Creating a Compassionate Community Reflection

During the first two weeks of this semester, this last semester before student teaching (eeeekkkk!!), my fellow teacher education students and I have jumped right into getting ready for student teaching in the spring. We are learning methods for teaching various subjects and learning how to tie them all together into one meaningful learning experience for our students.

In our teacher education course that is combined with our final reading course we are continuing to discuss what it means to create a compassionate community in our classrooms. Last semester we starting developing plans for how to create a classroom community comprised of learners who are compassionate and motivated. This semester we are continuing to develop those plans and are learning how to build the ideas of what it means to be compassionate into all the lessons we teach.

We have watched videos and read text to help us brainstorm ideas and engage in discussion with our colleagues. One of the videos we watched was  by Thich Nhat Hanh called "The Art of Mindfulness. Click this link to watch: The Art of Mindfulness Video. This video teaches us to be mindful of what is happening in our lives. It points out that no matter where we are in our lives and what we are doing the simplest of tasks can be enjoyable if we put meaning to them. Thich Nhat Hanh talks in the video about the energy is that we bring to our lives. He talks about how we can learn to control our emotions through practice of being mindful. The ideas that he teaches us in this video can help new teachers who want to help their students learn to handle their emotions. He says that learning to be mindful is learned most effectively when practiced in a community of others who are practicing to be mindful. By creating a community in my future classroom of students practicing to be mindful I can try to help my students grow into mindful adults.

In the book "The Mindful Teacher" by Elizabeth Mcdonald and Dennis Shirley makes note of the difficult task of navigating federal, state and local mandates imposed on schools and teachers to teach using specific methods regardless of how those methods actually work for the students in a class. This is an important resource for me as teacher education student. I have spent countless hours over the last three semesters learning, planning and practicing how to reach my students in ways that engage and motivate them but if I can't work with the requirements set by current policies I'm only going to find myself not being the effective teacher I hope to be. It will be important for me to learn how to meet the expectations placed on my while also achieving my goals and helping my students reach the goals I have for them and the ones they have for themselves.

A second video we watched was produced by the Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School and was about the importance of setting up daily routines for our students. This video demonstrated the importance of directly teaching routines and procedures to our students for how to behave in the classroom. By establishing standards for behavior in the classroom we are able to develop a feeling of ownership among the students. The students will learn to care about their classroom if they are expected to maintain a specific discourse during the many hours they spend there.

We have also read the book "The First Six Weeks of School" by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete which provides many suggestions and ideas for schedules and activities to use with students, of various grade levels, during the first six weeks of the school year. This book provides specific plans to help teaches establish the procedures and routines that they realize are so important to the development of a compassionate community.

The semester is off to a great start. I am anxious to get into the classroom with students in the next week or two and start practicing some of the ideas and methods we have been discussing.

Kappa Delta Pi Initiation

On May 2, 2013, several students from the Apprenticeship program cohort were inducted into the Epsilon Mu chapter of Kappa Delta Pi an academic Honor Society for Education.

It is a great honor to be inducted into this organization and I am excited to develop myself as a future educator and give back through an international organization.

ReQuest Comprehension Project

Introduction

            ReQuest is a framework that falls under the teaching method of reciprocal teaching, a method that asks the students and teacher to engage in a conversation and questioning of each other throughout the learning process. Reciprocal teaching is a method that asks the student to become actively engaged in the learning process and to develop concepts through active questioning and investigation. This ReQuest project uses the questioning method to engage the student in the reading and make predictions about the text. Going into this assignment I was worried that the student would not become engaged like the method calls for but she did. I learned that modeling my engagement in the book, and directly asking the student to ask me questions did engage her. It was a much more simple method to use than I had anticipated.

