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Approaching Gender Inquiry as a Pre-service Teacher: From a Methods Course to a Classroom

An Unique Experience In student teaching, I had the opportunity to work with two cooperating teachers who each had entered the profession with lofty goals, had taught for the same number of years, but could not have had a more different experience.

Second Placement Experience Inquiry centered units “A big idea is therefore both central to coherent connections in a field of study and a conceptual anchor for making facts more understandable and useful.” Valuing Student Voice Transferable skills: thinking and writing Text-centered Emphasis on cultural capital (most students are arriving with a school-ready home discourse) Students need to learn to give the “correct” answer for a given situation University at Buffalo Prep Central High School Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. (2 ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

My guide at Prep Central High Often spoke of starting out with all of these great ideas and wanting to change the world, with a broken heart Was not connected to a professional organization or any support network outside of this school community

Mitigating Risk A Prep Central concept of English: There is a correct way to teach, there is set information students need to pull from the novel Bring the book to life via PowerPoint Would let me construct small spaces for inquiry if I could tie it to research and explain my rational, then panicked towards the end “It’s all nice to have the kids saying what they think about the book, but really, [you] need to go back and address the Mockingbird motif.”

“Too often, adults kill the potential for active learning by trying to order the knowledge in some artificial way or by simply removing experience from the learning altogether.” Gustavson, L. (2007). Youth learning on their own terms: Creative practices and classroom teaching. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

If my first student teaching experience had been at Prep Central High School, I would have decided teaching was not for me and quit the program.

Learning by Example Research driven practice: Students should be cycling between their lives, multiple texts, and the larger world Discussion and meaningful writing assignments help students practice and hone the thinking and writing skills to use in any situation Uniquely diverse; both racially and economically Curriculum centered on creating environments where students are considering, connecting and contrasting multiple texts and their own experience of larger concepts. Practice in informed by the same research used in UB program University at Buffalo Cheektowaga Central High School “We show our understanding of something by using it adapting it, and customizing it.” Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. (2 ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Gender Studies: An Evolution 1st Attempt: Started with text resulting in emotional push-back and stymied investigation (development of an echo chamber) Feedback: Support discussion and breaking down a text, aid in implementing transitions and help with planning. 2nd Attempt: Rich investigation: starting with student experience of the topic, discussion, reading Girl, discussion, writing poetry, then analyzing own learning process

A Shared Vision Involved in supporting the planning process; with same overriding goals for students After each class, or as needed, feedback on pragmatic ways to pursue and support student interaction with the larger ideas at the heart of the unit Student Voice, Diverse Texts and Poetry: Critically read and interpret texts Compare and contrast to other texts and social constructs Communicate their thinking in creative and complex ways, while aiming for effectiveness Able to reflect and learn from their own process Support and Guidance Resulting Student Work

As a new teacher: I also have that larger community to draw support from in these important early years of my career. To Kill a Mockingbird becomes: a study in Belonging and Grouping: examining historical exclusion, the way groups function in the school and society, stereotyping, gender studies Poetry is a study in how effective language can be: Reading popular songs from students’ lives, analyzing effectiveness of language, publication Persuasive speeches in public speaking become a study in areas that are meaningful to students and their lives, how to navigate online information, and employ rhetoric for audience-aware communication.