Subjects Matter: Chapter 11 [What Teachers Make]

What are teachers if they don't teach?

Students are not all created equal, but as teachers we are tasked with providing a series of resources, strategies, and motivation to allow them to get to that point in their academic careers where they can say "I can do this." And, in my opinion, the situation that should happen in order to coach the students toward this self-awareness and independence must begin with us under the single notion and assumption that "we must build the practice before it can be put to good use."


In chapters 9 and 10 I posed the question "When should we, as the educator, know when to give our students extra material or create Content-Area Book Clubs?" The answer is: We must work under the assumption that the students will always need these aides. Does that mean we should always create supplement lessons and materials for our under-performing students? Or does this mean that we should always carry extra content-specific reading materials to help engage our students? And does this mean that we, as the teacher, must always be aware and expect the worst from our students so that we should always have more than we need on hand during lessons? I think the steps towards assessing these problems and providing more for our students it that we should always keep in mind that the students have only one shot at their academics and only one shot at obtaining a premise of adult support within their classrooms. We, as the educators, are then responsible for not only making sure our students are capable and knowledgeable but also that our students are able to learn (both on their own when they can and with us when they can't.)

Diving back into the reading, these are the think-alouds that teachers must keep in mind at all times, not only with students who are struggling.

• Create supportive relationships with your students. We are there to aide them when they need it and to motivate them when they feel like they feel like giving up.
• Model thoughtful reading and academic awareness. Show the process that you, as a student and a teacher, go through when you're reading or researching. Do you ask questions? Do you jot down notes? Do you highlight and outline? Make the visual and connect with the activity to show that the material you picked isn't hard, but it isn't impossible as long as you dedicate yourself.
• Promote self-monitoring. Where do you struggle as a reader or writing? Stop and show the instances and show the possible solutions. Sometimes breaks aren't a bad thing.
• Use materials students can successfully read, but also give them extensive support for more challenging text. In my opinion, the only good assumption to make about your students is that they don't know a material. In this way you will always have a supplementary lesson on hand to make sure you get them to where you need them to be. And even if your students are capable of doing something, give them more support to show that you care. More is always better than none.
• Build engagement with the text. You're teaching the content area you're in because you're passionate about it, show it. Role-playing an Arthur Miller play or have a poetry slam utilizing poems from your class help the students build a fundamental concept about your lessons and the text: they're fun when you get them.
• Provide books and materials in various formats. I know that most every single to-be educator in our program despises textbooks. When you're given the chance, give your students another outlet to view the material like a movie, a YouTube clip, a comic short, or even a student activity. This takes the material out of the all too often mundane and tedious connotations that students have built them up to be.

We must build the practice before it can be put to good use. I believe that students of all types, backgrounds, levels, and areas are capable individuals. They need, however, to be given the resources to emerge their talents and abilities. The educator, us, are first and foremost there to make sure that our students learn. Sometimes fun and games aren't the only thing we can do with our classes, but we shouldn't forget that those  fun and games stuck with us in our memories (and could have potentially motivated us to become teachers in the first place). If I were to break this chapter down into it's barest components I would look at it like this:

What + So What + Now What = Teaching
Teaching + Our Individuality + Our Students Individual = Learning
Learning + Teaching + Our Individuality + Our Students Individuality = Improvement