Ms. V feeding a fish to a seal in Depoe Bay, Oregon.
Hello!
My name is Audrey von Maluski. I am a graduate student in Western Oregon University's MAT program. My content areas are English Language Arts, History, and English for Speakers of Other Languages. I am currently a student teacher, but am working on this web page in preparation for the day when I have my own classroom in a middle or high school.
My Philosophy of Education
My teaching philosophy is simple:
When possible, I plan my units and daily lessons around essential questions. I pre-teach methods of posing and engaging with essential questions, inspired by Burke’s (2010) What’s the Big Idea? In tandem with my reliance on open-ended questions, I am conscious of providing wait time for students (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock, 2001). Often, I ask students to pre-write their responses to the essential questions posed at the beginning of my lessons because the practice improves the quality of class discussions and results in more higher order thinking (Lemov, 2010).
I also make my expectations clear at the beginning of each lesson. I do not rely heavily on PowerPoint, but I do create a slide each day that displays my objectives in student-friendly language. It is extremely important to draw students’ attention to what they must achieve each day, especially because they move from room to room on an hourly basis and can easily lose focus. I also rely heavily on detailed rubrics to guide my grading. Over the course of a unit, I engage students in self- and peer assessment using the language of the rubric because I want to be sure that they understand the rubric and its role in assessment. This is especially useful for ELLs because it builds their ability to engage in academic discourse (Delpit, 1992).
I integrate multimedia content into lessons whenever it can increase student outcomes. Research shows that using technology, from word processing to multimedia content, improves outcomes for ELLs (Educational Alliance, 2005). In history classes, I usually begin the day with a relevant news clip or image and ask students to make connections between current events and the history they are studying. Poetry, music, images, podcasts, TEDTalks, and videos have all made their way into my English lessons as a way of reframing students’ understanding of often complex and abstract material. I strongly believe that for students to be fluent in the content I teach, they must be able to engage not only with the literary canon and historical facts, but also with the modern applications of that knowledge.
I use performance-based assessments in lieu of traditional tests whenever possible. Performance-based assessments allow me to assess not only students’ content knowledge but also their strengths in other areas that cannot be measured by multiple-choice tests, such as speaking, dramatic performance, computer skills, and so on. Students are more engaged when they are asked to complete authentic tasks with real-world applications and that draw on their funds of knowledge (Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N., 1992). Performance-based assessments also draw on students’ varied learning styles and diverse backgrounds, which allows a larger swathe of the student population to demonstrate mastery. I prefer performance-based assessments because they assess the Web 2.0 and technology skills delineated in the Common Core State Standards. Finally, performance-based assessments can seamlessly be extended or modified to meet the needs of ELLs, TAG students, and students required accommodations.
I am a strong adherent to the gradual release of responsibility model, especially with regard to integrating literacy into lessons (Vygotsky, 1978). Whenever I ask students to complete a literacy task, whether highlighting an article or composing an essay, I not only provide exemplars, but also model the task myself. Next, we perform the task as a class, often with graphic organizers as a support. Only then do I release students for independent work. I believe strongly that any student can engage in academic discourse, but they must have that process scaffolded for them first.
My Management Strategy
When possible, I meet students at the door and interact with them informally before class begins. I strongly believe that I need to be aware of my students’ lives and experiences from day to day so that I can better assess their affective behaviors in class. These interactions help me to form groups for conversation, choose warm-up activities, and decide how I will address behavior and academic issues throughout the day.
During class, I move around the room almost constantly. I use “Sticks of Justice,”a class set of popsicle sticks with each student’s name written on them, to randomly call on students and promote engagement with instruction. I post my objectives and agenda at the beginning of the day and refer to it as we move through the material. On most days, I begin with a warm-up that either refers to content discussed the day before or introduces a new idea with a multimedia resource.
