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Reader Response
	Ask Dr. Manute

I recently received a question regarding test validity and reliability:
Dear Dr. Manute, 

"The demography of the class is often very complex, comprising of students from very sharp to slow learners.  What strategy should be adopted in order to bring them all to a considerable level?  Similarly, in the case of test designing, what care should be taken to address slow learners especially?" 

Sana Ali

Dear Sana Ali -

This is a question that will face all educators regardless of their discipline or grade level.  Not only will educators face increased diversity but also increased numbers.   It is not unusual to have thirty or more at any grade level!

What do you do when you are faced with a diverse classroom?  You teach in a diverse manner.  You adjust your lesson plans and use strategies that focus on multiple learning styles along with higher order thinking skills.  The information out there on multiple learning theories is unlimited.  I urge you to research and look specifically at creative lesson planning.  The same can be said for assessment.  With a diverse classroom, you can incorporate traditional and non-traditional strategies.  Alternative assessments include the use of portfolios, projects, and peer editing to name a few.  

Dr. Manute

Challenges of Teaching (part 2) By Munir Moosa Sewani

Teaching religious curriculum is also confronting for teachers. During my several years of religious teaching, we faced a few challenges.

When I was teaching primary grades, teachers planned to show students slides to create the scenario of a deserted place. I took a torn plastic bag, and students wore it with the help of a band, to visualize Arabic people's dress code.  An earthenware bowl with water was placed at the corner of the veranda. I took the students out and made them feel as if they were on a journey to Arabia. After a 15 minute of walk, the students felt thirsty. I told them that we have to find oasis, as we’re in a deserted area. They searched for the bowl and shared the water. In this way, I successfully achieved my objective.

The primary curriculum is according to the requirement of pupils’ intellectual nourishment; but continuous teachers’ training should be organized effectively, so that they could resolve some sensitive religious queries, which are in their minds. Let’s take an example of the story of the Prophet Abraham, available in the Talim curriculum. Most of the teachers disagreed as to act the words of Abraham, as it was unethical for them. In the same manner, I’ve seen few teachers not in favor of teaching some topics due to conflicts in their own minds.  For example, whether to tell students of class 1 about different religions at a young age or not, etc.

The Secondary curriculum will be made available soon. But for the time being, the most challenging task is to allocate limited resources creatively. There’s a shortage of resources at this time. The lessons plans are not fully integrated with the essence of religious formation. There is no activity book for secondary students. A creative teacher would say that I can utilize my minimal resources effectively. The challenge can be accepted by a teacher by acquiring continuous education through vigorous research to impart lesson perfectly.

The boundary of challenges is not restricted within the area of curriculum; there are many more challenges faced by the teachers during their day to day classroom interaction.

The main challenge is to interact with students effectively. Effectual Interaction can only take place when a teacher encourages two way communication.  Few of the students often feel shy to interact in class. This is a real challenge for a teacher to motivate reserved students by encouraging them to participate in classroom. I had a reserved student back in 2003 in my religious class. I appreciated him and gave him some classroom responsibilities and made him realized that he had great potential. Now he’s in secondary school, and I’m proud that he participates actively in classroom discussion.

Muhammad Ali Khan writes,

“The classroom environment is largely an expression of one’s enthusiasm for teaching and learning. However, it is also considered by many that by encouraging student one invites problems for himself/herself. As when students get empowered they can ask all sort of questions and the inability to answers on the part of the instructor will belittle the image of the teacher.”[1]

The views presented are acceptable, because critical discussions and questioning are mostly discouraged in most of the traditional schools. A challenging teacher must accept student’s criticism and take it as a path of learning. I always encourage criticism. If I find my mistake or lack of command, I always accept it.

Another challenge is regarding the management of the class. Savage, 1991, defines Classroom Management as,  

“Classroom management involves teaching students, how to manage their own behavior in classroom settings by establishing learning situations that will allow them to do this.” (Savage, 1991)

I agree, because that it’s a teacher who creates the learning situation in the classroom. S/he not only manages classroom settings, but also time, space, resources, student behavior, etc.

Teaching a large gathering is another challenge. Teachers usually can’t give proper attention and can’t understand every student's need in a large gathering. Most of the teachers in our Govt. schools face the challenge to handle more than 40-50 students per class, which is not possible to manage alone. Co-operative teachers are mostly not hired in govt. schools. Few of the government schools do not have chairs or proper rooms to accommodate pupils. So it’s again a challenge to manage the sitting arrangement in a manner so that a teacher can interact large gatherings properly.

