Top Ten Moments of M2 Field Exp

Top Ten Moments from Methods 2 Field Experience

10. A Tour of Stony Brook University

Towards the beginning of the semester, our Methods 2 class was able support a sub-group that had been guest-teaching at a high school by leading their students on a tour of Stony Brook University. The students were fun and having fun, and that made the whole experience enjoyable. The planned activities didn't work out as perfectly as we had hoped or planned, but that in and of itself is valuable experience for teaching and life.

9. Finishing Field Experience

As much as I enjoy observing in classrooms and how it contextualizes the practice behind the theory we study in class, I was elated when I realized I had accumulated enough hours of field experience. I will miss the students I worked with, but time is a precious commodity.

8. The GIR Room

In my observations at Chingachgook High School, the main classroom I observed in was a mini-lecture hall. It was fascinating to see how this worked with normal general education English classes with 20-30 students. The room had stadium seating and plenty of space to spread out and work. Surprisingly the large space and the subsequent wide spread of student placement worked rather well. It encouraged a performance atmosphere, especially when working in groups and on activities.

7. Haiku Chains

In one class, the teacher had what seemed to be a fun and inventive way to get students to engage poetry in motion by having them create haiku chains. 5-6 poster boards were spread throughout the large classroom, and groups of students would cycle through the poster boards and add a line to a haiku. The activity should have been simple, fun, and effective. But the most important thing I learned here was that the most well-intentioned and thought out lessons can fall flat if the students simply aren't having any of it. While many of the students took the lesson seriously and created fun and appropriate haiku chains, some of the students created epicly snarky and inappropriate lines. And, yet, the teacher was a true professional and did not let the jerky students ruin her day or plan.

6. Getting to be an active participant in the class

For much of my Methods 1 &2 field experience, most teachers were happy to have me but seemed to prefer observers sit quietly and just observe. But in my observations at Chingachgook High School, the teacher was excited to have me be an active participant in the teaching process. When the class began working on college application essays, I told the teacher that I have quite a bit of experience helping students with these. She was more than willing to let me work with her students on their essays, and I was extremely happy to get more experience and work with these students.

5. Having those students come back for more help and seeing their progress

It took a little while for the students to warm up to this strange hairy guy visiting their class and offering to help with their personal writing, but I will explain more about that later. Having students I worked with on essays come back to show me what they had done in response to our work together and having them eager to continue working was wonderful.

4. Being told the students were asking about me when I was out for a day

One week I missed the normal day that I observed. And, when I returned the following week, both the teachers and the students noted that they were happy I was back... That really hit me in the feels.

3. Building rapport with the teacher and co-teacher

Often as a pre-service teacher and observer, it is easy to feel like an amateur or an outsider. Even when invited and made to feel welcome, there is a divide of experience that separates those practicing the art of teaching and those studying the theory of teaching. But, after getting to work with the students and receiving good feedback, I feel like I was able to prove myself a little bit. On subsequent observations, I realized the two co-teachers and I were having rich and thoughtful conversations while the students worked quietly. I really feel like they saw me as a soon-to-be peer rather than some upstart inruder.

2. Getting students to open up through their writing

While working with students on their college application essays, I was able to see their writing transition from overly general fulfillment of perceived expectations to genuine and interesting explorations of self and expression. By slyly weaseling my way into the thoughts of the students through our conversations, I saw them manifest what they felt was important to say into their writing.

1. The Goat

When the teacher explained to her class that I was available to help them with their college essays, I knew the students would likely be hesitant to work with a stranger. After I explained who I was and my basic credentials, I was hoping that at least some would take advantage. For a while, no one wanted to take the chance. But, then a student named Giancarlo went up to his teacher and asked if he should have me take a look, to which the teacher enthusiastically replied, "Yes!" We worked together for about twenty minutes until he was ready to create a revision draft on his own. As he got up from where we were seated, he yelled out to the rest of the class, "This guy is the GOAT!!!" (meaning Greatest of All Time). From that point on, with Giancarlo's apparently weighty approval, I was accepted by the class and able to help a number of students with their writing.