Method Guideline Adjustments

            When completing the project I did make a few changes to the steps. The student I worked with was my 3^rd grade cousin Lily. I was unsure about where she stands in terms of reading level so we had a brief conversation about what books are easy to read and which ones are difficult for her to read. I found a book at home, Stuart Little, by E.B. White, that I thought would be new to her and we talked about it before we started reading. She said that she remembered reading a few pages of the book once before. I asked if it was easy, hard or somewhere in the middle. She said somewhere in the middle. What I found from listening to her read the first chapter was that it most likely was at the instructional level. She had to pause several times to decode unfamiliar words. I observed her using several strategies while reading that allowed her to read fluently and decode most unfamiliar words with ease. Talking about her reading level as well as the question/answer method we were going to use was a great way to start this activity with Lily. She told me about asking questions and responding in her classroom with her teacher.

Transcription of the Activity

Lily: “Chapter 1. When Mrs. Frederick C. Little’s second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. The truth of the matter was, the baby looked very much like a mouse in everyway. He was only about two inches high; and he had a mouse’s sharp nose, a mouse’s tail, a mouse’s whiskers, and the pleasant, shy manner of a mouse. Before he was many days old he was not only looking like a mouse but acting like one, too –wearing a gray hat and carrying a small cane. Mr. and Mrs. Little named him Stuart, and Mr. Little made him a tiny bed out of four clothes-pins and a [pause]”

Chelsey: “cigarette”

Lily: “cigarette box.

            Unlike most babies, Stuart could walk as soon as he was born. When he was a week old he could climb lamps by shinnying up the cord. Mrs. Little saw right away that the infant clothes she has provided were unsuitable, and she set to work and made him a fine little blue worsted suit with the patch pockets in which he could keep his handkerchief, his money and his keys. Every morning, before Stuart dressed, Mrs. Little went into his room and weighed him on a small scale which was really meant for weighing letters. At birth Stuart could have been sent by first class mail for three cents, but his parents preferred to keep him rather than send him away;

Chelsey: “ok hang on, what does that mean? What does it mean when they say they could have sent Stuart for only three cents?”

Lily: “ send him in the mail for three cents to mail him”

Chelsey: “right, do you know why it would only cost three cents to mail Stuart?”

Lily: “no”

Chelsey: “Because Stuart is so small it would not cost very much to mail him. Mail is weighed and depending on how much a package costs you pay to send them and since Stuart is so small it would only cost three cents to send him.”

Lily: “his parents preferred to keep him rather than send him away; and when at the age of a month, he was gained only a third of an ounce,

Lily: “That’s so small” “his mother was so worried she sent for the doctor.

            The doctor was delighted with Stuart and said that it was very unusually for an American family to have a mouse. He took Stuart’s temperature and found that it was 98.6, which is normal for a mouse. He also examined Stuart’s chest and heart and looked into his ears solemnly with a flashlight. (Not every doctor can look into a mouse’s ear without laughing.) Everything seemed to be all right, and Mrs. Little was pleased to get such a good report. ‘Feed him up!’ said the doctor cheerfully, as he left.

            The home of the Little family was a pleasant place near a park in New York City. In the mornings the sun streamed in through the east windows, and all the Little’s were up early as a general rule. Stuart was a great help to his parents, and to his older brother George, because of his small size and because he could do things that a mouse can do and was agreeable about doing them. One day when Mrs. Little was washing out the bathtub after Mr. Little ad taken a bath, she lost a ring off her finger and was horrified to discover that it had fallen down the drain.

‘What had I better do?’ she cried, trying to keep the tears back.

            ‘If I were you,’ said George, ‘I should bend a hairpin in the shape of a fishhook and tie it onto a piece of string and try to fish the ring out with it.’ So Mrs. Little found a piece of string and a hairpin, and for about a half-hour she fished for the ring; but it was dark down the drain and the hook always seemed to catch on something before she could get it down where the ring was.

Chelsey: “Why was Mrs. Little crying?”

Lily: “Because her ring fell off and went down the drain.”

Chelsey: “What do you think might happen next, do you think Stuart might be able to help Mrs. Little get the ring back?”

Lily: “I think they might take the piped apart and stick something else down there to get it, or maybe, Stuart is really small so he could probably fit down the drain to get the ring”

Chelsey: “Ok lets find out”

Lily: “‘What luck?’ inquired Mr. Little, coming into the bathroom.

