Teaching English to Adolescents Learning Letter

            My largest and probably most influential discovery in this class came early on in a class discussion. The discussion involved the role of the teacher in a classroom. The idea presented was that the teacher is the LEAST important person in the room. Take all hubris away from the teacher and you realize how true this is. As a part of a classroom it is the job of the teacher to recognize how important the students are and to try to facilitate their ideas and their voice more than anything else.

            Another large foundational learning moment for me in this class was the idea that silence in a classroom is okay. I am a remarkably talkative person and so I commonly want to fill silence and even go as far as to answer my own questions, but me talking makes no sense if I am the least important person in the room. I have already begun to implement this to great success. Even my freshmen had a wonderful discussion last week while I merely asked a few questions and let them lead and fill the silences on their own. My discussions have been remarkably successful with this idea of who is important in mind and though simple, it is one of the best things I have learned in school.

            Writing a unit plan was eye opening for me. First because I came into it thinking it would be a breeze. I had a hundred ideas and felt like I would breeze through it. I did not. It turns out three weeks is not enough time to read a play and have a hundred ideas. My final product is good, and I am happy with it, but I wish I could teach a class just on Shakespeare.

            Teaching in front of my peers was a good experience. I used exceedingly simple objectives and I think it went well, I plan on simplifying the objective writing for my classes at Riverside. Watch my peers teach was great too. I saw many strategies and types of handouts I will use. Many teachers had me draw. This is not something I would think to assign, but it went well and I am now highly considering this as a viable way of synthesizing ideas on paper.

            Overall this class gave me insight into many ideas. I will keep all the writers in mind from Friere to Judith Langer. I also think Readicide will be a word that will be in my vocabulary forever. Tovani also gave me ideas I have already used for reading guides. This class boosted my library as much as anything else. I felt ready to teach before this class, but really without it, I would have had several major flaws in how I look at the classroom in general. I think this class coupled with The Composition Process have made me far more prepared in ten weeks than I ever could have imagined.