Harness the Power of Interest through Multiple Entry Points

MEP 1: Take a moment to describe "interest" and what it means to you.

MEP 2: “Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” - Stanley Kubrick

MEP 3:

Interest: The relation of being objectively concerned in something, by having a right or title to, a claim upon, or a share in (OED).


Engaging students in effective instruction requires grabbing their attention and harnessing their interest. We’ve all suffered under the imposition of what we should or must learn. And, those lessons are often the ones that fall out of our over-stressed and overly standardized minds. When teachers design and construct lessons and units that actively pursue and capture the interest of a diverse class, that class has the chance to exhibit an interactive learning space where attention is actively paid. But, to get there, entry into the lesson is crucial.

Many teachers employ “do nows” or “motivations” intended to get students rolling in the lesson from the time they sit down in class. But, often, these entry points are well meaning but flaccid because they only speak to a few students in the class. As new media and social media have shown, our students are highly diversified specialists with various interests. We, as teachers, must design multiple entry points to access the interest of as many students as possible from the moment we start a lesson or unit. We have to facilitate deep engagement and the active payment of attention through meticulously designed, accessible avenues into the content.

Multiple entry points show consideration to our diverse student population while setting expectations for hard work in thought. But, we shouldn’t have to start from scratch every time we painstakingly craft a new lesson plan. In this age ample apps, we have access to software that enables efficient and effective lesson planning. One great program is Shared Space Planning, which among its many features includes Multiple Entry Points that foster leveled yet integrative access to lessons. The program suggests “creating MEPs to provide access to students on three different levels of thinking: gathering, processing, and applying.” Gathering prompts students at to consider what they know about a topic on a foundational level; processing may utilize a provocative quote to stimulate further thought; and applying often uses an image or video for analysis of lesson content. Students choose the entry point that speaks to them and work independently for a few minutes. Then, the teacher works with the students through the multiple entry points and deftly weaves responses together and elicits interactive engagement through focused and targeted discussion.

Teachers can create innumerable ways of engaging students at the onset of a lesson. But we should strive to set the example for our students by working smarter and harder to activate their interest and use it as a dynamic tool for effective learning.

Methods II: Performance Boogaloo

“You’re going to be designing and running a poetry workshop at Walter J. Ong High School!”

Wait… what?

Next Thursday keeps crawling forward on my Google calendar. Still so many questions, so much work still to do. We’ve already gone back to the drawing board once, and I am leaving enough room in my expectations in case we must do so again.

No matter what, we will be ready.

With only the bare-bones information about expectations and parameters for the workshop, our team of preservice teachers dove into design. I like poetry, but it was never my favorite subject in English classes, especially when teachers insisted on forcing meter and rhyme schemes down our conceptual throats. God, how that felt like math (a subject that often leaves me befuddled). But, when allowed to explore, experiment, and interact with the words on the pages and the ideas that blossomed beyond them, I could dig poetry. Students can engage with poetry in a great variety of ways, and technical aspects and historical modes may be important for those intending a serious, in-depth study, but the power of poetry comes in the potency of ideas and expression contained within this particular textual vessel.

Reflecting one night on the production of our first workshop idea, I considered if I would enjoy this analysis-based workshop as a student? I think so, and we had integrated such standards as citing strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis, determining themes or central ideas, and determining the meaning and impact of words and phrases. But I had the distinct feeling we could infuse more interactivity and playful stimulation into what shouldn’t be just another day in class for students. How do we keep the higher order thinking while tapping into the “live” learning we have been reading about in Nancy Steineke’s Assessment Live!; how do we design a workshop that will facilitate a “final product...of synthesis, the act of manipulating and transforming knowledge in order to create something new and different” (Steineke 10)?

Thank the gods of wisdom for collaboration. From our original concept of a workshop based around poetic devices and textual analysis, we have evolved our project into a blackout poetry workshop based on Sherman Alexie’s “Hymn.” The latest iteration is still a work in progress, and we have just about a week and a half to get things in working order (hoping that our work is to the satisfaction of our host teachers from WJO High School).

