My Philosophy of Teaching
Perhaps the most integral aspect of my philosophy of teaching is the conviction that the classroom should be student-centered. In the English classroom, this translates into reading material and writing assignments that are relevant to the students’ lives. The ideal English classroom is one in which students can write about and explore issues and ideas that matter to them.
However, as students from various backgrounds enter into the school, the classroom also becomes an environment to learn about different ideas and cultures. Therefore, it is imperative that as a teacher I make efforts to ensure that my classroom is a community of learners, a place where students grapple with new ideas together, where learning does not just happen at the individual level.
Key to teaching effectively, understanding how students learn is the cornerstone of appropriate instruction. Personally, I bring a constructivist approach to teaching—the idea that “people learn by making, and reflecting on, things that they find useful and important” (Teaching by Design, Peter Smagorinsky). Therefore, my classroom will not only be an environment of discussion and exploratory talk, but also of hands-on learning, where students will create and be active learners. A large aspect of this is recognizing the literacies of today’s culture and having a classroom that reflects the multimodality of the 21st century.
In addition, I believe that heavy reflection is invaluable, that the process of reflecting on learning and thinking will not only stimulate more but also help to cement learning and thinking. I also plan to incorporate multiple forms of assessment, not just traditional tests, to better assess student learning, and I plan to emphasize process over product, especially in regards to writing. Thus, my assessments will reflect what is valued in my classroom.
My Philosophy of Teaching Writing
There is power in being able to effectively communicate ideas. Writing is a huge aspect of why I teach English, and as a teacher of writing, I want to help my students both recognize the value of being able to communicate and then to become effective communicators, specifically through the medium of writing. The key is to always make writing relevant and contextualized. I want students to see real writing in real disciplines in the real world. What that means in the classroom is that all disciplines and all forms of writing are valued and analyzed, including both print and non-print sources—raps and essays, short stories and sonnets, newspaper articles and advertisements, essays and blogs, résumés and business letters, et al. The classroom should be a place where students experiment and explore writing in these various writing situations in order to learn how to effectively communicate in any social or academic structure.
In trying to teach writing to my students and instilling different values in them, the first thing I will implement into my classroom is the daybook. The daybook can be anything--in my experience, a composition notebook seems to work the best. To me, the daybook is a physical space for students to breathe: writing, doodling, drawing. It's a place for students to write and take notes, to research and brainstorm, to freewrite and draft. It's also a place where low-stakes writing, writing that isn't graded, happens. The daybook is a place where students can feel free to write without boundaries and limitations, to write badly even. To me, the daybook merges and blends the academic and the personal, providing outlets for both. Since I’ve gotten used to my daybook, I feel like every time it’s with me, it incites writing. In no other place do I feel so encouraged to write and liberated to write without restrictions. The daybook also provides me with a way to physically organize my thoughts and my writing in one location. The daybook is finally a place for metacognition, a place to reflect on one's own thinking and writing and learning. I hope to transfer these writing strategies and mentalities to my students through the daybook.
Also, I want my classroom to reflect the literacies of today’s culture, both the modalities of print and media. Thus, the internet and online writing will be implemented in my classroom as well. I have already implemented digital/online portfolios that gather and reflect the students’ work throughout the class, and I have found great success in having students publish their work digitally. Utilizing social networking sites and other digital literacies also should be used to promote a community of learners in my classroom. When students begin seeing themselves as part of a learning community, they will push and encourage each other, myself as teacher included. Therefore, I also plan to emphasize the social aspect of writing, that writing is not something that happens individually but communally. My classroom will be a place where writers share and discuss their writing, a place for peer revision and peer feedback.
A lot of teachers dread assessing students' writing. My only answer to this dilemma is to use a form of assessment that provides students with a lot of feedback to their writing. No matter the letter grade assigned to a piece, revision is an aspect of the process that I see as integral and one that will be necessary for every student. I also plan to incorporate a lot of low-stakes writing in the classroom, writing that isn't graded except for participation. This type of writing places emphasis on the student and his/her expression and also gives more confidence to a student as a writer, which are key to a student's growth as a writer.
