Spelling has never been my strong suit. I can remember the massive spelling units each week that involved using the words in many different ways on worksheets. I despised the worksheets and spelling tests that were due each Friday morning. At the start of the year, my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Christianson, introduced the spelling curriculum to the class, and then she pulled me aside to introduce a separate curriculum that I would be using. I loved the new curriculum. It was the easiest set of words, and there were no practice sheets. As a result, I didn't even need to study. She taught me that teachers set standards or expectations for their students, and in some ways, we need to start high and adapt to a more workable level. Starting with low expectations does an injustice to the students.
With this separate curriculum, there were fewer words to learn each week, and it was suppose to get harder as the year progressed. Mrs. Christianson should have pretested me at the start of the year to see where I should have begun. She assumed I would work through the easy words and get to my level quickly. I took a test a week like I did every other year, but I should have moved much faster. She should have been attuned to the fact that the first half of the year was extremely easy for me in the area of spelling. From Mrs. Christianson, I learned that teachers need to be observing, assessing, and changing curriculum based on the students needs. I hope to use this experience when working with those in my own classroom.
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Rose, you provided a great example of what NOT to do as a teacher. Thank you. Sorry you had to have that experience. In addition to having low expectations for you and not following through on attentively differentiating the spelling curriculum, your teacher seemed to fail at acutually teaching you. She expected the curriculum to do her work for her. Her intentions were good, she wanted you to feel more comfortable and grow in spelling, she just failed to provide you the support you needed to truly succeed. As teachers, we need to remember that simply talking and handing out worksheets will never be enough.
ReplyDeleteI agree whole-heartedly with J Kap. If Ms. Christianson's principal had asked her if she was "differentiating instruction" in her classroom, she surely would have said "yes", but we can see in your story how good ideas can quickly go bad. Relying on teachers' manuals or prepackaged curriculum means teachers will only look at their books instead of their students. In your case, Rose, had your teacher really looked at you (and of course done those valuable assessments to determine the level of instruction you really needed), she would have noticed that you were unchallenged and probably not learning much.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what you were thinking at the time? Did you realize you weren't learning more about spelling? Did you feel different (in a bad way) from the other kids? Did you ever try talking to Ms. Christianson about the situation?