Steven Crutchfield 4/10/12

Joining the Conversation Final Draft Academic Introduction

Everyone has had that moment of entering into an environment that was new to him or her. People have also most likely had the experience to see something from a different perspective. Inquiry itself can be the combination of these two activities. This is where there is some sort of observation taking place in order to get a general idea of the natural flow of a specific habitat or environment. For instance, imagine going into a certain fastfood restaurant for the first time. After completing your order, you begin to watch the workers get your meal together. In the process, they use short phrases and gestures to communicate with each other in order to complete your order. You also notice the levels of hierarchy within the workplace between the workers. All of this would be considered Inquiry. The upcoming segment of my paper was organized in a play like fashion for the reader to get that notion of understanding the inquiry process. It is a process that human beings naturally do subconsciously in order to understand what is going on. I feel that since plays incorporate a lot of dialect, it will be more beneficial for the reader so that they can have a better depiction of the scenario. The scenario is of me observing a high school freshmen classroom environment. My main purpose of the inquiry is to be able to determine how does teaching style impact student learning. Steven has just arrived at Central Cabarrus High to work on his Inquiry project for his English class. He enters the classroom filled with high school freshmen. The teacher, Mr. Maletta, kindly welcomes Steven into the class, and explains what the students are currently doing. Mr. Maletta: You must be Steven! Good to finally meet you Steven: Nice to meet you too sir

Mr. Maletta: I know that you are here mainly for my next period since this class is about to end soon. Right now the students are working on a project where they have to work in groups and create a restaurant based on a specific time period during the Odyssey. You can go ahead and set up wherever you need to. Steven: Ok, thank you. Steven grabs a seat at one of the desks near the edge of the classroom. He takes out his notebook and pencil, and his book from the library relating to his research. The book is titled Differential Instructional Strategies by Gayle H. Gregory and Carolyn Chapman. The book provides useful information on what to look for within in the class setting. Steven now starts to put his entire focus on the classroom. The first thing that Steven notices is the classroom climate. According to Gregory and Chapman, a classroom is strongly influence by the physical attributes of the classroom. A teacher should make sure that the classroom is set up in a way that is conductive to the environment (Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning). Steven notices the festive orientation of student works and art plastered around the classroom walls. He also sees some pictures and posters relating to grammar. The lighting in the class is moderately bright. Steven then shifts his focus to the student groups. One student is asking about the assignment. Student: Mr. Maletta, How does this sound? Is this what you mean? Mr. Maletta: Oh yes! Thats a really good idea. I can see how the name pertains to what era of the story you are speaking on. Student: Ha-ha, what about this name? Or this one? Mr. Maletta: Haha, those are both really good, and quite humorous too.

Mr. Maletta seems to have a good relationship with this group of students. The students seem to trust and respect that he knows what he wants them to do. When Mr. Maletta is complimenting the student on his work, he encourages the student to be creative, and the students feels a lot more comfortable with what they are achieving. Students should feel hopeful in the classroom so they will not be likely to give up so easily. This can simply be referred to as self-motivation (Gayle H. Gregory). Boooooooooop! The class bell rings. The class begins to shuffle and collect their books and exit the classroom. Mr. Maletta makes his way over to Steven after the last student exits the classroom. Mr. Maletta: So yeah, that was my second period class. Great group of students. Steven: Will the next group be doing similar activities? Mr. Malettta: Actually no, I am actually excited for to see our poetry performances by the students. We call it Open Mike. Steven: Oh ok. That sounds interesting. Is the next group of students all that different from the group that I just saw? Mr. Maletta: Ha-Ha, no. You sort of get a different feel for both of the classes since each group has different interests. Both groups are very smart. Mr. Maletta then goes out into the hallway and begins chatting with a student that is on his way to class. Steven records what Mr. Maletta just explained to him. Apparantly, Mr. Maletta has to adapt to different discourse from the students, and somehow has to find a way to best teach the class knowing that everyone is different. He also seems to really care for his students.

The second bell rings. Mr. Malettas 3rd session is about to begin. The class begins to quiet down, and Mr. Maletta starts to return back graded assignments. Mr. Maletta: The class overall did an excellent job on this last assignment. I had nothing but good grades from the entire class. This itself seems to be another example of self-motivation. He congratulates the students on the assignment and lets them know that this is the kind of work that he always expects from them. After he is finished with returning the graded assignments, he turns on the smart touch board at the front of the class. A video of school announcements begins to play. Steven realizes that this is a different era of education from the kind that he had while he was in school. The teachers seem to use a lot of technology when working with their students. When the announcements are finished, Mr. Maletta pulls up a screen showing 4 different sentences. He also tells the class to take out their ipads. Mr. Maletta: Ok guys, I want you guys to take the four sentences that you see up here and combine them into one sentence. When everyone is finished, we will share a couple to see if everyone understands how to do this. The students attention immediately focuses on the screens of the ipads. All of the students begin pecking away at the tablets. Mr. Maletta is also on is ipad completing the activity. Steven can see that this learning style seems to be very beneficial to the students. Learning style, as a dimension of diversity, encourages everyone to respect and accept a variety of appropriate behaviors in the teaching and learning process (Rita Dunn).