I have found that by acknowledging my own quirks, strengths, and weaknesses, students were more apt to listen to me when I needed them to do so. This approach is supported by Marzano (2003), who advocates for prioritizing student-teacher relationships as a method of classroom management. I also find that self-evaluation of my own practice is more effective than punishing students in many situations. When I am baffled by students’ misbehavior, some in-the-moment reflection often grants me enough insight to understand that differences between us are often the cause of the problem. When students and teachers collide, whether through misbehavior or differing expectations, teachers must understand that a huge part of that disconnect stems from culture. In the classroom, culture can be anything from gender to age group to ethnicity to language spoken. To manage challenges, I try to first reflect upon why the class is going off the rails; usually, it’s my inability to recognize that my interpretation of the way the class should be progressing differs greatly from that of my students.
Thus far, proximity to students has been my greatest ally—both because students tend to settle down when I am nearby and because when I am aligned with them, I can see the distractions and the issues from their point of view. I have not yet had to send a student out of the classroom for behavior problems, but if a student were interfering with the learning of other students, I would make the decision to remove them to a less distracting location.
My name is Audrey von Maluski. I am a graduate student in Western Oregon University's MAT program. My content areas are English Language Arts, History, and English for Speakers of Other Languages. I am currently a student teacher, but am working on this web page in preparation for the day when I have my own classroom in a middle or high school.
My Philosophy of Education
My teaching philosophy is simple:
- I believe in equity of access for all students.
- I believe that all students can find success and fulfillment in life, and I am dedicated to helping students navigate the unique roads that will take them there.
- I believe that compassion, high expectations and essential questions can motivate even the most reluctant learner.
- I refuse to accept the narrative that some students are destined to fail or to fall through the cracks by some fault of their race, gender, language proficiency, disability status, or socioeconomic status.
- Finally, although I have benefitted greatly from the education system in the United States, I also recognize that it has weaknesses and has failed many over the years. As a teacher, I am dedicated to advocating for my students and their communities, as well as questioning practices and seeking to improve the structures already in place.
When possible, I plan my units and daily lessons around essential questions. I pre-teach methods of posing and engaging with essential questions, inspired by Burke’s (2010) What’s the Big Idea? In tandem with my reliance on open-ended questions, I am conscious of providing wait time for students (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock, 2001). Often, I ask students to pre-write their responses to the essential questions posed at the beginning of my lessons because the practice improves the quality of class discussions and results in more higher order thinking (Lemov, 2010).
I also make my expectations clear at the beginning of each lesson. I do not rely heavily on PowerPoint, but I do create a slide each day that displays my objectives in student-friendly language. It is extremely important to draw students’ attention to what they must achieve each day, especially because they move from room to room on an hourly basis and can easily lose focus. I also rely heavily on detailed rubrics to guide my grading. Over the course of a unit, I engage students in self- and peer assessment using the language of the rubric because I want to be sure that they understand the rubric and its role in assessment. This is especially useful for ELLs because it builds their ability to engage in academic discourse (Delpit, 1992).
I integrate multimedia content into lessons whenever it can increase student outcomes. Research shows that using technology, from word processing to multimedia content, improves outcomes for ELLs (Educational Alliance, 2005). In history classes, I usually begin the day with a relevant news clip or image and ask students to make connections between current events and the history they are studying. Poetry, music, images, podcasts, TEDTalks, and videos have all made their way into my English lessons as a way of reframing students’ understanding of often complex and abstract material. I strongly believe that for students to be fluent in the content I teach, they must be able to engage not only with the literary canon and historical facts, but also with the modern applications of that knowledge.
I use performance-based assessments in lieu of traditional tests whenever possible. Performance-based assessments allow me to assess not only students’ content knowledge but also their strengths in other areas that cannot be measured by multiple-choice tests, such as speaking, dramatic performance, computer skills, and so on. Students are more engaged when they are asked to complete authentic tasks with real-world applications and that draw on their funds of knowledge (Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N., 1992). Performance-based assessments also draw on students’ varied learning styles and diverse backgrounds, which allows a larger swathe of the student population to demonstrate mastery. I prefer performance-based assessments because they assess the Web 2.0 and technology skills delineated in the Common Core State Standards. Finally, performance-based assessments can seamlessly be extended or modified to meet the needs of ELLs, TAG students, and students required accommodations.
