Sarah Patterson

May 20, 2014

Philosophy of Teaching

My primary goals for my classroom next year are to create a classroom community of
learners and to make school and learning exciting and meaningful for my students. I hope to
create an environment in the classroom where students collaborate within a safe, close-knit
community. This will be a community of learning but also, a place where students support and
care for one another. I will rely on sociocultural learning theory, particularly on those theories of
Rogoff (1994) and Lave (1997), to create a practice-led classroom community of learning and
practice . Rogoff and Laves basis of sociocultural learning theory draws on Vygotskys original
sociocultural writings (published in the US in 1978) about how pupils learn from a more
knowledgeable other. My final major goal is that I will learn about and know my students in
order to gear lessons towards their interests and needs, and provide support for any challenges
they may face, at home and in school. To do so, I will make use of many of the theorists we read
in Language Acquisition (Mercer, 2007; Oaks & Lipton, 1999; Jordan, 2007; Orellana, 2009,
1999; Gee, 2004; Peitzman & Winningham, 1994) who offer suggestions for how we can gear
our teaching toward individual needs. I will also draw on the theory of care (Noddings, 2005),
which provides the best models for how I can make all three of my goals become a reality.
My first goal for my classroom next year is to create an environment of a strong
community of learners. The term community of learners comes from Rogoff (1994), who uses
this term to describe how classrooms where students learn through increased social participation
become small communities that foster meaningful and sustainable learning. Teachers leading
these communities of learners recognize that students learn best when working and thinking
collaboratively with peers. In these communities, discussion and peer collaboration in solving
problems dominate learning time. Rogoff (1994) describes some of the assets of such models by
saying:
In communities of learners, students appear to learn how to coordinate with,
support, and lead others, to become responsible and organized in their
management of their own learning, and to be able to build on their inherent
interests to learn in new areas and sustain motivation to learn. (p. 78)
In other words, in a community of learners the student is the learner, the thinker, and the teacher
all at once.
Sociocultural theorist Lave (1997) recommends treating learning as an apprenticeship
rather than a more traditional belief of knowledge exchange from teacher to student. To provide
meaningful learning opportunities, we should construct lessons where the learner and expert are
actively engaged together in a process of practice. Lave (1997) argues:
The idea of apprenticeship, or learning in practice, reverses this relation by
making central the encompassing significance and meaning understanding
that children have the opportunity to develop about things they are learning.
(p. 33)
She argues that rather than giving instruction prior to practice, as we frequently do in classrooms,
a student apprentice becomes actively involved in the learning process from the outset.
Following sociocultural learning theory, I will need to facilitate learning through practice with
my students in the classroom, but also give them chances to teach and learn from each other.
Even more importantly, the process of apprenticeship creates a strong community of learners,
where the process of shaping and reshaping knowledge is the goal and not simply the process.
Knowledge is therefore malleable as it is molded by new information and experiences.
There are many challenges I am likely to face as I implement this community of learners
approach in my classroom next year. One major challenge will be helping students adapt to this
style of learning, since so many students come from much more traditional classrooms. One way
that I can help my students adapt is by scaffolding how they will discuss and collaborate with
partners and groups. First, I will need to model and teach students how to use productive
conversations to problem-solve collaboratively. Building language skills through practices like
Mercers (2007) Talk Lessons will help my students make their reasoning visible in class
discussions and when they socialize. The goal for my class is to create an environment where
exploratory talk is the norm, where students engage in conversations critically but constructively,
with the goal of discussion to be agreement or at the very least, understanding of the
disagreement. In other words, students may still end discussions with different opinions and
outlooks, but they will understand why other students think differently. As Mercer argues, it is
that language provides us with a means for thinking together, for jointly creating knowledge and
understanding. (p. 15) I can give students practice at different forms of collaboration by
integrating interactive and cooperative lessons into every dimension of the classroom, especially
in subjects where students are usually expected to work independently, such as math. Finally, in
order for students to work collaboratively, they will need to feel safe participating with their
peers. It is for this reason that my second major goal for next year is to expand my community of
learners model to focus on community and positive interactions between my students in and out
of the classroom.
This second goal for my classroom is to create a community of learners that
encompasses not only how my students will learn, but also how my students will interact with
one another. Students in our community of learners will support each others learning, but will
also support one another socially, expanding the role of the community of learners to reach
outside the classroom as well. Oakes and Lipton (1999) argue:
Social learning is not random. Relationships that can enhance or inhibit learning
are organized or structured in families, schools, the workplace, and so on. In other
words, when we organize a classroom and the interactions within, we are
structuring learning. (p. 87)
As sociocultural learning theory shows us, the experiences and interactions our students are
surrounded by in every way shape their success in school. Following a practice-oriented
community of learners model, I will need to be very deliberate about how I arrange lessons,
diversify groups, and provide meaningful experiences to my students if I want them to succeed.
Teaching students how to work and interact positively as a part of a community is one of
the hardest and most essential things we will teach. Creating a classroom community depends so
much on creating opportunities for community/team building throughout the year. Community
building is not just about having students socialize and solve exciting problems together, but it
means giving our students a chance to learn about one another. As Sapon-Shevins (1995) article
reinforces, Opportunities to show ourselves fully provide the possibility of knowing others
well. Sharing stories, fears, and matters of importance gives students the chance to learn about
peers they may not have interacted with normally. Even more importantly, learning about one
another helps foster a safe space where every student feels safe sharing. One way I would like
