Week 5 -- Triad Two
Monday 10/29/12 to Friday 11/02/12, 8:00 AM- 4:00 PM
Learners and Learning:
Diverse Learners
Diverse Learners
Specific SEPT Element – Planning Instruction
Preparation of lessons that are clearly based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.
Planning instruction includes:
o Planning for Diversity
o Planning in Collaboration
o Planning to Maximize Learning
o Planning for Adjustments
Planning instruction involves using contextual considerations that . . .
o Bridge curriculum and student experiences
o Accommodate individual student learning styles and performance modes
o Link to student needs and performance
Research source: Focused Instruction
Understanding by Design
UbD
(Wiggins & McTighe, 1998)
Critical Dispositions Matrix
This week’s experiences highlighted four critical dispositions related to Planning Instruction:
- Teacher respects learners' diverse strengths and needs and is committed to using this information to plan effective instruction.
- Teacher
values planning as a collegial activity that takes into consideration
the input of learners, colleagues, families, and the larger community.
- Teacher takes professional responsibility to use short - and long-term planning as a means of assuring student learning.
- Teacher believes that plans must always be open to adjustment and revision based on learner needs and changing circumstances.
Culturally Responsive Framework
Four core markers related to Culturally Responsive Teaching and Planning Instruction have been highlighted by this week’s experiences:
- Instructional planning that accounts for multiple literacies and supports linguistic diversity
- Curriculum content that avoids bias and reflects the contributions of all cultures
- Learning strategies that activate and celebrate cultural knowledge
- Developing attitude
Implications for Practice
My practicum week was a high quality learning experience. It is an extremely busy but rewarding week. I am learning a great deal about planning instruction for the reality of the urban school schedule.
Student-teaching requires balancing one’s own academic and professional concerns with concern for the learners. Three months is a goodly amount of time and strong relationships with learners are established. The students come to know you and expect you to be in class with them. There is a natural tendency to want to help the dozens and dozens of learners in need. However, fulfilling the practicum and licensure requirements is also a central need – and there simply is not enough time to do everything.
I find that I am forced to be very selfish with my after-school time. I know I would greatly benefit from exploring after-school classes, PTA meetings and community activities. But my schedule will not permit it. “Burning the candle at both ends” and skimping on sleep is absolutely not an option. Working with young people is physically, emotionally and mentally draining. In order to pass any and all tests of patience, the urban educator must be well-rested, healthy and emotionally whole.
While a sustained, 12-week practicum makes a certain amount of sense in terms of occupational evaluation and workplace suitability, it is actually counter to the overall professional teaching purpose: linking content to students and the deepening of student understanding. A three or four-week classroom visit allows student-teacher, cooperating teacher, and learners to limit their involvement. Beyond a month or so, the practicum visitor is forced to engage as a permanent part of the learning community. One is not just a substitute teacher, or college assistant, but a trusted resource and good friend. Unfortunately, the practicum schedule is not student-friendly. In a few months, I will drop out of their classes and out of their lives.
Out of the blue -- a young African American male student asked me: “Are you coming back next week?” I said, “Of course I’ll be back.” It broke my heart when he asked, “Are you ever not coming back?” A few other students have begun to ask questions about if and when I would leave them. I interpret them to be judging what level of commitment they should be making to someone who is with them every day now and who is clearly more than just a visitor or temporary assistant. They rightly want to know if they can continue to depend on me.
In their report, Responding to the Needs of At-Risk Students in Poverty (http: www.usca.edu/essays/vol172006/mckinney.pdf ), SueAnne McKinney and Charlene Flenner write:
Concentrated poverty, family instability, and early exposure to violence are but a few hardships typical of growing up in an urban environment. From an early age urban children are confronted with a series of obstacles in their attempts to meet academic, personal, and social success. Urban teachers need to be conscious of and understand the ecology of the environment that has a profound influence and impact on the urban child’s success in school.Research tells us -- urban learners need stability and continuity. In order to grow and learn, they need to feel safe. A safe environment is a predictable one.
Popping into these learners’ lives for a quarter and then disappearing, is contrary to best practices. Two short sessions – with a few weeks off in-between, for reflection -- would be a far more advantageous schedule for the pre-service and cooperating teachers, and most especially, for the learners.
Children are not lab mice – available for experiments and research! This is real for the students. This is their sixth grade year. They will advance and achieve and connect this year – or they will not. Whole families, neighborhoods, and even whole communities may be changed by the connections made by any one of these sixth graders! The last thing quality urban educators want to do is have young folks start to see their educational institutions as a place where people they trust, come and go – a place where taking risks doesn’t pay off because nobody is consistently there for them.
In support of my firm belief that the personally-directed and occupational advancement-driven 12-week practicum should be – at least – halved into two, 6-week internships, I cite the following language from the Code of Ethics for Minnesota Teachers - Standards of Professional Conduct:
A teacher shall not use professional relationships with students, parents, and colleagues to private advantage.I further cite the following factors of Henderson & Milstein’s (1996) “resiliency wheel” which serves as an outline for the process of building resiliency: supportive bonding among members; consistent caring and support; the provision of opportunities for meaningful participation.
Framework for Excellence in Urban Classroom Leadership:
- Urban teachers need to model resiliency and “. . . move from the
knowledge of their own resilience to the practice of building resilience
in the classroom” (Dill & Stafford-Johnson, 2004, p. 2).
- Provide complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess.
- Employ
effective curriculum development that reflects the three-stage
“Back-Mapping” design process of standards tied to activities and
assessments.
- Conduct regular reviews of results (achievement
data and student work) followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum
and instruction.
- Remain aware that teacher expectations can and do affect learners’ achievement and attitudes
- Practice “active teaching” -- teaching that is responsive to learners’ needs and interests