Time management is another issue of classroom interaction. The lesson plan with proper time management helped teachers to cover the objectives, while developing skills. Most of the time, teachers fail to teach and share knowledge effectively due to time constraints. Teachers usually avoid pre-planning. When I did my field practicum, I saw a week planner completed by a teacher in a day. They used to cover most of the left over topics in a short span of time without taking feedback from the students. For a couple of days, we planned some lesson plans, keeping in view the requirement of learning within a given time frame.

A teacher should also understand needs of the child in a classroom. You may find a learning-disabled child in your class. Teachers often neglect student’s needs. On the very first day of my teaching in the religious centre, one of the students was hyper and was observing me continuously. At the end of the session, he told me (Aye Sir Tu Kutta Hai!) "Sir you are a dog!" I severely scolded him and called his parents. Later I came to know that the child was learning-disabled and had behavior excessive problem. On that day, I learned one thing: that a teacher should interact with each and every child positively and should understand their needs. My Master trainer in special education helped me a lot. I gave this student extra time. A year later he told me, (Sir Sir Tu acha hai) "Sir you are good." That sentence raised my spirit and made me realize that a teacher should also interact with the challenged students to foster them. In Pakistan , teachers avoid to cater such students in a main stream school, which is wrong. I’ve seen many disabled students in our community successfully studying because of their teachers' initiatives to take up challenge.

Another classroom challenge is to deal with students from diverse cultures. In Pakistan , minorities are always being discouraged to participate in class. Students avoid interacting with them. Most of the students show the wrong attitude towards minorities. This challenge was also faced by me when an Afghan student joined my class. Students avoided him. I used one strategy to solve the problem. All the students later accepted him whole-heartedly. (Refer http://happybookmark.com/2007/11/12/PLURALISM/).

Favoritism causes a barrier between the interaction of teacher and a student. Few teachers interact more with their favorite students, which can hurt the other student’s ego. I always try to be naturalistic and appreciate everyone equally. I thought beyond the boundary of the classroom to know my students better. I always tried to treat every child as special. A teacher should provide each student opportunities rather then playing a mantra of favoritism.

Technology up-to-date is the prior responsibility of a teacher, as it not only makes teaching effective, but it is the better approach to accomplish the objectives of learning. In Pakistan , most of the teachers are not being given computer education, so they based their whole teaching on the traditional blackboard. If the teachers will be technologically capable, they would provide quality knowledge to the students.

A teacher should take regular feedback from the students about his/her teaching style. S/he should be natural. S/he should set the time table and pre-plan lessons in advance. S/he should read more literature to keep interacting with the latest methodologies. Give students time to talk and to share their ideas. Appreciate them! A teacher should share his/her ideas with the colleagues and should work cooperatively with colleagues.

The teacher should readily accept his or her mistakes and always accept criticism. S/he should maintain a reflective journal to analyze his or her weaknesses and strengths. For learning, I believe that it’s a long life process which never ends. S/he should take continuous trainings and should try to develop Interpersonal Skills. Good communication skills, discipline and role modeling can make us a good trainer. The base must be a personal desire to improve oneself.

If a teacher has faith in himself/herself, then s/he could over come all the obstacles and could take challenges as a medium of learning.

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School Features
	A Brief History of Educational Reform Courtesy of K12Academics.com

Classical times

Plato believed that children would never learn unless they wanted to learn. In The Republic, he said "...compulsory learning never sticks in the mind."

One of the most important educational debates in the time of the Roman Empire arose after Christianity had achieved broad acceptance. The question concerned the educational value of pre-Christian classical thought: given that the body of knowledge of the pre-Christian Romans was heathen in origin, was it safe to teach it to Christian children?

In general, works of history, science, philosophy and literary art were preserved. Works on magic and non christian religions were not preserved. For example, Euclid's books on Geometry were widely used. Aristotle's works in logic, politics, law and natural science were used. Plato's Socratic debates and Aristophanes' plays included questions of philosophy, morality and ethics, and were preserved despite their occasional moral ambiguity. The writings of Herodotus and Plutarch were considered acceptable for teaching history.

Reforms of Classical Education:

Western classical education as taught from the 8th to the 19th century has weaknesses that inspired reformers.

Classical education is most concerned with answering the "who, what, when, where" and "how" questions that concern a majority of students. Unless carefully taught, group instruction naturally neglects the theoretical "why" and "which" questions that strongly concern a minority of students.

Young children with short attention spans often enjoy repetition, but only if the subject is changed every few minutes. Skilled, compassionate primary classical teachers (always a rare breed, now nearly nonexistent) have always changed subjects continually and rapidly. Unskilled, or unkind classical teachers have drilled the joy of learning right out of young heads.

Some people can regurgitate words and yet never understand what they mean in the real world. This was terribly common among classically educated scholars.

Classical education in this period also deprecated local languages and cultures in favor of ancient languages (Greek and Latin) and their cultures. This produced odd social effects in which an intellectual class might be more loyal to ancient cultures and institutions than to their native vernacular languages and their actual governing authorities.

