My Approach to Instruction
As I look forward to the new school year that begins in September of 2012, I begin to reflect on the changes that I would like to make to my instruction. My vision continues to include supporting the goals and objectives of the College Board in my AP classes to maintain a college level English and composition course, increasing the rigor and cohesiveness to my curriculum, preparing my students for college writing, and, perhaps most important, encouraging my students to take responsibility for their learning by making connections with the curriculum to their own lives to learn and grow as future scholars and productive working members of society.
Focusing on the instructional models described in “Instructional Models for English Language Arts, K-12” by Edmund J. Farrell, I prefer the process or student-centered approach. In English 6800, we have spent a lot of time studying and discussing this particular model with support from the reading of the theories and ideas of Rosenblatt, Carey-Webb, and Appleman. It seems this model does the most for the students by having them make their own meaning from literature, instead of teachers dictating what that meaning should be. I plan on making changes to my instruction that requires more freedom for students to express how a certain text affected them personally by using reader response and cultural studies approaches to encourage those connections that mean something to the students.
I also plan to try to use literature circles again to see if I can engage students in reading of their own choice. I would like to use lit circles to have a variety of utopian/dystopian titles read at once. I feel that this activity would facilitate a great discussion and learning opportunity for the students to hear from their peers about books. I feel confident that with this group of students they would likely become engaged in the reading and immersed in the cultural background of all the reading.
I plan on making these changes mostly by incorporating a cultural studies approach to each literature unit that I cover. I know there is a lot of planning that goes into making these kinds of transformations, but I now feel confident that I have the tools to at least start making changes to both my curriculum and my instruction for next year.
Focusing on the instructional models described in “Instructional Models for English Language Arts, K-12” by Edmund J. Farrell, I prefer the process or student-centered approach. In English 6800, we have spent a lot of time studying and discussing this particular model with support from the reading of the theories and ideas of Rosenblatt, Carey-Webb, and Appleman. It seems this model does the most for the students by having them make their own meaning from literature, instead of teachers dictating what that meaning should be. I plan on making changes to my instruction that requires more freedom for students to express how a certain text affected them personally by using reader response and cultural studies approaches to encourage those connections that mean something to the students.
I also plan to try to use literature circles again to see if I can engage students in reading of their own choice. I would like to use lit circles to have a variety of utopian/dystopian titles read at once. I feel that this activity would facilitate a great discussion and learning opportunity for the students to hear from their peers about books. I feel confident that with this group of students they would likely become engaged in the reading and immersed in the cultural background of all the reading.
I plan on making these changes mostly by incorporating a cultural studies approach to each literature unit that I cover. I know there is a lot of planning that goes into making these kinds of transformations, but I now feel confident that I have the tools to at least start making changes to both my curriculum and my instruction for next year.