            “No luck at all,’ said Mrs. Little. ‘The ring is so far down I can’t fish it up.’

            ‘Why don’t we send Stuart down after it?’ suggested Mr. Little. ‘How about it, Stuart, would you like to try?’

            ‘Yes, I would,’ Stuart replied, ‘but I think I’d better get into my old pants. I imagine it’s wet down there.’

Lily: “Why did Stuart have to put on his old pants?”

Chelsey: “He didn’t want them to get dirty. Does your mom ever tell you or Evan not to play outside in a certain outfit or in new clothes?

Lily: “yes, sometimes, so we don’t get grass stains or ruin our new stuff”

Chelsey: “That’s right, that’s why Stuart is changing his pants, he doesn’t want to get stuff all over his good pair, maybe he only has a couple pairs of pants”

Lily: ‘It’s all of that,” said George, who was a trifle annoyed that his hook idea hadn’t worked. So Stuart slipped into his old pants and prepared to go down the drain after the ring. He decided to carry the string along with im, leaving one end in charge of his father. ‘When I jerk three times on the string, pull me up,’ he said. And while Mr. Little knelt in the tub, Stuart slid easily down the drain and was lost to view. In a minute or so, there came three quick jerks on the string, and Mr. Little carefully hauled it up. There, at the end, was Stuart, with the ring safely around his neck.

            ‘Of, my brave little son,’ said Mrs. Little proudly, as she kissed Stuart and thanked him.

            ‘How was it down there?’ asked Mr. Little, who was always curious to know about places he had never been to.

            ‘It was alright,” said Stuart.

            But the truth was the drain had made him very slimy, and it was necessary for him to take a bath and sprinkle himself with a bit of his mother’s violet water before he felt himself again. Everybody in the family thought he had been awfully good about the whole thing.”

Chelsey: “Good job Lily, do you have any other questions about the chapter?”

Lily: “No, can we read chapter two?”

Chelsey: “yes but first can you retell me what happened in chapter one?”

Lily: “Well first Stuart was born and he was really small. His mom was worried about him being so tiny so the doctor came but he said Stuart was fine. Then his mom lost her ring in the tub and couldn’t get it back out so Stuart had to go down on a string and get it for her.”

Chelsey: “Great job, lets read chapter two.”

Reflection

Reflecting back on this activity I think that this is a method I will use often in my classroom. I do not see myself sitting down individually with students and recording a question/answer session with each of them often but the concept of engaging the students through questions, responses & prediction seems to be a method that will be useful in any elementary school classroom. I think that this method of instruction allows for a great deal of flexibility. During the time I spent with Lily we did not formally ask questions but rather discussed the book and responded to each other’s comments. Lily knew that I was expecting her to think of questions and she would stop me from reading when she thought of one to ask. Most of her questions were related to words or ideas that were foreign to her which showed me that she was not just listening to me read or just reading the words on the page but instead she was processing the text and comprehending what we were reading. I believe this activity was successful and will be helpful for me when I am teaching young students to develop comprehension strategies.

Strategy List

I can do the following to help me ask questions while I read:

1.     Write down notes about important information from the story/text on sticky notes and put them in the book

2.     Stop and tell myself what just happened in the book at the end of the page

3.     When someone in the story asks a question think about what the answer might be before continuing to read

My Teaching Pedagogy

Chelsey Hood           

April 24, 2013

My Teaching Philosophy

            As I being to develop my teaching philosophy I find myself reflecting on the education that I received and continue to seek. One of the biggest conclusions I have made during this reflection is the personal growth and development that I have undergone. I believe that my development is not solely because of my teachers and education but the role that school played in my development has been crucial. The experiences I have had inside and outside of the classroom throughout my life so far have helped me become the person I am today and will shape the teacher I will be.

