Synthesizing My Way to a New Vision
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In my first year of teaching, my thirst for knowledge was unquenchable. Although the teacher preparation program left me feeling confident to enter the classroom, I found that learning specific grade-level expectations, developmental milestones, new curricular materials, and a new school protocol left a multitude of things to learn. I spent this first year, and the following two after it, constantly researching, reflecting, and implementing new strategies. I strived to soak up anything I could about how to teach Kindergarten. Although this led to a lot of great resources, it also led to things that became a quick fix in the classroom rather than a comprehensive and effective way of teaching. I found many resources or projects that were valid for one standard and then abandoned them after I did not see lasting results in my students. This, coupled with student behavior led to a feeling of burnout and failure.
This led me to apply for the Master of Arts in Education program at Michigan State University. I chose a major in literacy when applying for the program. In my three short years of teaching, I understood the urgent need for a strong literacy foundation and the complexity of a balanced literacy curriculum. I also chose to pursue a certificate in STEM education. This was very beneficial to me because I was able to take courses in many of the core disciplines such as mathematics, literacy, and science, as well as technology integration. This wide range of topics allowed me to gain a better understanding of how to teach all general education concepts. Although all courses throughout my program were beneficial in progressing my teaching practices, a few were instrumental in changing my vision for teaching.
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Moving chronologically through my time in the MAED program, I began with TE 855: Teaching School Mathematics. Having thought mathematics to be one of my strong suits, this course led to the realization that my math instruction needed a lot of improvement. This course made me consider how to create a class culture that promotes inclusion regarding mathematics instruction. I learned that to motivate all students it is important to create a space in which everyone feels their thoughts are valued. To do this, many strategies were given such as emphasizing no right or wrong answers and including problems that were considered “low floor, high ceiling”. The strategy that most impacted my teaching was the use of justification. Including problems that require students to justify their answers allows all students agency and access in the classroom. No longer is the problem right or wrong. Students can share their thinking and feel their voice has value within the math classroom by sharing their process and understanding, not just the answer. Not only are justification tasks essential in cultivating a strong culture for math instruction it is also necessary to promote deeper level mathematical thinking. These tasks ensure students understand the underlying math principles and can communicate these principles.
This course had another big impact on my mathematics instruction. Through reading the book Young Children’s Mathematics, I was introduced to the concepts of Cognitively Guided Mathematics. CGI math centers around teaching number sense and problem-solving by building on what students already know. Students engage with math problems through the use of effective questioning, discussion, and manipulatives to build their understanding of numbers and operations. Math tasks become more authentic because they begin with the teacher observing what the students already know in order to build on these concepts. Before this course, I followed the mathematics curriculum provided by my school with little thought to the activities or types of problems. Now, among other strategies, I ensure that critical thinking, questioning, discussion, and authentic math tasks are a part of my math instruction.
Moving into the Spring of 2021 I took the course CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Technology. I was surprised by how much this course would come to change my understanding regarding what instruction was important in the classroom. Prior to the MAED program, most of my instruction featured standard lessons with worksheets attached to each one. This course introduced and exemplified the importance of implementing and teaching 21st- century learning skills. These skills fall under three categories: learning skills, literacy skills, and life skills. I always considered these skills to be important for students to possess but did not implement them in the planning of my lessons. 21st-century learning skills are not only essential for students to possess, but are essential in motivating students and creating authentic learning tasks, a term that began coming up in many of my MAED courses. After this course, I understood how critical it is to not only plan activities and lessons that are rich in 21st-century learning skills but to model and explicitly teach them. When planning instruction, I began mapping out assignments and projects that exemplified many of these skills. As I did this, I began to see engagement and students’ cooperation and communication increase in the classroom.
The next course that had a significant impact on my teaching practice was TE 842: Elementary Reading Assessment and Instruction. Being one of the courses needed for my major in literacy, this course held great interest for me. TE 842 made not only one but two lasting changes in my instruction and vision for teaching. The first was the primary goal for the course: understanding how assessment drives instruction. Being a first-year teacher, I used the assessments required for my school and district. I used these assessments to help understand gaps in my students’ phonics instruction or to identify a child’s reading level. I even used the results to help plan small group lessons. Although I was on the right track, I lacked a full understanding of literacy concepts and how they affect reading comprehension. Through this course, I was reacquainted with the Cognitive Model by McKenna and Stahl. My instructor intertwined learning about literacy assessments, literacy components, and instructional activities so that we could better understand how to utilize all three to create comprehensive literacy instruction. By doing this, I gained a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the literacy assessments given and what part of reading comprehension they affect. I also better understood how to select specific instructional activities based on the assessments and the gaps in reading comprehension. I now better understand what we assess, why we assess it, and how we use it to design strong literacy instruction.
