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Signature Pedagogy For English Education

Understanding The Perspectives of Students Through Representation, Discourse &

Social-Emotional Learning

Samantha Keating

Sister Jacobs

EDUC 376

December 6th, 2022

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Abstract

The issue surrounding English Education in recent year is it’s tendency to be lectured based and

focalized through the opinion of the teacher. When students are told what to think there is a lack

of individuality and they develop issues with analysis. My signature pedagogy reviews multiple

studies on current trends in secondary English education. Through my research I have uncovered

a multitude of sources and findings on what is most effective when teaching students, as well as

what work we can do as teachers to help students to grow and strengthen their reading and

writing skills. Through my research, I have found that relatable content that allows students to

place an emphasis on social-emotional learning is extremely beneficial. Thus, this paper will

argue for the importance of social-emotional learning in the classroom through the inclusion of a

wide range of representation through class literature and discussion.

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Look at the problem

When examining the issue with ELA classrooms, I have uncovered most of the difficulty

within the subject falls on its tendency to turn into lectures given by teachers which leads to

students becoming disengaged. As English teachers, we have to be extremely cautious of a

multitude of factors. Firstly, we need to ensure the books we are reading are a proper and

accurate representation of the students in our classroom. We need books to reflect everyone in

our classroom, this includes multicultural books with different races and books that reflect

members of the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, we need an equal amount of books

representing men and women. When students see themselves in the texts we read they will feel

represented and become more inclined to participate. Additionally, texts that cover a range of

diverse topics make it easier for teachers to incorporate social-emotional learning into their

lessons. SEL helps students become more aware of varying perspectives and situations. Another

major issue English teachers face is keeping students engaged. It is easy to become passionate

about a lesson or a work of literature and want students to agree with you or to come off too

heavily on your feelings about a book. However, by doing this we allow students to not engage

in critical thinking. If we are telling students what to think then they will assume our opinions as

their own and lose sight of their own feelings on the text. While the most challenging setback for

teachers is ensuring students feel properly represented and are taking their own analysis from the

text there are certainly implications we can do to help this.

Examine what you know

In elementary school, English begins by teaching students how to read and write. We

follow the reading and writing processes to teach students the correct methods and sequences for
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learning how to be strong at reading, analyzing, and writing about literature. To do this we tend

to let students draw on personal experiences and begin a connotation in their minds of “writing

what they know.” Books for the most part are enjoyable, silly, and whimsical. We also often

provide choices for students to pick books that seem most appealing to them. However, problems

begin to arise as students grow older. In my fieldwork at InTech, I have heard students say that

they do not know what to write about their text because the questions being asked do not make

sense or are worded in ways that overwhelm them. Writing becomes focalized on scholarship

that we dictate for students to read and oftentimes the scholarship we are dictating to them is

unappealing to the students. Students begin to get lost along the way in their analysis of literary

studies because of a lack of interest and understanding, it is our job to do our part to present the

material to students in a way that appeals to them. Additionally, we have to remain consistent in

praising the efforts of our students. If we resort to personal praise students will likely develop a

complex that the next time they “fail” at a written assignment it is due to an issue with them.

Similarly, if we indulge in performance praise students will be down on themselves the next time

they do not perform as well. Praising the process or the efforts of the student is the best method

to make sure students keep reading, writing, and doing their best attempts at improving their

skills. Teaching books that are diverse and reflective of issues will allow students to engage in

social-emotional learning and in turn, draw connections within their responses.

Acquire Knowledge

A strategy I found to be effective in my research was working with students to expand on

and improve their self-efficacy skills. Self-efficacy is an individual's belief in their capacity to
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achieve specific goals. In “Examining the multidimensional role of self-efficacy for writing on

student writing self-regulation and grades in elementary and high school” by Sharon Zumbrunn

it is detailed that students who developed strong self-efficacy through writing were able to

develop strong self-regulation in writing. Recent research proposed a 3-factor model of writing

self-efficacy (WSE) that helps to put the effectiveness of WSE into practice. The first factor is

the writer’s belief in their ability to produce their ideas in a well-produced piece of writing. The

second factor deals with the writer's following of grammatical conventions and how well they do

so. The third and final factor surrounds the writer's ability to effectively regulate their writing

