Instructional Philosophy in regards to Content Area Teaching

Chapter 5 was enlightening and gratifying to read!  Much of the content mirrored many of the strategies that support my instructional philosophy.  The basic idea of this philosophy centers around the idea that EVERYONE can learn and be successful.  This foundation was designed around my own experiences as a student.  As you may have assumed from my introductory blog, learning during my younger years was a challenge.  I reflect on this experience often hoping to uncover a reason for my struggles.  This reflective process always leads me back to the lack of demonstration provided by my teacher and the minimal use of strategies to support my learning.  Thinking back to this part of my life, I can remember many times feeling disengaged in the lesson which negatively impacted my understanding.  As I was reading this chapter it occurred that the missing link in my experience as a young child was the implementation of effective strategies.  Stemming from these experiences and my goal to create engaging and effective lessons that ensure success in all students, I have developed a repertoire of engaging strategies that can be used to help all types of learners.   Many of these strategies center on student collaboration.  Often, I will use whole group and small group discussion to assist students in better understanding concepts that are taught.  To do this discussion templates and examples are given to the students as a resource.  In addition to this resource, I model what an effective discussion seminar looks like. One model I use frequently is the reciprocal teaching.

                Not knowing this before reading the chapter, my philosophy of education aligns well with the social constructivist theory.  Using my students as a resource for each other has impacted student engagement and social interactions. Many of the strategies that are in place are developed with student communication in mind like the think/pair/share groups, literature circles, and clock buddies.  I also consider the design of my classroom to lend itself to collaborative learning.  It was great to see that Padeia seminar highlighted on the Moodle. While I have had the opportunity to watch this being modeled, I have never fully implemented it with my whole class.  Training on such strategies could be beneficial because it requires the students to understand empathy, patience, and understanding.  At the same time, it encourages higher level thinking and requires the students to support their thought with logical understanding of the concept being addressed.

I mentioned the design of my classroom above, because the classroom climate is essential in developing a safe, orderly, and inviting community where student interaction can take place.  Therefore, my students sit in table groups, which makes discussion accessible whether it is students sharing thoughts with their elbow partner, as a table group, or even as a whole class.  This small community of learning has also proven to motivate students who are unmotivated.  The book makes reference to the positive impact small group interactions have on student academics and social relationships and I have found this to be very true.  As a means of building community and incorporating change frequently, a new seating arrangement is created every three weeks.  I find this to be extremely important in helping the students feel comfortable expressing their thoughts in the classroom.

In previous blogs, I have mentioned the use of CROPQV but I cannot stress the use of this strategy enough.  This is a great example of reader response.  I have found that explicit instruction on what CROQV is and how it can be important has been key in creating successful reading interactions for the students.  At the beginning of the year, I focus a lot of time and energy modeling appropriate responses.  CROPQV is integrated into my students’ weekly reading log, our daily read aloud, and literature circles.  Their responses have often led to very enriching conversation.  Moreover, I found using many of Garner’s multiple Intelligences to design activities has increased learning engagement.  For instance, students have the opportunity to discuss their learning by creating character and author interviews, an illustration of their favorite scene with an explanation of why, writing music to depict the conflict of the story, ect.  Actively involving the readers in their learning is key to success.  As I have stated above, many of my personal experiences as a student have motivated me to think outside of the box and bring more meaning to student learning.  Simply responding to pre-made questions from the book does not always spark the higher level discussions that come from the use of CROPQV and reader response activities like those addressed above.

In this chapter, I have learned that strategy awareness is important.  A focus on the social integration strategies offer is important in developing classroom community, activating prior knowledge, and encouraging higher level thinking.  In order to provide appropriate scaffolds, it is important to understand the gains that occur from pre-assessing the students’ knowledge of the strategy. The book states this helps the teacher “determine the degree of knowledge the students have…” (Vacca, Vacca, Mraz, 2011). This will be something I give me attention to as I approach this new school year.