Teaching Reflection--on students

1. What kind of students do you like to work with? What type of students could you teach most effectively?

I mainly prefer to work with at-risk youth, but honestly I can work with almost any kind of student. I've pretty much done it all, but I enjoy working with at-risk kids the most because they're so unaccustomed to success, and it's very satisfying watching them become more confident as learners. They need you in a way that the "easier" students usually don't, and I find that gratifying.

2. You give an assignment. A student ridicules the assignment, saying it doesn’t make sense. What would you do?

This happens fairly often. The number one reason a student would say this is that they don't understand what to do, and rather than risk looking stupid, they take this tactic. Usually, I find that if you don't react to the surface statement, and probe a little bit, you'll figure out what it is they didn't understand, and they'll settle down and do the assignment.

Once in a blue moon, you'll get a student who's really too smart to be there (your amazing child prodigy should really be sitting in a college classroom somewhere, but for whatever reason, they're in a public high school), and they have the opposite problem--the assignment is really too easy for them (but unfortunately, their vast intellect takes up some space that should have been allocated for social skills such as tact). In this case, you can either force them to do the assignment (I'm sorry you feel that way, but this is still due by tomorrow), or have them do an extension activity (this is why differentiation is a good idea) instead. This is one reason why I like to have things like National Geographic and college textbooks in the room--depending on what your topic is, you can simply have the student read something out of National Geographic or the college textbook on the same topic, and write you a summary of some kind. (These kinds of students often like having "special" assignments anyway.)

3. How do you help students experience success?

I do this mainly by figuring out what works for them. Being aware of their learning styles, preferences, and so forth, I can usually design learning experiences that work for most of my students and move them forward academically. I keep things varied so that chances are pretty good that I'll have something that will work for everyone, and have resources for individualized instruction if one or more students needs something completely different from the rest of the group.

Aside from the curriculum itself, I also make a point of monitoring how students are doing as they work, and make myself available as a support for students who need it. I also encourage students to work together on things that may be too difficult for a student to do alone, so that they get more of a challenge (while filling in each other's holes). I encourage them to push themselves a bit, and try things that may be unfamiliar. I also encourage them to take pride in the successes, and do lots of little things to recognize personal growth.

For instance, I have a "wall of personal bests"--assignments that I received that I have posted on a wall near my desk where the student has hit a high water mark for them--for some students, it's that perfect score, 100%. For others, maybe it's 85%--it totally depends on the student. I make a big deal out of it, but usually only with that student--it's not intended to be a class-wide competition for grades, it's more of a "personal best". So almost every student in the room has something on the wall. Students seem to like it, and they pay attention because most of the time, if they've exceeded a previous "personal best", they'll let me know.

4. How would you individualize instruction for students?

It depends on the situation, but I have a number of different tactics that depend on the reason why it would be necessary. In my last class, about 80% of the students were fine with doing the "regular program" and didn't seem to need differentiated assignments. The other 20% or so (the outliers) either needed things that were easier or harder, or just in a different format. In these cases, differentiation could be temporary (the student does different stuff some of the time, but not always) or permanent (the student always does something different from the rest of the class).

Some reasons for differentiation would include: the student has a severe learning disability, the student is an ESL student, the student learns very differently from other students, or the student is gifted and needs more challenging assignments.

Ways in which I individualize instruction include providing accommodations (based on the student's IEP), modifying existing assignments in some way (usually reducing them in some way), changing the format of lessons, changing the reading level of the assignments (the student works on the same topic, but with material that's easier or harder than the textbooks that the rest of the class are using), or having the student on a completely separate program from the rest of the class (rarest, but I've done this several times). Sometimes a student learns best by using technology, and that's a possibility some of the time.

Less obvious ways that I provide individualized instruction (even when using the same curriculum with the whole class) are allowing for maximum flexibility in terms of how the student does the learning. Students are free to work at their own pace (I usually don't do a lot of direct instruction, so there usually is an initial explanation of what needs to happen, then students are basically turned loose to work at their own pace, so there's very little of that waiting for the rest of the class to catch up). Students can work alone, or with others if they prefer that. There's a variety of learning aids that students are free to use while learning. Students can learn while sitting at a desk in the tradition fashion--or they are free to try other ways. Students can work continuously, or take intermittent breaks if they need that. Students can write their answers down in the usual fashion, but if that doesn't work for them, they can come up to my desk and talk through their assignments instead. Even when students are essentially working on the same thing, they are free to do it in a wide variety of ways, all of which work for me.

5. What procedures do you use to evaluate student progress besides using tests?

Some of my evaluation is based on direct observation--I pay attention to what students are doing in class while they're working, which tells me whether or not they get it at the time. Otherwise, I collect a lot of work samples (primary method), and frequently spot check for understanding by having discussions, short quizzes, writing prompts, etc. I also pick students who are at-risk, and pay real close attention to what they're doing overall. Testing is important too, and we do spend time on it, but overall, I prefer shorter, more frequent types of assessment because students can get hung up on the word "test" and worry about it too much.

In terms of evaluating a student's overall progress, I measure progress in terms of both effort and achievement. So if two students score the same thing on an assignment, but one had to work significantly harder for that score, I weight it differently.

6. How would you challenge the slow learner and the advanced learner within the same class?

Mainly through differentiation techniques I mentioned above. Aside from the methods already mentioned above, I also keep a variety of extension activities in the classroom that support the topic of student and both types of students are free to enjoy these when they are finished with their work. This is great for times when students are finished with everything (which happens a lot with the advanced learners), or need a change of pace (slow learners). I have puzzles and games based on various aspects of the curriculum, extra-credit projects, and pictorial resources. Also, based on whatever we are studying in class, I go to the library and check out books/materials that support the topic, and these come in an enormous range of reading levels. I put these out where students can access them, and because they are "different" they are inherently interesting, and students like browsing through them, which gives them another "angle" on the topic, and supports their overall learning experience.

7. What would your students say about you?

My students say they love my class (even the ones who act like I am totally ruining their lives by making them do work), and seem to like me a lot too. They leave me little "love notes" on my board (Mrs. Q is the best teacher ever!), they draw me pictures, and give me little surprises all the time. Even when they're less overt about it, they are often hanging around my door waiting for me to arrive, and have to be kicked out at the end of the day, and spend a lot of time between classes hanging out in the room too.

Things they tell me that they like are that my classes are interesting, they like learning about interesting things, like my collection of books/magazines, they enjoy my sense of humor, and they like that they can talk to me about whatever. The tell me that "you are different" and they seem to like that about me.