Modern Reforms:

Education reforms in modern times arose first against neo-classical education, known in America as "humanistic" education, which resembled in many respects classical education. Motives for parting with classical methods were diverse, and included economic factors, differences in the aims of education—normalizing immigrants and the poor as opposed to training the upper and middle classes, and differences in educational philosophy.

Part 2 of this article will detail the Educational Reforms of the 1800s.

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New Teachers' Niche:  A Place for New Teachers, Student Teachers, and Interns
	Second Day of Class Writing Assignment by Frank Holes, Jr. Educational Consultant

Our school uses a common writing program that increases in complexity at each grade level. The teachers use common terminology and formats for paragraphs that are the basis of our drafting. Thus, I know they will have a bit of familiarity with the process. However, even if you are teaching 'on an island' without any class or grade continuity, this activity will allow you to assess your students understanding of the writing process and set them up for the teaching of your expectations for writing paragraphs.

I've put this activity onto an overhead sheet so I can use it each year. At the top are the writing directions: "Write a paragraph describing one of the most important things you learned over the summer. No talking, and no questions." The directions are specific enough that I want a paragraph written, not a page or a few sentences. And the topic is broad enough that everyone can think of something to write about. However, it is just vague enough that students must use their best judgment to decide exactly HOW to structure the writing and how long it should be.

I tell the kids there is no right or wrong way to do this assignment, and there is no right or wrong response to the prompt. In fact, the only wrong thing that can be done is just to NOT write anything at all. This explanation will help most of your students get started right away. If a student is sitting idle for more than a minute, I'll remind them that this is a writing activity, not a thinking activity. They need to get started writing, or I'll assign them a disciplinary paragraph to copy. That's usually enough to get them going.

Undoubtedly you will have some students who seem stumped on this, or will want to ask questions of you. Stand firm on the 'no questions', and let them figure it out for themselves. If you give in now, these same students will rely on you the entire year. You want them to become good thinkers and problem solvers. Let them do it!

We usually give students about ten minutes to write. Although this is less than normal, it's just enough to get them on the right track and enough for you to see if they have any idea what they're doing. Once the time is up, each student draws a line across his/her paper right under the paragraph. I then uncover the second part of the activity.  Students must now "write down THREE rules, guidelines, or expectations they have learned about writing paragraphs." After these are written down, the students prioritize them, the most important labeled #1, and so forth. These provide excellent prompts for class discussions, which is next. We look to affirm correct ideas, and dispel the wrong ones. Then the students draw another line across the page.

Lastly, the students number their page #1-5, and write in their responses to four questions I pose for them. We then discuss their answers, and I'm able to evaluate what they know and what they think they know about paragraph writing.

Again, these help me to see what knowledge the students bring to class, and how closely they are to our class's writing expectations.

The last thing we do is a bit of self-editing. The students are to underline their topic sentences and clincher statements and number their three supporting statements (just imagine their surprise if any realize they didn't write these down!) This also makes for great conversation.

Now they're ready to learn the rules, procedures, and expectations for the formatting of a paragraph in this class. I have these on an overhead sheet and also on a PowerPoint presentation. Both have a note sheet so students can write down the information as it is presented. They quickly learn the rules and expectations I have for the formatting and writing of their paragraphs.



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Be sure to check out our website for more great information, tips, and techniques for new teachers, student-teachers, and interns in teacher prep programs. Also be sure to check out our Who-I-Want-To-Be teacher plan for preparing yourself to enter the educational profession.  Simply click the following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm Want to check out the articles in our Student-Teaching series?  Check out our special Student-Teaching page through the following link:  http://www.starteaching.com/studentteachers.htm

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Be sure to check out our website for more great information, tips, and techniques for new teachers, student-teachers, and interns in teacher prep programs. Also be sure to check out our Who-I-Want-To-Be teacher plan for preparing yourself to enter the educational profession.  Simply click the following link: http://www.starteaching.com/free.htm Want to check out the articles in our Student-Teaching series?  Check out our special Student-Teaching page through the following link:  http://www.starteaching.com/studentteachers.htm

 

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"The Colors of Friendship"  By Adrian Iron Thunder Themes on Life

In This Week's Issue 
(Click the Quick Links below):

Reader Response: Ask Dr. Manute:
Class Demography: Addressing Slow Learners

Challenges of Teaching (part 2)

School Features: 
A Brief History of Educational Reform

New Teacher's Niche:
Second Day of Class Writing Assigmnent

Themes on Life:  
"The Colors of Friendship"

10 Days of Writing Prompts

10 Days of Math Problems

Summer Book Sale for Teachers

Book of the Month Club

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