Again, turning to Steineke for inspiration, we can use the “PostSecret Project” activity for guidance. While not exactly the same, both the Postsecret Project and our blackout activity can harness multiple intelligences to some degree: “[taking] evidence and then creating something completely original...employs great imagination and creativity as well as several multiple intelligences: verbal/linguistic, spatial/artistic, and interpersonal” (106). Plenty of work left to do, and, yes, I feel excited, ready, not ready, scared, nervous, and stimulated. Here we go...

"Truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling." - RMP

For me, the “Art of the Question” is a large part of what teaching is all about. Even the most seemingly fixed truths often warrant further curious exploration. Learning can happen in cycles, delving into the depths of knowledge by circumnavigating available information in a question-driven vehicle. As pre-service teachers we stand at the precipice of a whole new life of professional questioning, looking into the vast and sublime possibilities and challenges of the future.

Descend... into the maelstrom...

Perhaps the most effective classroom discussions I have observed have been an organic (even messy) mix of teacher-driven, student-driven, teacher-response, student-prodding, all-exploring. In a recent class, undertaking the continuation of a NYS CC module, the teacher brought back the previous day’s work regarding the student-generated claims for an upcoming writing assignment. The teacher-driven review prompted students to generate their ideas textually through review questions, and then the teacher called upon the students to share their claims to check and advise. Students riffed their questions not only off the teacher but also off of their classmates. Through adroit questioning, the teacher was able to measure the students current level of understanding of the task at hand, subtly suggesting directions to strengthen their work before moving on to another student.

Through skilled and crafty questioning, the secondary English classroom may become a knowledge engine. As Christenbury states, “talking and answering and asking questions can help clarify our own ideas, not only to others but also to ourselves” (335). Producing knowledge cannot dispense with the hard necessity of realizing it into intelligible forms, often through questioning and answering. We should strive for a cyclical or, even better, a spiraling mode of questioning: students question à teacher questions or responds à all consider à repeat. But, we should also resist overly formulaic discussion structures or environments because, as per Christenbury, “few people—students and teachers—actually approach knowledge in an orderly, paced way, moving smoothly, as the sequential hierarchies would imply, up from one level to another” (339). The hardest part will likely be the first few years, as we fashion our own styles as new and developing teachers.

error...error...

What type of teachers will we be? I’m still hoping to focus on discovery, as per Christenbury. I will work towards designing a classroom in which organic student discussion and interest may direct the lesson and student engagement. To teach students from where they are, as opposed to any “should bes” will take time and incredible effort, but that is what we are signing on for as teachers (94-5). I hope to structure classes where the teacher guides and facilitates but students and teachers discover all together and generate excitement and community around learning.

Good questions not only intellectually poke at secondary knowledge, but they also stand to provoke experiential inquiries and exploration into what is temporarily unknown by students. Experience is the real facilitator for accumulating wisdom, which John Dewey recognized in calling for schools “to develop through experience into productive citizens.” Further, such exploratory experience in the classroom will help students engage in Bloom’s different types of thinking (Giouraoukakis 15). What is questioning really but probing deeply into our collected and personal realms of thinking. Beyond questioning in the classroom, we must help students learn how to capture, structure, and present the production of their inquisitions through writing, speech, and newly evolving modes of expression.

The Ecstasy of Technology

Throughout my observations, I have seen new technology integrated both seamlessly and clumsily. But, during one recent observation day, I witnessed a class that utilized technology fairly well with the content being studied.

The class had been reading, studying, and working with A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park over the past few weeks. In each of the 7^th-grade classes I observed throughout the day, the students engaged with the target set on the old-fashioned blackboard by the teacher: “I will watch a TEDX presentation about Salva Dut [the real-life character from the book] and reflect upon the information that he shared. I will also look at Salva Dut’s Water for South Sudan website [waterforsouthsudan.org] and reflect on the information provided there.” This lesson had the students engaging in many different types of educational tech, old to new.