my students to share is through doing a community circle every morning. This is a way to
reconnect students to their peers and the classroom as soon as they come in the door, and will
give students a chance to express themselves and open up to one another. Another way I would
like to encourage positive interactions and community in the classroom is by creating a system
where students can report acts of kindness, reward, and thank one another. In doing so, I will
encourage students to report positive acts rather than focusing on negativity, and inspire students
to focus their attentions on kindness and community.
My final major goal for my classroom next year is to know my students and create an
environment where my students feel cared for. This final goal is inspired by Noddings (2005)
ethics of care, by Nogueras (2003) article on teachers as advocates for children, and by several
of the theorists we read during Language Acquisition (Jordan, 2007; Orellana, 2009, 1999; Gee,
2004; Peitzman & Winningham, 1994). In order to recognize the individuality of all my
students, I will give them opportunities to share their interests with me in writing and in
discussion. I will also recognize the home languages of my students, and provide them with
opportunities to engage their home languages in the classroom and in projects at home such as
acknowledging the importance of translating (Orellana, 2009). I will also encourage my students
to communicate with me through interactive notebooks, where they can write about work in class
or events happening in their personal lives that I will provide feedback and responses to. Finally,
I will make sure that all my students understand they are cared for and that their voices are
important to me. When students are unable to communicate something to me in whole-class
discussion, they will be given opportunities to write or conference with me. I will engage their
interests in lessons to motivate them. To show how I care for my students, I will greet them
personally every day, ask how they are, and check in when I know they have something going on
at home. Most of all, I will set high expectations for each one of my students, recognizing their
potential and their power.
Most of my tactics for building my relationships with students do not come from theory;
they come from experience and understanding of what makes people feel cared for. However, in
order to recognize students home languages and communicate with students through various
literacies, I will engage home languages in activities, remembering how June Jordan (2007) used
Black Language to empower students and to create a community where students felt safe and
cared for. With James Gees (2004) work in mind, I will focus on the assets, complexities, and
intricacies of all my students speech, rather than focusing on how my students home languages
are different from academic English. Like Gees (2004) and Orellanas (1999; 2009) work
shows, I will take into account my students full literacy backgrounds, and value the types of
literacy children are exposed to at home and in their neighborhood, be that from books,
videogames, or billboards. By finding out what interests them, I can engage the assets and skills
they already possess.
Finally, remembering Nogueras (2003) article I will act as an advocate for children,
and make sure my students know that I have high expectations for them. I will encourage them to
set high expectations for themselves and their peers, and to continuously work as a supportive
community of learners. By setting expectations high early on, I will identify their potential, the
potential so many students in our school system are not shown. I will show these high
expectations by encouraging students to complete their work, to reflect on it, and finally to
improve on it. I can also communicate these expectations and my own feedback through
interactive notebooks, using Peitzman and Winninghams (1994) work as a model for how to
communicate and co-journal with students. I will use these interactive journals not just in reading
and language arts, but across disciplines to engage students learning in an array of subjects. For
example, during a science lesson about animals, I might ask my kindergarteners what animal we
learned about they would most want to keep as a pet. After students respond, I would follow up
and ask them more questions, or respond with a scenario like but what would you do if your
lion jumped up on the dinner table every night to eat your leftovers? These questions would
engage me in my students understanding while at the same time, give me an insight to their
thinking and their individuality.
Building positive relationships with students has not been a challenge for me so far in
teaching, but I expect that once I have my own classroom I will have to juggle so much more that
constant communication with my students will be even harder. I have noticed that teachers often
do not have time during the day to have many one-on-one conversations with their students. To
make up for this I would like not just to take advantage of community circle time, but also to
have after-hours times where students can talk with me in small groups and one-on-one. I will
also keep classroom mailboxes where students can write to me about anything, from school to
home, and expect a response back. These mailboxes would provide a less formal way of
communicating than interactive journals, as could write and submit letters to me using their own
prompts and timeline according to their wishes.
I also foresee many challenges when it comes to targeting my students unique interests,
skills, languages, cultures, and abilities. To differentiate instruction and target students unique
interests, I will need to assess and survey them regularly. Even more importantly, I will need to
refer back to many of our texts from this year, do research on my own, and seek help from
colleagues and TEP peers for strategies and ideas. As teachers, there are challenges every day
that we cannot foresee, and it is helpful to use other teachers as a resource when we cannot come
up with the right solution. Finally, although I do not foresee any struggle with setting high
expectations for my students, I will need to remember to follow through on those expectations
and to provide as much assistance as my students need to meet those expectations.
I know that my first year of teaching next year will be very challenging, and I may not be
successful at everything I attempt in my classroom. However, I think our classes and teaching
practice has given me the tools I need to achieve my three goals. First, with careful and
meticulous planning, I will be able to create lessons and learning practice opportunities that
engage students to work collaboratively and meaningfully as a community of learners. Second,
by demonstrating care for my students and giving them opportunities to build community and
relationships with one another, I will be able to create a community of learners that exists beyond
the classroom. Finally, by demonstrating care, by listening to my students, and by appreciating
their individuality and unique assets, I will provide the support and care they need to learn. I will
do everything in my power to win over the hearts and minds of all my students (Anyon, 2005).

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