this week's reading. Today, my niece's "gifted" class took a field trip to a news station in her home town in Texas. The class has 30 kids. 23 are actually "coded" gifted. The other 7 are not, but are considered "bright enough" to be in the class. My niece is NOT coded gifted. We don't know if she qualifies as gifted or not because she missed the testing period as she was moving schools due to her dad's military relocation. So on today's field trip.... only the 23 coded gifted kids got to go. Now.... does that seem equitable? And why are only the "gifted" kids getting this trip anyway?
I'll climb off my soapbox now.
ah... one more thought. You did a GREAT job with these definitions. I just wanted to add a wee bit more language.
Yes... discourse is really a specialized language owned by a social group. Educators have a discourse. We have a specialized language that includes words like "Common Core" and "Tess" and "Critical Pedagogy". If you know these words, you are an insider. If you do not know these words, then you are made to feel marginalized.
Ooo. I found an earlier definition I wrote for hegemony to share with you.
Hegemony is also a tough word. At root, it means the dominance of one social group over another, often with the dominated groups consent (conscious or unconscious). In schools it means that one social norm is taken as the "norm" to which all students and teachers must comply. Often that social norm is the standard middle class culturally homogeneous idea of what is acceptable and what is not. So those students who do not comply to these behavioral or academic goals are punished or shunned or “left behind”.
The Language of Critical Pedagogy. Read chapter 2 of the Wink text and respond to the prompts:
· Describe your initial response to what you read. What surprised you? What stuck out to you? What questions do you have?
· In chapter 3, Dr. Wink shares the definitions of terms essential to understanding critical pedagogy. First, define the following terms in your OWN language: Critical, Pedagogy, Critical Pedagogy. Next, pick 3 additional terms to define using your OWN language
Response Title: Where’s My Dictionary?
My initial response, which based on last week’s blog is probably a common response among my peers, is that I NEED SOME DEFINITIONS! Examples are great and lovely and wonderful but I need the stability of a good, old-fashioned definition to help me make sense and extract meaning from an example. Wink even points out her own frustration that her professors used to give her books to read to answer her questions about definitions. I trust that her method of providing limited definitions and seemingly unlimited examples and additional texts will help us construct our own understanding of critical pedagogy and the language of critical pedagogy, but that trust is sprinkled with my frustration that she isn’t just telling me what I need to know – she is making me find it myself. Much harder, but also more rewarding.
Some of the examples that she presents are pretty shocking to me. To hear teachers label students as “a terrible problem,” to say that a student “doesn’t know anything” and shouldn’t be tested for a gifted program because his primary language is not English, or to compare “normal” students with the “stupid or crazy…kids” in the next classroom. I want to go up to these teachers and shake them and say, “Don’t you understand that the words you say and the decisions you make will affect these students for the rest of their lives?!?!” My blood is boiling! But I find myself thinking back over my experiences and finding times that I have made these same types of judgments about fellow students. It is painful to me to think of instances where I was the one calling students “normal” or going along with what seemed to be the generally accepted labels for students around me.
I feel like I need more time with this material, to soak in these definitions and maybe look into some of the resources Wink gives to start internalizing these terms and critically examining my experience to make the language of critical pedagogy make more sense and allow me to better understand how it affects the children in my classroom.
Now, for some definitions.
Critical: To be critical is to look at something, a text or a situation, and to be honest about how it makes you feel or think. A critic tells about the good and bad in equal measure. Someone who is criticizing me is pointing out how something I have done or said or some part of who I am does not fit with their vision of reality. Anytime I think of the word critical I always think back to my years of working in the writing center on my college campus, helping students learn to revise their papers by being critical and asking questions about their meaning, word choice, or sentence structure. I feel that asking questions, finding out the why behind something, is an essential part of being critical.
Pedagogy: I have always thought of pedagogy as being the teacher’s part in education. The teacher does or says this with the desired outcome of student learning. Until now, I never really linked teaching and learning together as pedagogy, although it now seems a pretty basic connection to make. How can we do pedagogy by looking only at the teacher and teaching methods, with the students being only a secondary concern? As a teacher, I hope that I never say, “I think this teaching method will work for me” instead of “I think this teaching method is a great way for my students to learn.”
