Dr. t. lee
Teaching Methods
The following points summarize some of the teaching methods I used to implement my Teaching Philosophy:
· Introductory activities for every instructional unit and lesson included dual language vocabulary instruction and development; students learned all new words in Georgian and English. During team teaching activities, the Georgian co-teacher translated new concepts and words into Georgian for students with limited English proficiency levels.
· Each lesson/unit incorporated and developed the reading, writing, listening, and speaking language domains.
· In each unit the use of student dialogue and collaboration were included in the learning activities.
· I emphasized the need to provide meaningful and timely teacher feedback; when feedback is consistent, students will begin to consistently do the work.
· Students were not accustomed to engaging in higher order thinking tasks. They struggled with Think-Pair-Share Activities and exercising self-control – it was obvious that classes were used to 1-3 students providing all the correct answers and the rest of the class parroting the answers. I implemented several methods to mediate this including the use of questioning cards with students’ names on them that were used to randomly call on students for responses instead of soliciting students to raise their hands when answering questions; in this manner, students never knew who would be called upon and subsequently they began to listen more actively and participate.
· The rituals and procedures for Scholarly Presentations were introduced to the students in all classes.
· The rituals and procedures for Philosophical Chairs were introduced to the Grade 5a class to encourage critical thinking about the moral issues presented in the traditional tales we read. Philosophical Chairs focuses on teacher questioning of students at higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Costa’s Levels of Questioning.
· Because of the wide variations of English language proficiency levels in classes and unclear methodology used to place students into the English World levels/classes, the co-teachers and I conducted informal assessments of students’ listening, reading, writing, and speaking proficiency levels and accordingly purposefully grouped students when conducting station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching, and pair/partner activities.
· The Steps of the Writing Process were introduced to the students in all classes.
o For all students, the writing process lessons were the first time they had practiced drafting, editing, and revising in either their Georgian or English language classes.
· In the demonstration lessons and throughout our co-teaching experience, I modeled for teachers how to structure and conduct classroom sessions with the maximal use of instructional time; I demonstrated classroom management techniques and showed how teachers should communicate learning objectives and expectations for classroom behavior to students.
o During demonstration lessons, at the lower levels my Georgian co-teachers provided continuous translation; at upper levels, I conducted the majority of the lesson with assistance from Georgian co-teachers teachers.
· I continually modeled wait time and providing supportive and effectively timed corrections to students; these activities help lower the affective filter and increase language acquisition.
· A variety of co-teaching methods were used that were dependent upon each co-teacher’s preferences and comfort levels – teacher openness to co-teaching processes varies.