Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

A Handbook for Secondary School Teachers

Our Approach to Teaching xiii

About the Authors xiv
Rationale and Description xiv
Contributors xv
BOOK I: GOALS AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR TEACHERS 1
A Letter to Future Teachers 1
1 Goals: Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher? 5
A: The Challenge 6
B: How Do Your Beliefs About the World Shape Your Teaching? 7
John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education 8
Paulo Freire’s Philosophy of Education 9
Septima Clark’s Philosophy of Education 10
Other Educational Thinkers You Should Know 11
C: How Ideas Shape Our Teaching 13
Which One Is English? 14
D: Becoming a Teacher 1: New Teachers Discuss Their Ideas 16
My Dreams and Hope by Christina Agosti-Dircks 17
Race and U.S. Politics and Education by Howard Fuchs 18
I Want to Give Back to the Community by Pedro Sierra 19
A Moral Obligation to Care About Others by Gayle Meinkes-Lumia 21
Teaching as an Act of Resistance by Michael Pezone 22
Faith in God Gives Me Faith in Myself by Deon Gordon Mitchell 23
E: Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher? 24
F: First-Semester Education Students Reflect on Their Experience 25
My Secondary Education General Methods Reflective Practice Journal
by Alice Van Tassell 25
My Secondary Education General Methods Reflective Practice Journal
by Maritza Perez 29
G: Alan’s Pedagogical Creed—What I Know About Teaching and Learning
(with apologies to John Dewey) 31
2 Responsibilities: What Is a Teacher? 35
A: My Best Teachers 1: Directed Experience, Scaffolding,
and Creative Maladjustment 36
B: Nuts and Bolts of Teaching 1 38
I Was Not a Great Student by Christian Caponi 40
“By the Book” Versus “the Real World” by Steve Bologna 41
C: Becoming a Teacher 2: New Teachers Discuss Their Personal
Experiences as Students 41
A Student Who Did Just Enough to Get By by Stacey Cotten 42
I Was Once in Their Shoes by Susan Soitiriades 43
I Hated Teachers Who Were Controlling by Jennifer Bambino 44
I Was Called “Spic” by Lynda Costello-Herrera 45
I Was the New Kid and I Was Scared by Stephanie Hunte 46
I Could Not Speak English by Jayne O’Neill 47
D: Teaching Stories 1 48
I Come From a Family of Teachers by Maureen Murphy 49
How I Learned to Teach Math by Rhonda Eisenberg 52
For Jonathan Levin, Teacher by Alan Singer 55
BOOK II: PRO/CLASS PRACTICES—PLANNING, RELATIONSHIPS,
ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY 59
3 Planning: How Do You Plan a Lesson? 63
A: What Are Your Goals? 63
B: What Are Teaching Strategies? 66
C: My Best Teachers 2: A Lesson in Humility 67
D: What Does a Lesson Look Like? 69
What Is a Lesson Plan? 69
What Do You Need to Consider? 70
E: Four Sample Lesson Formats 71
An Activity-Based Format 71
A Developmental Lesson Format 76
Format for Hunter’s Approach to Lesson Planning 79
Format for a Streamlined Activity-Based Lesson Plan 81
F: Becoming a Teacher 3: What Makes Someone Successful as a Teacher? 85
I Will Not Let the Wheelchair Be an Excuse by Dennis Mooney 85
G: Teaching Stories 2 87
How I Learned to Be a Teacher by David Morris 87
H: What Is Thematic Teaching (in Social Studies, Biology,
and Everything Else)? 91
I: Some Useful Ideas for Organizing Lessons 94
4 Relationships: Why Are Relationships With Students Crucial
to Successful Teaching? 103
A: How Important Are Relationships Between a Teacher and Students? 103
B: My Best Teachers 3: Learning From My Students 105
C: How Important Is It to “See” and “Hear” Students? 108
viii CONTENTS
D: What Does It Mean to Be “Gifted”? 109
Were the Mystery Men Gifted? by Alan Singer 111
Promoting Relationship, Literacy, and Responsibility
by Judith Y. Singer and Alan Singer 113
E: Teaching Stories 3 115
Reflections on Race, Democracy, and Education: What Kind of Teacher
Do You Want to Be? by S. Maxwell Hines 115
F: Should Teachers See Race and Discuss Injustice? 120
5 Organization: How Are Classrooms and Schools Organized? 123
A: If You Could Build a Secondary School From Scratch,
What Would It Look Like? 124
B: How Can You Find (and Hold Onto) a Job in a Traditional School Setting? 127
C: If You Could Design a Secondary School Classroom,
What Would It Look Like? 130
D: Nuts and Bolts of Teaching 2: How Do You Establish Classroom Rules? 133
E: How Do You Organize an Inclusive Classroom? 136