The second part of this course focused on a book club-style assignment. Reading the book Inside Information by Nell Duke, I learned about project-based literacy instruction. The book emphasized the need for designing instruction that taught informational standards using authentic purposes. Using project-based instruction, students work to create something or respond to a real need over an extended period of time. These projects require students to read and write a great deal to acquire content knowledge in order to complete the end task. While students read and write to achieve the project’s overarching goal, they would be improving their ability to read, comprehend, and write informational texts. Having always struggled to motivate students to read and write, project-based learning gave an outlet for real authenticity to motivate students. As someone who became used to teaching standards in isolation by using worksheets, project-based learning held promise in changing the method of teaching I knew lacked motivation and true understanding. This helped to change my outlook on how reading instruction could, and should be taught.
The last class essential in changing my vision for teaching was TE 861A: Teaching Science for Understanding. Although this class focused solely on the teaching of science, it helped to connect takeaways from the other courses. TE 861A gave an in-depth explanation of the NGSS science standards and practices. Before taking this course, I would have told you I taught the NGSS science standards in engaging ways that took students through the scientific method. What I realized is that the practices laid out in the NGSS framework exemplified an entirely new method to teaching science that emphasized co-designing authentic experiences with students that takes them through a sense-making process. The process starts by showing students a real-world phenomenon. Students then start asking questions that will spark their investigation. Using these questions, they will start to develop models that will aid in their understanding of the phenomenon. Students develop methods to learn more about the phenomenon such as carrying out investigations, which then help to modify and revise their models. Through this cycle, students learn to analyze and interpret data and use mathematical and computational thinking. Students then use their newly learned information to construct explanations and engage in arguments, similar to justification in math. This cycle continues as students identify new questions and new phenomena as they continue to understand science concepts. This whole process is authentic to the way science is “done” in real life. Students can relate to the process because they are the designers of what it looks like as they determine the questions and investigations. This method of doing science was completely new to how I had taught science before. I have already started implementing elements such as a driving question board to help drive our instruction. Although I am still working on implementing this fully in my classroom, it is something I aspire to.
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While learning about the NGSS science practices, our instructor also emphasized the need for a classroom community that fostered inquisitiveness, and in which students felt comfortable voicing their ideas. This class helped to illuminate that it is not enough to have “science experiments” and hands-on activities that are predetermined for students. Students need to feel ownership over their work and understand how to move through the sense-making process on their own. Students need authentic experiences anchored through real-world phenomenon to truly understand the underlying science concepts.
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As I reflected on these courses, I started to see commonalities between the disciplines. Most courses mentioned above focused on creating assignments and projects that are related to real-world purposes and are authentic for students. Most of the courses highlighted mention building classroom communities that encourage all learners to feel successful. Most courses utilized instruction that implements 21st-century learning skills. Lastly, most courses used questioning and discussions as a part of their instruction. Although there is much more to be highlighted from my time in the MAED program, these are the most important aspects I took away. It was only after completing a majority of these classes that my entire vision for teaching began to change. From these courses, I found four pillars that are essential in planning and designing instruction regardless of the subject matter being taught. These four pillars now make up my vision for teaching.
It is essential to:
1. build a classroom community that promotes participation, acceptance, inquisitiveness, and understanding.
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2. use strong questioning to build on students’ previous experiences and knowledge.
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3. co-design authentic experiences with and for students.
4. implement 21st-century learning skills
After completing my Master of Arts in Education, I now see what my learning and research approach lacked before. Rather than changing the overall method of my teaching, I was looking up short-term projects or worksheets to help teach standards. I lacked the bigger picture approach to teaching these subjects. The courses I took in the MAED program helped me to understand what I was searching for was not what to teach, but rather how to teach it. This was not as easily found in quick internet searches. It took many courses with a wide range of topics to understand the core strategies present in most instruction. I know as I continue teaching, these strategies will continue to change. I, as an educator, will continue to keep learning and revision my vision and instructional strategies.