Critical Pedagogy: Critical pedagogy is an honest and ongoing evaluation of how a teacher is teaching and how a student is learning. The teacher and other supporting faculty must be critical, and point out improvements that need to be made, assumptions that need to be reevaluated, and knowledge that must be made more accessible. Students are a key part of this criticizing process, because without discovering how the students are responding to ideas or methods in the classroom, true improvements can never be made. Critical pedagogy is understanding that there is more to the student/teacher relationship than just figuring out the best teaching method for each lesson or unit, that society and culture influence classrooms in substantial ways and that we must find ways to accept our students for who they are, rather than who we want them to be, and deciding how that affects our teaching.
Dialogue & Discourse: Dialogue and discourse are two of the words that I spent the most time with, because I have obviously never noticed the difference in these two terms. When thinking about dialogue, I have always thought about reading lines from a play. Dialogue to me was simply the words that were being said or written. Dialogue, however, is much richer than this. Dialogue is true communication. It might be between two people, where both parties are not just talking at each other, with ideas going in one ear and out the other, but rather both parties are honestly listening to and evaluating each other and figuring out how the opinion of the other changes their opinion of the topic/idea at hand. It might be between a reader and a text, where the reader does not passively scan the words, but looks over the text critically and figuring out how it relates to their current sense of reality. In a dialogue, the learner encounters the information, rewords it, internalizes it, lives with it, and decides what to do with it. In my previous understanding, I would have called these dialogues rather than discourses. A discourse, as I have come to understand (for right now, at least!), is a group of words that exhibit the thoughts and ideas of a group or class of people. Those who are most familiar with the word of a particular group are the ones who have the most power. They are the experts on what it means to be a part of that group. Again, I draw on my experience in the writing center. Students who came to me for help with learning parts of speech and sentence patterns sought my help because I was familiar with the words. I held the power in this situation. I was knowledgeable in the discourse of grammar, and so these students sought my help.
Hegemony: Honestly, I chose to focus on this term because of my recent (and first) reading of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I’m not sure that I had ever even encountered this word up until that point. I never stopped to look up the definition of this unfamiliar word, but as I continued to read, I constructed my own definition that a hegemony is the person or persons that have been chosen (or at least allowed) to occupy a place of power and to exert control over the lives of their “subjects”. This power results in the ruler(s) deciding which knowledge is most important. It allows certain people to be praised for their conformity to the hegemony’s concept of reality and certain people to be marginalized or punished for the nonconformity. It is a dictatorship in which those being ruled over can only succeed if they stick to the status quo.
I am certain that I will be back to read this chapter again at least one more time, to help better understand the discourse of critical pedagogy.
· Donna W.’s comment (three comments, compiled here as one)
I am glad you are shocked by some of the examples she gives. Let me give you another one that ties into this week's reading. Today, my niece's "gifted" class took a field trip to a news station in her home town in Texas. The class has 30 kids. 23 are actually "coded" gifted. The other 7 are not, but are considered "bright enough" to be in the class. My niece is NOT coded gifted. We don't know if she qualifies as gifted or not because she missed the testing period as she was moving schools due to her dad's military relocation. So on today's field trip.... only the 23 coded gifted kids got to go. Now.... does that seem equitable? And why are only the "gifted" kids getting this trip anyway?
I'll climb off my soapbox now.
ah... one more thought. You did a GREAT job with these definitions. I just wanted to add a wee bit more language.
Yes... discourse is really a specialized language owned by a social group. Educators have a discourse. We have a specialized language that includes words like "Common Core" and "Tess" and "Critical Pedagogy". If you know these words, you are an insider. If you do not know these words, then you are made to feel marginalized.
Ooo. I found an earlier definition I wrote for hegemony to share with you.
Hegemony is also a tough word. At root, it means the dominance of one social group over another, often with the dominated groups consent (conscious or unconscious). In schools it means that one social norm is taken as the "norm" to which all students and teachers must comply. Often that social norm is the standard middle class culturally homogeneous idea of what is acceptable and what is not. So those students who do not comply to these behavioral or academic goals are punished or shunned or “left behind”.
