Genre Reflection 1

Before the First Day

The parking lot waits solemnly cold and grey,

Finishing summer projects, thinking about the year,

Coy thoughts misguided by the past rule the day,

After all, the future may have a tear.

Awake now, September mist, inviting and true,

Old green chalkboards forlorn and dust free,

Lockers seemingly abandoned, empty and Viking blue,

Teachers and faculty always struggle to agree.

Lessons and conference calls, turkey sandwiches and bitter coffee,

Stacked high with hope and excitement, shouldering responsibility,

Crimson red and nightshade black pens waiting with glee,

Reflected in the mirror, the truth is the ability.

Perhaps when the break comes through winter’s door

I will think back on this day even more.

            While not framed in a poem, this was the apprehension and excitement in Jerold Hosuing’s mind as he collected himself on the final day before his student filled his classroom. Jerold paced the room; books were jumping off the shelves. The cold sweat, mitigated with repetitive inhales and exhales, was warmed by the acrid boiling coffee he kept pouring down his gullet. He thought to himself, “How am I ever supposed to plan a lesson when I keep getting interrupted!” Even through this frustration, Jerold’s hands barely kept still at the welcoming thought of a new year, fresh minds, and unique experiences that would soon be his reality.  After all, the truth is different every year. Jerold held a light, out of character, giggle under his breath as he thought, “Two opposing truths don’t make the other any less correct.”

Failing Honestly: Better than Cheating

Blog Post 2 (Graded)

               During my placement this year I have encountered one issue that I have not had much experience with in my previous placements; also, this issue is something that has not really been talked about in any education classes that I have taken to this point (as far as dealing with it in our future classrooms). The issue is cheating. Cheating, in all its infamous stained soiled glory, must be addressed by every teacher at some point.

                To date, I have already witnessed blatant cheating in my placement. In the most egregious example, plagiarism was the nasty offense. In this particular instance, the student not only plagiarized an entire section of his/her essay directly from Sparknotes, parts of the teacher sample essay were included in the purported unique student work. The policy in the classroom is that all instances of plagiarism receive a zero on the assignment and may not be made up. In addition to plagiarism, I have seen cheating during group work and on quizzes. Recognizing that cheating is going on, what can teachers do to foster an environment of academic integrity where students view honest work as their currency for success (both now and in the future)?

                Before answering that question, every teacher must realize that some cheating is likely going to happen. Therefore, there are a few best practices that I have observed to ensure some cheating never happens. For instance, my CT (when observing me grade a multi choice test) told me to always mark through the actual answer, not the item number. This ensures that the student does not change the answer after they get the paper back.  This best practice is something I didn’t think of and something my CT had to experience (In actual incidents) before adopting. Also, as English teachers, we can adopt a few simple steps to easily detect essays plagiarized from online sources. Currently, at least in my placement experience, students are almost always given class time to work on essays. Make the rough draft part of what they hand in. Personally, I like a hand written rough draft as part of what the student hands in for the final product.  While some teachers may allow the students to type a rough draft on a computer in class, if they have the resources to do so, it is still easy for a teacher that is actively moving around the classroom to observe cutting and pasting or a lack of work on the screen.

                The fact that cheating occurs in high instances in both high school and college settings is not new news. Our job as future teachers is to try and change this culture, the culture that makes students they need to cheat and that it is ok. In “Ten Principles of Academic Integrity: How Faculty Can Foster Student Honesty,” Donald L. McCabe and Gary Pavela, give an insightful list that can help teachers get a handle on cheating in their classrooms before it is an issue. The list is as follows:

1.       Recognize and affirm academic integrity as a core intuitional value.

2.       Foster a lifelong commitment to learning.

3.       Affirm the role of teacher as guide and mentor.

4.       Help students understand the potential of the Internet—and how that potential can be lost if online resources are used for fraud, theft, and deception.

5.       Encourage student responsibility for academic integrity.

6.       Clarify expectations for students.

7.       Develop fair and creative forms of assessment.

8.       Reduce opportunities to engage in academic dishonesty.

9.       Respond to academic dishonesty when it occurs.

10.   Help define and support campus wide academic integrity standards.

While each of these items is individually important, there are a couple that really stand out for me. Those two are: developing fair and creative forms of assessment and making expectations clear. I am a big proponent of alternative forms of assessment; every assessment does not need to be a multiple choice test. Even when a teacher uses a multiple choice test, they can write it is a fashion that is more enjoyable than the standard boring assessments a student might find on state wide assessment. For example, on the internet, students like to fill out personality tests or questionnaires that match them with a particular character from a TV series etc.  While I am not saying this is the type of test you should give, by making sure some elements of your test are fun and individually rewarding, student feel value in the actual material you are concerned with. This decreases the possibility of cheating.

                

I am interested in the experiences my colleagues have had to date with the cheating issue in the classroom. How was it dealt with? Why did the cheating occur? What could be done differently?

References:

Ten (Updated) Principles of Academic Integrity: How Faculty Can Foster Student Honesty

Donald L. McCabe and Gary Pavela

Change, Vol. 36, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2004), pp. 10-15

Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40177967

Modeling: Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

BLOG POST 1 (Graded)

Modeling: Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

The start of this school has been engaging for me on multiple levels. I am at the point in my development where I find value in all the courses, subject matter, experiences, and techniques of teaching that I am exposed to. Anyone that has pursued any type of degree, taken a perquisite/ class of a degree checklist, knows that this is not the case for every time.

