A typical lesson in my classroom would begin with about 5-10 minutes of allowing my students to respond to a free write prompt in their writing notebooks. I would also respond to the prompt in my own notebook, but I would also position myself so that I could easily observe all of my students and offer my assistance to students who struggled with writing or were reluctant to write in general. I may suggest that these students draw a picture or write a poem instead of responding in paragraph form. Students who are learning English for the first time may also be permitted to answer these prompts in their native language. Sometimes the prompt would have to do with the lesson or the particular unit we were studying, other times the prompt would simply be an opportunity for students to use their imagination and begin to view themselves as creative writers. Once the majority of the students are done writing, I would ask two or three people to either read what they had written out loud or share what they had written with a partner. Occasionally, I will ask students to share with a partner or in small groups to accommodate those who are less comfortable with sharing with the entire class. After any student reads their except out loud, the class would clap enthusiastically to thank them for sharing something so personal and to make the students feel comfortable and accepted should they share their own pieces of writing in the future. If this lesson were taking place at the beginning of a unit on persuasive writing, I would then begin the class by asking the entire class how they defined persuasion and what some qualifications were that could make something persuasive. I would ask them for examples of when they were persuaded by someone, why their argument was persuasive, etc. Once I felt we had discussed persuasion adequately based on the knowledge my students already had in order to cultivate a fund of knowledge, I would proceed to teach my students the parts of a persuasive essay and why each part is important to the whole. I would then pass around sample persuasive essays (some good, some excellent, and some mediocre) and ask the students to identify the thesis, topic sentences, concrete evidence, and commentary in each sample in small groups. After about 10-15 minutes of group work, we would then come back together as a class and discuss what each group had found in their essay samples. At that point, I would answer any questions that people still seemed to have about persuasive essays and then work through particularly hard writing samples as an entire class. To end the class, I would ask my students to begin brainstorming potential ideas for persuasive essays and tell them that we would talk about their upcoming writing assignment the next day in class.
Explanation for changes:
I wanted to be sure to provide accommodations for struggling students and immigrant and non-English speaking students in my classroom even in the simplest of tasks. One of the most important reasons I want to include class writing time in my curriculum is not only to get students writing, but to create a community of writers. This cannot happen if several students feel as if they are unable to participate. I also included more details about asking for the opinions and experiences of students at the beginning of the lesson in order to cultivate a fund of knowledge and let the students feel like valuable participants in my classroom.
My students:
My students would come from a wide range of backgrounds. Many students will be clearly identified as different based on their physical appearance and race, others will be identified as different because they speak a different language or have certain customs that set them apart from their classmates. No matter what my students look like physically or what ethnicity I believe they belong to, I will not assume anything and I will treat each and avery one of my students as individuals. I will make it very clear that I will not tolerate any racism, religious discrimination, sexual harassment, or bullying of any kind in my classroom. I will punish people for using the word "gay" as a derogatory term just as I would punish as student for using the word "nigger." My students will also have various learning styles and levels of interest in the subject I teach. Some students would be listening attentively and hanging on to my every word because of their love for me and the subject of English, but other students would look at me with a mask of apathy and make it clear that they did not want to be at school at all, let alone in my English classroom. No matter how interesting I find the subject matter at hand to be, not all of my students will be enraptured with everything that I have to say and everything that we have to talk about. Whether I teach at a junior high or high school, many of the students will be friends already before the class begins and often distract each other with mumbled side comments before, during, and after class. Other students will seem to live on the fringes of the classroom and interact very little with their peers before, during, or after class. Some students may often come to class wearing the same outfit a few days in a row because their families are too poor to afford to buy them the brand name clothing that these kids believe will lead them to instant popularity. While this may be true in many instances, even observations such as this should not lead me to stereotype students who I believe may be impoverished. What I can and will do is make it clear to my students that if they have circumstances that make it impossible for them to turn something in or do their reading, I will be willing to work with them. Hopefully this policy will encourage students who may be in tough home situations to confide in me. Many girls will come to class with caked on makeup and tight fitting shirts as a result of their exploration of their sexuality and a test to see how many boys will notice them that day. Some students will be athletic and very involved in sports at school and outside of school; others could care less about the next football game or the next school pep rally. As a teacher, it may be tempting to stereotype my students and group them into good students, druggies, gangsters, know-it-alls, jocks, or recluses, but I must strive to see all my students as individual people who each possess the ability to contribute to and learn from the discussions and activities in my classroom. I will provide my students with opportunities to bridge the gaps between their differences so that prejudices can be broken down and students can begin to value each and every one of their classmates. I will continually give my students opportunities to make their voices heard in the classroom and prepare them each to be valuable citizens in the democracy of my classroom as well as the democracy of our country.