behavior and their responses to feedback. Zumbrunn found that “After confirming the 3-factor

structure of WSE with American middle school students, Bruning et al. (2013) found that each

of the three dimensions of WSE correlated moderately with high school student's self-reported

writing performance” (Zumbrunn). Proving that self-efficacy is an important part of making

students well-rounded writers. If students do not believe in themselves how will they ever

achieve their goals? One way we can assist students with this is by praising their efforts and

pointing out to them what they are doing correctly. We can model to them how to check over and

revise their writing so they can implement the skills themselves. Once they have confidence in

what they are doing they will hopefully be able to regulate themselves through the writing

process. The direct correlation between having high WSE and high writing self-regulation is an

indication that students who believe in their ability and more likely to moderate themselves and

regulate their performance. This ties into another helpful study I examined, “Avoiding

left-to-right, top-to-bottom: An examination of high school students’ executive functioning skills

and strategies for reading non-linear graphic text” by Ian A. Matheson and Jeffrey MacCormack,

this study delved into the planning abilities and level of comprehension students have with
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non-linear graphic texts. This study broke down these ideals into three categories of shifting,

inhibition, and working memory. Shifting refers to one’s ability to switch between materials and

domains such as reading and note-taking, inhibition is purposefully ignoring automatic responses

when necessary, and the focus on working memory is working efficiently and on task to

comprehend the task at hand. This research article performed a study of 67 students in grades

9-12, with 49 males and 18 females. I would like to note I do not believe that this is an accurate

sample of the population given the ratio of men to women, however, the findings stated that the

biggest implication for students that have reading comprehension issues is, “Reading

dynamically—making adjustments to one’s reading and thinking strategies based on the

characteristics of the text—should be the focus for students that struggle with comprehension of

non-linear graphic text. We argue that developing habits of reading consciously and flexibly may

be especially important for readers when interacting with unfamiliar non-linear text.”(Matheson,

MacCormack). While this is a heavy task for teachers I do believe that it is manageable. If we

come up with schedules

for students to read and practice the art of brain dumping, which is reading and then note-taking

strategies the student remembers, we can hopefully help alter the way students read and analyze

texts. The last scholarship I examined went into a different yet extremely interesting route, I read

segments of a book by Sarah W Freedman and Suzanne Mills Crawford entitled “Liars, Lovers,

and Thieves: Being Adolescent Readers and Writers in Young Adult Literature and Life”. I

focused primarily on Chapter One which went into a general review of this category of literature.

The chapter discussed the impact of literature and how it affects student identity. “Literacy as

used by individuals to actively belong to a community, “to identify oneself as a member”, a

somewhat different notion from Heath’s which portrays community members who impart “ways
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with words” to their young to assure their belonging”(Freedman, Mills). This idea tied directly to

the first point I brought up in my look at the problem section. We as community members and

teachers cannot pinpoint what our students should be feeling. We should rather rely on providing

students with accurate literature that they can identify with and see themselves in. Being a

teacher is a huge responsibility because you have to ensure that students are feeling understood

and seen. When you are a teacher you assume a million other occupations, some of which are an

activist or scholar, but second, to being a teacher you become a person responsible for not only

making a difference but making sure your students leave your classroom as better students and

citizens than when they entered. This is a big responsibility but one that could be aided by

properly modeling and providing students with the correct materials.

Devise a Plan

When I teach ELA I will do my best to make sure that I am first and foremost a person

my students can talk to. I want them to be able to confide in me and feel comfortable expressing

themselves so that I can do my best to have a classroom environment that is a reflection of all the

parts of the students they want the world to see. Additionally, I plan to extensively work on

corroborating a classroom library that is extensive, multicultural, and reflects different sexual

orientations. I want every student to feel seen. In terms of WSE and reading comprehension, I

think that reviewing the reading and writing processes but expanding upon the ideals students

first learned would be very beneficial. I will incorporate conferences in which I work with

students and provide not only feedback but praise on their process. I will make sure that all

students know there is always room for improvement but that I appreciate the efforts they have

made thus far and they should as well. Ways I have seen activities that reflect my signature

pedagogy in the classroom include Socratic Seminars and Perspective journals. The Socratic
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Seminar helps students to engage in meaningful conversation while also partaking in active

listening. As students listen to one another they are able to broaden their horizons and become

open to new ways of thinking. When planning for my teaching I knew a Socratic Seminar would

be the perfect way to engage students and have their perspectives change and grow. This is

where Matheson and MacCormack's study comes into play as it is the teacher's responsibility to

be coming up with content that challenges students and allows the potential for their perspective

to be altered.

