"A Loaded Cannon"
By Tara Fox
In the
novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens introduces a teacher who “seemed
a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow [the
students] clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge.” This quote has stuck with me for some time;
it was a quote I was first exposed to through a class I took during my MAED
program, TE 818 Curriculum in Its Social Context. When I first heard it, I found myself really
pondering the implications of the statement – did I resemble that teacher in
any way? Were there days when I was
content to let students simply regurgitate facts simply because it was easier
than creating a lesson that truly challenged students to think? The thought was most alarming! Fortunately, like my other classes, TE 818
asked me to not just accept as fact everything that I had simply assumed about education while as a student or even as a teacher; instead, this class and others collectively dared me to actually think
about education and the best ways to leave a positive, lasting imprint on my
students.
I can honestly say that each and every one of my graduate courses has in some way shaped me for the better as an educator. These are not superfluous words. They are simply a testament to the quality of the MAED program at MSU and the result of an educator who recognizes who she was professionally before and after the majority of the program’s completion. In particular, this program impacted my views of reading, writing, and, in a turn of events that surprised even me, teacher leadership.
I can honestly say that each and every one of my graduate courses has in some way shaped me for the better as an educator. These are not superfluous words. They are simply a testament to the quality of the MAED program at MSU and the result of an educator who recognizes who she was professionally before and after the majority of the program’s completion. In particular, this program impacted my views of reading, writing, and, in a turn of events that surprised even me, teacher leadership.
Reading, Writing, and... More Reading and Writing!
It was
difficult to choose just a handful of classes that have had a long term-benefit
to my teaching of language arts. Some
classes focused on the content itself; others looked at the how of teaching reading and writing. To start, Dr. Laura Apol and TE 836 Awards
and Classics of Children’s Literature asked me to think beyond award-winners
and “best” books for children and adolescents.
This was the first class I ever took in the MAED program, and it was a
masterful introduction to my three-and-a-half years of graduate study. Throughout the course of the class, a few
interesting questions were broached: What makes a book “good” and worthy of
intellectual study? Do appointed “classics”
and award-winners have some kind of intrinsic value that other books do not? Take for example the prestigious 2002 Newbery
Award winner, A Single Shard, by
Linda Sue Park. If I could only choose one, would this be a better book for middle schoolers than, say, Pam Munoz Ryan’s Esperanza
Rising, winner of the perhaps less prestigious Pura Belpre’
award? Who decides? I continued to reflect upon Dr. Apol’s class
three years later when I took Curriculum in Its Social Context, where we were
asked to think about the implied curriculum set forth by the teacher’s selection
of which materials would and would not be taught in the classroom.
These questions and more were asked and discussed in Awards and Classics, and I found myself reflecting on everything I knew as not only an English teacher but also as one who simply loved to read. I reflected on the literary canon and how I as an English teacher could make choices that would provide for an authentic language arts education, one that would be representative of a variety of cultures, periods, and subject matter. This became especially important when considering the context I have been teaching in for the past five years – one overtly dominated by the influx of Caribbean cultures nestled in the city of Miami. Of course, we English teachers cannot read with our students every good book about every culture or subject, but at the very least, we have a duty to give them a taste of what is “out there” and to expose our students to the vast material stocked on their library shelves. In this way, we open the door for them to create an authentic reading experience even outside of the classroom walls. Incidentally, after reading Esperanza Rising, which I was exposed to through this class, I gave it to the chair of my English department and he later included it in the 6th grade literature curriculum, where it still stands today.
Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature gave me an introduction into the content of literature. Two more classes were pivotal in my understanding of better ways to teach literature through enhanced reading comprehension and writing skills. The first was TE 848 Reading, Writing, and Reasoning in Secondary School Subjects, taught by Christine Dawson. One of the most interesting tools I learned about in this class was Jeffrey Wilhelm’s aptly titled “questions of inquiry,” a teaching practice that can be applied to any subject area. For example, when asking students to think about something fun in grammar, visions of the compound-complex sentence don’t usually spring to mind, at least for most students. Wilhelm, though, suggests framing the lesson with a question of inquiry, something along the lines of “How can learning about compound-complex sentences help us outside of English class?” Here, the teacher must not rush to supply an answer but instead wait for students to get past the quizzical expressions, skeptically raised eyebrows, and stammers of “Uhhh…I don’t know.” Invariably, one student will cautiously raise his or her hand and venture a moderately thoughtful response. In my case, when I asked the question, one eighth grade girl eventually said something along the lines of, “Well, I want to be a lawyer, so I guess I’ll have to write stuff.” I smiled and prodded her further. Soon, other students were jumping in on the action, shouting out other professions, mentioning college applications, and more. In the end, the majority of the class was able to come to the conclusion that learning how to correctly write compound-complex sentences will help them become better communicators and thus better able to reach their goals. Wilhelm’s text was a huge step for me in understanding that before teaching something to my students, I better get them to believe it’s actually worth learning. In fact, I was so impressed with Wilhelm’s book Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry that it joined the stream of articles and books I was passing on to my English chair.
In addition, TE 848 Methods of Writing Instruction with Dr. Janine Certo took principles of writing education to a new level. In particular, I was consistently reminded that individuals must have an awareness of who they are as writers, with self-reflection as a continual part of the process. Like any good teacher, Dr. Certo gave us opportunity to practice this ourselves, with the construction of our own writer’s project and subsequent Writer’s Memo, a method used to contemplate what we were writing, how it was evolving, and why. In addition, the class proffered a chance for me to research one of my favorite subjects – grammar instruction – and better ways to teach grammar through the teaching of writing. The result was a seventeen-page paper which I used as a basis for more cohesively integrating grammar and writing skills in my eighth grade classroom. Like my other classes, Methods of Writing Instruction also introduced me to both theoretical and pragmatic literature that addressed principles of writing, all of which were beneficial not only to my personal writing projects but were also able to translate easily into my classroom. This was particularly true of Best Practices in Writing Instruction and Ralph Fletcher’s What a Writer Needs.
These questions and more were asked and discussed in Awards and Classics, and I found myself reflecting on everything I knew as not only an English teacher but also as one who simply loved to read. I reflected on the literary canon and how I as an English teacher could make choices that would provide for an authentic language arts education, one that would be representative of a variety of cultures, periods, and subject matter. This became especially important when considering the context I have been teaching in for the past five years – one overtly dominated by the influx of Caribbean cultures nestled in the city of Miami. Of course, we English teachers cannot read with our students every good book about every culture or subject, but at the very least, we have a duty to give them a taste of what is “out there” and to expose our students to the vast material stocked on their library shelves. In this way, we open the door for them to create an authentic reading experience even outside of the classroom walls. Incidentally, after reading Esperanza Rising, which I was exposed to through this class, I gave it to the chair of my English department and he later included it in the 6th grade literature curriculum, where it still stands today.
Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature gave me an introduction into the content of literature. Two more classes were pivotal in my understanding of better ways to teach literature through enhanced reading comprehension and writing skills. The first was TE 848 Reading, Writing, and Reasoning in Secondary School Subjects, taught by Christine Dawson. One of the most interesting tools I learned about in this class was Jeffrey Wilhelm’s aptly titled “questions of inquiry,” a teaching practice that can be applied to any subject area. For example, when asking students to think about something fun in grammar, visions of the compound-complex sentence don’t usually spring to mind, at least for most students. Wilhelm, though, suggests framing the lesson with a question of inquiry, something along the lines of “How can learning about compound-complex sentences help us outside of English class?” Here, the teacher must not rush to supply an answer but instead wait for students to get past the quizzical expressions, skeptically raised eyebrows, and stammers of “Uhhh…I don’t know.” Invariably, one student will cautiously raise his or her hand and venture a moderately thoughtful response. In my case, when I asked the question, one eighth grade girl eventually said something along the lines of, “Well, I want to be a lawyer, so I guess I’ll have to write stuff.” I smiled and prodded her further. Soon, other students were jumping in on the action, shouting out other professions, mentioning college applications, and more. In the end, the majority of the class was able to come to the conclusion that learning how to correctly write compound-complex sentences will help them become better communicators and thus better able to reach their goals. Wilhelm’s text was a huge step for me in understanding that before teaching something to my students, I better get them to believe it’s actually worth learning. In fact, I was so impressed with Wilhelm’s book Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry that it joined the stream of articles and books I was passing on to my English chair.
