Experiential Frameworks
As the teacher of focus in this inquiry, my personal experiences both as a student and as a role model for students will also serve as a foundation for this project. When I was a student, my favorite classes were the ones in which I felt a sense of community and relationship. In my non-instructional work with troubled youths, it was often a strong positive mentor that proved to be the change-making agent that helped a previously unsuccessful, unhappy youth to succeed. Some of my early written work exploring questions of relationship-building and engagement can be found in the September 20 Fieldwork Journal Entry and both Case Studies.
In the classrooms of focus, there were some early activities that also contributed to this exploration of the need for relationship building. Two such activities were the Character Playlist and the Debate. These activities, after the initial explanation and setup, were largely student driven, which meant that the teacher was often free to move around the room and interact with individual students or small groups, knowing that the other students would continue working even without direct teacher interaction. The students did a largely exceptional job and in doing so built understanding of the novel being read, improved close reading skills, and drew connections between classroom material and the present day world. On top of all that, both teacher and students were having fun and learning in social ways. This inquiry project seeks to explore the degree to which these successes were influenced by the teacher’s presence as a relatable person in and about the room rather than an authority figure in front of the room.
By using class time to better get to know his or her students, a teacher can implement responsive instruction, the design and implementation of lessons based on the specific needs demonstrated by the students at hand (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). In other words, the teacher needs to understand who his students are and where they are in terms of academic ability in order to effectively reach them. Now, given that your average high school teacher might see 120 students daily, it can prove a challenge just to learn all of their names, let alone their specific needs as learners. With this limitation in mind, this project looks primarily at how increased relationships with a small group of focus students improves the performance of those focus students. However, the project takes a secondary look at how these relationships influence the teacher’s ability to create effective responsive instruction for the whole class.
In the classrooms of focus, there were some early activities that also contributed to this exploration of the need for relationship building. Two such activities were the Character Playlist and the Debate. These activities, after the initial explanation and setup, were largely student driven, which meant that the teacher was often free to move around the room and interact with individual students or small groups, knowing that the other students would continue working even without direct teacher interaction. The students did a largely exceptional job and in doing so built understanding of the novel being read, improved close reading skills, and drew connections between classroom material and the present day world. On top of all that, both teacher and students were having fun and learning in social ways. This inquiry project seeks to explore the degree to which these successes were influenced by the teacher’s presence as a relatable person in and about the room rather than an authority figure in front of the room.
By using class time to better get to know his or her students, a teacher can implement responsive instruction, the design and implementation of lessons based on the specific needs demonstrated by the students at hand (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). In other words, the teacher needs to understand who his students are and where they are in terms of academic ability in order to effectively reach them. Now, given that your average high school teacher might see 120 students daily, it can prove a challenge just to learn all of their names, let alone their specific needs as learners. With this limitation in mind, this project looks primarily at how increased relationships with a small group of focus students improves the performance of those focus students. However, the project takes a secondary look at how these relationships influence the teacher’s ability to create effective responsive instruction for the whole class.