Blog Post #4
The Roots of Critical Pedagogy. Choose one critical pedagogues from Wink, Chapter 3. Research their life and their work. Create a product to represent/explain them and upload to your blog
Response Title: Krashen the Critical Pedagogue
I chose to focus on one of the briefly mentioned critical pedagogues, Stephen Krashen. Although he gets much less focus than some of the other "main" critical pedagogues mentioned by Wink in this chapter, his ideas resonated with me in a big way.
The product I chose to create is something I would probably use at the middle school level or early secondary level. I created a calendar for March 2014 that incorporates significant historical events, the birthdays of historical figures (authors, politicians, etc.), and cultural events. It also uses white space to focus on different languages (could be any but I would probably go with the linguistic backgrounds of my students).
The goal of this product, which is briefly stated on the calendar, is to have students connect with one of these people, languages, historical events or holidays by choosing one and reading more about it in a resource provided by me in the classroom (book, article, newspaper, magazine, etc.). They would then share what they learned with the class, which will hopefully spark the interest of other students.
The only thing I would have liked to have done a bit differently is to include more cultural variety, as many of the items represented on the calendar come from the U.S., but in actual implementation I could use my own resources - parents and families of students - to include more diversity.
Krashen's focus is on the necessity of fostering literacy in a student's native language in order to help them become more literate in a second language, which results in the student developing a much deeper overall literacy. I connected so deeply with him because I LOVE language. I have books scattered all around my house and am always reading three or four different things. I love nonfiction, fiction, magazines, blogs, practically anything! I truly believe that literacy is key to student achievement at all levels, and by encouraging ESL and bilingual students to continue developing literacy in their native tongue, we are helping foster a love of language that will spill out into every area of their life, rather than making them feel ashamed of their native language and possibly preventing them from truly mastering English.
Now, enough words, let's read the world...through a calendar. The link is a PDF: Pedagogue Calendar (the link will open in a new window)
Janelle S.’s comment
This is a really cool idea!! I love the thought of using the calendar in this way. It gives a fresh approach to learning and gives the students variety!
Kyla G.’s comment
Nice job on the calendar! Is this really the 25th anniversary of the Valdez oil spill?! Wow, does that make me fill old!! I still remember when that happened. I have also been to Valdez since the spill was cleaned up and what a beautiful place. I have a picture of the gorgeous mountains and have told people to imagine this view while turning a complete circle!!!
If you ever get a chance to visit, GO!
Julie T.’s comment
I love things that have random facts on them. It makes it interesting for me. This would be a great focal point in a classroom so that all the students have something they can look at and find something that interests them. It has a lot of choices and that's great! Gone are the days of one single project for everyone!
Jessica H.’s comment
The calendar was nicely created. Your idea on having the student pick a book, article, etc to read to a great idea. It's a way to show them all the different events that take place in that particular month. It could also show them events that may not be taught, but it could make them aware of them. It's a neat way to see what all took place in time!
Donna W.’s comment
It's funny. I am very fond of Stephen Krashen. Maybe it's because he is a literacy person. I guess I am not quite understanding how the calendar tells us about Krashen and why Krashen is considered a critical pedagogue? But I think this is a just a "me" problem. Is the idea that the calendar promotes a love of literacy and language just as Krashen promotes these ideas in his work?
The Roots of Critical Pedagogy. Choose one critical pedagogues from Wink, Chapter 3. Research their life and their work. Create a product to represent/explain them and upload to your blog
Response Title: Krashen the Critical Pedagogue
I chose to focus on one of the briefly mentioned critical pedagogues, Stephen Krashen. Although he gets much less focus than some of the other "main" critical pedagogues mentioned by Wink in this chapter, his ideas resonated with me in a big way.
The product I chose to create is something I would probably use at the middle school level or early secondary level. I created a calendar for March 2014 that incorporates significant historical events, the birthdays of historical figures (authors, politicians, etc.), and cultural events. It also uses white space to focus on different languages (could be any but I would probably go with the linguistic backgrounds of my students).
The goal of this product, which is briefly stated on the calendar, is to have students connect with one of these people, languages, historical events or holidays by choosing one and reading more about it in a resource provided by me in the classroom (book, article, newspaper, magazine, etc.). They would then share what they learned with the class, which will hopefully spark the interest of other students.
The only thing I would have liked to have done a bit differently is to include more cultural variety, as many of the items represented on the calendar come from the U.S., but in actual implementation I could use my own resources - parents and families of students - to include more diversity.