            As a future educator I hope that I can play a positive role in my students’ lives as they grow and develop during the short year they will spend in my classroom. Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote in Emilie that education comes to us from three places, “Nature, Men and Other Things, (Rousseau, 1762)” and that we should give children space to learn on their own. Something I took away from Rousseau is that we need to let children be children. They need time and space to explore and learn outside of direct instruction from adults. What I am taking from this is that I hope as an educator I can guide my students to become life long learners, not just pupils in a classroom. I hope that I can show my students why learning is not something that ends after high school, college or graduate school but that it continues throughout our lives and that if we learn to love learning we will be able to utilize education to help us grow into the people we are meant to become.  

            Learning is a complex concept that can have multiple meanings and can change from teacher to teacher. In my opinion learning and growing are intertwined. If I am growing I am learning and if I am learning I am growing. In my opinion a student is successful in a learning situation if they have been able to think critically about a concept and applied it to their own life and experiences. When we think critically about concepts and apply them to our own life experiences they become part of who we are which is how we grow.

            In order for students to learn and grow I believe that the right environment is crucial. Students need an environment that cultivates their creativity. There should be bright colors and posters that inspire ideas and motivation. Students need to feel safe in their school. Students need to feel comfortable enough and safe enough to take risks in their school and classroom.

            In Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey there is an entire chapter about helping students deal with tragedy in their own lives and in the world (Cowhey, 2006). This chapter really hit me hard in the light of recent events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. This was a terrible tragedy that hit really close to home but this chapter also spoke about tragedies that happen around the world and how our students will try to comprehend them. I believe it is important for students to feel safe in their classroom and school community in order to learn and grow successfully. Helping students make sense of the world around them is part of creating that safe environment. Mary Cowhey suggests ideas that her students did such as drawing pictures, making cards and holding bake sales to raise money after tragedy struck around the world. She provides the time and place for students to deal with issues around the world that affect them. She gives them the time and opportunities they need to talk about and put into action the ideas they have for being active citizens in their community and their world. This is what I want for my students as well. I hope to make my classroom look and feel like a place where my students will have the opportunity to take risks, ask questions and grow.

            I want to provide students with a place to grow and learn. I want to teach my students that they have the whole world ahead of them and that they can achieve anything they dream about. I want to instill in my students a love of learning. I want to teach because I believe that I can make a difference in the lives of a small portion of the children in my community. I believe that if I can be the kind of teacher I hope to be that I will be able to engage my students and motivate them to be life long learners and help them develop dreams for their future. I believe that my role as a teacher will be help my students prepare for their future and guide them through their educational journey that I hope will last a lifetime.

            The goal I have for my future students is to learn that always striving for excellence is the ultimate meaning of success. I believe that if my students leave my classroom knowing that wrong answers and mistakes are not the meaning of failure and know that always striving to be better is the true meaning of success then I know they will have reached my ultimate goal for them. It is my goal for my future students that they leave my class at the end of the year excited to come back to school in the fall. I want them to have positive memories of exciting hands-on-learning experiences in my classroom that motivate them to be excited about returning to school for the next term.

            In order to achieve my goals I plan to include hands on learning experiences for my students. I don’t want to stand in front of my students and fill their heads with information but rather provide them with authentic experiences to learn concepts on their own. I have recently learned and planned a lesson using the concept development method of instruction. The concept development method is a method that asks students to develop an understanding of a concept or idea through their own efforts of investigations. The teacher provides a framework and guidance for the students to engage in developing an understanding of a new idea using their critical thinking skills. I believe that this method of instruction is a great way to motivate my students to become engaged in their education. According to the ideas presented about the banking concept Paulo Freire says that “education is suffering from narrative sickness” (Freire, 1973, 103). I agree with Freire that by just trying to fill my students with information I will not be helping them learn however by using a problem posing method my students will be able to take various pathways and use strategies that fit their learning needs to arrive at the same learning objectives. I also plan to use simulations and interactive lessons as my primary method of instruction because I want all of my students to be actively engaged in the learning. I hope to use direct instruction as little as possible and when I do need to use this method I will work it in as a piece of an interactive unit.