The Book:

The class had been reading Linda Sue Park's book over the past week(s) following a teacher-customized version of the NYS module. The class teacher, Ms. Arakkis, stated that the short book was enjoyable for the students, and each class I observed, this seemed to be true as the students were engaged and interested.  

The TEDX:

As the students watched the video of Salva Dut, they filled out a short worksheet that was designed to keep them engaged with the speaker. The teacher encouraged them to listen, attempting their best to answer the questions, but reassuring them that they need not every answer.  Across multiple classes, students noted the strength of viewing the TEDX video to complement and strengthen the reading of the book. The author's voice and image brought to life allowed them to see Salva Dut as more than words represented on a page that formed a story of a far remote subject. 

"Information isolated from contexts, people, and actions is worthless. But when people use good information for good purposes - when they use it to experience and create genuine acts of cognition - information can be a powerfully liberating tool." (Christenbury 247)

The Web:

http://www.waterforsouthsudan.org/

After the class watched the TEDx video and discussed the questions, tying the discussion back to the reading of the book and reinforcing previous class discussions with the new perspective granted by the video, they formed pairs and used Google Chromebooks to explore Salva Dut's website. 

The class' use of technology was admirably woven into the lesson. The multimodal engagement with the text kept them engaged and generating thought. Towards the end of the class, the students asked the teacher if there was any way they could have Salva Dut come to their school and speak. When the teacher told them that she would find out but she thought he was very busy at this point with his causes, they suggested that maybe, instead, they could try and raise money for his organization. Their deep engagement with the text spurred active engagement with the core of the author's mission, to share the story and get people involved. This is genuinely reflective of the innovation in the classroom espoused by the Christenbury text: "innovation is a way of thinking. It is a way of considering concepts, processes, and potential outcomes; it is not a thing, a task or even technology" (230).

With Spring Break imminent, the students were not assigned any homework. But, when they returned they would be continuing work with this unit. From what I observed, this would be a great impetus for a writing project exercising the standards:

• Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
• Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
• Draw evidence from literary and informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• Develop personal, cultural, textual, and thematic connections within and across genres as they respond to texts through written, digital, and oral presentations, employing a variety of media and genres.

Crafty: Writing with Interest

In the majority of my observations, writing has largely taken a position of secondary concern to reading. However, this may be due to the specific classes I have been observing, especially considering that I have been exploring different classes in different school districts. It also may relate to when students have been writing in class, it was largely a silent activity that did not lend much to observation. But, a few classes stick out with regard to writing and our class readings.

In one 7^th-grade observation, I observed as students presented research-based Google slideshows on various historical epidemics. This class fell directly in line with the multi-modal and technologically enhanced writing that the standards favor. After reading the book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, each student signed up for a specific instance of epidemic to research independently and develop a thorough slide show to present to the class. The teacher of this class held the assumption that students were fully capable of researching a focused topic and completing a presentation that answered a structured line of questioning. And, her assumption was marvelously confirmed as students presented refined and highly entertaining digital texts. The seamless integration of new-media into the practice of writing sparked creative interest in the product each student created.

As laid out in our text Getting to the Core of English Language Arts, this lesson activity embraced and utilized the idea of exploration and discovery in writing (63). That exploration and discovery was put into practice not only by the research necessary to assemble the information from digital resources, but it also had the students explore and discover a digital form of textual expression. Further, this is a great step towards preparing students to craft for an audience. The Christenbury text states, “Teachers also need to provide students with outside audiences for their work, audiences that may give the students more of a feeling that their correct final draft writing matters” (269). And, while this is certainly true and more practical than ever with digital media, starting by presenting thorough and entertaining research-based projects to classmates allows a scaffold to a wider, perhaps more critical audience.