Explanation for changes:
I wanted to address the issue of race and ethnicity more directly in this section and explain that I will not tolerate any form of discrimination in my classroom. I understand that many prejudices will exist, but I will do my best to provide my students with experiences to break down any existing prejudices they may have. I also wanted to make it clear that no matter what I observe about my students outwardly, I cannot and will not judge them. I will treat each of my students as individuals regardless of any predispositions I have regarding their race, sexuality, or social status.
Surroundings in the classroom:
My classroom will be by large windows, allowing the room to be lit primarily by natural light as the day progresses and fostering a classroom that does not feel like an artificially-lit prison to my students. The walls will be decorated with inspirational quotes by famous writers throughout the ages and grammar posters with helpful rules that students often forget. Since I plan to teach some ESL classes, I will also include some posters of essential English phrases on the walls. I would also include plenty of posters that made it clear that I am accepting of all lifestyles, including any LGBTQ lifestyles. I want to make it clear that I am an advocate for these lifestyles and that my classroom is a safe space for any and all students. I'm not sure exactly which posters I would hang up to indicate this, but there will certainly be several visual indications of my advocacy for LGBTQ students in particular. In the back of the room, where will be bookcases with books for my students to check out at their leisure, encouraging students to read not only when it is required, but whenever they have the desire to expand their minds and escape from the toils of daily life as a teenager. The books would range from the latest and greatest young adult novels to nonfiction memoirs of people who changed the world. No matter which grades I taught, I would provide books that fit into various reading levels and covered a wide variety of content and genres in order to ensure that any student would be able to find something they could read for pleasure in my classroom. In addition to accommodating various reading levels, my classroom library would include books that represented a range of cultures both inside and outside of the United States. I would also include some books in other languages, perhaps even translations of popular young adult novels or classroom novel books in another language so that students who are not yet proficient in English would not feel left out. My desk would be a type of organized chaos with a long list of to-dos, piles of papers to grade, and pictures of my family and loved ones to remind me that I was never alone. My desk would also be a place to store the handouts in an organized bin with a slot for each class period for each day's lesson. For example, the variety of writing samples used in the lesson I delineated on an introduction to persuasive writing would be stored in the bin for second period English 9 and then passed out. I would also have a bin for each class period to turn in their papers and writing assignments, including their writing notebooks every 2 weeks. At the front of the room would be a whiteboard with a projector screen installed in the ceiling that could be pulled out whenever I used the projector, particularly with powerpoint slideshows when teaching new concepts to my students. These technological tools would be used as I taught my students the important components of a persuasive essay before they split into groups to label the writing samples.
Explanation for changes:
I want my classroom to feel like a safe space for everyone, which is why I added the sentence about including basic English phrases on the wall. Such posters can make a difference in whether an immigrant student decides to speak up and participate or not. Including posters about my acceptance of LGBTQ students is also imperative to ensure that these students feel safe in my classroom. Having visual reminders that I am accommodating to all the needs of my students will also provide all my students with added comfort. I also decided to expand my classroom library even further in order to accommodate immigrants and people who do not speak English as their native language. Bringing in books about other cultures and from the perspectives of other cultures will also increase the chances of my students finding a book they can truly relate to.
Lesson topic:
As I mentioned in my initial description of the lesson, I would be teaching my students the basic components of a piece of persuasive writing. The components I would focus on would be thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting evidence, and commentary. Of all these components, I would spend the most time emphasizing the importance of a thesis statement in a persuasive piece and the need to make a specific argument in the thesis statement before a persuasive essay can be built around it. The main thing that I want students to take away from this lesson is a general familiarity with how an argument is usually formed in writing and why each of these components is important in order to create a successful persuasive piece of writing. Later in the week, I would introduce to them their new assignment to write a persuasive piece of writing on their own. In order to prevent students from being overwhelmed by this new assignment, it is imperative that students possess a familiarity with the basic pieces that make up a piece of persuasive writing. This initial phase would also allow me, as the teacher, to assess how familiar my students are with writing persuasive pieces of writing and whether or not the majority of my students have written persuasive pieces in the past. This will allow me to anticipate any adaptations that I need to make to the persuasive writing assignment before I even give the assignment to my students. I would also be flexible during the first part of any unit as well as throughout the unit to ensure that the needs of my students are being met and that the pace of the learning is not overwhelming anybody. If there are students who feel overwhelmed, I would make it a point to work with them one-on-one as much as possible and place them in groups with people who would be patient with them as they learned.
