Philosophy of Teaching

I believe that teaching is more than merely explaining content. It is about helping to
develop well-adapted and effective members of society. Many people think that the best
way to help students is to only provide academic support. While this is essential, I feel that
a student can only reach their true potential when they are well-rounded individuals,
academically, emotionally, and socially. I would like to create a safe and accepting
environment, where responsibility, respect, and self-esteem can flourish. I want to produce
emotionally stable, well-adjusted, socially adapted, confident and high achieving
individuals. In order to accomplish this, there are several areas my teaching philosophy
emphasizes.
Family and community Involvement
I hope to provide the opportunity to get parents and the community involved in
student education. The goal is developing partnerships between parents and teachers with
an emphasis on effectively supporting students academic growth (Paredes, 2011). Every
person in the students network needs to be involved in encouraging and supporting the
students to improve achievement. Parents, siblings, teachers, or other important
community members can all be utilized. Whether its volunteering, translating (for ELL
students), or just be involved in planning and setting goals and expectations, the students
support system is essential in their growth. Teachers and students fail to use parents as a
learning resource, and as a result they may be unfamiliar and hesitant to lend and expand
their services. In particular, ELL parents often feel powerless in helping in their students
educational achievement due to the language barrier. However every parent knows their
child best, and is therefore a teachers best ally in reaching and helping the students to be
successful. It works best to integrate the students family and community to be involved in
establishing a school community, for which the students develop a sense of self-worth and
belonging.
Classroom Management
Students thrive in a structured environment, where rules are set and expectations
are high. I believe that misbehavior can be prevented by preparing procedures,
expectations, and lesson plans ahead of time. It may be difficult, but when time is taken to
properly plan and schedule, teachers gain the ability to share strategies, assess student
work, and plan relevant and meaningful content that will enrich student learning. It is also
beneficial to circulate the classroom, get the students engaged through meaningful and
interesting material, and continuously check for student understanding. Cold calling,
questioning, explanation, and group work are major factors in keeping students engaged
and preventing behavior problems.
Contextualization
I seek to shape the whole adolescent, drawing on background and experience to
strengthen their achievement. Intellectual stimulation and experiences outside of school
have as much or more to do with achievement, readiness, and success than that which
occurs in school (Paredes, 2011). This is important for every students success, but
especially ELLs. It is important to be able to look at the ELL students language as a positive
affect on their education and utilize their background, culture, interest, emotions, and

academics as the driving force of the comprehension and achievement. Contextualization

facilitates authentic connections between classroom learning and real world issues or
other experiences that extend beyond the science classroom. This allows for more
meaningful and relevant learning experiences (Tolbert, forthcoming). This explains the
benefits in using contextualization as a means to increase relevancy, interest, competency,
motivation, and academic achievement.
Multiple Teaching Styles and Scaffolding
I believe that every student learns differently. This is why it is important for
teachers to use multiple teaching styles to reach the students. It has been shown that
multiple teaching styles is essential in student learning, especially ELLs (Echevarria & Vogt,
2014). It is beneficial to use visuals, graphic organizers, sentence framing, group work,
readings, hands-on activities, labs, ect. These aids can also act as a scaffolding technique,
which is great for building comprehension. This is especially effective in IEP and ELL students
who struggle with language, reading, and writing. It provides opportunities to use linguistic
resources needed to adequately express the science processes. It also allows for students to not
only write, but also think like scientists (Bruna, Vann & Escudero, 2007). A more integrated
approach will better assist students to fully comprehend content.
Group Work and Collaboration
This allowed the students to interact and get feedback from their peers and teacher. When
the students are able to interact individually, in small groups, and as a class, academically
productive talk is integrated into student learning. This is critical for learning science because it
scaffolds content to form complex arguments and discussions, supporting deeper reasoning,
using evidence, boosting memory, and supporting language development (Michaels & O
Connor, 2012). The combination of individual and interactive discussion allowed for optimal
learning.
Discourse
The ability to dissect and analyze questions, both by the teacher and students, builds
critical thinking and comprehension skills. This will help students to make connections and
understand not only what science is, but also how to think and reason like a true scientists.
Students must be able to ask and develop scientific questions to enhance competency of science
literacy and critical thinking skills (National Research Council, 2012). When students come up
with their own questions it takes comprehension a step further, providing more detail and
analysis. It also promotes self-discovery and student-student interaction through an inquiry
process.
Assessment
One of the greatest challenges is measuring student success. First, you must decide
what success is. Is success getting an A on a test? Is it being able to use communicate
processes through literacy and argumentation? Is it speaking English properly (for ELL
students)? Or is it merely showing signs of improvement? I want the students to not only
improve their understanding of subject content. Conceptualize broadly, beyond
standardized test scores to include social, cultural, linguistic and academic growth and
success (Wrigley, 2000). I want to reach far beyond test scores to produce high achieving

individuals that can comprehend and explain science. I believe that the best way to
measure such academics is through authentic testing. This method goes a step beyond the
normal standardized test and measures a students comprehension, not just their ability to
memorize facts.

Work Cited
Bruna, K., Vann, R., & Escudero, M. (2007). What's language got to do with it?: A case study of
academic language instruction in a high school "English Learner Science" class. Journal of
English for Academic Purposes, 6, 36-54.
Eschevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2014). Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary
English Learners: The SIOP Model. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Michaels, S., & OConnor, C. (2012). Talk science primer. Boston, MA: TERC
National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices,
crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press: Washington D.C.
Paredes, M. (2011). Parent Involvement as an Instructional Strategy: No More Waiting for
Superman. Teachers College Record. Retrieved from
https://myasucourses.asu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-9979022-dt-content-rid37841649_1/courses/2014Fall-X-ELL516-84029/ELL 516 Parent Involvement as an
Instructional Strategy Spr2014.pdf
Tolbert, S. (forthcoming). Contextualizing Science Activity. In Lyon, E., Tolbert, S., Solis, J., &
Stoddart, T., eds., Secondary science teaching with literacy and language acquisition:
Supporting English Language Learners through Next Generation Science Standards and
Common Core State Standards. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Wrigley, T. (2000). The power to learn: Stories of success in the education of Asian and other
bilingual pupils. Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham Books Limited.