The Importance of Teaching Students Where They Are At

As I approach the end of my last week in Denver, I have been reflecting on who I was before, during, and at the close of this crucial teaching experience. By far, my biggest takeaway has been realizing just how vital it is for teachers to understand the actual students present in their actual classrooms each and every day and to base instruction, management, and assessment on their respective abilities, interests, strengths, and weaknesses.

Before working at Generation Teach, I thought I understood students and especially middle-school and secondary learners. After taking several courses on child development and methods of the English classroom, I was certain that I was prepared to apply instruction to their specific developmental needs and skills.

As with my assumptions about management and assessment, I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Though I taught 8th grade reading, my coach and I believe that many of my learners were below grade-level in literacy, while others, still, were severely below their target reading level. During my first week, I realized that my coach and I had to modify and differentiate my instruction to meet these students where they were at in terms of reading ability and mental processing. Regretfully, skills of synthesis and evaluation had to give way to comprehension and scaffolded analysis, both of which are lower-level processes within Bloom's Taxonomy. Though I wished I could have maintained our curriculum as it was and avoid a need for such changes, the correctness of my coach's advice became evident almost immediately upon implementation. Students who were apathetic and tired—or so I thought—became energized and active participants, many on a daily basis, because Ms. Karena and I gave them strategies to learn content and learn skills they for which were developmentally prepared.

Thus, the problem was not my students' realities, but, rather, my preconceived notions and uninformed instruction. Curriculum can have the very best of intentions, but if it does not authentically fit the young eyes staring up at you as you greet them each morning and assign bell ringers and exit tickets, then you have failed before you even began your lesson. Moreover, as much as I thought I purged all internalized stereotypes about my students, I didn't realize that assuming all, or even half, of my students are at or near grade-level ability without proof yea or nay, can be just as deadly as maintaining negative notions about learners. Either way, making decisions without knowing your students intimately is as foolish and risky as sailing to sea without a map, compass, or lighthouse to guide your voyage.

Though I have focused mainly on curriculum and instruction, the same is true for management and assessment. I now understand that ant angelic vision of a successful, problem-free classroom is nothing short of a fiction; you cannot assume students filled to the brim with misplaced energy and a host of household factors to sit in their chair for 45 minutes without a single outburst, unsavory comment, or off-task action. Instead, teachers must learn, and the take to time to genuinely uncover, what good days and bad days consist of for their students and how to encourage the former over the latter for each bright mind in the room. What includes successful, on-task behavior for student x might come across far differently to the uninformed observer. Everything in education comes into focus with greater information.

In terms of assessment, I also had assumptions about what my students' work should look and sound like. Often, though not always, I was shocked at the widespread nature and degree of severe misspelling; horrid handwriting, even by my standards; and off-topic answers. However, I now recognize that if I would have focused the entire summer on where my students should have been in terms of writing, rather than where they were at, then I would have failed to help them grow and could have made them feel insufficient and unintelligent had I been foolish enough to make my frustrations known. Instead, by modifying my expectations to match each student's abilities and focusing more on growth at each's level than from an absolute standard, each students was provided, at least in theory, a fair chance at proving what he or she learned and grow as a reader in particular and a scholar in general.

Teaching, it could be said, is the most human endeavor that any of us can ever have the pleasure of partaking in. In that spirit, teaching must be influenced by all the personalities in the room. Students, no matter how young, are always human beings, complete with autonomy and desires. Thus, to my mind, meeting them where they are intellectually, emotionally, and developmentally is one of the fairest and most meaningful ways of addressing this inherent humanity on a daily basis, and that's exactly what I hope to do in my own practice someday.

The Importance of Teaching Students Where They Are At

As I approach the end of my last week in Denver, I have been reflecting on who I was before, during, and at the close of this crucial teaching experience. By far, my biggest takeaway has been realizing just how vital it is for teachers to understand the actual students present in their actual classrooms each and every day and to base instruction, management, and assessment on their respective abilities, interests, strengths, and weaknesses.

Before working at Generation Teach, I thought I understood students and especially middle-school and secondary learners. After taking several courses on child development and methods of the English classroom, I was certain that I was prepared to apply instruction to their specific developmental needs and skills.

As with my assumptions about management and assessment, I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Though I taught 8th grade reading, my coach and I believe that many of my learners were below grade-level in literacy, while others, still, were severely below their target reading level. During my first week, I realized that my coach and I had to modify and differentiate my instruction to meet these students where they were at in terms of reading ability and mental processing. Regretfully, skills of synthesis and evaluation had to give way to comprehension and scaffolded analysis, both of which are lower-level processes within Bloom's Taxonomy. Though I wished I could have maintained our curriculum as it was and avoid a need for such changes, the correctness of my coach's advice became evident almost immediately upon implementation. Students who were apathetic and tired—or so I thought—became energized and active participants, many on a daily basis, because Ms. Karena and I gave them strategies to learn content and learn skills they for which were developmentally prepared.

Thus, the problem was not my students' realities, but, rather, my preconceived notions and uninformed instruction. Curriculum can have the very best of intentions, but if it does not authentically fit the young eyes staring up at you as you greet them each morning and assign bell ringers and exit tickets, then you have failed before you even began your lesson. Moreover, as much as I thought I purged all internalized stereotypes about my students, I didn't realize that assuming all, or even half, of my students are at or near grade-level ability without proof yea or nay, can be just as deadly as maintaining negative notions about learners. Either way, making decisions without knowing your students intimately is as foolish and risky as sailing to sea without a map, compass, or lighthouse to guide your voyage.

Though I have focused mainly on curriculum and instruction, the same is true for management and assessment. I now understand that ant angelic vision of a successful, problem-free classroom is nothing short of a fiction; you cannot assume students filled to the brim with misplaced energy and a host of household factors to sit in their chair for 45 minutes without a single outburst, unsavory comment, or off-task action. Instead, teachers must learn, and the take to time to genuinely uncover, what good days and bad days consist of for their students and how to encourage the former over the latter for each bright mind in the room. What includes successful, on-task behavior for student x might come across far differently to the uninformed observer. Everything in education comes into focus with greater information.

In terms of assessment, I also had assumptions about what my students' work should look and sound like. Often, though not always, I was shocked at the widespread nature and degree of severe misspelling; horrid handwriting, even by my standards; and off-topic answers. However, I now recognize that if I would have focused the entire summer on where my students should have been in terms of writing, rather than where they were at, then I would have failed to help them grow and could have made them feel insufficient and unintelligent had I been foolish enough to make my frustrations known. Instead, by modifying my expectations to match each student's abilities and focusing more on growth at each's level than from an absolute standard, each students was provided, at least in theory, a fair chance at proving what he or she learned and grow as a reader in particular and a scholar in general.

Teaching, it could be said, is the most human endeavor that any of us can ever have the pleasure of partaking in. In that spirit, teaching must be influenced by all the personalities in the room. Students, no matter how young, are always human beings, complete with autonomy and desires. Thus, to my mind, meeting them where they are intellectually, emotionally, and developmentally is one of the fairest and most meaningful ways of addressing this inherent humanity on a daily basis, and that's exactly what I hope to do in my own practice someday.