James Eric Dougherty

8th Grade Language arts

For the purposes of this assignment, I will consider my
placement school and level 8th grade Language Arts. Classes are
not tracked with ESL, Special Ed students, and multiple IEPs.
Im following the rules of the school versus what I think might
work better.
How will you create an environment of respect and rapport?
So far, everything I have witnessed centers on one major
theme: know your students and establish a positive working
relationship with them. Knowing details of an IEP is critical from
an assessment point of view but also from a behavioral point of
view.
Students react to you or dont react based on a level of respect.
By investing time and positive feedback on assessments, you
prevent them from shutting down. Putting a grade on a
assessment without comments is wasting a valuable learning
opportunity. Show at least one thing students have done right
and show room for improvement. On that latter point, be
reasonable. Dont be afraid to challenge a lazy smart kid and
dont discourage the ESL excessively with irregular verbs. Look
for and note improvement.
Your goal shouldnt be to save everyone from everything every
day. You need to recognize that individual students require
individualized strategies. Find out what learning methods work/
are not working for a given student. Theres nothing wrong with
an appropriate challenge. You cant ask for a miracle... Invest in
the relationship and find out whats working.
I students put forth significantly greater effort when they feel
the teacher cares. When I see, Tell me more on an assignment,
sometimes the students will. You have more materialyou have
more opportunities for learning and you get people thinking.
Ultimately, writing and thinking are connected. You get this from
cultivating creativity and individuality within some limitations.
Dont be afraid to modify an assignment for a greater purpose.
One student may not need to list all the vocabulary from a unit.
Dont let your students feel like they are wasting their time and
they will put forth better effort. OK, overachiever A* may not
need to look the ten words up. Can he or she perhaps write a

paragraph that incorporates five of them correctly?

I see students stick up for teachers that invest in them. They
will almost censure others looking for attention by being
disruptive. I actually heard, Let the teacher talk. I want to hear
this story and Dont come over here and be all disruptive. I
want to finish this. When the person attempting to disrupt find
no audience, he or she loses much of the drive.
And, admit when things arent working. Some classes might
not benefit from seat changes whereas one different seat could
get a student participating (or conversely becoming worse). You
cannot be afraid to show your students that you care enough to
disrupt some routines for the betterment of the class.
How will you establish a culture for learning?
Going further than the preceding answer, even the worst, most
incorrect answer is a chance for learning. Deflect where possible.
That line confused me too. I had to reread it. Im willing to bet if
I made the same mistake there could be at least one other
student who might have too. Lets look at that section again.
Something else I think that motivates students is displaying
excellent examples. Show what excellence looks like. You may
have more and more students competing to make it onto a
bulletin board. But at the same time, be aware which students
wouldnt want their work shared. So ask. On this, there are
certainly no dumb questions. When asked ahead of time,
students seem even more proud of an assignment stapled to a
board.
And, how awful are those assignments that you swear no one
could do? I got those. Be able (and even prepare a template if
necessary) to do every assignment you give. The difficulty of an
assignment should coincide with ability. Not every student can
keep five short stories from five authors in ones head at a given
time. No which ones need to step up and which ones require
modification. And celebrate successes accordingly. Note
improvement.
I think encouraging further study and reading for students
whose interest you may have sparked is critical. A student wants
to keep goingwonderful. Make additional resources available.
What procedures will you establish for managing the classroom?
It sounds silly but announcing the agenda for a class can be
surprisingly useful. When students know a routine, they have an

easier time transitioning from activities. They may look forward

to a certain part of the class.
I mentioned several things earlier but trying to encourage
maximum participation can benefit everyone. Not to beat a dead
horse, but there are non-verbal students and there are students
who cant or wont talk. So find something he or she wrote in the
preceding essay and share it (again with permission) with the
class either anonymously or with the proper attribute. Ive seen
both be successful. One girl didnt want her name associated
with a brilliant idea whereas a boy was so encouraged that he
said his first words aloud a few ago after nodding approval for us
to share his work.
Stay positive. I have a student who almost never does
homework for me. (They only get homework one night per week
not by my choice.) I tell him, K*, I want to know what youre
thinking. Give it to me tomorrow then. Dont punish your grade
for a paragraph or two. You can do it. Sometimes modifying an
assignment works. We let one student write as much as he
wanted on his favorite video game but the rule was he said to
explain why it was superior to other games and defend his choice
against an anticipated argument. This was the most writing she
received from the student all year.
Keep the classroom clean and fresh. The same boring
decorations dont work for every unit. Yes, my hero didnt want
anything in his classroom but a blackboard and a single stick of
chalk. That worked for me and he pulls it off to this day. (Maybe
as a master teacher he could pull it off where I am currently.) But
for the most part, kids of today need varying stimulation. I never
had to deal with blocks (double periods).
Try to remember what it was like to be their age. Try to sit in a
desk for that amount of time. If you find yourself getting up, you
need to give the students a chance to get up. I had neck surgery
a few years ago Im extremely sympathetic. The student who
asks to go to the bathroom every class who might be ADHD who
you know will be on task after stretching out, tell him ahead of
time when to ask and let him stretch. Hes going to want to go
no matter what and you may not want to risk an accident, but if
he knows he can go between discussion and Reading Zone, he
may be better behaved.
What procedures will you establish for managing student
behavior?

