Reflection
From my own personal reflections, I have learned a lot from our group observations in Mr. Franchi’s classroom and from the text study assignment. These experiences have helped me develop my own teaching philosophy as I observed what works and what doesn’t work in a high school classroom.
In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the teacher to make the text engaging and understandable to the students. First and foremost, the teacher needs to introduce the text and the new concepts that are covered in that text; by providing a basic context, students will have a better understanding of the material and will recognize the importance of the text in regards to the larger themes and ideas of the class. Furthermore, it is important that the class unpacks difficult terms and concepts before the students begin to read. If the text is filled with challenging words and foreign ideas, many students may become frustrated with the text and lose interest and focus. One way a teacher could introduce these new terms and concepts is to lead a class discussion where the students use previous knowledge and context clues in the text to break down difficult words and discover meaning. This method is similar to the class discussion shown in the video of Mr. Stockdill’s classroom; instead of simply giving the students a list of definitions, this kind of class activity prompts students to think critically and utilize the text to form understanding. Then, the students are working together as a class and learning from one another.
Another way to break down the text and to encourage effective literary practices is to accompany the text with an assignment similar to Mr. Franchi’s assignment for Chapter 6. In Mr. Franchi’s assignment, he divided the questions into three parts similar to Pearson’s Three Levels of Comprehension. These questions broke down the text into different forms of comprehension by having students answer basic content questions, interpretative questions, and analytical questions. The assignment helped student build important literary skills to better understand the text, as, according to Pearson, “[r]eaders construct meaning at various levels of thinking and conceptual difficulty (Pearson 27). With this assignment, however, it would be important to go over the answers to ensure that all students comprehended the more difficult concepts and ideas.
It is clear that literacy is different in different classes; for example, an English class requires students to have different literary skills than in a math class. However, I am a strong believer that regardless of the subject, it is the teacher’s responsibility to educate her students how to read and write effectively in that class. For example, in Mr. Franchi’s tenth-grade civics class, he repeatedly stresses the importance of historical literacy. In another one of his classes—Advanced Placement US history—he has his students keep a historian’s notebook, where they record their reflections and analysis on a variety of historical topics. In these journals, students learn to analyze history by utilizing historical devices, such as compare and contrast, turning points, and significance. These historical devices help the students become more literate in the subject of history and prompt them to think like real historians. Students are expected to recognize bias, intended audience, historical context, and purpose when reading a primary source, which helps them to better understand the text and why it is important. By having his students to keep these notebooks and think like real historians, Mr. Franchi is pushing his students to think critically and to comprehend significant ideas and concepts; this, in turn, helps students become historically literate and be able to read and write history effectively. I fully agree with this method of teaching, and would like to utilize Mr. Franchi’s ideas when I become a teacher myself.
In our project, my group analyzed how Mr. Franchi utilized the textbook to cover the material on federalism. To support the textbook, we chose a supplementary article about NCLB, which we felt would accompany the textbook material and help students understand the relevance of federalism in their own lives. However, we could have easily chosen a variety of other texts that would have also been effective. For example, to introduce the concept of federalism, the textbook began with a short section on the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the federal protection of wolves. I found a thirty minute video online that discusses this exact topic, and that focuses on a conflict in Idaho a few years ago; the video discusses the conflict of states’ rights in regard to the wolves and the role of the federal government in enforcing the Endangered Species Act. This video would be a useful way to show students the variety of different debates about federalism; presenting the material in the form of a video would help many students visualize the concept and understand the significance of federalism in their own lives. Furthermore, for most students in today’s society, watching videos is more interactive, engaging, and interesting than reading from a textbook. The video would spark students’ interest and encourage them to be more engaged in the textbook reading.
The important thing to keep in mind when choosing additional texts is sourcing. A teacher needs to ask herself: Is this source credible? Any news source from a credible newspaper, journal, broadcast, or academic magazine would be appropriate for the classroom. However, it is important to choose texts that the students will be able to understand without too much difficulty; often, academic sources use challenging language or abstract ideas that would be too difficult for an adolescent reader. Pushing students to read challenging texts is a good idea, but it is important not to have a text that will discourage and frustrate the students. Furthermore, when choosing additional texts, a teacher also needs to ask herself: Will this benefit the students and help build their understanding of the material? There needs to be a clear, identifiable purpose for having a class read a certain text; otherwise, students will become disengaged, bored, and distracted.
Literacy is an important aspect in any subject, but especially in history as so much of historical interpretation is done through reading and writing. By observing Mr. Franchi and analyzing the textbook he used in class, I was able to recognize what my role as a teacher would be when teaching my future students about literacy.
