September 8, 2010 – Learning and Application

When I was younger I can’t ever say I really noticed how what I learned was applied to real life. Sure, I would see it, for example in English class if we were to learn the definition of a new word like “adjacent” or “naïve” or in math learn how to round numbers to the nearest tenth, I would see and understand these techniques but I never knew that I was using them. It never it me in a situation and I would think to myself “ah, I can use that new technique I learned in school”, I suppose all my knowledge in school I applied subconsciously and without much thought.

I still have that same skepticism today, or well, used to. In my graduate classes, similar to when I was growing up, I though most of the techniques we were learning were to be taken in a general, and not a “literal” sense: “these are different techniques for teaching students that are effective”… I would think to myself “yes, they can be effective on some students but will they work on the students in the classroom I am placed in?”

I suppose some of this skepticism can be allotted to the school I am currently placed at, which is known for having the highest rate of students living at or below the poverty line in Charleston County. The students lack resources at home that the average student does not so one cannot approach these students as you would your average student, or so I thought.

There is one method of teaching I read about, dealing with difficult students, that I now apply to all of my teaching and that is “let them do what they want”. Now, I know you just read that last sentence and are thinking to yourself, “he MUST be out of his mind!” to let a student do whatever they want to do, but it works… with some adjustment of “expectations” from the teacher (there’s that word again).

In the classroom I am placed in there is one particularly difficult student, and it may be relevant to mention she has Oppositional Defiance Disorder, who will constantly refuse to do her work and simply meander around the classroom as she pleases, which not only distracts other students but lets them think they if they create a fuss and argument in the classroom they can get away with not doing their own work as well. I had read about how allowing students the freedom to pursue their own educational desires works with coaxing them to comply with the classroom educational requirements as well. I was out of options and ideas so I thought, why not give it a shot?

I sat the student down (after much coaxing and intervention) as asked her “what did she want to do” and of course she replied, “nothing, I want to go home”. Well, I couldn’t have that so I began to flip through her student workbook and noticed she had written the word “friend” on a page, a word we in first grade had not covered yet. I asked her to read the word for me, and she told me it said “friend” and I asked her “instead of the spelling words, would you like to write the word ‘friend’ instead” and she nodded. I asked her then “what other words would you like to learn how to spell?” and she told me “princess”. So I wrote the word “princess” for her to spelling and I asked her when she was done spelling the words “friend” and “princess” would she try spelling the classroom spelling words next? She nodded.

This is but one of many example of this working for me. I was quite surprised that this teaching technique actually worked. It is difficult in a classroom filled with students of various wants and needs to stop your instruction of the whole group for targeted one-on-one instruction but when you can find the time to give a student the extra help he or she needs it can make a world of difference for that student and for the classroom environment.