Mr. Maletta: Is everyone finished? Student: I have one!

Mr. Maletta: Ok, go ahead and share yours. Several students share the sentences that they had created. The Teacher makes sure that he acknowledges and compliments each of the students senten ces. The teacher then shares his with the class. Steven believes that the teacher does the activities with the students to not only give them a good example, but to also to let them know that he is working with them so that they can not be alone in achieving their learning. The class now is about to take part in their Open-Mike Friday poetry session as Mr. Maletta had mentioned to me before. Several students take part in expressing a poem, but there are two students in particular that really grasp my attention. The first student initially honestly tells the teacher that he had forgot about the assignment. He asks Mr. Maletta for a few minutes so he can get his lines in order. After the short while passes, the kid goes up to the front of the class and begins to rap. After seeing his performance, Steven realizes that Mr. Maletta encourages students to use different ways of expressing poetry. This is an example of differentiating the class. A differential classroom is a classroom where a teacher focuses on the essential needs of the students. Examples of differentiating content can include leveling materials, using different genres, providing choice, and using a variety of instructional materials (Gayle H. Gregory). The second student that performs goes up to the front of the class with an electric guitar. He first recites his poem. Then he plays his guitar relating to the lyrics in the poem he had previously read. Mr. Maletta: That was awesome! I honestly think you should try singing the lyrics of your poem with the guitar playing. Student: (blushes) No way! Haha. Mr. Maletta: Ok, ok, ha-ha just a suggestion. Brilliant job.

The students wrap up their final performances, and Mr. Maletta lets the remainder of the class period for the students to work on a group project. Steven then takes the opportunity to ask Mr. Maletta a few questions before class ends so that Mr. Maletta does not lose time from his planning period. Steven: How long have you been a teacher? Mr. Maletta: I have been teaching for 20 years. Steven: Has teaching always been a particular passion of yours? Mr. Maletta: Actually no. By my second semester of sophomore year in college, I had to pick a major. Seeing that my sister enjoyed teaching and that I love English, I decided that teaching was something that I wanted to do in the long run. Steven: What are your methods of connecting with the students? Mr. Maletta: I try to come up with activities I try to look at it from the students perspective. I try to see what they would see as interesting and allow more of the motivation of completing work to come from them instead of me. Its more likely for them to get it done if they will enjoy it. I know that I, ha-ha, was quite a handful at that age. I am also the same person you see teaching the class that you would see outside of class. So really my personality is a big part of my teaching. Steven realizes that this statement from Mr. Maletta relates to some of his previous research. There are research studies about how if an instructors teaching style and a students learning style are compatible with each other, then there will be a great chance of progression in a students learning (Corina Iurea). Steven: Ha-ha. What are your goals on impacting the students?

Maletta: I try to make sure that when the students come to class that they actually want to come to class. At this level, the students you see right now are higher-level students, so they already have a predefined motivation that lets them work hard. In some of my other classes, if their testing scores are not great, I have students that simply do not like school at all. So I would want to reach the point where I could get that particular group of students to enjoy English learning. So yes, that is a huge goal in trying to connect with the kids and allowing the kids to connect with the literature. Mr. Malettas quote show that he strives for the students to more analytical to how he teaches. Teaching for the development of an analytical intelligence of a students means to encourage the student to truly evaluate what the teacher is offering the students, and being able to explain why it is so necessary to learn the criteria. (Romona Palos). Steven: Do you find it challenging teaching multiple levels of discourse within the classroom? Mr. Maletta: Thats the greatest challenge of all time! Ha-ha, it is always difficult balancing the introvert with the extrovert and allowing the students to collaborate and work together in the learning process. Steven: Well, thats pretty much all of the questions. Thank you so much for your input Mr. Maletta. Mr. Maletta: No problem at all. As I said before, any friend of a student of mine is welcome to come to class. Steven shakes Mr. Malettas hand and they exchange their good-byes. Steven waves a goodbye to the class, and then exits the classroom.

Works Cited Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning. Positive Classroom Climate. 5 4 2013 <cte.udel.edu/publications/handbook-graduateassistants/getting-started/positive-classroom-climate.html>. Corina Iurea, loan Neacsu, Cristina Georgiana Safta, Mihaela Suditu. "The Study of the Relation between the Teaching Methods and the Learning Styles- The Impact upon the Students' Academic Conduct." ProcediaSocial and Behavioral Sciences 11 (2011): 256-260. Gayle H. Gregory, Carolyn Chapman. Differential Instructional Strategies. Second. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2007. Rita Dunn, Andra Honigsfeld, Luara Shea Doolan. "Impact of Learning Style: Instructional and Strategies on Students' Acheivement and Attitudes: Perception of Educators in Diverse Institutions." 2009. Bostromenterprise.se. 6 4 2013 <www.bostromenterprise.se/files/1552.pdf>. Romona Palos, Laurentiu Maricutoiu. "The Impact of Teacher's Thinking and Learning Styles Upon his/her Teaching Style." Leeds.ac.uk. 3 4 2013 <www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/158827.pdf>.