Krashen's focus is on the necessity of fostering literacy in a student's native language in order to help them become more literate in a second language, which results in the student developing a much deeper overall literacy. I connected so deeply with him because I LOVE language. I have books scattered all around my house and am always reading three or four different things. I love nonfiction, fiction, magazines, blogs, practically anything! I truly believe that literacy is key to student achievement at all levels, and by encouraging ESL and bilingual students to continue developing literacy in their native tongue, we are helping foster a love of language that will spill out into every area of their life, rather than making them feel ashamed of their native language and possibly preventing them from truly mastering English.
Now, enough words, let's read the world...through a calendar. The link is a PDF: Pedagogue Calendar (the link will open in a new window)
Janelle S.’s comment
This is a really cool idea!! I love the thought of using the calendar in this way. It gives a fresh approach to learning and gives the students variety!
Kyla G.’s comment
Nice job on the calendar! Is this really the 25th anniversary of the Valdez oil spill?! Wow, does that make me fill old!! I still remember when that happened. I have also been to Valdez since the spill was cleaned up and what a beautiful place. I have a picture of the gorgeous mountains and have told people to imagine this view while turning a complete circle!!!
If you ever get a chance to visit, GO!
Julie T.’s comment
I love things that have random facts on them. It makes it interesting for me. This would be a great focal point in a classroom so that all the students have something they can look at and find something that interests them. It has a lot of choices and that's great! Gone are the days of one single project for everyone!
Jessica H.’s comment
The calendar was nicely created. Your idea on having the student pick a book, article, etc to read to a great idea. It's a way to show them all the different events that take place in that particular month. It could also show them events that may not be taught, but it could make them aware of them. It's a neat way to see what all took place in time!
Donna W.’s comment
It's funny. I am very fond of Stephen Krashen. Maybe it's because he is a literacy person. I guess I am not quite understanding how the calendar tells us about Krashen and why Krashen is considered a critical pedagogue? But I think this is a just a "me" problem. Is the idea that the calendar promotes a love of literacy and language just as Krashen promotes these ideas in his work?
Blog Post #5
How Do We Do Critical Pedagogy? Wink text ch 4: 142-172
· Describe your initial response to what you read. What surprised you? What stuck out to you? What questions do you have?
· Choose one of the strategies Dr. Wink shares in chapter 4. Write about how you might use this strategy in your own classroom practice. Be as specific as possible.
· Dr. Wink talks about DEMOCRATIC PEDAGOGY on page 144. What is democratic pedagogy? Why might it be important? How does this concept relate to the two (or three) pedagogical models shared in the text?
Response Title: Reading is Fundamental
Yet again, I find myself connecting with Wink. Her emphasis on reading as a fundamental part of helping our students become learners really resonates with me. I am reminded of a friend of mine who has been teaching for over 15 years. One of the things she does with her classes is to read a short story by O. Henry, “The Ransom of Red Chief”. If you’ve never read it or heard of it, do yourself a favor and go check it out – it really is a SHORT story. Sometimes her students are confused that she is reading aloud what seems like a ramdom story, but the whole class joins in laughter when they find that the kidnapper in the story is actually willing to pay the father to take back his son because of all the trouble he caused. The students often end up asking more questions about the story, the author, and any recommendations on other things that have this kind of comedic value. Many of the students are not readers, and have never felt an exciting connection with the characters and stories in the world of literature.
Our society doesn’t seem to have a problem with this. Popular books these days tend to be made (or remade) into movies. By the time a student decides that he or she might read that book in that teen series that everyone else is reading, the trailer for the movie comes out and the student decides that it would be easier and more fun to just wait and watch the movie instead of wasting time reading a book.
I like Wink’s “The Messenger and the Scribe” activity. I think this would work really well in a lesson covering mutations in DNA. I would divide the class in half, then pair students up. In each pair, I would ask the student to choose a messenger (responsible for reading and reporting) and a scribe (responsible for recording the messenger’s words exactly). On one side of the class, I would have the steps of DNA transcription. Each step would be numbered, but the messengers would each start their journey around the room at a different point, meaning that they would need to remember both the number of the step and the description of the step. The other side of the room would have the steps of DNA translation posted, with the students performing in exactly the same way as the transcription group. After both sides of the room are finished collecting and recording the “messages,” I would have the scribes from each group come up and read their recorded steps in order. I would then read aloud the actual steps that were posted in the room, and as a class we would point out the differences between the original text and the text the scribes ended up with and discuss the possible reasons for these differences. This would be a perfect way to talk about DNA mutations that can occur during transcription and translation and the probable causes of these mutations.
