Amanda Gorman

According to the slant rope theory found in Weinstein’s book Secondary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice, “if we set a rope across a room at four feet, some kids can get over it and some can’t. But if we slant the rope, then everyone can find their way over at some point” (176). It is with this theory that I base my teacher identity, and it is through this theory that will guide me towards running a successful and effective classroom environment. I have always known that each of my future students will differ greatly. What I did not realize however, is the intertwined relationship between the differences among my future students, and educational theories, classroom practices, school policy, motivational strategies, and literacy issues in the classroom. All of these “principles of the classroom” will be altered, mended, added to, changed, and constantly revised depending on which student I am working with. Here in lies the difficulties of teaching. Is it possible for a teacher to take his/her 50 minutes in a classroom, and individually create 26 lesson plans, motivate the unmotivated, apply 26 different teaching strategies, apply material to 26 different student’s interests, teach the state mandated curriculum, and still have time to ensure quality learning? It seems exhausting just thinking about it. While the reality of “teaching to 26 personalities” may be unrealistic, I believe the answer to the question stated above lies in the difference between a good teacher and an effective teacher. A good teacher is going to understand that a “rope” (which could be a set of skills/knowledge/particular homework assignments/certain strengths/goals/teaching practices etc) exists. He/she may even understand that not everyone is going to be able to go over this “rope” with the same amount of effort, motivation, or learning strategy. A good teacher may even provide (from time to time) some extra assistance to those who need some extra help crossing the rope. However, what a good teacher does not realize is that the “rope” is able to move. Thus, an effective teacher will understand the “rope’s” ability to move, and the importance of “slanting” this “rope.” It is through the slanting of the “rope,” or in other words, altering homework assignments, goals, lesson plans etc. that will maximize student success. The effective teacher’s ability to “slant this rope” is equal to the awareness and recognition that every student can learn, achieve success, and become motivated if we as teachers are able to “slant” our teaching strategies towards each student’s different backgrounds both inside and outside of the classroom.

What will I know about my student’s background in literacy? I will know that each one of my students will have a different background in literacy and every student will define literacy differently. In Tozer’s article, Liberty and literacy today: Contemporary perspectives, four types of literacy are discussed. Many of my students may be used to the “conventional” definition of literacy or the simplest definition, “the ability to read and write” (244).  This is not the kind of literacy I want to foster in my classroom. For example, as a future Spanish teacher, if my students are able to read Spanish words on flashcards, this gives me no information about whether or not they understand the word. Sure, they may be able to read it and pronounce it correctly but do they know its significance? Also, even if they do know what it means, can they use it in a sentence? Do they know how it fits into every day dialogue? This is where Tozer’s “functional literacy” definition sets in. Tozer explains that functional literacy means understanding the meaning of words and how the words make sense and work in society (252). I want to foster this kind of literacy in my classroom because I want to make sure that my students understand their new vocabulary words—not just as isolated pieces of information, but rather how they relate to the Spanish language and conversations. I also want to foster cultural literacy in my classroom. Tozer explains that “language cannot be detangled from cultural knowledge” (255). All of my students are going to come from different family backgrounds; they have been exposed to different literature, different cultures, and different experiences. Thus, if I show my students a word such as “sobremesa” which is the word for families gathering around the table in the afternoon socializing together and eating together in the middle of the work day, many students may be confused by this because this is not a common practice in the United States. Therefore, even if the student could pronounce the word, I feel they would be very confused about the meaning and function of the word. That is why it is so important to include aspects of my student’s cultural backgrounds in the literacy of my classroom. I think a good question to ask my students would be what their social practices are with their family, free time, and eating practices. What do they do the same or different than Spanish speaking families.

