As a learner and a future teacher, it is time that I begin
thinking about how to be the most effective teacher I can be.
As a learner, I have always been lucky enough to be able to
learn in multiple different ways; I know some people who aren’t so luck, and
they struggled with their studies. The “intelligences” that I best respond to
are linguistic, visual-spatial, and body-kinesthetic, but some are stronger
than others. Some of the best lessons I have been a part of involved several of
these and I know that teacher was very successful. It was an English class (big
surprise there—that I would like an English class) and my teacher, Mr. Burtner,
was trying to teach stories and fiction. He had each student pair up and
annotate stories, we did projects involving poster boards or PowerPoints, we
wrote our own short stories, and we learned all learned one short story via
music. Mr. Burtner actually sang to us all semester until we learned this story
by heart and could sing it to him. He was always very approachable and he let
us speak how we wanted to when it was important that we communicate our
feelings. And, to top it off, he did not punish us for being loud when he wasn’t
lecturing. He knew we (most of us) were on topic and that we were getting our
work done. A lot of the time we were loud because we were engaged. At the
beginning of the year we were learning a set of vocabulary words and there was
one that basically meant to echo loudly. That word was reverberate and I think
none of us will forget it. He had each student go out in the hall and yell the
word as loud as we could so that we could hear the echo. Note: he did warn the
other teachers in the hall that day that we would be learning this word and to
prepare for some noise.
As a teacher, I hope to teach my students as well as I think
Mr. Burtner or Mrs. Dickey or Ms. Mary or any of my great English teachers had
taught me. I feel like I would strive to structure my lessons in a way that my
students would have some independence. For example, because I was always the
quiet kid in class in high school, reading and listening was better for me than
getting up and acting and talking to people that I dislike and dislike me. I
plan on having reading and writing assignments for my students that prefer
doing things that way. And I will have class activities that requires
volunteers so that the more out-going students are able to participate. And
there will be projects in which students can choose multi-media or simple
poster-boards and construction paper then present them to the class. In
addition, these projects could be done in pairs, groups, or individually. I
would make those decisions myself depending on the assignment.
The poem, “I, Too” by Langston Hughes was interesting.
Definitely not my favorite poem but that is an opinion and has nothing to do
with the quality. Of course, I am a bit nervous to be teaching poetry to a
bunch of teenagers that dislike all
poetry but it will be done. The overarching tone of the poem seemed hopeful for
another day, and that is something I would want my students to understand. Yes,
this poem is sad because a black man isn’t free and he is considered property
but he knows that one day, possibly even in his lifetime, he will be free, or
his children will be free, or his grandchildren will be free.
One way I would teach this poem is by putting the class into
groups and assigning each group a stanza. There would be multiple groups doing
the same stanza, since this poem is so short. Then I would ask the students to
get on their phones, tablets, or laptops to find a song that they think
represents their particular piece of the poem. Then we would go around the
class and play the songs that each group picked, comparing, contrasting, and
discussing why each song was picked by each group. This would get them engaged,
working, and they would get to use technology—that was always a big deal when I
was in high school. This would be focusing on the interpersonal and musical
types of students.
A different way to teach “I, Too” would be to deconstruct
and reconstruct the poem out of cut outs of the words. Then we could move the
words around and see how different the meaning could be just by rearranging a
couple words from the poem. Or, use synonyms for some of the words and
reconstruct it that way. This would teach the importance of the why’s and how’s
each poet or author uses specific words to establish a certain meaning, tone,
and theme. I feel like this method would be good for the linguistic learners.
They would be able to do this activity alone or with a partner at their desk,
or we could do it as a class on the white board.
A teaching method that I really appreciate now that I am in
college doesn’t have a name I think. I have always called it “Circle Time” but
I’m sure there is other ways to make evident what I mean. Basically, the class
would all sit in a big circle (we would move the desks and push some against
the walls to make space for everyone) and then talk about how we think this
poem makes us think, feel, and what it makes us want to do. This would be very
interactive and could get many of the students talking if they feel comfortable
in my class (I really hope they do!).
The last teaching method I think of off the top of my head
is to have them create something and give to me to grade. I would then decorate
the class with them. This would be good for the visual-spatial student learners
but I do not think I would want to have every student doing the same poem with
this. I would ask each student to choose from a list of approved poems and do
this. They would be able to make basically whatever they wanted as long as they
cleared it by me. A poster board, a drawing, some piece of art, or even a
video. Like I said though, I would not do this if there was only one poem,
because that would be boring for everyone.
3 Provocative
Questions to ask my students:
- How do you think the poet was feeling when he wrote this? Are there any clues in the poem itself that might help answer that question?
- Why do you think he used not eating in the kitchen as a metaphor of his freedom instead of something more grandiose?
- How did this poem make you feel? Reflect on your own life and tell me what kind of freedoms you are waiting for tomorrow to have.
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