Democratic pedagogy is teaching and learning that is meaningful to all participants. In this environment, the critical eyes of the teachers and administrators would always be on the lookout for ways in which students are being excluded from the learning environment, either by personal choice or by a lack of communication between other students and/or the teacher in the class. It is an environment in which questions are asked and the answers are powerful change agents. The opinions of students and teachers matters. Choice is a critical element in the establishment of democratic pedagogy. Participants must be willing to be open-minded when listening to the opinions of others, and must be willing to compromise or make complete changes in the teaching and learning process.
I believe that democratic pedagogy and critical pedagogy are one and the same. In Critical Education, the first model presented, the roles of the teacher and student are interconnected, dependent on each other. The students see (probably without ever naming) that the teacher is empowering them to learn, and the teacher observes her students to be sure that she is engaging everyone and providing diversity to appeal to the learning styles and backgrounds of the students. Cooperation is essential to critical (democratic) pedagogy. The Banking Education model is a lot like the democracy we seem to see most often these days. The leaders (teachers) make all the decisions and hold all the knowledge, while the students respond in the way they are expected to respond, with little to no back-and-forth occurring in the relationship. The teachers tend to teach in a way that they believe reaches the majority of the students in their class, without considering ways to reach out to diverse learners or evaluate methodologies that do not support the learning of all students. This is the version of democracy that seems to reign in our education system. I will refrain from commenting on the political system…
This chapter gave me some useful tools. I also saw that I have “done” critical pedagogy for many years without ever naming it, or even giving it much thought. I have always believed that each student is different, and what works for many students does not work for all students. One of the most rewarding parts of teaching for me is when a student says, “No one has ever said it that way before, and now it makes sense.” To me, that is the reason why I will continue to learn more about theory and let theory inform my practice, so that I can continue to help students have these “Aha!” moments.
Donna W.’s comment
I'm glad Wink still speaks to you. You've done a super job with this. I particularly like your adaptation of the messenger and scribe. Nicely done!
How Do We Do Critical Pedagogy? Wink text ch 4: 142-172
· Describe your initial response to what you read. What surprised you? What stuck out to you? What questions do you have?
· Choose one of the strategies Dr. Wink shares in chapter 4. Write about how you might use this strategy in your own classroom practice. Be as specific as possible.
· Dr. Wink talks about DEMOCRATIC PEDAGOGY on page 144. What is democratic pedagogy? Why might it be important? How does this concept relate to the two (or three) pedagogical models shared in the text?
Response Title: Reading is Fundamental
Yet again, I find myself connecting with Wink. Her emphasis on reading as a fundamental part of helping our students become learners really resonates with me. I am reminded of a friend of mine who has been teaching for over 15 years. One of the things she does with her classes is to read a short story by O. Henry, “The Ransom of Red Chief”. If you’ve never read it or heard of it, do yourself a favor and go check it out – it really is a SHORT story. Sometimes her students are confused that she is reading aloud what seems like a ramdom story, but the whole class joins in laughter when they find that the kidnapper in the story is actually willing to pay the father to take back his son because of all the trouble he caused. The students often end up asking more questions about the story, the author, and any recommendations on other things that have this kind of comedic value. Many of the students are not readers, and have never felt an exciting connection with the characters and stories in the world of literature.
Our society doesn’t seem to have a problem with this. Popular books these days tend to be made (or remade) into movies. By the time a student decides that he or she might read that book in that teen series that everyone else is reading, the trailer for the movie comes out and the student decides that it would be easier and more fun to just wait and watch the movie instead of wasting time reading a book.