I am a strong adherent to the gradual release of responsibility model, especially with regard to integrating literacy into lessons (Vygotsky, 1978). Whenever I ask students to complete a literacy task, whether highlighting an article or composing an essay, I not only provide exemplars, but also model the task myself. Next, we perform the task as a class, often with graphic organizers as a support. Only then do I release students for independent work. I believe strongly that any student can engage in academic discourse, but they must have that process scaffolded for them first.
My Management Strategy
When possible, I meet students at the door and interact with them informally before class begins. I strongly believe that I need to be aware of my students’ lives and experiences from day to day so that I can better assess their affective behaviors in class. These interactions help me to form groups for conversation, choose warm-up activities, and decide how I will address behavior and academic issues throughout the day.
During class, I move around the room almost constantly. I use “Sticks of Justice,”a class set of popsicle sticks with each student’s name written on them, to randomly call on students and promote engagement with instruction. I post my objectives and agenda at the beginning of the day and refer to it as we move through the material. On most days, I begin with a warm-up that either refers to content discussed the day before or introduces a new idea with a multimedia resource.
I have found that by acknowledging my own quirks, strengths, and weaknesses, students were more apt to listen to me when I needed them to do so. This approach is supported by Marzano (2003), who advocates for prioritizing student-teacher relationships as a method of classroom management. I also find that self-evaluation of my own practice is more effective than punishing students in many situations. When I am baffled by students’ misbehavior, some in-the-moment reflection often grants me enough insight to understand that differences between us are often the cause of the problem. When students and teachers collide, whether through misbehavior or differing expectations, teachers must understand that a huge part of that disconnect stems from culture. In the classroom, culture can be anything from gender to age group to ethnicity to language spoken. To manage challenges, I try to first reflect upon why the class is going off the rails; usually, it’s my inability to recognize that my interpretation of the way the class should be progressing differs greatly from that of my students.
Thus far, proximity to students has been my greatest ally—both because students tend to settle down when I am nearby and because when I am aligned with them, I can see the distractions and the issues from their point of view. I have not yet had to send a student out of the classroom for behavior problems, but if a student were interfering with the learning of other students, I would make the decision to remove them to a less distracting location.
Works Cited:
Burke, J. (2010). What’s the Big Idea? Question-driven units to motivate reading, writing, and thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Delpit, L. D. (1992). Acquisition of Literate Discourse: Bowing Before the Master? Theory into Practice, (31) 4, pp. 296-302.
Educational Alliance. (2005). Approaches to Writing Instruction for Adolescent English Language Leaners. Providence, RI: Brown University.
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion: 49 techniques that put students on the path to college. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Marzano, R.J., & Marzano, C.J. (2003). The key to classroom management. Educational Leadership (61), pp. 6-13.
Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D.J., and Pollock, J.E. (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge of teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, (31) 2, pp. 132-141.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. In Mind and Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 79-91.
Burke, J. (2010). What’s the Big Idea? Question-driven units to motivate reading, writing, and thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Delpit, L. D. (1992). Acquisition of Literate Discourse: Bowing Before the Master? Theory into Practice, (31) 4, pp. 296-302.
Educational Alliance. (2005). Approaches to Writing Instruction for Adolescent English Language Leaners. Providence, RI: Brown University.
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion: 49 techniques that put students on the path to college. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Marzano, R.J., & Marzano, C.J. (2003). The key to classroom management. Educational Leadership (61), pp. 6-13.
Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D.J., and Pollock, J.E. (2001). Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge of teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, (31) 2, pp. 132-141.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. In Mind and Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 79-91.
