Will some instructional strategies be better suited for the urban environment than others?

Field Experience Connection: Based on my field experience, I believe that some instructional strategies do need to be modified and are preferred in urban environments.   I believe that students need to always have the lessons tailored to their knowledge base, which is sometimes different in an urban setting as compared to a suburban setting.  The best way to know how to tailor the lessons in order to engage your students is to get to know them.  It is hard to quickly get to know 90 students within a methods field experience.  I knew their names and a little about each one but I had still not had the opportunity to freely converse with these students.  Therefore, I had no idea that when I did the "Mall Crawl" pre-reading activity that the majority of the students rarely visited the mall.  So, the students could not connect with me when I tried to explain it as when students walk around the mall, on their way to the movies, and bump into a friend from school.  They just don't go to the movies or to the mall - but they especially don't go to malls that have movie theaters in them!  I noticed the blank stare and some furrowed eyebrows, so I quickly explained in another way - like when you walk down the hall between classes and you have some hot gossip to share.  This connected a little more and the students got the idea.  However,  I wish I had the opportunity to go to their school dance before I had started my two-week unit.  If so,  I could have used the analogy of walking up and down the hallway from the cafeteria to the gymnasium during the school dance.  Then students would have completely gotten the idea from the get-go.  I noticed that the hallway between these two areas were definitely abuzz with gossip and chit-chat - which boy looked at them and half-smiled, which boy was playing basketball, and who they thought was going to ask them to dance next.  It is this inside information that a teacher must have in order to connect her lessons to her students.

Reference / Text Connection:  Williams & Woods (1995) suggest that Learner Experience (LE) is an important concept for teachers to understand in urban education.  "Learner experience is a construct used to describe all of the dynamic environmental or contextual influences that help to shape students' learning - their thinking, language, knowledge, belief systems, values, and actions.  These  influences result from their interactions in the home, the school, and the community at large" (p. 5).  There are two different learner experiences: those that happen in the school and those that happen outside of the school.  The article states that "most teachers gather information about in-school LE," such as school records, standardized assessment data, and teacher comments, but some teachers are very limited in knowing the important outside-of-school LE (p. 5).  Furthermore, teachers who "continually learn about and consistently use out-of-school LE are able to create caring classroom environments where urban learners are more motivated, learn better, and feel more positively about themselves" (p. 5)  In addition, urban students tended to yield positive results when working in cooperative learning groups, the use of movement activities, and lessons that allowed students to "share personal experiences and multiple points of view" (p. 6).

Personal Connection:  I always learned best when teachers connected the lessons and concepts to real life.  Dr. Tansey at Otterbein did a great job of making chemistry easy and fun to learn.  He was always using pop culture references in order to explain really difficult concepts.  He knew his audience and was able to make us relate.   Knowing your audience is a really important concept to grasp as a teacher.

I tried to get to know my audience better by attending the school dance.  I believe that I developed rapport with some of the individuals who are very tough to get to know in the classroom.  I hope that the connection we created by playing basketball together will help encourage students to participate in class and make a better effort in my class.

I also have asked students what I need to do to improve.  Some students asked for more group work than work they did altogether.  At times teacher-centered activities are necessary and since I am introducing many new concepts to them some of the lessons have been direct instruction.  However, this coming week I will try to incorporate more cooperative learning since the research above indicated that urban students cherish working together and developing those relationships.

Future Teaching and Learning Connection:  I will continue to strive to develop connections with my students.  I feel that it is important to show that you care about them and want to get to know who they are as a person.  I believe all students respect teachers who show that they are teachers because they care about the students and not just because it's your job.  Even though the article referenced within this reflection states that getting to know your audience is an important strategy for urban learners, I believe that I will carry this belief with me wherever I have the privilege of teaching.

Reference.

Williams, B., Woods, M., & Research for Better Schools, I. (1995, January 1). Learner Experience Strategies in Two Urban School Districts. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED390968) Retrieved February 8, 2009, from ERIC database.