Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards Assignment

Substandard I feel most confident about...

Standard 1: Teachers create learning experiences using a broad base of general knowledge that reflects an understanding of the nature of the world in which we live. Teachers...

1.1 reflect a variety of academic, social, and cultural experiences in their teaching.

I feel very confident about my application of this substandard in my teaching practices. In particular, over the last year I have really tried to stress multiculturalism in my sophomore American Lit. course. Traditionally, the American Lit. survey course has focused on the "dead white guys"--Emerson, Thoreau, Twain, Faulkner, etc. (The list goes on and on.) Granted, these Anglo writers are important and should occupy a prominent place in American Lit. But last year I was able to incorporate writers from a whole range of other cultures and backgrounds into my curriculum. My class analyzed and discussed the slave narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Charles Chesnutt, and Frederick Douglass and the feminist perspectives of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin. As a culminating project for the year, each student had to select a contemporary American writers who represents a diverse or divergent culture. My students delivered outstanding presentations on subjects like Sojourner Truth, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Philip Roth. Also, in my senior Composition & Literature class just this week my students have begun to brainstorm topics for narrative essays. In preparation for writing the narratives my class has analyzed and discussed models of short narratives from writers representing a range of backgrounds (Langston Hughes, Annie Dillard) and I have shared with my class personal experiences that would make good fodder for narratives. I feel strongly that through both the content of the courses that I teach and the activities that I plan for my students I tap into a variety of academic, social, and cultural experiences in my teaching.

Substandard I feel least confident about...

Standard 4: Teachers create instructional opportunities that reflect a respect for the diversity of learners and an understanding of how students differ in their approaches to learning. Teachers...

4.1 design instruction that accomodates individual differences (e.g., stage of development, learning style, English language acquisition, learning disability) in approaches to learning.

Probably due to the fact that I have taught in exclusively private Catholic schools to this point in my career, I feel least confident about this substandard. While I have taught a variety of different levels of English courses at a variety of grade levels, I have rarely faced the need to make accomodations for individual differences for the simple reason that very few students with disabilities attend private schools. Parents of students with disabilities elect to send their children to public schools where there are the resources necessary to meet the children's special needs. That said, I did take a Special Education course at RIC over the summer (Universal Design) and learned a lot about accomodating students with disabilities. The major grade for the class was a group project in which we had to create a Differentiated Unit in a specific content area. My group chose Romeo and Juliet as a unit. Even though I felt I had extensive knowledge of the play going into the project, it was still challenging to force myself to move outside my "comfort zone", to differentiate the teaching style that I was accustomed to and the materials that I already had to accomodate a variety of learning styles and disabilities. While I welcome the challenge of differentiation, of trying to accomodate a variety of students, in the future, I sort of dread the prospect of having to do it for my entire curriculum for the entire year!