In Tozer’s article, Hirsh presents a list of words (257) that every student should know in order to be “culturally literate.” I do not believe that I need to teach my students each and every item on Hirsch’s list in order for them to be culturally literate. In fact, I believe that Hirsch’s list puts a great emphasis on rote memorization of facts with no ties to the relevance of the words/concepts. As a future teacher I feel that literacy should go beyond just knowing how to read and write, and I believe that people should be able to function at more than a “minimum level” as the conventional literacy definition seems to value. I believe in connecting words, concepts, and readings with real life experiences and real life cultural background from the student’s life. As part of building my teacher identity, I know how important it is to connect new vocabulary (or “slant the rope”) towards the culture and language elements that the students are familiar with. If I only emphasize memorizing and re-writing new words to build student’s vocabulary, they may understand the basic pronunciation and spelling of Spanish vocabulary but the words will have no meaning because I did not provide meaning to attach to them. I hope to give my future students the background knowledge they may lack about Spanish culture, traditions, social contexts of languages, and the similarities between English and Spanish. In fact, I could create an entire weeks worth of lesson plans out of just vocabulary words building on each type of literacy. Monday could be an introduction to new food vocabulary words: this would foster a “conventional/functional” type of literacy. Students would become familiar with the sounds of the words and basic meaning. Mini-class discussion would show how different food words are used in different social contexts (home, restaurant, cooking friends etc) hence the functional aspect. Questions related to favorite types of food and restaurants would apply to the student’s interests, and show how the isolated vocabulary words are used in real conversation. Tuesday could be a “dialogue day” again fostering functional literacy. The kids could create restaurant dialogues and practice using their new vocabulary in real situations. Communicating ideas in large groups fosters the idea of critical literacy—working together and discussing different perspectives, questioning why some dialogues work in some contexts and not others, along with differences between American and Hispanic dialogue. Wednesday could be PODCAST presentations of the dialogue. Students could comment on each other’s blogs to give peer-to-peer feedback. This days lesson plans employs new technological literacies such as those that Lankshear speaks to in his article New Literacies. On Thursday we could watch a movie in Spanish that talks about the roles that food plays in Spanish culture (ie: the fact that lunch is the main meal and everyone in the family takes off work to eat together). Students hear native speakers talking about “food culture” in different contexts, and they learn how their new vocabulary words integrate into real world situations. Friday would be the day to foster cultural literacy where students could bring in the types of food they cook/eat at home or with their friends. Students could make poster boards and present mini-presentations about their culture and the roles that food plays in their social lives. Thus, my class will have learned their new vocabulary, they will understand its context within the Spanish world, and they will understand how these seemingly isolated vocabulary words have real-world meaning in both the Hispanic world and their own lives.  With this method, it is my hope, that my students will be literate in more than just reading and writing memorized words in Spanish, instead, they will have a genuine understanding of the Spanish language, they will understand the history of Spanish tradition, and they will be able to appreciate the commonalties between their own culture and Hispanic culture.

I would hope that creating lesson plans like I described above, is a good example of how to “slant the rope.” By employing different strategies, and making each day tailored to different student’s needs (ie: visual components, audio components, tech components, real-life connections etc), I feel that student’s motivation will increase. However, I have learned that motivation is always a tricky and often complicated issue. It is with motivation where I think the rope metaphor really comes into play. Each student is going to require different strategies of motivation. One motivation strategy is not going to work for all of my students. In fact, the same strategy that works one day for one student, may not work the next day for that same student. As a part of my future teacher identity, I know that motivation is important.  Before I even read many of Brophy’s motivation articles, I knew that motivation was important because of my past classroom experiences. So the question remains—how will I motivate my students?

We have learned several strategies about how to motivate students, and while I agree with many of them, the one that I feel I will use the least would be dwelling on the differences between Learning Goals and Performance goals. According to Brophy’s article Supporting Students’ Confidence as Learners, “even when students have comparable ability levels, they still perform differently [and thus] students tend to set learning goals or performance goals” (60.) The article also says that it is important for teachers to encourage learning goals; we should encourage our students to learn something new and master the task. Students who set these types of learning goals feel that they can improve their abilities and they adopt a mastery orientation. I think that encouraging these types of strategies might work in theory, but I feel that most of my future high school students are going to be performance goal oriented. Most students today are most concerned about “gaining a favorable judgment” for their work, rather than learning for meaning, or mastery. Many students are, as the article coins, “entity theorists” or in other words, they feel that their ability is unchangeable (60). Of course I will do my best to promote learning goals, but I think that so many students today are performance goal oriented because of the standards that we set in school. All students hear about is that they have to test well on the MEAP, the ACT, and even every semester report cards. There is so much pressure to get good grades to get into college, I feel that students often lose track of the purpose of learning. Students cram and study for a test to obtain a certain grade, and very rarely retain the information. Unfortunately, until our public school systems stop focusing so much on performance, I feel performance goal oriented students are here to stay. However, I can help to change a student’s learning goals into performance goals through feedback.

