Memo #4 The End of Observations with JD's Classroom

Last week on Thursday, I sat in with JD’s class.  The week before, his classroom watched and finished the movie Super Size Me and this week the students were to have an in-class discussion whether what people eat should be restricted or not.  The point of the exercise was
to teach the students how to observe a material and extract key points that they thought were significant, develop an argument revolving their choice while using those key points as supporting evidence, and to construct and present an overall analysis of their ”reading” of that material.

At the time of the discussion, JD separated the classroom between those on the opposition of substance control and those that supported substance control.  He led their discussion with the basic (observable) information on the movie, as well as a brief overview of what he had taught them on how to gather and analysis a movie/text for substantial information.  He gave students roles to play (writer, reader, rebuttal, observant) and gave them each allotted time to speak and time to listen.  Despite these factors, participation in the discussion itself was optional.  He kept a tally sheet on who did talk, using it an extra credit and attendance point system on top of the paper the students were to hand in on the issues raised by Super Size Me.  The discussion points were broken down into whoever had the most talking points, most relevancy, and most engaging and effective key points.

JD acted as the mediator for the first few exchanges between the students, gradually backing away and transitioning into a simple observant and audience member.  This allowed the students to start to own the class discussion.  And the students slowly stopped saying things in a question-like tone and began speaking with an authoritative voicing of their knowledge.  Thusly, they became to share their individual observations and findings and ultimately begun owning their knowledge.  (Of course, during times of rough housing, off topic discussion, and misinformation, JD interrupted to stir the class back on course.)

Whenever JD addressed the class after having regressed into being an audience member, he brought up points—lessons to be learned—with an almost casual approach.  While his intentions were to correct a misconception or to bring up and teach them an entirely new piece of information, JD would make the students laugh.  He wasn’t meaning to trivialize his lessons, but rather he was trying to solidify knowledge in his students with that particular impression.

This was my last planned visit to JD’s middle school classroom at NGMS.  The point of this entire observation and interview was to discuss and discover What is Style? and how it impacts the classroom.  Style is a teaching technique.  It provides a memorization tool for the students who are being taught.  What the students learn are meant to be carried along with them through their lives and called upon when they need to use them.  In the case of JD were the cognitive abilities to “read” a material, be able to gather key points from that material and use those key points as evidence and examples to develop and support a class prompt given by him prior to the class being given the material.  In the realm of English reading and writing, this provides both a basic understanding on how to gather, create, develop and present an argument in a written media.  Style is a teaching technique to solidifying this knowledge.  For JD, style first knowing the source material more than exceptionally well, giving bits and pieces of that knowledge to his students, timing the exposure to that material throughout the semester, and calling upon it in a laughable and humorous way so that the students will memorize and associate it with that laughable and humorous way.  But style can be a multitude of things: laughter, humor, acknowledgement, intellectual showing-off, expertise and professionalism, and more.  But ultimately the style an educator adapts and utilizes is meant to leave an impression with their students.  That impression will go on to impact the way students will research and develop their writing in the future.  If the educator’s impact is memorable, the student will always have that lesson as another tool in their academic garage.

Style is a teaching technique.  That teaching technique is meant to leave an impression.  That impression is of a lesson that their teacher is teaching them.  And that lesson is meant to have an impact on how the student will later carry on their academic career.