Knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are important for student success

The knowledge needed for student success in the English discipline would be a basic knowledge in
sentence and word structure, how to read literature, and how to write effective arguments with
concessions. Skills that are important for student success would be; patience in their writing and to
practice writing to constantly improve, and to read and constantly improve their reading skills both
silently and out loud. Attitudes that are important for student success would be an openness and want to
keep improving, having the can do attitude of wanting to learn and pushing it forth in the English
classroom. The knowledge needed for student success in the Social Studies discipline would be to have
a basic knowledge of the world and it's historical values. To have a basic knowledge that history is being
made everyday and things they are living through today may be included in historical texts twenty years
from now. Skills that are important for student success would be such things as; a basic concept of
understanding maps and graphs, a basic skill of locating a country, or at the bare minimum a continent
on a map, and being able to read information about serious historical events without turning them into a
joke. Attitudes that are important for student success would be wanting to learn the subject, wanting to
know more about past events and being part of the reason why these things never happen again as
history has a tendency to repeat itself.
I am preparing students for...
The most obvious things middle-level English educators would be preparing students for would be high
school and beyond, making their writing and reading comprehension stronger. However, it is much more
than that, also preparing them to write out applications and resumes for jobs, making students into
functioning human beings in the literary world while it is ever changing to a technological world is what
the English classroom is all about.
For social studies, students are being prepared for life outside of the town, the county, the state, and
maybe even the country. Social studies is not about preparing them to be on some Jeopardy-like game
show, which is what it could feel like sometimes, its about giving them the knowledge to embrace

change as it comes to them, and open their minds to the endless possibilities of life outside of their rabbit
holes.
Some of the key challenges in the teaching-learning process
The English classroom is always going to face challenges, there is no easy way to say it. Right now, it
faces challenges with technology; kids no longer want to read books, even if given the choice, students
would rather surf the web, look stuff up on Google and translate it as omething they read
somewhereand forget about it after regurgitating it for a test. English is now having to be spread across
all of the disciplines just so students can learn effective ways to read and write without it being pushed
just on English educators. One other challenge that faces the teaching-learning process is students just
not wanting to learn the material. As I had stated, students no longer wish to read, but it is more than
that students no longer wish to write either. Students would rather type their notes than write them
down on a note sheet, which is creating a bigger gap between the students and the teacher. For social
studies, the teaching-learning process becomes an issue when students no longer care about what is
going on in their world. A lot of the time, especially in the middle school grade level, students get a
mindset that things that happened in history have no affect on them because it was in the past, therefore
already over and no sense in worrying about it. According to Bar-Yam, Rhoades, Booth Sweeney,
Kaput, Bar-Yam (2002) he educational environment is constantly changing and becoming more and
more highly demanding, with clearly no simple, single uniform application that can be applied to all
students,(para. 1).
Enactment of goals
Teaching methods I have found effective
For both classrooms, I really like the idea of the cooperative learning method, which involves a lot of
think pair share, group, and a lot of social activities. According to Teachervision (2015) there are various
articles about how this method is effective, particularly for middle school students. This form is so
effective, in my mind, because the students work together and help each other out and no one is left in

the dust. It also works great for scaffolding in new material to the students because often times students
are all on the same page. This works great for a history class room because it could incorporate a lot of
group projects over a specific time period, battle, or era. It could also work great for an English
classroom in that different groups could read and share ideas about a book that the group chose.
How these methods contribute to my goals
I think the method of cooperative learning contributes to my goals for my students by being the driving
force for their learning. Students get to work in groups, which have their own positive and negative
effects, and by me being just the facilitator and the students driving the lesson and the learning process
they will have that 'can do' spirit naturally. With cooperative learning I think it will also leave them
wanting to know more about a topic.
The use of these methods are appropriate for use in English and social studies
These methods are appropriate for use in both the English and social studies disciplines because they
give students choice. Choice is a huge part of the middle school classroom because students want to be
considered as independent thinkers, but still need some guidance when it comes down to it. In this way,
students have the independence they want but the help they also need in order to achieve in both the
English and social studies classrooms. According to Duplass (2006) some of the key characteristics of
cooperative learning are: eacher supervision, heterogeneous groups, positive interdependence, faceto-face interaction, individual accountability, social skills, group processing, and evaluation,(para.7).
Assessment of goals
How I know my goals are being met.
I will know that the goals for my students are being met through the use of exit slips. When the students
first come into my classroom, they will be assigned a bell ringer that will scaffold material learned in
previous classes to what they will be learning in class that day. From there we will go over the learning
targets for the day, and continue on to the 'meat' of the lesson where the bell ringer will be explained. At
the end of every class, students will be given a exit slip that is similar to the bell ringer that was given to

