Leslie Walker - Secondary English
A teacher sees a learner’s interest and explores different ways to approach the material in a way that will aid the learner in understanding and applying it.
Artifacts:
1.) I would develop a rubric that the child can choose from different sections (ex. having the options of writing a paper that includes five citations explaining the Great Gatsby from Daisy’s point of view, create a music video describing the love Gatsby has for Daisy, or using a power point to show the evolution of Nick and Gatsby’s relationship through the book.) The student gets the freedom to decided whether they want to work on something by themselves or something with others. In the end, the student will learn the same things as the next, but they will have done it in a way that they enjoyed.
2.) Sometimes, teachers need a little guidance from an expert. Therefore, I would plan to bring in/visit a professional who knows the material that is being focused on (ex. Bring in a local poet to help the students get a feel for the daily life of a writer). We will then workshop the poems written in class and use the information the poet gave to improve on the students’ writing skills.
here is an example of a natural parks ranger coming into the classroom to discuss some of the daily routines that he goes though. This would be a guideline for what I would want my guest speaker to do. (received from https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/education/classrooms/guestspeakers.htm)
3.) Power points add a little bit of regularity to the classroom, but I would conduct mine with a twist. For example, when studying Dante’s Inferno, I would first ask students the information they already knew of the material then include any questions they have into the slides. Every so often, to see how much they are paying attention, I will give short two to three question quizzes. When it comes to preparation for the test, the students will have all the questions to these quizzes to help them study.