Be positive. Be consistent. Know where to draw the line. So

one kid is texting once. Ask the student to join you in the hallway
perhaps. Chances are his or her mother is not having a baby.
Next time it happens, Ill hold onto the phone or hand it to the
principal and your mom can get it back But if a very wellbehaved student forgets to put his or her phone on vibrate and it
goes off once. You see the look of fear on the students face
You dont need to seize it (for a first offence). Make it a learning
opportunity.
But there are some behaviors that go too far. Let students be
aware of the consequences of their actions and they may not be
as eager to repeat them. A student is snoring in class They
can go directly to the principal. One time one student put his or
head down for five minutes and responds apologetically Maybe
suggest a drink of water or suggest a trip to the nurse. There is
often more at play with a student than you are immediately
aware of This comes back to knowing your students.
When you know your students and your students know you,
they know what theyre not going to get away with. If they
violate an offense that second time, there have to be
consequences or else there will be no discipline.
I watched a literacy coach brilliantly deflect a student who
was trying to blow up. What did you bring me for lunch today?
Ms. C*, I didnt bring you lunch It became a farce in the
ensuing conversation but the student got back on task. (Ms. C*
may in fact be capable of miracles.) She knew that sometimes a
blow-up isnt really about discipline but about a disability and
frustration with it.
I love that rules are posted in the classroom and I will certainly
be implementing a similar framework when I have my own
classroom. Bright, varied colors, interesting pictures The
appearance of a classroom sets a tone for behavior.
How will you organize the students for learning?
This really depends on the activity and the students
themselves. As I have mentioned in other posts, I have a student
I suspect may have high-functioning autistic tendencies. He
moves his hands a lot, touching a notebook and a series of letters
and symbols. Put him in a U-Shape and you might as well be
executing a sentence on him. He needs to be in the back
But some classes respond better to Us. I prefer it because I like
discussion and I want every student to be able to see every

student, acknowledge every student. When you are in front of

the class, all eyes are on you, the teacher. Eyes may divert to
individual speakers But in the U, I feel that attention moves
considerably more.
Would Us work for math? I doubt it. But for a play with
multiple characters? I would think so.
I have another issue. Several of my students have odors that
other students (and teachers) do not find pleasant. This sounds
silly but I think ones has to do with ethnicity and the other just
It was apparently brought up to his parents and it didnt have any
effect. Some students would pick him relentlessly for it, but his
friends leave him alone. So arrange your seating charts not only
for behavior but with this in mind. (We put him near a window for
a reason.)
Lots of students may have a hard time hearing or seeing. Know
this and plan for visual materials to be accessible for everyone.
How will all of this enhance the teaching and learning process?
Think about it: there are far more of them than there are you. If
they refuse to cooperate, no one wins. If three or four are talking,
the entire class suffers. One student continued to talk while I was
presenting a poem. I invited her to the front of the class to give
the presentation. She asked to sit back down and be quiet. I was
surprised but it worked.
The same student saw me struggling with the smartboard. She
asked me if she could write it for the class. I welcomed her up.
She might not have written anything I wrote on the board in her
notebook but she wrote everything I needed her to write on the
board. Now students are competing to write for me. I probably
could write better but they like the dynamic of getting up and
getting attention.
That comes from knowing the students. You have to build the
learning environment, invest in it continually, and never settle.
You have to always be demanding that you improve and find
ways to help your students improve.
Take input. Learn which assessments work and dont be afraid
to try an idea that has failed again in a slightly different way, but
dont be afraid to do something different as well. Im finding that
the more I am able to adapt, the better my students are
performing for me.
Im lucky. I have a great support system in the classroom. But I
got that because the teacher instilled many of the virtues Ive

outlined months before I arrived.