Teacher Belief Statement

Rebecca Morgan

How Students Learn

I believe that all students can learn if they are given certain things.

First, they need a learning community. This means that as a teacher, I need

to get to know my students early in the year to create a classroom

community. This sense of community creates a safe environment where my

students feel comfortable taking risks, which will in turn, allow them to grow

and learn to their full potential. I work diligently to establish a relationship

with my students and help them to establish relationships amongst their

peers. Creating a learning environment where students feel comfortable

taking risks and creating a trusting relationship with their teacher are

necessary steps to helping each student learn. I have seen this in my own

classroom year after year. I have spent the majority of my career working in

a Title 1 school that has a 90% ELL population. Students who are working at

such a deficit, particularly, need to feel safe in order to attempt to learn a

second language. When they dont, they dont make nearly as much

progress.

In addition to relationships and a learning community, I need to get to

know each student as a learner. What are their learning styles? What are

their strengths? What are their needs? Learning about each student allows

me to give them individualized instruction at their zone of proximal

group or one on one instruction, but, in my experience, it is very effective.

Getting to know the students culture and background are also essential to

helping a student learn. According to Valenzuela (2009), the U.S. school

experience often causes our ELL students to lose their native language and

culture which causes them to have a negative attitude towards school and

therefore, not be successful in school. As a teacher, I need to encourage my

students to be themselves, continue to speak and read in their native

language, and provide opportunities for them to share their culture with their

peers.

Beliefs on Instruction

I believe that a balanced literacy instructional approach is best.

Balanced literacy includes read alouds, guided reading, shared reading, word

study and writing instruction as well as independent reading. In my

classroom, I start each day with a whole group reading lesson, which usually

includes a read aloud or an interactive read aloud. Then, the students

participate in literacy stations, which include independent

reading/independent writing time, word study practice and small group

reading instruction with me. This small group reading instruction is critical

for students reading growth and development. During this time, I am able

to provide them with individualized instruction focusing on the reading skills

and vocabulary instruction that is specific to the reading level they are

currently working at. Following this block, we have writing instruction and
guided writing practice where I model a writing skill and then the students

practice this skill with teacher support.

I feel that this balanced literacy approach is the most effective method

for instruction because it provides many opportunities for modeling, teacher

support, as well as independent practice and individualized instruction. I

have used this model of instruction for several years and I have seen my

students make at least one years growth in their reading level as a result. It

resembles the I do, we do, you do format of instruction, which provides

scaffolding to support student learning.

Systematic Reflection, Inquiry, Data Collection

I believe that, as teachers, we need to be able to identify when

something isnt working well and inquire as to why it might not be working

and explore ways to improve it. We do this by identifying the problem and

creating a hypothesis to test. Then, we test it with a possible solution. We

collect data over a period of time and then analyze the data to determine the

results. This may lead to new questions or possible solutions. My team does

this at our CLT meetings by looking at assessment data to see what areas our

students struggle in, as a whole, and then analyze how to remediate to

improve the students comprehension of the skills. As a grade level, we also

use flexible grouping for reading groups. This allows us to meet each

students reading needs and it has proved to be extremely effective in

closing the learning gap.

conduct a teacher research study into how my ELL students learn and

develop language in order to improve my instruction to meet their needs.

This is something I would like to do in the near future as I feel strongly about

improving my skills as a teacher and providing the best learning environment

for my students so that they can reach their full potential.

Critical Reflection in Educational Practice

I believe that in order to be an effective teacher, you need to be a

reflective teacher. Reflection can help you to investigate something that is

not working well, it can help you to improve as a teacher and help you to

teach students, not classes (Farrell, 2012). This means that you do not get

stuck in the routine or habit of teaching the same curriculum year after year.

You adjust and modify to teach the individual students in your classroom

based on their needs and reactions. I have seen this in action in my

classroom. One year, I had a class where most of the students were reading

and writing above grade level and they were all very creative and inquisitive.

As I got to know them, I began to realize that they were more engaged when

they were working on projects that allowed them to use that creativity,

particularly with a partner or group. I began to incorporate more

investigative and creative projects into our units of study. I saw tremendous

growth in both, their writing ability and their content knowledge. Not only

did the students learn more, I learned more about myself as a teacher as I

tried different approaches to engage the students.

or she do things the same way every day without an awareness of both the source and the impact

of his or her actions. Our actions need to be purposeful every day and we need to consider our

students as individuals to support their learning and growth. Critical reflection is beneficial for

teacher growth, which leads to student growth.

References

Farrell, T.S.C. (2012). Reflecting on reflective practice: (Re) visiting Dewey

and Schon. TESOL Journal, 3(1), 7-16.

reflective thinking. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-846.

Valenzuela, A. (2009). Subtractive schooling, caring relations and social

capital in the schooling of U.S.-Mexican youth. In D.J. Flinders & S. J.

Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (3rd ed.) (pp. 336-347).

New York, NY: Routledge.