Fulfilling the Promise Chapter 4

Teacher Response to Student Needs:
Rationale to Practice
Yea! I will build ties with my students, show them I am willing to invest in them, and affirm each of them. I am going to make my classroom a place where everyone is working towards achieving their goal of maximum growth and maximum capacity, individually and as a group. Tomlinson has given me the steps I need to get there! She teaches that "classroom elements and attributes derive their form from when teachers respond proactively and concretely to learner needs." In this chapter she teaches the first step in meeting student's request for personal investment.
From the very first day of class, environment will support or deter my student's quest for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge in the classroom. Environment will be the first message to my students of how learning will take place in our classroom. Furniture arrangement, walls, bulletin boards, and artifacts reveal a lot about the classroom. My attitude will also affect the climate in my room. Tomlinson suggests six strategies which can be used to help build a positive environment. They are; study students' cultures, convey status, commend creativity, make room for all kinds of learners, help students know about one another and celebrate success. It is very important that I develop a foundation which includes many ways to respond to all my student's need for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge.
It is also important that teachers and students communicate effectively and efficiently. My classroom environment will affect communication in my room. Communication should assist in the improvement of learning and help everyone in class understand why our classroom operates as it does. The roles communication in the classroom play are; to help in building a group identity, to ensure a way for me to get to know my students better, to enable me to share my thinking about teaching, and a way for quick communication among members of our classroom community. Tomlinson also suggest to hold goal-setting conferences, use dialogue journals and incorporate teacher talk groups in lesson plans in order to foster a positive learning environment.
It is also important that the students in my classroom are clear on what the guidelines or rules are and why the exist. These guidelines should focus on helping my students understand that our classroom will be governed by "what we need to succeed." I want my classroom to be filled with people who show respect for each other, each other's ideas and each other's property. One area I will focus on is my definition of fair, I want my students to understand that fair is "ensuring all learners get what they need to succeed".
Classroom routines "ensure that students understand how the class will begin and end, how to get and put away materials, how to keep records of their work, how to move around the classroom in acceptable ways, how to use time wisely, how to figure out where they should be and what they should be doing at a given time, where to put work when they finish, how to get help when the teacher is working directly with others and so on." Clear and predictable routines are the difference between productivity and chaos. These routines should also enhance the ability of students to grow and learn.
Vygotsky introduced the ZPD or the Zone of Proximal Development, which teaches that students learn and grow when they take on work that is slightly beyond their capacity to work independently. While working in their ZPD it is much more effective if there is some type of scaffolding, usually another person who understands the new concepts and can help the learner along the way. As a teacher it is important that I make sure the work taken on by each learner in my classroom is a bit beyond his/her reach and I must ensure the presence of support systems that will guide the student to success. Tomlinson suggests a few supports that ensure challenge and success for learners with different needs; vary materials, use graphic organizers to help structure and extend thinking, provide survival packets, use participation prompts, and build language bridges.
A wise teacher understands that virtually everything in the classroom will work better if it "belongs to us" rather than "belonging to me". I am so happy that I have learned this now! I knew I was going into this pretty wise, but what a comfort knowing that I am going into this VERY wise. Allowing my students to share responsibility within our room will play a huge factor in helping them feel pride and ownership in our classroom. There are many ways to share responsibility with my students in our classroom, Tomlinson suggests; to use evaluation checklists, to involve students in scheduling decisions, to engage students in assessing their own progress, and to help students learn to set their own academic goals.
I know these elements are very potent and that their presence has the power to magnify my success in teaching and that their absence can negate my best efforts. I want my students to know that we are building a place where their contributions are significant, where they can feel a sense of power, where they realize the importance of school in their lives, and where they stretch themselves to learn and move towards their goals and dreams. I can now, confidently say that I have one of the needed "cogs" that will help me create a classroom that meets each of my students request for personal investment.