Explanation for changes:
Being flexible is part of teaching, especially inclusive pedagogy that endeavors to reach and teach a diverse body of students. Putting students and their needs first is an essential part of effective pedagogy.
Work as a teacher during the lesson:
While my students are writing in their writing notebooks, I am taking attendance based on the seating chart that I have put my students in. At this point, I should know the majority of my students' names, but if I don't, I am practicing my ability to match names with faces according to the seating chart I have put in place. I am also looking around to assess the interest level of each of my students; some are writing furiously, others stare off into space as if they don't know where to begin or how to continue, and others think of this time as an opportunity to sleep. I gently remind any sleepers that I will be checking off their notebooks and giving them points that Friday, so they need to be sure to write something in order to get those points. I also make a mental note of the students who are having a hard time with the prompt and try to cater tomorrow's prompt more to their interests and ability level as writers. After I have led the discussion on persuasion and persuasive writing and appropriately assessed my students' familiarity with the writing genre, I launch into teaching my students the basic components of a persuasive essay. Rather than talking the entire time, I often ask students to read excerpts and blurbs from the powerpoint presentation and also ask students questions to keep their interest and involve them in the lesson. Once I ask the students to get into groups and pass out the writing samples for them to work with, I wander casually around the room; sitting in on conversations, listening to group discussions, answering questions that students have about concepts they are struggling with. I also observe students who seem to be struggling or who are getting off task and ask them specifically if they need assistance rather than waiting for someone to ask me for help. Once the majority of the groups are done, I would give a 2 minute warning and tell the other groups to wrap up their discussion and be ready to share what they have found with the class. From there, we would come together as a class once more and I would ask students to classify their writing samples as persuasive or not persuasive and back their claims with evidence. At the end of this group discussion, I would offer to answer any questions or clarify any points of confusion and wrap up the lesson by telling students what they can anticipate for tomorrow's lesson.
Lesson activities:
The first lesson activity, no matter what the lesson, will be a time for the students to write in their writer's notebooks. This activity is not designed to simply keep the students occupied while I take roll or quiet them down quickly, but rather it is a way to incorporate writing into the daily curriculum of my classroom and emphasize its importance in daily life. The variety of prompts are also designed to get the students interested in writing and help them to see themselves as writers and as people who are capable of expressing new and exciting ideas. By not restricting students to any specific writing form, I will not only invite creativity into the writing process, but I will also provide a needed accommodation for students who are struggling with writing or who are struggling with the English language. The invitation for students to share what they have written after the time is up gives students the opportunity to open up and become more comfortable around each other in order to create a safe classroom space. This time to share also allows students to recognize and admire the different ways that people approach each prompt and the rich diversity that each writer in the classroom can bring to the class. The group work where students are asked to identify the components of a persuasive essay in various writing samples will give the students an opportunity to talk and interact with each other while also providing a way for students to immediately apply what they have just learned. By mixing up the groups each class period, I will provide students with valuable experiences with peers from different racial, ethnic, and social backgrounds that can aid in the breaking down of prejudice. In addition, this group work is an easy way for me to assess the level of understand of my students without any formal assessment so that I can ascertain how slowly or quickly I need to move through my lesson material and the unit of persuasive writing as a whole. The group discussion implemented throughout the class gives the students the opportunity to learn from each other and value the opinions and knowledge of others as well as their own opinions and knowledge. These various activities are also designed to expose my students to persuasive writing instead of simply expecting them to learn about it from what I tell them.
Explanation of changes:
It is imperative that I give students opportunities to interact with people who are different from them in visible or invisible ways. This is one of the first steps in breaking down any prejudices my students may have toward certain groups of people. We are all unique and we all come from very different lifestyles. What is important is that we do not let these differences become the reason we choose to dislike, discriminate against, or marginalize people. I doubt I will be able to break down all the prejudices that my students may possess, but I will certainly try to break down the majority of them by replacing misunderstandings and misconceptions with genuine and uplifting experiences with others.