Execute the Plan

For the execution of my plan, I was able to do so in both my mini-lesson and final teaching

episode. For my minilesson, I tapped into the Zumbrunn ideology of writing self-efficacy and

helped students to orchestrate a graphic organizer reflection of the terms perseverance, resilience,

and perspective. Students were able to use internet resources and group discussions of personal

experiences to reach a place of understanding and a new level of analysis. The engagement in

discourse helped students to be confident in their completion of the assignment and develop

WSE within the cultivation of their definitions. Through teaching this lesson I was able to see

how beneficial class discussion can be when promoting SEL through writing, Similarly, in my

final teaching episode, I orchestrated a Socratic seminar that was heavily reliant on class

discussions. Here I called upon the Freedman and Crawford book I previously mentioned with its

emphasis on creating a classroom community. I realized that students would not feel comfortable

sharing their opinions and experiences with one another unprompted. This is where the value of

Socratic seminars comes into play as the questions are guided and written in a way that students

can have the choice to either bring in opinions, text examples, or personal experiences to

respond. You cannot have a classroom community without shared and mutual respect, the
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Socratic Seminar is a wonderful way to allow students to listen and notate points made by others

and focus on the process of formulating an opinion. I think most of the value within this lesson is

that we allow students the chance to reflect and listen. It is so scarce that students get the chance

to formulate ideas and then discuss them with one another while taking time to note what they

find valuable. Seeing how all of the students in our class, regardless of content area, were so

adamant about listening to the perspectives of others and then altering their own way of thinking

because of another's comment was absolutely wonderful. There is no greater joy than hearing

one student tell another that they had positively changed their perspective on an issue. I loved the

level of social-emotional learning that came out of these lessons. Students were able to reflect on

their lives as well as the literature they’ve read and draw concrete examples for both lessons. I

think the Socratic Seminar added an extra dimension by having students engage in discussion

and share their own perspectives to reach a point of understanding that even when we have

different perspectives, we can still find value in what is said.

Repeat the Steps as Needed

Truthfully, my signature pedagogy appeared to be very effective in the lessons I taught to our

class. I received positive feedback from my peers with a majority of them saying they

appreciated the opportunity to hear others perspectives as well as being thankful for the

opportunity to share their ideas. While the beginnings of my signature pedagogy has been

successful so far, there are some areas that could benefit from improvement. For example, I think

the connection between representative literature and social-emotional learning has to be

strengthened. In my own classroom a way I could possibly rectify this is through an independent

reading project where I have students fill out a questionnaire about themselves and then we work

together to find a book that they relate too. I think this is a wonderful concrete way to have my
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signature pedagogy come to life. While I could’t implement this at my current academic level I

think it would be very strong in the future. My biggest implication would be to strengthen the

connection between representation and social-emotional learning and making sure students are

aware of and see the connection between the two. I am overall very proud of my signature

pedagogy. It reflects the morals that are close to my heart and that I value. I want students to feel

represented but to also develop empathy and understanding for others. My signature pedagogy

helps students to not only grow in a literary focused way, but also as individuals.
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Works Cited

Zumbrunn, S., Broda, M., Varier, D., & Conklin, S. (2019). Examining the multidimensional role

of self-efficacy for writing on student writing self-regulation and grades in elementary

and high school. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(3), 580–603.

https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12315

Crawford, S. M., & Freedman, S. W. (2012). Chapter One Introduction: Locating Literacy in

Young Adult Literature and Adolescent Lives. In Liars, Lovers, and Thieves: Being

Adolescent Readers and Writers in Young Adult Literature and Life (pp. 1–12). essay, UC

Berkeley Electronic Theses, and Dissertations.

Matheson, I. A., & MacCormack, J. (2020). Avoiding left-to-right, top-to-bottom: An

examination of high school students’ executive functioning skills and strategies for

reading non-linear graphic text. Reading Psychology, 42(1), 1–21.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2020.1837313