Week 2: January 15

Goals for Learning in the Course

• Learn a variety of instructional strategies for word recognition, comprehension, writing, and fluency building.
• Obtain multiple ways to format a language arts lessons
• Learn about ways to include and enhance the learning of ESL students
• Be able to identify and form a deeper understanding of each and every component of language arts
• Learn to better collaborate with peers and engage in professional discussion
• Learn ways to build a learning community using language arts
• Overall, be a better teacher for my students

Notes

• Before my placement this year, I had the idea that I only wanted to teach in a suburban or rural area.  But, after being with my students and getting to know the staff members of my placement so far this year, that idea has totally changed. I currently have no preference as to where I teach, just as long as I am able to get a job.
• In order to reach my goals, I would like to read about recent research that has proven various strategies to be successful, as well as research on ESL students in addition to that in this week's readings.  In order to be able to pick from a variety of lesson plan formats, I would like to be provided with examples of lesson plans and participate in another microteaching lesson.  I believe that all of these things will help me in better understanding the components of language arts, as well as in becoming a better teacher overall.
• I read the Risko and Walker-Dalhouse article, as well as the Diller article.  The classroom I am currently placed in is the most diverse classroom I have ever been exposed to.  There are multitude of races, languages, backgrounds, and learning styles among my students.  Learning about these particular aspects of each of my students has helped me to better tailor my instruction towards their needs, as well as have better relationships with them.
• For example, the Risko and Walker-Dalhouse article discusses the importance in cultural modeling and how it particularly improves text comprehension and written performance.  In what I have observed, when my mentor teacher picks texts that our students can identify with, they are more engaged in discussion and ask more questions in group.  A similar trend is seen in writing time; they tend to provide more details in their writing and are more engaged in the activity.  Therefore, based on my observations and the information provided in the article, I hope to infuse my instruction with cultural topics, examples, and experiences to maximize my students' achievement and engagement.
• Additionally, Diller discusses the ways in which she had to be open to different ways of thinking and teach children different from herself.  I have struggled with this many times in my classroom.  I have discovered that many forms of behavior are cultural, in which some behaviors are acceptable and appropriate in one culture but may not be in another.  I have had to punish some of my students for talking without raising their hand, commenting during activities or directions, and interrupting.  This is a necessary skill to master in a student's educational career, but I have had to stop myself before punishing these students to think about the cultural aspect; typically in the African American culture, it is acceptable to behave this way.  Recently, I have been trying to teach the appropriate behaviors rather than constantly reinforcing and punishing the students.  Thus, I believe that this mindset can also be applied to classroom behavior in addition to academic instruction, which I hope to improve on.