Midterm Summary
April 1, 2010
I have tried to set up a framework for an experiential course, involving practicum hands-on learning, theoretical and pedagogical skills through the text books chapter presentations, practicum experience, community outings, discussions of race and ethnicity through newspaper article sharing. Technology is also a featured medium of housing your intellectual property whereby you have more ownership of your work as you document your progress over time.
I look forward to our sessions for they are experiences which we share together. There is always time for the unexpected and that is the beauty of learning and teaching. Our photos of each session is a reminder of the stories we shared each week. I hope you, too, will document the discovery, play, events and learning that takes place in your own learning settings. I try to model for you my expectations. I will not ask you to anything I would not do myself. As your mentor, guide and teacher, I hope you learn what you need from me in ways that are comfortable, comforting, challenging, stimulati and though-provoking.
Out educating linguistically diverse course is a smorgasbord experience where we learn about theory through practicing it ourselves. Working with students at Apache school is an opportunity to situate ourselves in the context of learning about stories children bring to school and we use those as the curriculum for our Chautauqua stories. We are adapting to different learning styles and adjusting to supporting children’s learning from different perspectives. The most obvious one is using students’ oral storytelling strengths to support their writing. We are encouraged to write their story for them not because they are lazy but because telling a story and writing a story demand two different parts of cerebral processing. Telling a story is more holistic, relating to the Right Hemisphere and writing a story is more sequential and logical, representative of the Left Hemisphere. Academic schooling is biased towards the logical sequential and this puts many children at a disadvantage if they are holistic, relational and random thinkers, not to mention, creative and original thinkers.
Debriefing at the end of each session is helpful as we learn from each other in a coaching collaborative network. This is the beginning of what you will do as teachers within your own school-talk about your students’ progress and how to adapt your teaching to meet their needs. This is what keeps you thriving as a teacher and learner and creative professional.
Since teaching is relationships, connecting with our community through field trips is another important component. You make further connections by arranging visits for our class to your chosen place. We have visited Teaching Children, Farmington Special Preschool, Gateway Museum , Farmington Public Library so far. We began our course with visits to the ValleyTrading Post, SJC West, ENLACE and the Farmington Indian Center. Through these experiences I hope you value the importance of stories-stories of people, stories of places, stories of things; that the past influences the present and to know the backstory of something reveals the present dynamic. This will transfer in your relationships with your students. Because Farmington is insular, we become too comfortable in our settings and surroundings. My goal through the community trips is to invite otherness of people, ideas, perspectives into our experiences as a way to augment and learn about ourselves in the process. Seeing things in different perspectives and appreciating perspectives different from our own is part of culturally relevant teaching. Exploring more about these differences is part of becoming a culturally relevant teacher. This is our goal.
We have been sharing textbook readings through formal presentations by our peers. We all take someting different and bring someting to what we read, so our preentations are a way to reveal the ways you are comprehending what you read. Paired with the community outings, this makes for unified ways of coming to know and experience our text content. I am please you are taking the initiatives as you make connections in planning, reading, preparing your presentations. The chapter rubric as a guide includes components of an excellent lesson delivery. However, it is not a competition, only a way for you to note effective teaching strategies as you prepare your presentations. Reading local newspapers help sensitize us to current issues related to multiperspectival learning and awareness of other views, experiences differnt from our won. We have not had much time to share these, however, I look forward to shring your collections in the subsequent weeks.
You have not had a chance to introduce your Chautauqua Characters yet, but you will soon. You will have several weeks to share your Character’s story and workshop it and refine your story performance for May 13. We added a visual element of pictures this semester, so it will be interesting to incorporate a digital dimension with our Chautauqua performances.
We will be back on April 22 at Apache Elementary School to continue our Chautauqua practicum after a hiatus. With two weeks before showtime, it will be a focused time in centering students back into their characters and refining their stories. The element of photos will need to be coordinated also. However, all will come together.
It is an honor to work with you and learn from you this semester and I look forward to reading your midterms and your group feedback to improve and gain inisght for refining our remaining time together and for planning in the future.
Looking over our standards I think we are addressing the following:
- LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
(1) demonstrating knowledge that growth in language maturity is a developmental process.
1(a) understanding developmental theories and processes by which children acquire, understand and use language from infancy through childhood.
(3) will demonstrate knowledge that speaking, reading, writing, listening and thinking are interrelated.
- READING & LITERATURE
2(c) asking questions that elicit both oral and written responses at a variety of levels.
4(g) drawing upon students’ family oral stories in order to develop and elicit critical insights from their students.
- EVALUATION
(1) evaluating techniques to be used to describe a student’s progress in English.
(c) gaining experience in “student watching” and other informal ways of describing student progress.
2(b selecting the most appropriate formal and informal ways to assess or evaluate growth in oral and written language and reading skills.
- RESEARCH
(2)(iv) understanding diverse cultures interpret written and oral language in different ways.
- PEDAGOGY
(1) delivering instruction using a variety of approaches.
(2) understanding complexity of students in a classroom, such as physical disabilities, learning disabilities, limited English proficiency, and cultural diversity.
(b) modifying and implementing instruction for diverse learners.
(c) becoming more aware of strategies for helping students be sensitive to and understanding of each other’s learning and social needs.
(3) understanding that the educational process includes families, and the social and economic communities.
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Chautauqua Performance this Friday at SJC:"Culture and Commerce on the Santa Fe Trail "on 9 April at 7pm | For information call 599-8771 or 334-9325
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