I like Wink’s “The Messenger and the Scribe” activity. I think this would work really well in a lesson covering mutations in DNA. I would divide the class in half, then pair students up. In each pair, I would ask the student to choose a messenger (responsible for reading and reporting) and a scribe (responsible for recording the messenger’s words exactly). On one side of the class, I would have the steps of DNA transcription. Each step would be numbered, but the messengers would each start their journey around the room at a different point, meaning that they would need to remember both the number of the step and the description of the step. The other side of the room would have the steps of DNA translation posted, with the students performing in exactly the same way as the transcription group. After both sides of the room are finished collecting and recording the “messages,” I would have the scribes from each group come up and read their recorded steps in order. I would then read aloud the actual steps that were posted in the room, and as a class we would point out the differences between the original text and the text the scribes ended up with and discuss the possible reasons for these differences. This would be a perfect way to talk about DNA mutations that can occur during transcription and translation and the probable causes of these mutations.
Democratic pedagogy is teaching and learning that is meaningful to all participants. In this environment, the critical eyes of the teachers and administrators would always be on the lookout for ways in which students are being excluded from the learning environment, either by personal choice or by a lack of communication between other students and/or the teacher in the class. It is an environment in which questions are asked and the answers are powerful change agents. The opinions of students and teachers matters. Choice is a critical element in the establishment of democratic pedagogy. Participants must be willing to be open-minded when listening to the opinions of others, and must be willing to compromise or make complete changes in the teaching and learning process.
I believe that democratic pedagogy and critical pedagogy are one and the same. In Critical Education, the first model presented, the roles of the teacher and student are interconnected, dependent on each other. The students see (probably without ever naming) that the teacher is empowering them to learn, and the teacher observes her students to be sure that she is engaging everyone and providing diversity to appeal to the learning styles and backgrounds of the students. Cooperation is essential to critical (democratic) pedagogy. The Banking Education model is a lot like the democracy we seem to see most often these days. The leaders (teachers) make all the decisions and hold all the knowledge, while the students respond in the way they are expected to respond, with little to no back-and-forth occurring in the relationship. The teachers tend to teach in a way that they believe reaches the majority of the students in their class, without considering ways to reach out to diverse learners or evaluate methodologies that do not support the learning of all students. This is the version of democracy that seems to reign in our education system. I will refrain from commenting on the political system…
This chapter gave me some useful tools. I also saw that I have “done” critical pedagogy for many years without ever naming it, or even giving it much thought. I have always believed that each student is different, and what works for many students does not work for all students. One of the most rewarding parts of teaching for me is when a student says, “No one has ever said it that way before, and now it makes sense.” To me, that is the reason why I will continue to learn more about theory and let theory inform my practice, so that I can continue to help students have these “Aha!” moments.
Donna W.’s comment
I'm glad Wink still speaks to you. You've done a super job with this. I particularly like your adaptation of the messenger and scribe. Nicely done!
Blog Post #6
You have spent considerable time this semester looking at theories and systems describing “how humans learn”. Describe your personal philosophy of education with a primary emphasis on how humans learn and how your teaching practice will support that learning process. Your position should be grounded in a specific, research-based theoretical paradigm chosen and detailed with rich description. Your position should also include an alignment of your theory with strategies, assessments, and a consideration of development and diversity. In this class, we have engaged in a critical, interdisciplinary examination of schooling in a diverse society. So you may also want to consider your chosen profession and role as a teacher in the context of the larger society.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
My Future Classroom Click for more options
Posted by Access the profile card for user: Brandi Hanson Brandi Hanson at Tuesday, April 8, 2014 11:52:25 PM CDT
My personal philosophy of education is in line with Vygotsky’s constructivist theory of learning, and bolstered by the critical pedagogist Stephen Krashen.
Every child possesses a curiosity for learning. Although that curiosity might manifest itself in different ways, that curiosity can be harnessed in the classroom to help the students build an intrinsic motivation for learning. Although this curiosity is sometimes suppressed by the time a student reaches junior high or high school, I believe that the proper classroom conditions can help students recapture this desire for knowledge. Allowing students to discover ways in which they can connect prior knowledge with new concepts helps build their confidence and encourages them to take responsibility for their future learning. It also assures them that they already possess meaningful knowledge. If new concepts are presented without connecting previous knowledge, the student might feel that their prior knowledge was somehow invalid, or they may feel that their prior experiences are not seen as valuable and useful. This connecting of prior and new knowledge is supported by the concept of scaffolding, in which students have a knowledge base on which the teacher bases new learning. As the student takes ownership of the new learning, the teacher can move to the next level of scaffolding, removing the prior scaffold and allowing the student to feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence to move on to new concepts. This is the sense of accomplishment and confidence that I hope to instill in students by helping them see how their prior learning is important.