Another observation involved a writing exercise that fell flat in a 9^th grade class. In a previous class, the students were instructed to form groups and rewrite the famous balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. Done well, this could be a great exercise in turning Shakespeare’s complex writing and language into a more modern textual expression, reflecting analysis and exercise of register and code-shifting or –merging as per Christenbury (272). Unfortunately, the student groups did not show much enthusiasm for this exercise, but I honestly don’t understand why. Perhaps they did not receive clear enough instructions or motivation; or maybe they were not given enough freedom to play. It was clear that most groups relied on one person to do the work just to get it over with, and some groups hardly contemporized the scene at all, copying it almost verbatim. I feel that if this was set up to encourage fun and play, the students could translate the scene into interesting and contemporary expression.

Regarding the instruction of grammar, I feel both scenarios mentioned above could be used to check, review, and instruct grammar with each student. Christenbury points us to the standards, “The language standards include the essential ‘rules’ of standard written and spoken English, but they also approach language as a matter of craft and informed choice among alternatives” (259). Having students consider their audience, be it for a formal presentation or an informal interpretation of a classic work, allows them to consider usage alongside effective expression.

Sparking Thoughtful Inclusivity

In my own middle and high schools, I never had any class-within-a-class experience. And, while my private high school had a large population of non-native speakers, the sort of inclusive atmosphere fostered by today’s teacher was not present. So, I had strong expectations of what I would be witnessing since my only knowledge was from our classes and readings. And, as usual, the divide between theoretical ideals and practical realities spanned a spectrum of application.

For the most part, it has been a revelation that CWC and inclusion classes have been largely indistinguishable from standard classes beyond including additional professionals. That is, those being “included” have not stood out from the students around them, except in special cases that were largely handled swiftly and efficiently. The biggest differences between the classes have been how the co-teachers and paraprofessionals worked together. The expectation of an individual leader within a classroom has been the standard mode of instruction for secondary schools to such an extent that when teachers work together within the same space there is usually a learning curve.

In the least effective CWC classes I have observed, the teachers were separate entities performing rigid roles. For example, I observed one class where a leave-replacement teacher had been working with a co-teacher for a few months, but they had not yet developed an effective working relationship. During the class, the “lead” teacher, the leave-replacement, instructed in a manner that depended largely on the static reading of text and answering of recall questions. As the class read the text in turns, the two teachers paced around the room in a manner that reminded me of sharks, always moving with eyes that lacked emotion. I could see how this would be intimidating and distracting to students attempting to read aloud while understanding a text. Strange behavior. At other times, the co-teacher merely filled out a google document that was a digitized ditto sheet. This class was largely a boring, lifeless exercise in staying attentive and productive.

In the best examples of CWC classes I have observed, the teachers utilized each other as partners, even when not of equal status. When it works, I am absolutely enamored with CWC classes (and that is coming from a guy who nearly always prefers to work solo). In one strong example of co-teaching dynamics, two teachers (one who was clearly the leader) created an active and participatory vibe in their classroom through energetic discussion; they riffed off of each other and the students, often poking and prodding students to engage in the conversation. These teachers also moved around the room constantly, but they did so in manner that created a whirlwind of inclusion and engagement. The movement extended to the stationary students and became the movement of minds as opposed to empty vessels marching around the classroom. Overall, it was apparent that these co-teachers were having fun.

I also witnessed another effective dynamic between co-teachers very different from the above situation. In another class in another school, ninth graders were reading Romeo & Juliet. In this class, it was clear that one teacher was leading the class, the activities, and the discussion. She was lively and enthusiastic while knowing her students and their needs intimately. And while she was teaching the class, her co-teacher (a quiet, smiling presence) was constantly but silently moving around the class, checking in with students without disrupting the flow of the lesson. It was so different from the above example of coteaching, but it was just as effective. This co-taught class displayed that there is no simple, right way to do a CWC class. That the relationships that our professor and guest speakers have mentioned are as diverse as the students being taught.

There is no one right answer. In anything, ever. So, we learn, we grow, and we adapt to our environment, as teachers and as humans. CWC and ENL classes that foster collaboration and cooperative development of knowledge and experience are reflections of a progressive society that evolves. All students should feel invested and engaged within a classroom community that challenges them to constantly become better versions of themselves. And, teachers should remember that they are not the singular paragon of all things in their specialty. We are all in this together…