- Establish the nature of student-teacher relationships. Some teachers may feel that honesty, sharing personal stories, and attempting to relate to students will open up avenues of learning. Others may feel that a certain degree of distance is wise in establishing a classroom hierarchy. Of course, some degree of distance is probably wise, but individual teachers will decide how big the margin should be.
- List goals that a teacher can evaluate later by observing student behavior and writing over the semester. A teacher with a clear philosophy can ask him/herself: did I reach the goals I set for the students and myself? do I need to change some of my goals or expectations?
- Influence the teacher's choice of readings, writing assignments, and class projects. If the content of the course flows across the semester, revolves around a single class topic or issue, or succeeds in getting students to think, this is probably the result of a clear teaching philosophy.
Teaching philosophies will affect almost everything a teacher does from lecture to group work to grading. The anecdote I want to relate will illustrate how a lack of a clear teaching philosophy can negatively affect the classroom. My senior year of high school, my English teacher wasted an opportunity to enrich the lives of twelve high-achieving students. We read canonical works like Macbeth and "Paradise Lost" and were expected to write college-level papers on the readings (it was a class for college credit). She was a complete troll about grammar, taking off five points for each mistake she caught; it was possible in a long enough paper with no editing to make a negative score on an essay. In class, however, we wasted our time reading from the book or listening to her tell personal stories that had no bearing on the class or the material. In a way, that class helped me decide to become an English major because I felt I had been cheated out of something.
In my own teaching philosophy, I would like to teach my students to think. This will be accomplished through the "traditional" methods of reading, writing assignments, group work, and research. I would like to stress that I believe that reading makes students better writers than grammar instruction (though this may need to be a component of some courses). I also want to foster creativity by having projects with visual and/or artistic elements and letting the students choose topics within a certain framework of an assignment (of course, I will always be happy to help students who have trouble in choosing a topic with finding something that will stir their passion). Finally, I want to teach my students to embrace diversity in all its forms while still respecting the expectations of their particular audience.
2 comments:
I have a handful of responses to your post – which I really enjoyed reading on several counts. One, I want to congratulate you for being revolutionary – my take on tackling a profession because someone else screwed it up – I just love it when anyone bucks a trend. I also want to second your emotion on reading vs. teaching grammar as a method of learning the rules. I never really learned my grammar. I just existed as a bookworm early in life, then tried to polish my grammar up when it came time to do some serious writing. Also, an idea for your interest in creative elements: my equivalent to Tech’s 2nd level composition was “Advanced College Writing (for the Arts).” My professor infused the semester with opportunity to write about classical music, painting, mixed media, as well as theater – from Shakespeare to a new plays festival. I was in heaven. Lastly, I want to share with you that one of the Best things any of my English teachers ever told me, was that the best response to the friend/relative/acquaintance who asks in that whiny sort of smart alecy voice, “whadda ya gonna do with a degree in English?” is, “I am going to think!”
I was thinking about your comment that "reading makes students better writers" -- I'd also like to add that hearing good readers read aloud is also elemental in helping students become better writers. I think it should be a fundamental element of any classroom -- even higher-level classrooms. Hearing first-hand how good readers navigate a text, how they make connections within the text and then connect the text to the outside world, can help even the best readers and critical thinkers improve their skills. Plus, everyone likes storytime. :)
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