My conversations with a student to learn about his literacy skills.
One day I will be in a classroom full of students, and I will be one who is responsible for them, not my host or mentor teacher. It is hard to imagine now what day would it be as there are so many tasks to accomplish. I remember, how in the MAT, I have learned that the teaching should be student-focused. And it is important to recognize every student as a whole child.
So how can I create a student-centered environment in my classroom? I think the answer depends on the subject. For example, in our literacy classes, I have learned how to talk to student in person about his reading style, favorite books and other literacy related stories. As a part of that assignment, I had several conversations with Ashley, a ten-year-old girl, who was a 4th grader at a moment of our conversation.
The specific goal of that assignment was to make observation of a child during the lesson and ask questions after it. The goal was to study a child’s literacy preferences and skills. In this assignment, I have learned how my observation impacts the questions I am going to ask. Like Ashley mentioned that she participated in a Global reading Challenge or how she loves soccer and reads books about it too. So, every detail was important as it gave me new perspective about Ashley’s literacy skills.
"I have learned how my observation impacts the questions I am going to ask."
Another important learning, I made was the importance of conversation with your student in general. Such conversations can help me to learn about child’s life outside of school building. Even though students spend the most part of the day in school, their home life is a essential part of their personalities. So, I want to talk to my students and their families. And I also admit that this step should be a habit of mine as a teacher. Sometimes, I think teachers can be overwhelmed with different policies and strategies, so they can forget to talk to students and their parents. And it is true, that during my first years of teaching, I might be too busy for such conversations, but I know that the key to every teaching strategy is knowing of your students. Otherwise, it would be just teaching, not student-centered teaching.
During our conversation, I was also able to ask Ashley questions about social justice as she read a book One crazy summer book by Rita Williams-Garcia. Her mother bought it for her. The book is a tale of three African American girls who traveled to Oakland, California, in 1968 in search of the mother who abandoned them.
Ashley wrote about this book: “Delphine (the older sister, 11 years old) is a mother to her younger sisters. She doesn’t really believe on herself and thinks that because she is Black, white people are the way better”. Ashley was aware of Delphine’s identity and how it impacts her feelings and thoughts.
I enjoyed this assignment as it gave me the opportunity to learn about Ashley more. I feel that I still need practicing with questions I ask, but I know the real classroom will have a lot of space to practice it.
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