Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

           I really enjoyed reading this article. I love how all the scholars incorporated current and relevant issues. The skills that the scholars taught are critical to the success of every student’s future, but just telling them that isn’t enough to make them want to learn. The skills can seem boring or unimportant, and sometimes I wonder how I will teach my students in a way that will interest and engage them. I vividly remember poetry units where we connected song lyrics to poems. They were some of my favorite English classes. I definitely plan on doing that during a poetry unit, but I really like the way they used a more recent movie to help frame a classic text. I’ve often wondered how I could make my students actually want to read classic novels. I think this is a smart way to connect all the eras since issues today are quite similar to issues a hundred plus years ago. I like how they were able to inspire their students to think so critically in every unit by making past to present connections. The scholars truly inspired their students like I hope to one day.

            The only concern I have with this is that it’s definitely designed for high school students. The connections that have to be made are difficult to comprehend and execute properly. The scholars even admit that they have to wait until near the end of the school year before attempting to teach some of their units because otherwise the students wouldn’t handle it properly. I know I definitely couldn’t use something so controversial with my seventh graders. I almost feel like the motivation to engage their students was to use sensitive materials. I wonder if they could get the same engagement out of watching Bride and Prejudice before reading a classic novel like Pride and Prejudice. I love their approach to teaching. My philosophy very much aligns with theirs, but I’d like to know how they motivate their students to want to read other genres of classic novels.

Pedagogy of The Oppressed

            Wow. After reading the second chapter from Pedagogy of the Oppressed my thoughts about education have been altered. I have never been a fan of the generalized, fill in the bubble style of tests mandated by states and the government, but Freire’s view is definitely extreme. I don’t think I would go so far as to say that our education was created to oppress upcoming generations into submission. I see the bank education approach as antiquated, not oppressive. Educational needs were far different, even just ten years ago, than they are today. Technology has changed the way the world works, and more critical thinking and creative problem solving are required for students to become successful in the working world. Our world has become, in a sense, flat. People travel around the world for work, but that used to not be the case. Students needed to know more hands on skills to function in their towns. Traveling to a different country for work was rare. As that option has become more and more available, the way we teach has had to change to prepare students to compete with the world for jobs instead of just the people in their town. I see this as the evolution of education. Education today is still evolving to meet our students’ needs and will continue to evolve with each generation. It’s progress. I like the overall message that Freire is sending with his writing, but I don’t completely agree. The way he describes banking education makes it seem like teachers are evil and out crush creativity and the very soul of their students. Thinking about my least favorite teachers when I was in school, I wouldn’t say they were evil. They were just uneducated on various methods that could benefit their students. If Freire is making his extreme statements to help make a point, then I can appreciate his style. His words definitely made me think about testing and my philosophy about education. Education needs to evolve, but not just for students. It needs to be developed and evolved for teachers and their professional development too. Old-school teachers aren’t oppressors, they just lacking support to grow.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

            Assessing students is one of the more difficult aspects of teaching that I am encountering. It’s hard to know if I am creating tests that are too easy or too difficult for students. With actually teaching, I can adapt my lesson to fit my student’s needs, but once I hand them their tests, that’s it. There is no adapting the test until after a group of students have had to experience it. Reading these articles were helpful in reminding me that the way I set up my tests will determine the success of my students taking them. I recently got to sit in with a group of English language arts teachers at my school who were participating in a mini-training session to score Smarter Balance practice tests that the students took earlier in the week. The questions the students had to answer were very specific but the grading rubric was vague. It seemed weird to me that the rubric didn’t match the questions being asked. It made attempting to grade the essays very difficult. The teachers disagreed on two thirds of the questions. It was challenging and it felt unfair to have to put the response up to a vote to get a grade. That should never be the case, especially on a state mandated test. That is why I appreciated the section about creating effective scoring rubrics in the handout “Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning.” I like the idea of setting a standard for what is exceptional work and what is unacceptable work. I think that if the people who created the state tests did that, then there wouldn’t have been so much ambiguity between what constitutes and perfect 3 and a 2. I think that using that strategy will also help me make my assessment goals and grading rubric more clear to students as

Reading Rhetorically

     I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. I am finding I have far more appreciation for educational articles and books now that I am getting a complete understanding of the impact of Common Core standards on the education system. Finding ways to get students to achieve the base skill sets established can seem daunting, especially since I still want to teach fun and classic literature in my room. Articles like this are give wonderful examples of how to get students into the correct mindset for deeper and critical thinking. I love that this article's examples can be used for really any literature piece that requires more than just a cursory glance from my students.
     Initially, I didn't like the entire pre-reading section. I understand the importance of framing any literature piece that my students will read; however, I felt there were so many steps that it would take half a unit to just work up to reading the article, novel, poem, etc. Even though California State University describes so many detailed steps for the pre-reading section, a lot of it is easily combined. I've discovered that before I introduced an environmental article about wolves in Alaska to my students, I had them go through the whole article and write for five minutes about what they thought it would be about and what they already knew about wolves and Alaska. In framing the article first, I saved lots of time for the during and post reading sections because my students were already thinking critically about the subject and were more engaged with the reading and retaining the material. I think I need to keep reminding myself that being an English Language Arts teacher may require a lot of work, but it will be worth it. As I develop and grow as a teacher, this framing of reading, asking questions during, re-reading the piece, and reflecting will become second nature and help me make my students proficient in all standards pertaining to secondary English classes.

