“The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.” – Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse When I first taught high school English, I wondered, like Woolf, why the “great revelations” never came for my students. I had great hopes for magnificent inspirations through literature, but these inspirations did not happen easily. I learned quickly that even “daily miracles” did not occur by standing in the front of the room and saying, “Okay, it’s time to be inspired.” As Woolf says, these matches are struck “unexpectedly.” With that in mind, I searched for teaching strategies that facilitated these critical moments for students so that they were able to not only become better readers, writers, and researchers but also learn about themselves and the world around them through. As I searched for a way to reach students, I recognized that when students had the opportunity to explore their identities within literacy events, learning became more relevant and meaningful to them. For example, in an undergraduate class that I am teaching called Integrated Reading and Writing, students spent the first month writing a personal piece on a topic of their choice. In these pieces, students wrote about meaningful aspects of their lives, such as a fiancé fighting in Iraq or a brother with Autism. After students shared their pieces aloud with the entire class, we talked about particular aspects of this assignment. Students commented that they rarely had the opportunity to write about a topic of their choice in their own school experiences. They agreed that choice and relevance in a classroom are one way for students to feel connected to lessons and become part of a classroom community. These are the aspects of teaching that I hope the preservice teachers remember when they enter their classrooms. My beliefs about the importance of relevance and choice in a classroom connect with sociocultural theorists who believe that children construct knowledge. This theory contrasts beliefs that teachers transmit knowledge to students. In addition, I agree with other aspects of sociocultural theories that state development cannot be separated from its social context and that language plays a major role in learning. I believe that it is important for teachers to provide opportunities for students to learn collaboratively and jointly construct knowledge from conversations with their social peers. My teaching philosophy has also been influenced by feminist theorists like bell hooks, who believe in the importance of egalitarian relationships in the classroom, making students feel valued as individuals, and the use of students’ experiences as a learning resource in the classroom.
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AuthorProfessor in English Education at UNC Greensboro Archives
June 2016
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