My Teaching Philosophy
By Marc Schulz
The gift of learning; the ability to acquire, interpret, and use information is the greatest gift that can be given or received. For this reason I design my lessons, classroom discussions, and assessments to encourage and require critical thinking skills. Evidence that students are building a foundation to be lifelong learners is recognized when they demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate.
As Co-Chair of Sparta School District Content Literacy Committee and a Literacy Coach trainee I believe in using literacy tools. I have found literacy tools essential for developing the vocabulary and comprehension necessary to construct meaningful knowledge. On a daily basis I use a combination of inquiry learning (5E Lesson Planning), technology, “Reading and Writing to Learn” tools, and “Best Practice” tools to create an environment that encourages students to engage themselves, ask questions, learn collaboratively and to analyze their own thinking (metacognition).
I am certified to teach Biology, General Science, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Environmental Science. Over my 14 year career I have developed most, if not all of my courses from scratch. This is not uncommon in the alternative school setting, but I believe my constant effort to align with state standards while improving my assessments, pedagogy, and knowledge separates my lessons from other Science classrooms (both traditional and alternative). With that said, I also know as far as I have come, as much as I have grown, there is still much more to learn if I am granted this opportunity. The information and instructional practices that I will acquire from the Endeavor Project will strengthen the ever-growing Science Program at Englishville Alternative High School.
A typical unit of mine will begin with assessing students’ prior knowledge and then adding prerequisite knowledge as needed. Daily formative assessments indicate when the time is right to begin scaffolding or adding new knowledge. This new knowledge may follow the content of a text or simply be self designed, but either way the main focus is to strengthen students understanding (lower order thinking). Further formative assessment; entrance and exit slips, entrance and exit text messages, self-ratings for understanding, or writing breaks will indicate when it is time to move on to the higher order domain of the unit. At this point, the student may work individually or in a small group to create a project, design and complete a lab, or write a proposal, all of which are inquiry based and challenge the critical thinking skills of the student. At the end of the unit the student will complete a two part summative assessment comprised of a traditional written test and the completion of their project. Projects may be graded with a rubric but there is special consideration taken in designing a rubric so that it does not impede the inquiry portion of the lesson.
The “Recycle, It’s the Cool Thing to do!” project is an example of an end of unit project. This will involve students working in small groups to create an audio or video/audio persuasive public announcement to encourage people to recycle. Students will brainstorm ideas, identify roles, create and implement a plan to convey the message that producing products from recycled material uses less energy and therefore recycling helps fight global warming.
As the year progresses there is a conscious effort to spiral (connect) the essential concepts from one unit to the next. For example, the Biology class completes a bacteria and virus unit during the approach of the flu season. The information they learn will be connected to other lessons and units covered later in the year; The Human Body, Microorganisms, Genetics (RNA and DNA). Linking concepts from one unit to another is necessary for constructing new knowledge and making learning meaningful.
Students learn at different rates and therefore demonstrate understanding of new knowledge at different times. Because it is my responsibility to bring each student to a point in which they can achieve the state standards, I must be willing to accept the fact that time cannot be a constraint on learning. To account for this, students are allowed to retake test and resubmit projects to demonstrate their understanding, even if it is after the official end of the marking period. Although all students are held to the same deadlines and testing dates, those who do not meet our building criteria are given the opportunity to continue learning and to retest using a similar assessment. To make this work I provide lunch support time twice a week. During this time students can come in and receive one on one help or simply complete the learning packets that are designed to be completed as an independent lesson (much different than my typical instruction). When the packets are complete the student re-tests. By doing this, students are given an opportunity to learn and to demonstrate what they have learned. The end result allows students to recover credits that otherwise would have been lost.
If my overall goal is to create lifelong learners, I cannot allow myself to focus only on the content and the assessment of the content, but I also have to teach the student how to learn. This goes beyond critical thinking, it is the idea that there are certain skills that successful learners utilize. For example good readers do things that struggling readers do not, such as making predictions, visualizing, and making connections. For this reason, embedded in my lesson are opportunities to model to the students the skills or concepts that are associated with “successful” students. In my classroom we call the foundations of these skills the three P’s; Presence, Preparation, and Participation. In its simplest form, I model to the students that it is the mental attendance that is important to learning. I give suggestions to how they can prepare their mind by reviewing what they learned yesterday or predicting what they may learn today. I make every effort to be prepared and challenge them to do the same. They should have the material they need, as well as the physical and mental health that is necessary for productive learning. Finally, I share with them the importance of participation and its impact on personal growth. The 3P’s is a focus of every class each day and has allowed students to make important connections between learning, purpose, and fun.
The Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework for instructional delivery has played an important role in my classroom planning. The basic concept of the framework is the teacher will model, the teacher will give guided instruction, students will learn together (collaboratively), and then the student will demonstrate their understanding independently. This framework allows me to incorporate the 5-e lesson planning with essential concepts and the 3P’s while building the foundation to become lifelong learners.
