DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Standard Two: Student as Learner

 

Meeting Standard Two:

The student teacher demonstrates an awareness of, and concern for, the people in his/her classroom. Focusing on learners as full human beings with a rich history, unique characteristics, substantive achievements, talents, skills, and interests, the student teacher does his/her best to observe, document and learn about hose students. S/he works hard to “understand their understanding.”

 

Meeting and Exceeding Standard Two: Self-Reflection

    I feel that my classroom is very student-centered! As I wrote in my Teaching Philosophy, the culture of every class I lead is always determined by the students I serve. In the beginning of the semester, I wrote a “This I Believe” statement about myself that included personal information about my family and my academic life. In return, students also wrote “This I Believe” statements; some took it more seriously than others, but I did learn a great deal about where the students were coming from. While I do not know everything about their lives, I have learned little bits of information and realize that any problems they have are probably more difficult than any I will face in my lifetime. I think this is an important lesson for me to learn if I plan to work in an underprivileged urban area. I have been getting better at handling information that students write about or talk to me about in brief discussions we are having about the text. I have shown a personal side to students individually that reveal that I am genuinely concerned about their success and well-being. I think that with time, only more progress will be made.

    I have been able to become more intimate with my 11th grade class because of the class’s smaller size. I have played music from student artists in the class and have opened up a few discussions to their lives. I have learned that making jokes or telling short anecdotes encourages them to listen at a much higher level. This class enjoys reading together as a group; I have listened to their opinions and included it in several lessons because they enjoy it so much. I have sat with a few students outside of the class, (in the library), and think that I have made a good connection with them—talking about issues that happen in high school and also about current events. I have also made similar attempts in the 12th grade class, but they are less willing to invite me into their lives. I have sat in on Mr. Goodman’s advisory to help a few students that also have my class. With the 12th grade class, I have realized I need to use several different types of teaching styles with the various students in my classes. This means joking with certain students, yet being stern with others. As time has progressed, the students have become much more accountable. I am very excited to have my own classes next year and to see what kind of relationships I will form over the course of a year!

 

 

Artifacts:

  • "Great Gatsby" Student Perspective Writing
  • "Imagine Where You Will Be" Entrance Ticket
  • Student Self-Assessments (Please See "Personal Inquiry Project")
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content

    In my 11th grade class, students are reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Throughout the course, students have worked on taking on perspectives of characters from the play. In this activity, students wrote an imaginative letter to Daisy from Gatsby that she was to receive on the night before her wedding. Students had such great fun with this activity! I was very excited to see how they stepped up to take on Gatsby’s perspective. I think this kind of activity allows students to write creatively without making it intimidating, (because it is from a character’s perspective and not their own.) _______________________________________________________________________________

 

    In the activity below, students free-wrote, responding to a prompt that asks them to think up a dream about who they would like to be when they're 30. This activity was used as an Entrance Ticket to get students to think about Fitzgerald's words, "So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby a boy of seventeen would be likely to invent" (104). I had great student responses--students talked with each other about their dreams and connected their own life stories to that of Fitzgerald's Gatsby.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
User-uploaded Content
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.