Am I teaching content to students, or am I teaching students how to access and learn content?
This is the fundamental question that guides my teaching practice on a daily basis.
If I decide that I am teaching content to students, it means that the material I am teaching is more important than the students I am teaching. I might find myself rushing through lessons so that I can prove to my administrator that I "finished" them and am ready to move on to the next, regardless of how well my students were able to acquire the skills and knowledge taught through that lesson. I might overlook the fact that several of my students failed a test, and chalk it up to the fact that they just "didn't try hard enough." Or I might send students off with homework that they are unable to complete independently, leaving them to fend for themselves, hopefully finding an outside resource to help them learn what I should have taught them during their school day.
Recent trends in education reform are pushing teachers to teach more with less, at breakneck speed, and without depth or responsiveness to individual students' abilities. This is encouraging many teachers to teach content to students instead of teaching students how to access and learn content. Tragically, this is also resulting in lower student performance, higher teacher turnover, and overall public dissatisfaction with their local school systems.
If we are going to reverse the current trends in education, we have to re-focus on why we chose to teach in the first place: to teach students.
Creating a student-centered classroom in the fast-paced, dehumanized world of standardized tests and Common Core scope and sequence is a challenge, but I know that we professionals are capable of rising to the challenge.
We might not be able to control the curriculum that comes our way, but we can find ways to inspire our students to make connections and investigate topics outside of the classroom. We cannot control the standardized tests, with their "trick" questions and cultural bias, but we can humanize our students by working with them to set reasonable goals for themselves, being transparent about what their scores mean and what skills they can work on to improve their performance, and celebrating their individual accomplishments. Ultimately, we cannot control the time demands set upon us, but we can choose to take the time we have to be student-centered educators and to share resources, strategies, and ideas to support each other in this work.
As a student-centered bilingual educator in the new world of Common Core, I have created opportunities for my students to access and learn content in several ways. I am taking the time today to share with you some of these strategies so that you might find yourself empowered to continue doing so as well.
First, I take the time to provide a safe environment for students to try new things and express new ideas, where they feel comfortable making mistakes and trying again. This is done through community-building activities and creating classroom working agreements that facilitate a collaborative culture in our room. I continuously ask students for input into topics of study or activities we could do as a class, and I have a suggestion box for students who want to communicate with me anonymously about anything that is happening in class. I also celebrate student work and frequently use their writing as exemplar texts to analyze as a class, teaching students how to provide and receive constructive feedback.
I also take the time give students plenty of reasons to trust me to guide them in their learning, allowing them to see me as an advocate for them as learners. This means that I am open and honest with students about what it means to be an English Language Learner, using examples of my own status as a Spanish Language Learner to show challenges that even I encounter as a bilingual person who is fluent in two languages. I empower students in their education by teaching them about the history of laws surrounding bilingual and ESL education, highlighting stories from people who were English Language Learners in classrooms before ESL became a right. We confront stereotypes about English language proficiency and intelligence, and I have taught my students that, as their ESL teacher, I am teaching them language and study skills that they need to access their core education when they leave my classroom. I am not a "remedial" teacher and they are not "remedial" students. In fact, they are highly intelligent because they are "doing school" in a language that is new to them! I also encourage them to maintain their other languages knowing it will provide them with greater opportunities in life because the world needs more multilingual/multicultural people.
Finally, I take the time to get to know students as people so that I can spark their fire for lifelong learning. This process is much less concrete, and can be affected by so many other life circumstances, but my purpose as an educator is to make connections to the students' lives. This means finding a real-world application for everything we ask students to do in school, so that when they ask why they have to learn something I always have a real-world answer. Does the student want to own his own auto shop? Then he'll have to know how to use language and problem-solving skills to write a business plan, read invoices, communicate effectively with clients and workers, and understand and apply knowledge from auto manuals. Does the student enjoy writing, but not see it as a viable career? Then show her real world examples of authors who did other jobs while building their craft and getting published. Does the student feel lost, not knowing what he wants to do in life? Help him explore all kinds of topics, independently and collaboratively, connected to what he enjoys doing in his spare time.
In closing, if we are going to teach students to access and learn content, we must first get to know each of them as people. We have to know what their interests and skill sets are, what their future goals may be, and how they see themselves as learners. We then must build a climate of trust so that they will see our instruction and methods as valuable learning opportunities that utilize their input and will help keep all options for them as they become more independent. We must also empower them to challenge existing stereotypes and know their own history so that they can advocate for their own learning.
If we want students to achieve, we need to provide the right environment for them to do so. This means trusting that by taking the precious time to do so, we will cultivate high achievers and lifelong learners. I believe we can. And I know that we will.
