Raise or Raze?

First of all, I found this community college’s philosophy statement really impressive! It actually got me really excited to read through it and imagine that soon I will be able to be doing these same sorts of things! Right away, they stress the importance of integrating reading, writing, and CT.  I want to be able to focus on these as well in whatever position I take. I also love how they stress differentiation in the second paragraph – this is something that I have mentioned many times because I feel that it is really important.  It is something that I want to be doing in my own practice. I love how they emphasize “creation of meaning that resonates beyond the classroom.” And the fact that the emphasis is explained by the reciprocality (is that even a word?) between teacher and student and how each focus area will be connected to their “lived experience” is really important. I, too, want to be able to do this.

The active reading style is something important that i wish to incorporate into my teaching practice. I love how 3 areas of reading focus are outlined: guiding students in understanding, method, and comprehending the author’s purpose. Given that we are focusing a lot on integrating reading and writing not to mention where the students will use these reading strategies: diverse academic settings.

Bring a text to life – what a great way to show the importance of the reader’s role and the constructive relationship of reader, text, and author. I really like how they emphasize the student’s diverse cultures and histories and how it is our job as teachers to open up the world to our students through the readings we assign – incorporating aspects of student empowerment is something that I find important.

Teaching Writing: I love how they explain that the student writing is focused on “arguments,” and then they focus on what good writing, reading, and CT are – once again – but from a writing perspective. Current theories and pedagogies are being used throughout: Points and methods of the writing process are important to me (already mentioned: context/culture focuses on writing); the teacher will act as a facilitator and guide the writing assignments and tasks.  I saw how the writing will be based on texts and not on personal assignments…going against what Bartholomae and Petrosky designed for their writing program. Everything they used was from personal experience. They managed to gradually lead into more academic readings and writings. Interesting to compare this one to that one.

Under the Basic Skills heading, it lists some really important higher-level thinking skills that I really want to make sure that I incorporate into my own teaching: evaluating, analyzing (and they even have summarizing which we’ve read isn’t necessarily a higher-level skill, but it does fit nicely with the They Say/I Say model).

I like how the Teacher Roles on campus are outlined; this fits in nicely with the reflections and writings we have been doing in conjunction with the Informed Choices book.  What kind of teacher do I want to be? And how will I manage to incorporate all of them into my own practice? They outline right here the academic along with the affective! Very nice!! And they even say here CT are vital to democracy and being engaged citizens.  Valuing the students’ diversities is mentioned in several places throughout the text; I really want to make sure that I do a lot of thinking about this – how will I also incorporate these things in my own teaching? It is really important to me.

At the end, I love the numbered list – it seems to be a review of everything that was already mentioned just in a different format. I like the repetition and the bold text.

Overall, I was impressed with the conversational tone of the philosophy and practice statement. They said some really academic “things” but they did so in a way that would not scare students off. It was in language that was accessible and understandable to them.  Current pedagogies and theories on reading, and writing are seen throughout the document; these are things that I wish to bring into my own teaching philosophy and practice. The document also seems to include a rationale for everything which I really like; and again, it is in terminology that is digestable.