A part of my teacher identity is building a “repertoire of feedback.” I feel that feedback from a teacher can make or break a student’s motivation in the classroom. Tailoring the types of feedback I will give out to my students, is yet another example of “slanting the rope” to improve my student’s chances for success. I have learned the importance of feedback through my school experience and I plan to motivate my students through feedback by looking at my past experiences and revising the kind of feedback I received. The worst teacher I have ever had gave me no feedback whatsoever, whether I did well or not, I never got any comment from him. This showed me that there was no reward or relationship between my hard work and my outcome. I studied so hard yet did poorly on the tests, because the teacher never told me what I had to work on. Therefore, as Brophy would say, my expectation for success decreased because the teacher provided very little opportunities to succeed (qtd. in Weinstein, 176).  Another teacher of mine always gave me positive feedback, it did not matter whether I did the work right or wrong, and she always gave me complements on my work. At first, I loved the complements and was proud that I was doing so well in her class. However, when we were given a standardized test, I did horribly because I was never told what my weaknesses were and what I needed to work on. I know that this teacher was not ill-intentioned, she was just trying to protect my self-esteem, which according to Brophy’s article, is quite common for most teachers (Supporting Students, 71). By doing this though, she was setting me up for failure. Through these experiences, as well as what I learned in class, I realized the types of feedback I want to give to my students. I always want to tell my students something positive about his/her work, and I want to give detailed feedback about my student’s weaknesses. I think feedback is extremely important in motivation because students know they are being evaluated and monitored and thus they are more likely to put in the effort. Brophy brings up a great theory that I will always think about when giving feedback; students do not want ONLY positive feedback, they want informative feedback, not just saying they did a good job but detailing their strengths and weaknesses (Supporting Students, 73).

I think another important aspect of feedback is dealing with failure among students. Students who consistently succeed need motivation as well, but students who deal with failure on a regular basis(failure syndrome students or low achieving students) have a special need for specific feedback—once again an instance where “slanting the rope” comes in handy. In dealing with these types of students, I want to be sure to relate their struggling to lack of effective strategies, NOT lack of ability. I want to always convey the fact that I have confidence in my students, and that I know they have the ability within themselves. I will “slant that rope” and teach them new strategies to help them overcome their struggles. If flashcards are not working for them, I will try extra worksheets. I will give alternative assignments and I will always be willing to give after school help. With new strategies I can help link effort with successful outcome as suggested in Brophy’s article Rebuilding Student’s Confidence (126). I also will take one of Brophy’s suggestions about focusing on a student’s accomplishments (Supporting Students, 76).  I feel teachers should focus on accomplishments first, and then give them detailed information about the areas they can work on. Part of my teacher identity is to reward students for accomplishments. I know that most literature is very cautious about the types of rewards we should give students, especially external awards. However, I know that even a simple sticker (yes even in high school) on a test that I scored well on made a world of difference. Our whole class would have competitions to see how many stickers we could collect, and that was motivation for all of us. It held me accountable for my work, and it showed me that the teacher really cared about my progress. Positive verbal praise and stickers will always be a staple in my classroom, and every now and then a little sugar (in the form of candy bars or suckers) is a great extrinsic reward after accomplishing a less than pleasing task (Weinstein, 191).  As much as I can, I will try to keep the feedback positive, so students will have the confidence to accomplish tasks and they will be motivated to continue to succeed.

