Reading Notes

Atwell - Peterson (January 12)

I think that Nancie Atwell’s story had a very powerful message about the ways her teaching practices evolved with experience through her long career as an English teacher. She describes her earlier practices as a teacher and how from the advice of others, with practice and experience, she learned some important lessons. Nancie explains how it was once she started learning together with her students and conducting research that her practices specifically in teaching writing, became much more effective. Nancie explains the importance of changing her focus within the classroom and observing her students. I think that observations of your own teaching and that of others are vital in to the role of an educator. A teacher should always be reflecting on their practices and searching for ways to improve themselves. Furthermore, observing other teachers would allow teachers to acquire more diverse practices as a result of being exposed to new and different ideas. Nancie took on the challenges of the students in her classes and treated the classroom as a workshop where students’ skills would develop and improve. She acknowledges how any revolution in education poses limitations. I believe that these limitations can be overcome by making the individual group of students’ needs the focus and the priority. Questioning the students and ourselves will lead to insightful conclusions and most likely bring about positive change. Nancie describes the handover phase, which seems synonymous with the scaffolding we often discuss. I think that the idea of guiding students towards an outcome, where the teacher acts as a facilitator of learning is a more appropriate model of teaching than the more traditional models. Nancie acts as a model and a mentor for her students, which created a positive learning environment, one that I hope to create in my future classrooms.