            Reflecting on my education I do believe that it was filled with authentic learning experiences that engaged my in the learning process just as Freire suggests. I remember having units that would culminate in a grade wide performance or a cultural day to experience the parts of a culture we had been learning about. In second grade we learned about the countries in Asia by traveling to different second grade classrooms and spending part of a day there with a different teacher. Each room was decorated to look like that country. We listened to music, wore costumes, tasted food and experienced a culture rather that just listening to direct instruction from our regular teachers. Its authentic experiences like this that I plan to bring into my own classroom.

            If an outsider were to walk in and observe me interacting with my students I hope that they will say that I am very open with my students. I hope that an observer will say that I interact with my students in a way that allows my students to be completely open and honest with me and that my students feel comfortable enough to ask questions and take risks. I want to work with students because I believe that having positive influences in school shapes who a student will become as they grow up. I want to be part of helping my future students become happy, healthy, successful adults. I believe that as a teacher I have the opportunity to influence my students’ futures and who they will become as adults.

            In order to asses my students’ understanding I want to asses their growth. In the test driven world we are entering as new teachers I know that my students will face strict grading and evaluations often. It is my belief that as often as possible my students should be evaluated based on their growth and engagement. If I see that my student has worked hard by being actively engaged in their learning and has made progress in learning concepts I will evaluate them accordingly. If I see a student has not made progress I will have to evaluate their level of engagement in the lessons surrounding that concept and see if there is something I can do to increase their engagement. I want to see students excited about learning something new and turning educational experiences into true learning that will help them grow and develop.

            One of the questions Herbert Kohl suggests new and hopeful teachers ask themselves is “what do you want from the children? Do you want them to do well on tests? Learn particular subject matter” (Kohl, 20)? Although I hope my students will do well on tests I know that every student I have will be different and they won’t all be good test takers. What I want from my students is growth and development. I want my students to develop into life long learners. I want my students to have a positive experience in my classroom where they learn that learning can be fun so that they look for fun ways to learn throughout their lives.

            A goal that I have for myself as a teacher is to never be done learning. I believe there will always be new ideas for teachers to learn about and bring into their classroom. I hope to continue my professional growth by attending conferences, reading articles, attending professional development events and by taking courses from time to time to refresh my teaching methods and learn about new ideas.

            I am really looking forward to taking on the large responsibility of having my own classroom. I am excited about the opportunity I will have to be part of the growth and development of so many young students. I hope that I will be remembered by my students as a positive influence in their lives when they graduate from high school or college and reflect on their educational journey. One last belief that I hold as a future educator is that I believe my teaching philosophy will be ever changing. I believe that as I gain experience as a teacher I will continue to develop my beliefs and my teaching pedagogy.

Bibliography

Cowhey, Mary. (2006). Black Ants and Buddhists. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Freire, Paulo. (1973). Foundational Education. (3rd ed., p. 103). Los Angeles.

Kohl, Herbert. (1976). Educational Foundation. (3rd ed., p. 20). Los Angeles.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. (1762). Emile. 

Understanding by Design-Compassionate Community Plan

Understanding by Design Unit Plan

Compassionate Community Plan  

Taker & Leaver Lifestyle

This unit is designed to guide students of upper elementary grade levels to develop an understanding of their role as citizens of the world. This unit will leave students with an understanding of what it means to be a “leaver” and a “taker” as described in the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The students will learn skills and achieve several goals during the unit but the main focus is to guide students to see a perspective of the world that is different from the typical views of society.

Goals:

• Standards
• 5.W.3
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details and clear event sequences
• 5.SL.5
• Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes
• 5.W.4
• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• 5.RIT.3
• Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas or concepts in a historical, scientific or technical text based on specific information in the text
• 5.RL.3
• Compare and contrast two or more characters, setting, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text
  
  

• Understandings
• Students will understand the difference between a materialistic and spiritual way of life.
• Students will understand the difference between a “taker” and a “leaver” lifestyle
• Students will understand their role in society and their ability to take action in their community
  
  
• Essential Questions
• What do value most in your life? Are the “things” that are important to you material items or are they spiritual?
• Why/how has society created the taker mentality? How is that related to capitalism and/or our economy
• What community projects could you put in place to support leaver culture?