                In my classroom, one of the primary things that has impacted my teaching philosophy, to this point, is the extraordinary amount of modeling that students need to see from the teacher when they present a lesson. I have always included modeling as something that I intend to do every time I teach. However, at sometimes I have thought the amount of modeling presented by some teachers in the education core excessive and overdone. This is simply not the case. Even if students seem to be paying attention, it’s not rude to repeat and show several more times.

                In “Meta, Meta, Meta: Modeling in a Methods Course for Teaching English,” Joelle K. Jay says that “instructional scaffolding is a concept that is tremendously useful, and yet complex and unfamiliar to preservice teachers.” Most basically, a teacher needs to think about what tasks students already know how to do and start by modeling what they know. Then, as the teacher models what they know, something new can be included. Jay says, “A teacher helps students to do what is just out of their reach; instruction is scaffolded in the sense that students are supported over time, with support gradually removed as learners become more independent with the targeted skills.” We don’t want our students to have to navigate the depths of a cave that they aren’t prepared for with the correct light.

                The previous sentiments are especially important to me because I have witnessed, more often than not, students that are simply lost after the lesson and concept is explained. This is not just the case with preservice teachers; this is the case (I have witnessed) with many veteran teachers. All teachers, at least the ones interested in learning, want to know how to reach that student that never seems to participate. While every situation is unique, can involve behavior issues or exceptionalities, too often teachers are throwing students in the deep end of the pool before they know how to dog paddle.

                In Jay’s article, she highlights five elements of instructional scaffolding as first described by Applebee and Langer in 1983. The five elements are: ownership (or intentionality), appropriateness, choice, structure, and collaboration. Ownership means that the instructor must make the students want to learn. Appropriateness involves identifying what the students know and developing instruction around that. Choice places value on the student’s interest and learning requirements. Structure references the actual task and how the students are going to complete it. Collaboration makes the instructor answer the question: what is my role with the student in this activity?

                My takeaway from this examination of modeling, how important it really is/how to use modeling effectively in my classroom, is that I must consider what my students already know more when I am designing lessons. The content cannot be the focus; what I think is fun or engaging cannot drive the direction of the lesson. What the student is capable of, previous understanding, must be at the center of my lessons as I design them. When a teacher builds on a strong foundation, new heights are achieved.

Applebee, A.N., & Langer, J. A. (1983). Instructional Scaffolding: Reading and Writing as natural language activities. Language Arts, 60(2), 168-175.

Joelle K. Jay. (2002). Meta, Meta, Meta: Modeling in a Methods Course for Teaching English

Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1, Reflective Decision Making through Focused Inquiry, 83-102

Dangerous Semester Goals

                Throughout the course of the teacher education program I have encountered many difficulties, professionally and personally. At times I wondered why I had set my sights on becoming an English teacher. I have thought a lot about that this past year. I decided to become an English teacher because those teachers were the most influential people in my life when I was at the age my students are currently at. Teachers may not reach every student. However, the students that teachers do reach can become lifelong learners that positively influence the people around them.

                My primary goal this semester is to translate my original passion, the reason I decided to be a teacher, into my classroom as I interact with students through formal lessons and less formal discussions. I will attend to this goal in a variety of fashions.

                1. I will make the lessons relevant. I have noticed that many teachers, young and old alike, are often out of touch with the issues or interests that students have outside the classroom. While classical literature is important (I certainly enjoy reading it), many students do not feel the same way; students bumble through a purported classic (by the teacher) and never make any connections with life today. I want to combat this fact by including anticipatory activities that address current issues in the news and align with ideas in classical literature. Students tend not to put forth their best effort when they do not feel the material will benefit them or is uninteresting. I have been guilty of this in the past; most teachers in a degree program can empathize with this. Relevancy to the students is an essential part of my teaching goal this semester.

                2. Literacy lessons. When I teach this semester it is my desire to incorporate many more of the literacy strategies that we discussed last semester. I feel like I didn't have the opportunity (in my placement) last semester to fully explore how the various strategies can work in the classroom. Since I have been with this group of students since day one, I am good terms with my cooperating teacher, I feel confident that I can use strategies that I did not use last semester and have the students respond well to them. A teacher has a responsibility to ensure class is not boring. In order to create effective engagement I will seek varied methods, in the form of different literacy strategies, to present lessons.

                3. Feedback. I intend to seek out more feedback this semester from varied sources to prepare effectively for next semester. In the past I have relied primarily on my own intuition to address issues and reconcile problems or questions. I now completely understand that a teacher must take advantage of all the resources available. In order to be an effective lifelong learner, I cannot try to conquer everything on my own. After all, the teachers I am around have been in the position I am in now. Openness and  a commitment to seek out all the available resources/feedback mediums is my responsibility. I shall not forget it over the course of this next year.

Welcome to the page of curved fruit.

This professional development blog aims to make development interesting and relevant while maintaining a decorum of humor at the same time. Here at the dangerous mind spot bananas are not bananas; bananas are curved yellow fruit from a far away land of jubilee.