The constructivist philosophy also encompasses the social background of the student, understanding that all prior experiences contribute to the way in which a student learns and assimilates information. I especially connect with the concept of the zone of proximal development, in which the student’s “I can’t do this” turns into “I can do this with assistance,” and eventually into “I can do this on my own.” When the teacher facilitates student growth by providing positive feedback and opportunities for students to take charge of the learning environment by being active participants, the students become capable of doing more than they might have ever thought possible.
Students should be encouraged to share their own cultural backgrounds in the classroom, as they can be some of the most useful experiences for developing connections to new learning. Embracing student culture and language increases the comfort level of students, assuring them that their culture is relevant and important and leading to a richness of diversity in the classroom. Both I and the students will benefit from sharing our culturally grounded perspectives on different topics and issues that arise in the classroom. By encouraging students to be open with sharing their own experiences, I will also be fostering their love of learning by not denying them the opportunity to connect past experience with new learning. I also hope that this will help me connect to the parents of my students, because I know that they are a critical part of ensuring student success. If parents feel that their students are being listened to, they may also feel comfortable speaking to me about student progress and concerns. Learning does not begin or end in the classroom, and I hope that I can convey that to my students and their families.
I will always model to my students the importance of reading. I believe that reading and being exposed to various authors and ideas can be an important tool in helping a student take ownership of their learning experience. Stephen Krashen advocates the importance of literacy, especially literacy in a student’s native language. The importance of being able to read a newspaper, magazine, blog, poem, book, short story, or any other work of fiction or nonfiction cannot be overhyped. Reading is an essential piece to student learning. I also agree that students should be encouraged to pursue reading in their native language, especially if they are in an English classroom but are not native English speakers. These students have a rich linguistic and cultural background, with a family that has meaningful experiences to share, but if these students are made to feel as if their language or experience is not important because it is not in English, then a great disservice is being done. I will always invite my students to be proud of their heritage, no matter what that heritage may be, and to find ways to make connections with other students and new concepts based on that heritage. Culture is a powerful tool, and if I validate my students’ cultural experiences, I can help them attain the self-confidence that is an essential part of truly owning their learning.
Student assessment in my classroom will be rich and varied, just like my students. Objective assessments, such as tests and quizzes, will provide explicit opportunities for checking student learning. I also plan to have my students use a lab notebook, which will help chronicle their progress throughout the school year, acting as a portfolio of sorts. Knowledge checks during instructional time, asking questions during pair and group work, and using peer review and evaluation are just a few other ways that I intend to assess student learning.
My classroom will be full of questions. I will question myself, question students, question the textbook and the curriculum, always in pursuit of student growth and learning. Questioning myself ensures that I am naming, reflecting critically, and acting appropriately. Questioning the students involves helping them discover prior knowledge and make meaningful connections with new material. Questioning the textbook and the curriculum will keep me from becoming stagnant. Just because something works for one group of students does not mean it will work for the next. I hope that developing students’ intrinsic motivation, accepting students’ cultural and social backgrounds, appropriately building and removing scaffolding, expanding students’ zones of proximal development, encouraging literacy, and challenging myself to develop teaching materials based on student needs rather than my own, that my classroom will be one in which my students and I are all free and able to learn.
You have spent considerable time this semester looking at theories and systems describing “how humans learn”. Describe your personal philosophy of education with a primary emphasis on how humans learn and how your teaching practice will support that learning process. Your position should be grounded in a specific, research-based theoretical paradigm chosen and detailed with rich description. Your position should also include an alignment of your theory with strategies, assessments, and a consideration of development and diversity. In this class, we have engaged in a critical, interdisciplinary examination of schooling in a diverse society. So you may also want to consider your chosen profession and role as a teacher in the context of the larger society.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
My Future Classroom Click for more options
Posted by Access the profile card for user: Brandi Hanson Brandi Hanson at Tuesday, April 8, 2014 11:52:25 PM CDT
My personal philosophy of education is in line with Vygotsky’s constructivist theory of learning, and bolstered by the critical pedagogist Stephen Krashen.