The last strategy I have in helping to understand and increase the motivation within my students is to support my student’s confidence and show them that learning is meaningful and has value. How can a student be motivated if he/she lacks confidence? It’s impossible. I hope to teach self-reinforcement—many students, including myself, needed encouragement to take credit for their own success. I will take Brophy’s suggestion of comparing a student’s work from the beginning of the semester with work from the end of the semester which will show the student his/her own improvement without comparing it to any other classmates’ progress (Supporting Students, 77). I feel that this boosts confidence and has positive effects on a student’s motivation. Going back to the fact that I will be dealing with all types of students, when dealing with “perfectionist” students, I feel that I will emphasize that learning takes time and it’s OKAY to make mistakes. Once a student understands that the teacher acknowledges that mistakes are OKAY, it is possible that that student will be more confident in their work and realize that everything doesn’t have to be perfect (Supporting Students, 76). It doesn’t always work, and it didn’t work for me, I am still a perfectionist to this day. However, as my English teacher taught me, I should not compare myself to other students; I should only compare myself to myself. I important to emphasize this among my future “perfectionist” students. For my future uninterested students– they know what they are supposed to do, and they are certainly capable of doing it, but they choose not/are not motivated to because they believe their efforts have no value or meaning (Rebuilding Students, 120). Here is another example of where I would be able to “slant the rope” to help these types of students succeed in my classroom. Often, uninterested students need extra individualized tutoring and attention, but classroom time does not allow for this. That is why I think that in this situation I would employ a contract with the student, as Brophy suggests in his article Socializing Uninterested or Alienated Students. It is essential to get the student’s input (308). I know that when I become a teacher, and I am in this situation, I will ask my student outside of class what he/she feels can be reasonably accomplished. Maybe the goals need to be small, such as taking 20 minutes each day to study or making sure that their folders are organized at the end of each week. A good type of extrinsic motivation would be to display the student’s work for other classmates to see which enforces to the student that he/she did such a great job that you feel their peers will benefit from seeing his/her work, thus giving the uninterested student more confidence and showing that their work has value.

I believe that a big part of my teacher identity is going to be getting to know my students as actual people, learning about their personalities, and their interests. In doing so, I hope to “slant the rope” towards my students individual needs and create authentic, meaningful activities. As Brophy says “you can be your own most valuable motivational tool by building close relationships with students and establishing yourself as a supportive and helpful resource person” (Socializing Students., 311).  I feel that the rapport that I build with my students is more important than any other strategy. If students are not able to trust me as their teacher it will not matter what types of motivation or assignments that I offer.  It is important for me to get to know all of my students on a personal level both inside and outside of the classroom. I feel it is important to be a teacher, counselor, and a trustworthy adult. I feel these characteristics will make me a more effective teacher because it communicates to my students that I care about them personally, and they care about their interests. This would show that I had a genuine interest in their academic success, as well as their social lives, which is so important to high school students.

I also think it is important to understand student’s values and interests because it will help me to create activities that have meaning to the student. Maybe one of my students doesn’t value reading Spanish literature, but if I knew that the student loved sports/music and I could find a sports/music article in Spanish, I feel that the student would see more value in the latter. How do I find out why my students like and don’t like? I think that I would (and teachers should) ask students directly what they like and what they don’t like. For example, if a student of mine doesn’t like writing reports, maybe instead of a report for this assignment, I could have the student make a project that had the same goals and theme as a report would have. It may not be what the rest of the class is doing, but it will give them another CHOICE while still using academic skills in a different form. I feel that “connections” are key to show interested students that their work has value. If I am able to show students the links between the school curriculum and their own personal goals and interests, students will start to realize that their work and learning does relate to their lives, instead of thinking that the material they learn in school is just busy work.

Once students see the connection between school and their real life, then critical thinking can occur if the environment is right. I want my students to be able to critically think, be advocates for change, and take action for or against what they have read and reflected on. In education today there is such a great emphasis on making sure that students are “masters” of their subject area, and masters of basic facts etc—teachers often rely on rote memorization, multiple choice answers, and vocabulary flashcards for teaching strategies. While these may be producing more successful MEAP scores, are they producing more successful students and future adults? According to the article, Critical thinking and critical pedagogy: Relations, differences and limits by Burbules and Burk “for critical thinking, it is not enough to know how to seek reasons, truth, and understanding, one must also be impassioned to pursue them rigorously. For critical pedagogy, that one can critically reflect and interpret the world is not sufficient; one also must be wiling and able to act to change that world (51).” I want to ensure that I do not get so caught up in “teaching towards the MEAP” that leave no time for reflection and criticism of what my student’s are reading and learning about. I think promoting critical thinking, especially as a future foreign language teacher, is important because it teaches kids to see different cultures, and consider different perspectives and beliefs. As an educator, I feel it is my responsibility to help break into (notice, not BREAK DOWN) the walls of my student’s belief system in order to help my students question the world around them.

