My Teaching Philosophy
I believe that the purpose of English as a subject is to assist students in developing fluency in the nuances of communication: speaking, listening, writing and reading. To achieve this:
- I will model the best practices of academically appropriate English during class discussions and instructional time.
- I will introduce new vocabulary frequently, and model their correct usage in multiple contexts.
- I will give students time to verbally work through their thoughts without interruption or correction.
- I will model active listening by making eye contact, using supportive body language, reframing their words for clarification, and confirming with them whether that is what they meant.
- I will enforce classroom expectations that during class discussions only one person should speak at one time.
- I will model appropriate etiquette for expressing disagreement and post sentence frames in the classroom for students to reference and practice during discussions.
- I will provide students with numerous opportunities every day to explore and express their thoughts and opinions through speaking (class discussions, small group discussions, pair discussions, collaboration, presentations, etc.)
- I will provide students with numerous opportunities every day to explore and express their thoughts and opinions through writing (journals, quick writes, writing responses, short answers, creative writing, etc.)
- I will encourage students to acquire and practice using academic language by posting word banks and sentence frames for students to reference around the classroom.
- I will encourage students to develop their opinions using thoughtful and informed reasoning.
- I will emphasize the development of writing skills through the recursive process of revision.
- I will teach good reading skills by performing think-alouds that demonstrate a wide range of reading strategies.
- I will help to foster students’ interest and desire to read by allowing students choice in determining their own material whenever possible.
- I will maintain a large collection of age-appropriate fiction and nonfiction that students will be free to borrow for school or personal use.
- I will set and post in writing clear expectations for students’ behavior inside the class.
- I will set and post in writing clear expectations for our goals for the day and how we will spend our time in class.
- I will set clear expectations for assignments and activities through verbal and written instructions as well as assessment rubrics.
- I will expect students to gain metacognitive awareness by assessing their own learning processes and outcomes.