In addition, TE 848 Methods of Writing Instruction with Dr. Janine Certo took principles of writing education to a new level. In particular, I was consistently reminded that individuals must have an awareness of who they are as writers, with self-reflection as a continual part of the process. Like any good teacher, Dr. Certo gave us opportunity to practice this ourselves, with the construction of our own writer’s project and subsequent Writer’s Memo, a method used to contemplate what we were writing, how it was evolving, and why. In addition, the class proffered a chance for me to research one of my favorite subjects – grammar instruction – and better ways to teach grammar through the teaching of writing. The result was a seventeen-page paper which I used as a basis for more cohesively integrating grammar and writing skills in my eighth grade classroom. Like my other classes, Methods of Writing Instruction also introduced me to both theoretical and pragmatic literature that addressed principles of writing, all of which were beneficial not only to my personal writing projects but were also able to translate easily into my classroom. This was particularly true of Best Practices in Writing Instruction and Ralph Fletcher’s What a Writer Needs.
Foraging a New Path: Teacher Leadership
One of the
more interesting aspects of the MAED program has been not only how I have been
able to meet some of my initial goals but also how some of my goals have
changed. Consequently, I cannot truly talk about the
impact the MAED program has had on my profession as an educator without
discussing EAD 801, Leadership and Organizational Development, taught by Dr.
Nancy Colflesh. This course was easily
one of the most influential classes I have ever taken, in both my undergraduate
and graduate career. It was a demanding
class, one that not only asked for an intense amount of work but also utilized
every opportunity for online interaction, expecting us to make genuine
connections with our work and our classmates.
Yes, it was rigorous, but I would not have changed a thing.
I must confess that before this class, not once had I thought about teacher leadership. One of the main points initially brought up in the class was the commonplace view that so much of education is horizontal; that is, there is not much room for teachers to grow unless they are promoted in some kind of administrative capacity. After all, leadership positions are held exclusively by administrators who make all the decisions, right? As I soon learned, however, that line of thinking is extremely erroneous. In EAD 801, it quickly became apparent that all teachers have an ability to step up as leaders and effect positive change in their school communities. In the class, we considered the effect of leaders in our own lives and what qualities they possessed. We then postulated and discussed ways in which teachers can be leaders, whether through developing project visions, working with collaborators, contributing to the school dialogue, implementing new procedures or policies, and so much more.
This class instilled in me a desire to grow in a leadership capacity in my school. Oddly enough, while I was taking this class in the spring of 2009, my head of school asked me if I would be interested in taking over the high school’s Student Leadership Institute for the following school year. It was not an administrative position, and it would be extra work on my part. Had I not been taking EAD 801, though, I don’t that I would have given it a second thought, considering my lack of ability and know-how. Newly armed, though, with half a semester of educational leadership and the thought that I could, perhaps, be a part of something bigger than myself to positively impact students, I tentatively accepted the director position. Knowing my new responsibilities for the coming year, I worked hard in Dr. Colflesh’s class, and she was gracious enough to allow my final paper to center fully on creating a student leadership program. The tools I learned in this class and from that paper fed directly into my new role, with one of my research sources becoming the foundational leadership book of our program.
I must confess that before this class, not once had I thought about teacher leadership. One of the main points initially brought up in the class was the commonplace view that so much of education is horizontal; that is, there is not much room for teachers to grow unless they are promoted in some kind of administrative capacity. After all, leadership positions are held exclusively by administrators who make all the decisions, right? As I soon learned, however, that line of thinking is extremely erroneous. In EAD 801, it quickly became apparent that all teachers have an ability to step up as leaders and effect positive change in their school communities. In the class, we considered the effect of leaders in our own lives and what qualities they possessed. We then postulated and discussed ways in which teachers can be leaders, whether through developing project visions, working with collaborators, contributing to the school dialogue, implementing new procedures or policies, and so much more.