As fair and democratic as I would like my teaching identity to be, my tutoring experience has taught me that while this mindset will serve me well in keeping high expectations, molding my lesson plans to the backgrounds and interests of my individual students, as well as understanding that every child has the ability to learn—often this idealistic reality is shattered once we get into the classroom. In an ideal world I would like to see our schools with equal funding, less difference between urban and suburban districts, states creating curriculums less focused on performing well on standardized tests, extended time in the classroom to explore all student’s interests, more creativity within the classroom, equal access to education for ALL students, more funding to hire specialist teachers etc. However, with different political agendas and educational goals throughout the country, this “democratic” reality is just not realistic.  Weinstein’s Managing Classroom Time proves that it is just not feasible for a teacher to make 26 different lesson plans particularly designed for each student. While I feel that lesson plans should be tailored to fit our student’s interests and the lesson plans should be engaging—still, sometimes despite the teacher’s best effort, extra attention, engaging activities, new motivational strategies, and superb curriculum students may still fall behind and be unmotivated. There will always be lessons plans that aren’t going to work for some students. I think that part of my development of a teaching identity is a learning process—figuring out what works and what does not. I will not be able to help every student, every day, every minute and some of my students will always have clear advantages over others.

While education will always have seemingly unfair politics and unequal opportunities, what I have learned is that when I become a teacher, I need to keep a positive attitude and continually hold high expectations even for the most unmotivated, frustrating students. I need to keep in mind that all students will not react or learn the same in the same way to the lesson plans I present. All of my students are going to come to me with different knowledge backgrounds. I think a great way to start the semester is to give students a general pre-test filled with basic questions about their interests as well as the subject matter, just so I can get an idea of where my students are at academically and socially. If I can get a type of common “knowledge base” among my students, I will be much more effective in creating lessons plans within their zone of proximal development and lesson plans that incorporate their interests. While I may not have a lot of time in the classroom, what is most important is using the time I have to best benefit the student’s overall success. I have realized that every student has a story, and I will continue to “slant my rope” towards each student’s specific strengths and weaknesses, challenges and successes. It is my hope that with while each of my student’s stories will present challenges, I also know each story will eventually become a vastly rewarding experience.

WORKS CITED

Brophy, J. (2004). Rebuilding discouraged students’ confidence and willingness to learn. In Motivating students to learn (2nd ed., pp. 119-150). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brophy, J. (2004). Socializing uninterested or alienated students. In Motivating students to learn (2nd ed., pp. 307-334). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brophy, J. (2004). Supporting students’ confidence as learners. In Motivating students to learn (2nd ed., pp. 55-86). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Burbules, N. C., & Berk, R. (1999). Critical thinking and critical pedagogy: Relations, differences and limits. In T. S. Popkewitz, T. S., & L. Fendler (Eds.) Critical theories in education: Changing terrains of knowledge and politics (pp. 45-65). New York: Routledge.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2003). The ‘New literacy studies’ and the study of new literacies. In New literacies (pp. 23-49). New York: Open University Press.

Tozer, S. E., & Willis, A. I. (1995). Liberty and literacy today: Contemporary perspectives. In S. E. Tozer, P. C. Violas & G. B. Senese (Eds.), School and society: Historical and contemporary perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 247-264). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Weinstein, C. S. (1996/2003). Excerpt from Enhancing Student Motivation. In Secondary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (2nd ed., pp. 174-176). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Weinstein, C. S. (2003). Making the most of classroom time. In Secondary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (2nd ed., pp. 142-170). Boston: McGraw-Hill.