General Classroom Suggestions for Inclusive Classrooms 136
Co-teaching Suggestions for Classroom and Inclusion Teachers 137
F: Becoming a Teacher 4: Responding to Different School Settings 138
The First Day of the School Year by Laura Pearson 138
A New Teacher’s Difficult Journey by Nichole Williams 140
I Know I Can Get My Message Across by Ken Dwyer 143
My Students Call Me the “Math Geek” by Kathleen Simons Smith 145
6 Community: How Do You Build Classroom Communities
Committed to Educational Goals? 151
A: Can Community Emerge From Chaos? 152
B: How “Teacher Tricks” Can Help Build Community 155
C: Becoming a Teacher 5: What Does Community Building Look Like? 157
I Struggle for My Students, Not Against Them by Rachel Gaglione 157
D: How Do “Corny Teacher Jokes” Help You to Be “Real”? 159
E: How Does Cooperative Learning Build Community While Promoting
Student Achievement? 161
F: How Can Teachers Develop Student Leadership? 164
Concluding Thoughts for Book II: A PRO/CLASS Practices Approach
to Dealing With Classroom and Other Professional Problems 167
A: Some Complicated but Pretty Standard “Classroom Problems” 169
B: Guidance-Related Issue Can Be Very Thorny and Raise Legal Questions 173
C: Relationships With Colleagues Can Be Tricky 175
D: Disagreements With School Policies 176
BOOK III: PRO/CLASS PRACTICES—LITERACY, ASSESSMENT,
SUPPORT, STRUGGLE 179
7 Literacy: How Can Teachers Encourage Student Literacies? 181
A: What Is Critical Literacy? 182
B: How Many Kinds of Literacy Are There? 184
C: What Are Literacy Standards? 186
CONTENTS ix
D: How Can Students Learn Complex Material While Still Struggling
to Improve Their Reading Skills? 187
E: How Can the Same Text Have Multiple Meanings? 190
Using Multicultural Literature to Understand Self and World
by Judith Y. Singer and Sally Smith 190
F: How Can Classroom Practice Promote Student Literacies? 192
G: How Can Teachers Learn and Teach About Technology in a Universe
Where Technology Is Continually Changing? 193
H: What Is Technological Literacy? 196
Technology Is All Around You by Gary Benenson 196
Using Modern Educational Technology Makes Your Lessons More Exciting
by Jason Noone 198
8 Assessment: How Should Teachers Assess Student Learning
and Their Own Performance? 201
A: How Should Teachers Assess Student Learning? 204
B: How Can Teachers Design Fair Assessments? 207
C: Sample Assessment Rubrics 209
D: Ideas for Designing Fair Tests That Authentically Assess
Student Understanding 211
E: What Does a Student Portfolio Look Like? 217
F: How Should Teachers Assess Their Own Practice? 219
G: Classroom Observation Forms 221
9 Support: How Can Teachers Provide Support for Students Having
Difficulty in School and Life? 225
A: What Should Teachers Know About the World of Children
and Adolescents? 226
Valuing What Our Students Know by Judith Kaufman 226
B: Becoming a Teacher 6: What Kind of Support Do Teenagers Need? 232
Nobody Ever Told Me I Was Special by Lauren Rosenberg 232
A Couple Since They Were 14 234
I Am Tired of Seeing Black and Latino Students Not Succeeding
by Samuel Charles 235
I Did Not Want to Be Another Hispanic Statistic by Ruth Santos 236
I Was in Sixth Grade and Could Not Read by Adeola Tella 238
I Needed to Be Accepted; I Needed to Feel Safe by J. B. Barton 239
C: Why Are Students At Risk? 242
Every Student Here Is At Risk by Alan Singer 242
D: Why Did People Die at Columbine? 244
E: How Should Schools Deal With Tragic Events? 247
F: What Kind of Support Do Teachers Need? 248
Teachers Need Support, Too: The New Teachers Network’s Response
to the Amadou Diallo Case by S. Maxwell Hines, Maureen Murphy,
Alan Singer, and Sandra Stacki 248
10 Struggle: How Can We Struggle to Be More Effective Teachers
and Build Better Schools? 253
A: What Should You Think About as You Prepare to Student Teach
or Start Your First Teaching Position? 255
x CONTENTS
B: What Will Student Teaching Be Like? 257
A Student Teacher’s Journey by Dawn Brigante 258
C: Recommendations for New Teachers by Stephanie Hunte, Alan Singer,
and Michael Pezone 263
D: What Can Teachers Do? by S. Maxwell Hines, Maureen Murphy,
Alan Singer, and Sandra Stacki 266
E: Postscript—Not “Another Brick in the Wall” 268
Appendix I: Ideas for Your Professional Portfolio, Resume, and Cover Letter 270
Appendix II: Recommended Web Sites for Teachers 273