Before responding to your prompt for this second blog post, I want to update you on my current placement situation. I am now with Ms. Margarite Depaola, a Hispanic woman in her 40s, who has worked at Coral Gables Senior High as a teacher for over 13 years now. She also had an internship and began as a counselor at CGSH for several years. Her clear passion for the school itself and for the kids who attend it are inspiring and she has been not only welcoming but extremely helpful in the gathering of my field experience observations/assignments. I really feel like I am visiting in an entirely different school since leaving my initial placement with Ms. Munnerlyn. After sitting in on her class for over 17 hours thus far, I believe I am in a position that I can gather beneficial advice and lessons from in my continuous growth as a future teacher! So, for this second post, you asked us to focus on a single aspect of our observed instructor's teaching approach. I'd like to share my observations about Ms. Depaola's facilitation of her lesson in one of her classes, specifically her inclusive, general education 11th grade English course.
She, above all else, placed emphasis on her students' reading comprehension. She did this through several student-oriented techniques. Students were asked to take notes on their own paper of the plot, characters, and new vocabulary. She constantly scaffolding her students' learning by telling them specific information to note and providing her own personal examples that would relate back to the characters or the plot in the text. Students were fully aware of what info was important and what they should be taking away while reading. This was something I observed to be very different from my experience in AP English classes at my previous high school. We were expected, as independent thinkers, to recognize on our own what information was worth noting and what wasn't. Teachers provided little aid in this regard.
Ms. Depaola also prompted them to answer text dependent questions. She would often probe for answers to both recall questions (questions they could find answers to in the book) as well as inference questions (questions they had to draw on previous knowledge for). This was a great approach because it allowed for the students to tie their background knowledge to the reading so that they could better relate to the information given and further understand it!
I must point out that throughout this lesson, Ms. Depaola read aloud to her class. Usually, I believe that having students read different parts is more conducive to active participation and improved comprehension, but in the case it might have been a smarter choice. It was a wise decision considering many of her student's reading level is moderate to poor and would have not only slowed down the pace of the class, but might have confused their fellow classmates. She is also very expressive and could provide individual "personalities" for each of the characters. Her students seemed more engaged the more expressive she became, especially as her volume and tone fluctuated between characters.
I noticed that most students remained engaged throughout the entire reading of the first chapter. I think this might be because she focused little on what we typically think of as academic English. Grammar and structure of her students notes and comments were deemed of little importance. As long as they got the gist of the text, she was happy. In fact, she would sometimes supplement new information with Spanish commentary to students who spoke Spanish. I don't recommend this style of teaching because it can negatively affect the kids in the classroom who do not speak Spanish. Yet,it made the atmosphere feel very relaxed and did aid in her instruction of the lesson to those particular students. But like I said, I would avoid doing this for most classes!
The first thing Ms. Depaola said to me when I entered her classroom one morning was, "I might not be the best teacher, but I love these kids." Her approach to teaching really proved that to me. She very clearly emphasized comfort and an appreciation for learning and for one another. Although this approach was not necessarily the most academically driven, she got her point across and the kids seemed to absorb the content within the text, which was her main objective. I'm excited to continue to observe her as she continues to make an impact on these children!
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