Was beginning to understand, perhaps, why the profession of teaching felt under siege from every angle.

Collegial environments that support doing the good work in our classrooms

The Classroom as a Community of Practice Shira M. Zemel University at Buffalo Presentation to the National Council of Teachers of English November, 2011

UB English Education Program The English classroom is: A community of practice Inquiry-based text-self-world Multimodal Writing, writing and more writing: writing for self, writing for real audiences and a variety of purposes.

Student Teaching Two placements- both traditional English classrooms English in these classrooms: Reading, filling out study guides and taking reading quizzes. Vocabulary quizzes Writing = practice Regents essays Little discussion. Usually discussion was “graded” if it happened at all. “I don’t have time to do that sort of stuff” “These kids can’t handle it”

The Problem Total Disconnect: this was not the English classroom I was learning about in my teacher education program. What I saw was not inspiring. Half-way through program and had yet to see the kind of teaching we were talking about. What would this mean for me in my first job?

Research Course Looking to see how an English classroom can be a community of practice/affinity space.

The Classroom as a Community of Practice Gustavson: “Instead of viewing youth as empty vessels needing to be filled or as being deficient in some way, we need to see youth as complex people with valuable life and work experiences” (p. 131) “...it is our job as teachers to figure out how our students are mathematicians, historians, writers, and scientists in their lives, instead of assuming that they are not or that they need to be taught how to be” (p. 138) Pastore-Capuana addressed the group as “intellectuals” at least one time every class that I observed, and on an average of 3 times per class.

“Well, you know how in some classes you just take notes? Well in here, we’re always doing something” -Brian they discuss they write they hang out they blog they make videos they share they watch they read The Classroom as a Community of Practice Gee “In an affinity space knowledge is often distributed across people, tools, and technologies, not held in any one person or thing, and dispersed: that is people in the space, using modern information and communication technologies, can draw on knowledge in sites outside the space itself” (p. 86)

The Classroom as a Community of Practice Evidence of literary/English learning: literary terms to describe scenes in iPoems students described close reading required to produce an iPoem In students’ blog posts, they were often reading against texts, demonstrating critical literacy. Learning as identity formation/Learning that is personally meaningful Wenger: a community of practice offers the kind of learning “that engages one’s identity on a meaningful trajectory” (Wenger, 1998, p.270)

Reflection When given the opportunity, our students will surprise and impress us. Learning is social Teacher as the more experienced other. Collegial environment as community of practice is part of this process.

Reference List Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: a critique of traditional schooling. New York: Routledge. Gustavson, L. (2007). Youth learning on their own terms: creative practices and classroom teaching. New York: Routledge. Sullivan, A. (2008, November). Why I Blog. The Atlantic. Retrieved November 22, 2010, from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/why-i-blog/7060/1/ Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wenger, E. (1998).Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.