Assessment

• Performance Tasks
• Simulation
• Evaluating written work and engagement in simulation looking for evidence of understanding their role in society as a taker or leaver
  
  
• Other Evidence
• Lists of important items
• Looking for differences from first list to the second to see if there were changes as a result of discussion of materialistic & spiritual way of thinking
• Evidence will include journal entries demonstrating perspective, sympathy & empathy, biographies of characters, participation in development of cultural artifacts & physical representations to be used in simulation, participation/engagement in group problem solving
• Community Action Plan
• Evaluating student’s written plan to see if student use problem solving method to move from taker to leaver lifestyle

Learning Plan

1. Show and Tell Activity
1. Teacher shares photo/object to students to that represents something/someone important to them as a model for show and tell activity
2. Students bring in an artifact to share with class
3. Artifacts will represent something/someone important in their life
4. Students will write descriptions of their share items
5. Class will create a bulletin board of writing with photos of students with their share items
   
   
2. Materialistic/Spiritual way of life
1. Students draft lists of important items in their life
2. As small groups or whole class discuss lists/create a class list and put lists in order of priority
3. Review lists- Do lists contain material items or non-material items
4. What does it mean to be spiritual?
1. Spiritual does not mean religious
5. After discussion students revise their lists
   
   
3. Homelessness Reading/Writing Activity
1. Students will read an article about children and homelessness
2. Students will reflect on article in journals
3. Students will reflect once more right before going to bed for homework
4. Next day students will share their reflections and compare two reflections looking for differences after spending the evening at home with family
   
   
4. Taker & Leaver Lifestyle
1. Discussion of differing lifestyles
1. How are they similar/differ from your personal life
2. What does it mean to be a giver/taker
3. Discuss each cultures values/different perspectives on life, environment,government, leadership, etc.
4. Have students write a paragraph in their journals about how they see themselves and identify which community they believe they are a part of and why.

5. Simulation Initiation
1. Review idea of taker vs. leaver
2. Split class into two groups/communities
3. Assign roles
4. Explain roles and answer any questions  pertaining to their groups and their personal role in that group
   
   
6. Simulation Development/Preparation
1. Develop roles/characters
1. Students will be taught how their role in the community affects their society as a whole including their environment, economy, and other member of the their community.
2. Students will begin to create a biography/history of their character that fits the role they were given.
2. Develop communities/set
1. Students will begin creating their physical environment in the room, students should bring in the props, costumes, and anything else they think they will need to properly portray their role in their community

7. Simulation
1. Spend time acting in roles
2. Problem solve in character
1. A problem will be introduced to the two communities and students should react to the given problem as their role in society would react
2. Students will write a journal about the problem, how it affected them, their community, environment, economy, and how their society might want to this problem. Students will also write how the opposite community might solve the same problem
   
   
8. Simulation Closure
1. Wrap up to simulation
1. Students will meet as a community to figure out how they are going to solve the problem and share with the class as a whole how their community dealt and solved the problem. The two communities will compare and contrast how they responded to the problem and the different effects the problem had the community members, everyday life, the economy, and the environment.
   
   
9. Community Action Plan
1. Students bring to life ideas how to live as leavers rather than takers- what can they do to be leavers in their community?
2. Teacher presents a model of a community action plan ie- community garden and discusses how a garden makes impact on a community
3. Students reflect on their personal transformation from taker to leaver
4. Students will brainstorm and draft plans to create individual or group community action plans

Sustainable Farm School Visit

Just the other day I took a trip out to Bethlehem, CT with Dr. French. I had the opportunity to visit a non-traditional school that Dr. French is helping to teach a course to a small group of students.

