Reflections on My Teaching Practice

Reflections on My Teaching Practices

My teaching experience covers only nine years, so I still have lots of questions about what I do. Currently I teach 8th grade reading and I realized shortly into the year that my students were having a hard time making inferences about characters, setting, themes, etc. I tried and tried to teach this process of making inferences using what they knew of the text, but nothing seemed to work. What can I do to help my students understand the idea of making an inference? How can I help them see and use the author’s words to understand characters and setting?
I began research to discover how I could do this. I knew that graphic organizers help students visualize what they read, but how could I go about teaching it. In my research I discovered Mem Fox. She wrote Radical Reflections, and her beliefs about reading and writing were much like mine. She said:

“We need to water the desert so that the writing will bloom. By watering the desert I mean providing children with the most wonderful literature available: the classics, the new, the beautiful, the revolting, the hysterical, the puzzling, the amazing, the riveting.”
Mem Fox

I found another quote by Ruth Culham in her 6 + 1 Traits of Writing supporting the idea of using picture books:

“It means that, every day, we should be exposing students to
The best written prose and poetry, filling their heads with
images so real that they can reach out and touch them” (pg 142).

There it was! Use picture books as models to help my students write. Then when they learn to use descriptive words in their own writing, they just might be able to use those skills to make inferences about characters and settings in the short stories and novels they read.
Many of my students love to draw. In fact I have to ask them to put away their artwork and focus on the reading at hand. They grudgingly do so, but as I enjoy and love drawing myself, it hurt even me to ask them to put it away. Graphic organizers were going to be perfect because they lend themselves to art and drawing. I hoped to help my students visualize the writing in picture books, which in turn would help them make inferences about the characters and settings in their novels. Graphic organizers are also another way to differentiate student modalities of learning. So, I went to work.
I created a five-fold sheet of paper and at the top I had each student write over each column touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Now this concept might not seem new to seasoned teachers, but to my students it was something they hadn’t seen before. They wondered what they were going to do. I thought it was the not knowing, the excitement that grabbed them and helped them to buy into what I was trying to do.
At the time we were studying the novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. The students were enjoying the novel, but when I asked questions about the characters and what they were like, they just gave me that deer in the headlights look. They couldn’t tell me. This is where the concept came in. They took their five-fold sheet of paper and searched specific chapters in the novel we were reading. They were to look for words that fell under the heading “sensory language.” They knew it as the five senses. After searching in the novel, they had a plethora of descriptive words, so we wrote them on a huge sticky note which I had placed on the white board. We discussed the words and how they could lead the reader to visualize in their minds what a character would be like or how to see a setting in a novel. After our discussion, I had them turn over their lists and write a descriptive paragraph about their favorite thing, using the words they found. Most of my students did well, but I had forgotten to tell them not to use I hear, I see, I smell, I touch, or I taste. There were many paragraphs that said just that. I challenged them to look at their paragraph and write what they had written only don’t use those words. They didn’t hesitate, but bent over their desks and began to revise. This was another plus. They were revising their own writing and didn’t even realize that was what they were doing! They wrote some very descriptive paragraphs. Here is an example of one written by Bradley:



Bradley wrote:

As the ball came flying down the field, the salty sweat rushed through my mouth. The muddy wet grass filled the air. As I gripped the leathery ball in my left hand I ran down the field going past, hiffing, jukeing, spinning off players until I got pulled to the ground. When I tried to get up vomet and gadorade filled my mouth. As every thing went silent, my heart beat got faster and faster. (1st draft)

From the kick off the ball bulleted through the thick rainy sky. The salty sweat rolled down my chin and rushed through my mouth. The muddy wet grass filled the air. The stands grew louder and louder as the ball came flying down. As I gripped the leathery wet ball in my left hand I ran down the field, pushing, jukeing, spinning through the other players, until I got nocked on my back. I rolled over onto my knees and vomet and lime gaddrade filled my mouth. When I got up every thing went silent, and my heart beat got faster and faster as the game began. (2nd draft)


I was very pleased with his writing. Being a football player, he wasn’t too interested in writing, but as we can see, he wrote about football. He even revised his paragraph and made it better using more descriptive words. There were other students who did just as well as Bradley. When they finished their paragraph I told them to draw a picture that represented what they wrote. For my students who loved to draw, this was great and they worked hard to complete this task. Those who wanted to share were offered the opportunity. Even those students who were reluctant to be in the spotlight, shared their writing with their classmates.
I believe that this writing exercised helped my students become more confident in making inferences about characters and settings in the novels they read. They were more inclined to look for those words or sensory images that reflected character traits. Using this strategy helped my students understand what the author of the novel was trying to show, in words, what he wanted them to see about the characters and setting.
In questioning and reflecting on my teaching practice and performing research, I realized I needed to change several ideas I had about teaching. Connecting reading (picture books and novels) with student writing and drawing helped them to make inferences and visualize what the author wanted them to know and understand about characters and setting. I will use this activity again whenever needed in my classroom. Because of my questioning, I will continue to perform research to strengthen my teaching practices and find strategies to help my students in any area they need.