Every child possesses a curiosity for learning. Although that curiosity might manifest itself in different ways, that curiosity can be harnessed in the classroom to help the students build an intrinsic motivation for learning. Although this curiosity is sometimes suppressed by the time a student reaches junior high or high school, I believe that the proper classroom conditions can help students recapture this desire for knowledge. Allowing students to discover ways in which they can connect prior knowledge with new concepts helps build their confidence and encourages them to take responsibility for their future learning. It also assures them that they already possess meaningful knowledge. If new concepts are presented without connecting previous knowledge, the student might feel that their prior knowledge was somehow invalid, or they may feel that their prior experiences are not seen as valuable and useful. This connecting of prior and new knowledge is supported by the concept of scaffolding, in which students have a knowledge base on which the teacher bases new learning. As the student takes ownership of the new learning, the teacher can move to the next level of scaffolding, removing the prior scaffold and allowing the student to feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence to move on to new concepts. This is the sense of accomplishment and confidence that I hope to instill in students by helping them see how their prior learning is important.
The constructivist philosophy also encompasses the social background of the student, understanding that all prior experiences contribute to the way in which a student learns and assimilates information. I especially connect with the concept of the zone of proximal development, in which the student’s “I can’t do this” turns into “I can do this with assistance,” and eventually into “I can do this on my own.” When the teacher facilitates student growth by providing positive feedback and opportunities for students to take charge of the learning environment by being active participants, the students become capable of doing more than they might have ever thought possible.
Students should be encouraged to share their own cultural backgrounds in the classroom, as they can be some of the most useful experiences for developing connections to new learning. Embracing student culture and language increases the comfort level of students, assuring them that their culture is relevant and important and leading to a richness of diversity in the classroom. Both I and the students will benefit from sharing our culturally grounded perspectives on different topics and issues that arise in the classroom. By encouraging students to be open with sharing their own experiences, I will also be fostering their love of learning by not denying them the opportunity to connect past experience with new learning. I also hope that this will help me connect to the parents of my students, because I know that they are a critical part of ensuring student success. If parents feel that their students are being listened to, they may also feel comfortable speaking to me about student progress and concerns. Learning does not begin or end in the classroom, and I hope that I can convey that to my students and their families.
I will always model to my students the importance of reading. I believe that reading and being exposed to various authors and ideas can be an important tool in helping a student take ownership of their learning experience. Stephen Krashen advocates the importance of literacy, especially literacy in a student’s native language. The importance of being able to read a newspaper, magazine, blog, poem, book, short story, or any other work of fiction or nonfiction cannot be overhyped. Reading is an essential piece to student learning. I also agree that students should be encouraged to pursue reading in their native language, especially if they are in an English classroom but are not native English speakers. These students have a rich linguistic and cultural background, with a family that has meaningful experiences to share, but if these students are made to feel as if their language or experience is not important because it is not in English, then a great disservice is being done. I will always invite my students to be proud of their heritage, no matter what that heritage may be, and to find ways to make connections with other students and new concepts based on that heritage. Culture is a powerful tool, and if I validate my students’ cultural experiences, I can help them attain the self-confidence that is an essential part of truly owning their learning.
Student assessment in my classroom will be rich and varied, just like my students. Objective assessments, such as tests and quizzes, will provide explicit opportunities for checking student learning. I also plan to have my students use a lab notebook, which will help chronicle their progress throughout the school year, acting as a portfolio of sorts. Knowledge checks during instructional time, asking questions during pair and group work, and using peer review and evaluation are just a few other ways that I intend to assess student learning.
My classroom will be full of questions. I will question myself, question students, question the textbook and the curriculum, always in pursuit of student growth and learning. Questioning myself ensures that I am naming, reflecting critically, and acting appropriately. Questioning the students involves helping them discover prior knowledge and make meaningful connections with new material. Questioning the textbook and the curriculum will keep me from becoming stagnant. Just because something works for one group of students does not mean it will work for the next. I hope that developing students’ intrinsic motivation, accepting students’ cultural and social backgrounds, appropriately building and removing scaffolding, expanding students’ zones of proximal development, encouraging literacy, and challenging myself to develop teaching materials based on student needs rather than my own, that my classroom will be one in which my students and I are all free and able to learn.