In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the teacher to make the text engaging and understandable to the students. First and foremost, the teacher needs to introduce the text and the new concepts that are covered in that text; by providing a basic context, students will have a better understanding of the material and will recognize the importance of the text in regards to the larger themes and ideas of the class. Furthermore, it is important that the class unpacks difficult terms and concepts before the students begin to read. If the text is filled with challenging words and foreign ideas, many students may become frustrated with the text and lose interest and focus. One way a teacher could introduce these new terms and concepts is to lead a class discussion where the students use previous knowledge and context clues in the text to break down difficult words and discover meaning. This method is similar to the class discussion shown in the video of Mr. Stockdill’s classroom; instead of simply giving the students a list of definitions, this kind of class activity prompts students to think critically and utilize the text to form understanding. Then, the students are working together as a class and learning from one another.
Another way to break down the text and to encourage effective literary practices is to accompany the text with an assignment similar to Mr. Franchi’s assignment for Chapter 6. In Mr. Franchi’s assignment, he divided the questions into three parts similar to Pearson’s Three Levels of Comprehension. These questions broke down the text into different forms of comprehension by having students answer basic content questions, interpretative questions, and analytical questions. The assignment helped student build important literary skills to better understand the text, as, according to Pearson, “[r]eaders construct meaning at various levels of thinking and conceptual difficulty (Pearson 27). With this assignment, however, it would be important to go over the answers to ensure that all students comprehended the more difficult concepts and ideas.
It is clear that literacy is different in different classes; for example, an English class requires students to have different literary skills than in a math class. However, I am a strong believer that regardless of the subject, it is the teacher’s responsibility to educate her students how to read and write effectively in that class. For example, in Mr. Franchi’s tenth-grade civics class, he repeatedly stresses the importance of historical literacy. In another one of his classes—Advanced Placement US history—he has his students keep a historian’s notebook, where they record their reflections and analysis on a variety of historical topics. In these journals, students learn to analyze history by utilizing historical devices, such as compare and contrast, turning points, and significance. These historical devices help the students become more literate in the subject of history and prompt them to think like real historians. Students are expected to recognize bias, intended audience, historical context, and purpose when reading a primary source, which helps them to better understand the text and why it is important. By having his students to keep these notebooks and think like real historians, Mr. Franchi is pushing his students to think critically and to comprehend significant ideas and concepts; this, in turn, helps students become historically literate and be able to read and write history effectively. I fully agree with this method of teaching, and would like to utilize Mr. Franchi’s ideas when I become a teacher myself.
In our project, my group analyzed how Mr. Franchi utilized the textbook to cover the material on federalism. To support the textbook, we chose a supplementary article about NCLB, which we felt would accompany the textbook material and help students understand the relevance of federalism in their own lives. However, we could have easily chosen a variety of other texts that would have also been effective. For example, to introduce the concept of federalism, the textbook began with a short section on the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the federal protection of wolves. I found a thirty minute video online that discusses this exact topic, and that focuses on a conflict in Idaho a few years ago; the video discusses the conflict of states’ rights in regard to the wolves and the role of the federal government in enforcing the Endangered Species Act. This video would be a useful way to show students the variety of different debates about federalism; presenting the material in the form of a video would help many students visualize the concept and understand the significance of federalism in their own lives. Furthermore, for most students in today’s society, watching videos is more interactive, engaging, and interesting than reading from a textbook. The video would spark students’ interest and encourage them to be more engaged in the textbook reading.
The important thing to keep in mind when choosing additional texts is sourcing. A teacher needs to ask herself: Is this source credible? Any news source from a credible newspaper, journal, broadcast, or academic magazine would be appropriate for the classroom. However, it is important to choose texts that the students will be able to understand without too much difficulty; often, academic sources use challenging language or abstract ideas that would be too difficult for an adolescent reader. Pushing students to read challenging texts is a good idea, but it is important not to have a text that will discourage and frustrate the students. Furthermore, when choosing additional texts, a teacher also needs to ask herself: Will this benefit the students and help build their understanding of the material? There needs to be a clear, identifiable purpose for having a class read a certain text; otherwise, students will become disengaged, bored, and distracted.
Literacy is an important aspect in any subject, but especially in history as so much of historical interpretation is done through reading and writing. By observing Mr. Franchi and analyzing the textbook he used in class, I was able to recognize what my role as a teacher would be when teaching my future students about literacy.