Looking From Both Sides
During yesterdays presentation, the presenting group had gotten the class to split up into two groups. One group had to rally for why smoking should be legal and the other rallied why it should not. Then the students were asked to talk to opposing views to try and argue their point. In the follow up I thought something Justin said had rang true for all of teaching. Forgive me because I will be paraphrasing what he said but it went along the lines of, it’s important even if we don’t believe in a certain view to look from that perspective as well. That got me thinking about teaching in general and when it comes to teaching students who are SLL.
I have had teachers in the past who had gotten frustrated with students, be them SLL or english speakers, because they weren’t able to comprehend what was being taught. Luckily the teachers never actually said it but you could see it. The reason why Justin’s comment impacted me was because it made me think “why where the teachers getting frustrated?” and “who were the getting frustrated at?” In a recent post of mine I had said that there have been teachers who seem to have gotten used to a certain style of teaching and have done it for years. Maybe it’s this plateau that some teachers reach that stop them from being effective teachers. The teacher has been stuck in their own way for so long that they believe that the way they are teaching makes sense to everyone.
This is why Inquiry of language is so important in any class environment. As times change, so does the vocabulary and it is up to us as educators to keep up with the ever evolving language. What seems clear to us may not be to a student. Instead of thinking that a student may not be putting in the effort required it is our responsibility to critically think from the students perspective and have the courage to constantly evaluate ourselves. Educating is a two way street and we as teachers must be willing to meet students and make sure that we are speaking the same language.