Other Teacher Shadowing

Rachel Lorenzo

10/14/11

LAE 4530.001

Tara Payor & Nina Graham

"Other Teacher" Shadowing

 The other week my host teacher sent me to a couple of teachers to observe a class period. One of them is an AP Language teacher who was having her students go over a passage from Earnest Hemingway's In Our Time. The short story they read is from the "Interchapter VII" and is about a soldier who promises God to believe in him and tell others he does if God will save him from the heavy bombardment he is experiencing in the trenches that night. Later when he wakes up he is fine, he goes to a hotel with a girl that night but does not tell her anything about God. Essentially he does not keep his promise.

Using a unique form of reading for understanding a simple yet powerful text, the teacher had the students use different colored highlighters to highlight different parts of the short passage such as nouns, repetition, references to Jesus, pronouns, etc. As the students were wrapping up, the teacher started doing the same, highlighting everything necessary. When she was done the class went over the passage. 

Admittedly, I was skeptical of the assignment at first. I didn't understand why an AP class would need to go over such simplistic text and using such a strategy that seemed to me to be for struggling readers. As soon as the teacher mentioned that the passage was from a work by Hemingway, I began to read the passage more closely and immediately understood how deceiving it was. After students started participating and talking about the text with the prompting of the teacher's questions, I stopped underestimating the aid of a simple reading strategy, no matter the student's reading level.

In highlighting different aspects of the text, students quickly took note of the times that the word "God" was capitalized and the times it wasn't, correlating it with what the soldier was going through and its significance to understanding the passage. The teacher further strengthened their notice of this by giving some background information on Hemingway's own religious beliefs, mentioning that they were questionable. She probed students to further analyze the clues the short story was giving by asking them what they thought of his not mentioning anything about God to the girl he went to the hotel with. She asked whether they thought the girl was important, to which they soon agreed that she wasn't because she isn't given a name and it is obvious he is only using her for sex. Here there was some doubt as to whether he would eventually complete his promise to God by telling someone he knew better. After giving them a short time to talk about it, the teacher told the class she didn't think the character would, after all, he had nothing to lose from telling this prostitute he would likely not see again. 

I felt like the teacher handled this activity very well and that it's a great in-class reading activity, introduction to Hemingway, introduction to a work on war, or even practice for larger readings and discussions. Because this was a short assignment and the period was much shorter that day, it is understandable that the teacher stopped there. However, I think any class discussion would benefit from having desks arranged in a circle so that students may face each other and discuss the text with more liberty. The students had to raise their hands, some spoke too softly to be heard and the teacher could not catch what was said.

* * * *

The second teacher I observed also teaches an AP class and was going over major symbols in text before starting a reading. One of the symbols was water and its significance in different contents and settings. Students freely spoke out what they believed different meanings for each symbol could be but were able to take turns without having to raise their hands, only a few times did some talk over another, but always in a respectful manner. I saw the obvious variation of maturity between this AP class and even my host teacher's honors classes. My host teacher told me it's also a matter of what grade they're in. She has her sophomores raise their hands but does not enforce that rule with her seniors.

Some of the students answered that water could be symbolic of life, growth, peace, etc. Whenever a student answered something particularly true or profound, the teacher would repeat it to the class, perhaps even explain why or have a student explain why. For example, when a student answered that water can be symbolic of life, she asked why and the student answered that it could be because it gives nourishment to the plants that people eat from and that people need it to survive.

At one point, a student (a cheerleader) gave a profound answer for what one of the symbols could mean. It seems this student either does not usually participate, or often gives silly answers as she said it softly and the teacher was not sure who the answer had come from so she asked, "Who said that?" When the cheerleader shyly said it was her, the teacher affectionately and jokingly made a big deal out of it being her. She jumped up, stopped what she was doing, went to her desk and wrote something (perhaps giving her extra credit), raised her arms and exclaimed. The girl was laughing along with the class at the teacher's exaggeration and later gave another answer, this time more confidently. She was also more engaged and attentive throughout the rest of the class. 

This made me realize that students benefit from praise not only in feeling more confident, but in being more participatory and willing to do the work for the class. When a teacher gives praise to a student, the teacher forms a bond, making the student feel more responsible for their work and even enjoy it more. I say this after reflecting on this instance in the classroom and my own classroom experiences. Of course praise should not be given so freely that it becomes fake and irrelevant. Watching this taught me to be aware of how I interact with students.

I also greatly enjoyed the fun and relaxed manner in which the teacher interacted with the students. She made the class feel like a social gathering to talk about literature, drawing on the fun aspects of it through a conversation-like style of teaching. I want to teach English because I find literary discussions very fun and engaging, I want my students to feel the same way, at least while they are in my class. Both this teacher and my host teacher seem to be comfortable enough to where they can do this. Although I know that my first few years of teaching may not be this fluid and comfortable, I will try to make my classes feel conversational as well.