Team Teaching

     I have to admit that I love the idea of team teaching. When I first hear of the concept, I thought it was a way for teachers to really lighten their individual work load. I just assumed that it was like two teachers split the work down the middle or one teacher took advanced students and one teacher took struggling students. I enjoyed finding out that team teaching is about way more than minimizing teacher work, and that team teaching means more work for teachers. It is about developing more effective teaching styles and allowing teachers to experiment with new methods to find what works best for students. Team teaching is about collaborating with colleagues and making sure all teachers within a content area are on the same page.
     My favorite thing about reading the articles on team teaching is realizing that my master teacher is using those methods with me. He rarely calls me his student teacher. Tim lets his students know that I am a teacher and a huge resource for his students to use whenever I am in the classroom. I like that I am extra support for his students while he is teaching. This has cut down on questions during lessons and allows the flow of the lesson to be uninterrupted. I also really like when we do alternative teaching. Differentiating instruction is one of the more difficult aspects of teaching. It's hard to create one lesson to challenge every student in the class. Invariably, the advanced students are done early with the assignments and having them always silent read seems ineffective. I like that Tim and I alternate between diving deeper into the lesson with the advanced students and making sure the rest of the students fully understand the objectives of the initial lesson. Team teaching makes me wish that every classroom could have two teachers.

Common Core Standards

     There is no doubt that controversy follows the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) wherever it is set into effect. Parents and teaches alike push back, but are they pushing against the standards being set in place by the government or is it just change that they want to avoid? Reading the first chapter of Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards opened my eyes. My time at Eastern and has made me a bit apprehensive with teaching to the CCSSs when I get into a classroom. Reading this has definitely calmed those concerns. I appreciated how up front Beach, Thein, and Webb are in their writing. They understand that the CCSSs are not perfect, and they aren't afraid to publicly voice the issues and research done to support concerns like poverty and lack of privilege that affect students from exceeding these standards, or forcing curriculum on teachers who already have established an effective unit plan for their classes. But having standards established in a state's school systems does not mean teaching completely changes. They are the ultimate goal, standards are meant to be the bare minimum of what students are able to do by the end of their school year. Reading through the English Language Arts standards, nothing seems unreasonable or unattainable. There is an infinite amount of room for creativity with lesson planning and teaching styles. It makes me feel like teachers who push back and hate the CCSSs do so just because they don't want to update or change their teaching methods or styles. But with our shrinking world, change is unavoidable. If we do not strive for more, we will stagnant and fall further behind in the education of our developing generations. Parents who are completely against the CCSSs must ill informed because setting a bare minimum goal for your child is never a bad thing. Children learn better when they are provided with a structure that challenges them as well. Flexibility is key and teachers and parents alike need to change their thoughts on how education should occur to provide a better education for future generations.

Discussion in A Democrratic Society

     I really enjoyed reading this chapter. At first I thought it was going to be full of obvious common sense knowledge, and in a way, this chapter was. However, remembering that I am working with 7th graders who still need lots of personal and academic development, this chapter is awesome. My favorite part, which I will certainly be using in my classrooms, is the section about defining differences between conversations, discussions, and dialogues. I have never heard of this concept, but I can see how it would be effective in trying to help primary school students distinguish the difference between just talking with their peers and having an engaged discussion. I know that my students need clearly defined guidelines to accomplish any assignment or task, so of course they need clear guidelines in order to understand how to participate in whole class discussions, which are complex tasks even if students spend most of the time just sitting and listening. Defining these types of verbal communication is so simple, and yet it is a small revelation for me as I begin to establish myself as a teacher. This reading is a good example of how setting standards and guidelines for any and all tasks in the classroom is vital.
     I also enjoyed reading about how teachers are becoming more accustomed to using small groups within the class to help encourage students to speak. I was most certainly the quiet student who understood the material, but absolutely refused to be the only student speaking. It may be a common fear, but having 30 pairs of eyes staring intently and judging is hard to overcome. I appreciate that teachers realize more and more that forcing students to speak in front of everyone will not build that student's confidence. Currently in my class when I lead whole class discussions or and having students share, I never make anyone speak. If a student is not comfortable, I'm not going to be the teacher that tells them to suck it up and deal with being uncomfortable. Just like in the reading, I wholeheartedly believe that part of my job is going to be to create an environment where my students learn to be comfortable to share their thoughts or opinions. In time, if I am able to foster the proper environment, students will be willing to share and discuss on their own terms.