This class instilled in me a desire to grow in a leadership capacity in my school. Oddly enough, while I was taking this class in the spring of 2009, my head of school asked me if I would be interested in taking over the high school’s Student Leadership Institute for the following school year. It was not an administrative position, and it would be extra work on my part. Had I not been taking EAD 801, though, I don’t that I would have given it a second thought, considering my lack of ability and know-how. Newly armed, though, with half a semester of educational leadership and the thought that I could, perhaps, be a part of something bigger than myself to positively impact students, I tentatively accepted the director position. Knowing my new responsibilities for the coming year, I worked hard in Dr. Colflesh’s class, and she was gracious enough to allow my final paper to center fully on creating a student leadership program. The tools I learned in this class and from that paper fed directly into my new role, with one of my research sources becoming the foundational leadership book of our program.
Final Thoughts
E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
Perhaps
the greatest benefit of my masters program has been the shaping of my views of
learning. Can teachers be more than
simply “cannons loaded to the muzzle with facts”? I believe they can. I have seen
that they can. This program has equipped
me with the tools to be a better educator, a better motivator, and a better
guide for my students. It should be
noted that the aforementioned teacher in Dickens’ novel who was this fact-loaded cannon was eventually able to change his ways and see
a different side of the coin. Perhaps
Dickens was subtly giving hope to educators who may find themselves in the
fictionalized teacher’s position. In
fact, perhaps we as educators can take the idea of loaded cannon and flip it on
its head, so to speak. In this way, we
can be not a cannon loaded with facts and prepared to muzzle our students, but
one with the energy, enthusiasm, and know-how to motivate students, guide
students, and free them from the tyranny of an education that only asks them to
regurgitate information instead of think critically through it. Are facts important? Absolutely.
However, does a genuine education teach students how to work through
those facts? Definitely.
I am reminded of E.D. Hirsch, Jr., discussed throughout many of my MAED classes, who brings very viable points to the educational roundtable when it comes to “facts.” His view of cultural literacy has been very influential in shaping my own philosophy of education, which seeks to develop well-rounded students who can be a driving force in the public square. These well-rounded students can speak articulately on a variety of fields and have been instilled with the motivation to pursue one or more chosen fields with greater depth. These students don’t have to be a jack-of-all-trades; rather, their exposure to genuine cultural literacy will help them better decide how to interpret facts and be a master of at least one. As a result, I have a passion to help grow students who do not only give the right answers but who also ask the right questions. Take, for example, students whose passions lean more toward the social reconstructionist model. These students won’t just know that homelessness needs to be halted; they will stop to ask why some homeless individuals are reluctant to receive aid. These kinds of students are the ones who have taken the classroom knowledge of how to learn and who have applied those skills to their own interests or spheres of influence.
For me, this program did not only exist in the theoretical, but it had a pragmatic, often immediate application in many aspects of my school and personal classroom teachings. So often, I was able to apply strategies I had learned to my students, modifying them as needed while continually looking for the best practices to educate. Perhaps in this way, my students can better become active, intelligent participants in what some have termed as the “Great Conversation,” as they continue to dialogue in their homes, schools, and the public square, enabling them to positively and effectively engage their local communities and their societies at large.
I am reminded of E.D. Hirsch, Jr., discussed throughout many of my MAED classes, who brings very viable points to the educational roundtable when it comes to “facts.” His view of cultural literacy has been very influential in shaping my own philosophy of education, which seeks to develop well-rounded students who can be a driving force in the public square. These well-rounded students can speak articulately on a variety of fields and have been instilled with the motivation to pursue one or more chosen fields with greater depth. These students don’t have to be a jack-of-all-trades; rather, their exposure to genuine cultural literacy will help them better decide how to interpret facts and be a master of at least one. As a result, I have a passion to help grow students who do not only give the right answers but who also ask the right questions. Take, for example, students whose passions lean more toward the social reconstructionist model. These students won’t just know that homelessness needs to be halted; they will stop to ask why some homeless individuals are reluctant to receive aid. These kinds of students are the ones who have taken the classroom knowledge of how to learn and who have applied those skills to their own interests or spheres of influence.
For me, this program did not only exist in the theoretical, but it had a pragmatic, often immediate application in many aspects of my school and personal classroom teachings. So often, I was able to apply strategies I had learned to my students, modifying them as needed while continually looking for the best practices to educate. Perhaps in this way, my students can better become active, intelligent participants in what some have termed as the “Great Conversation,” as they continue to dialogue in their homes, schools, and the public square, enabling them to positively and effectively engage their local communities and their societies at large.