see if students had learned the new material, or acquired the targets, and will let me know if we need
more time to cover that material or if we are set to move on. This could be used for both the English
and social studies classroom and would be effective. According to Teachervision, it is important to not
only gauge where students are with assessments, but also have a reward system for students as part of
an assessment as well.
Assessment tools I use
If I was going to be an English teacher, the sorts of assessment tools I would use would be: journals,
portfolios, bell ringers, exit slips, and papers. I am not a fan of tests, especially in the English class room
because I know that some students are just not great test takers and there are thousands of different
ways to make sure that students are grasping the material without the stress of a test being on their
minds. I am a huge fan of writing notebooks (also called journals, daily doses, etc.) this gives students
time to be creative, and also is a great place for all of their notes, bell ringers, and exit slips to be in one
place if they need them to refer back to later on. Portfolios are also a really good tool to use in the
classroom, even though they are now a dying idea. Many teachers seem to think that if the state no
longer require students to keep a portfolio, they no longer have to waste time making one, which is
simply not true. Time should be taken making a portfolio for students to put their best work in so they
can keep it forever, it could also be used, if the teacher gets the okay by the student, for the 'best of the
best' work to be published in the local newspaper or something. Bell ringers and exit slips would be used
in both reading and writing as a way to scaffold ideas from new material to things learned just yesterday.
Lastly, Papers would be important because that is such a broad assessment; students could free write,
write arguments, narratives, reflections on a book, anything and it would still be considered a paper.
Which is highly important. Again, not being a great fan of the test, I think that social studies could be
worked in a way where tests worth a big portion of the grade are not necessary. Along with having a bell
ringer and exit slip, there could be weekly quizzes and a few papers to make up the difference of tests.
Writing notebooks would also be a great help in this discipline because all of the notes, worksheets, and

important documents could be placed together and left in the classroom as part of a participation grade.
Assessments contribute to student learning in many ways including; telling the teacher how they are
really doing with that unit, how well the unit was covered by the teacher, and what needs more time
because it is just not sinking into the minds of the students. As long as the assessments are reliable and
valid, the content given on the assessment will show the true colors on how the student(s) are doing on
that particular unit and in the class as a whole.
Creating an inclusive learning environment,
Accounting for learning styles
There are really seven learning styles the teacher will need to address: musical/auditory, verbal, visual,
physical/kinesthetic, logical/mathematical, social, solitary, or combination. To address all of these in one
lesson would be very difficult to do, however, to accomplish tasks that would show each learning style's
full potential in a week or so is extremely possible. First, to address the kinds of learners in the room;
within the first week of school I would ask students to answer some questions to get a better feel on
how they learn best. Next, how to address the diverse needs of learning; in an ideal world all the
students would learn the same way, again that's ideal and very unlikely. With the newly collected data, it
then becomes prevalent how to make sure that every student benefits from every lesson regardless if it
fits their learning style. To account for musical, you could open the lesson with music and have songs
that convey meanings of what is being taught that day; for English songs with lots of similes and
metaphors, for social studies songs about the civil war or any war to get the students engaged in what
happened during that time period. Verbal learners, having daily discussions about what they had learned
could take the place of exit slips, for English students using sentences that incorporate new vocabulary
or a simile. For social studies, describing a point of view, whether north or south, about the civil war.
Visual learning could be engaged with video clips of the different lessons. Physical and kinesthetic, have
students act out different types of sentences or run for a presidential campaign. Mathematical could be
solved by creating math problems with words and vocabulary and each sentence has to equal a certain

amount. Social and solitary would be the student's choice, with the cooperative learning method, it is
more social but is to be understood if some students just do not want to work in groups all the time.
Chapter six highlights learning styles with the different genders, saying that boys are mathematical and
analytical while girls are more visual and auditory, (p. 257).
Integrating diverse perspectives into my teaching.
When I think of culturally relevant pedagogy, two philosophers come to mind: Gloria Ladson Billings
and Tyron C. Howard, I would like to begin with the latter. According to Howard (2003), you should
reflect on yourself critically and ask yourself five questions specifically: ow frequently and what types
of interactions did I have with individuals from racial backgrounds different from my own growing up?
Who were the primary persons that helped to shape my perspectives of individuals from different racial
groups? How were their opinions formed? Have I ever harbored prejudiced thoughts towards people
from different racial backgrounds? If I do harbor prejudiced thoughts, what effects do such thoughts
have on students who come from those backgrounds? Do I create negative profiles of individuals who
come from different racial backgrounds?(p. 3) Of course, these questions will make anyone very
uncomfortable and will constantly change and is something that you have to be honest about with
yourself as well as with your students which makes it so important. According to Ladson-Billings
(1995)it is most important to know the difference between nsert culture into the education, instead of
inserting education into the culture,(p.1). Which is one thing that I hope to maintain this same mindset
with my teaching.
Works cited
Bar-Yam, M. Rhoades, K. Booth- Sweeney, L. Kaput, J. Bar-Yam, Y. (2002) Complex Systems
Perspectives on Education and the Educational System, New England Complex Systems Institute.
Retrieved from http://www.necsi.edu/research/management/education/teachandlearn.html
Craver, S.M., Philipsen, M.I. (2011) Foundations of Education: Problems and Possibilities in
American Education. New York, New York Continuum International Publishing Group.

Duplass, J.A. (2006) The Key Elements of Cooperative Learning. Retrieved from
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4653
Felder, R.M. Brent, R. (2001) Cooperative Learning. Retrieved from
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/CLChapter.pdf
Howard, T.C. (2003) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Ingredients for Critical Teacher Reflection.
Pages 1-9.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995) But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant
Pedagogy. Pages 1-7.
Teachervision (2015) Cooperative Learning Strategies. Retrieved from
https://www.teachervision.com/cooperative-learning/resource/48649.html
Teachervision (2015) Assessment Advice and Forms. Retrieved from
https://www.teachervision.com/assessment/resource/5815.html