The school I visited was a sustainable farm school. The students here do not spend their day in a classroom but rather at a farm. They take part in projects and hold their classes right at the farm. The courses are taught by volunteer teachers, like Dr. French. The class that I observed was Dr. French working with three students who are making animal masks, just like the students at the Environmental Science Magnet School in Hartford.

The difference at the farm school is that the masks are related to stories they have been reading. The students have been reading in class and for homework Native American stories about trickster animals. In the class I observed Dr. French helped  the students develop a connection between the Native American stories and sci-fi stories about aliens. The stories all relate to how we view the world around us and what we can give and take from our world and the consequences of those actions.

I was very impressed with the responses of the students in the class. I believe that because of the non-traditional approach that their education is taking the students have developed a very different perspective from students who are following a traditional public school path. These students clearly saw the connection between the readings and quickly picked up on the comments the writing make on the world around us.

At first I was apprehensive about seeing this school because I followed the traditional path of education but after hearing from these students and seeing how intuitive they are to seeing problems and solutions in  the world around us I was very impressed. This visit was a perfect example of how education can be adapted to fit any learning style. Clearly these students are thriving being outside all day and learning in an environment they are comfortable in. I would dare to guess that they would not be successful students if they were trapped in a traditional classroom all day.

Critical Compassionate Competencies

Chelsey Hood

4/12/13

EDTE 320 French

CCC: Critical Compassionate Competencies

After reviewing the concept development lesson I wrote related to the environmental superhero project I also reviewed the CCI (Connecticut Critical Instructional Competencies) checklist to continue reflection on my lesson presentation. I also read the article “Beyond the Methods Fetish: Toward a Humanizing Pedagogy” by Lilia Bartolme. Combining my ideas from all of this with the other readings and discussions we’ve had in class I have come to one conclusion: shouldn’t it be common sense that no single method is going to work for every student? I just do not understand why someone would think that a single set of methods is going to work for every student. 

From everything I have learned throughout the entire teaching program I am prepared to be a very flexible teacher. I know that in every lesson I teach I will need to have back up plans and options to reach the variety of learners in my classroom. The article talks about the underachievement of minorities but I do not see how any of my students will not achieve the goals I will set for them and the ones they will set for themselves if I put in the effort to create differentiated lesson plans. I do not see students as groups or with labels. I see students as students, as humans and as individuals. 

When I plan a lesson I start by looking at the Common Core Standard(s) that I hope to teach my students. I then develop an objective around that standard. That is my focus and my goals for my students. Of course these could always change if the situation calls for revision but for the most part my focus and goals for a lesson will remain concrete but from there everything else is a liquid plan. I call my lessons liquid because even as I write them I know that most often much of the plan will change once I am interacting with the students. 

I already said I see my students as individuals and by thinking like that I know that in every lesson each and every student will have a different perspective on the content and presentation of every concept I deliver. When I write a lesson I know that I must think about how each student might respond and what can I do to reach a classroom full of learners, each with their own needs. Regardless of pass successes each student has their own unique challenges and strengths and not every method will be the most effective way of reaching each child. I know that my lessons have to be diverse in the methods used and have multiple branches or options for reaching my students. 

After reading the article and reflecting on my lessons I have realized that I have been taught to teach differentiate lessons and that it is becoming second nature to me because it seems to me that it would be common sense to any teacher that they must find what works for their students. From what I’ve read and discussed in class I am realizing that even though this seems like common sense to me it is not common practice in our schools today, but it will be in my classroom. 

My changes/additions to checklist

IIA: 2 Level of Difficulty
-This section currently as is does not include any positive statements about the difficulty of a lesson or the teacher’s ability to adapt to the needs of the students during a lesson if the level of difficulty needs to be adjusted

Possible Additions:

• Students appear challenged by assigned tasks but not overwhelmed
• With guidance/scaffolding students who are struggling are able to work through a difficult problem or concept
• teacher makes adjustments to questions, problems or assignments if students begin to struggle too much
• teacher goes back to review a concept if students are lacking the knowledge or skill to complete a problem, question or assignment