Sharing and Reflection on “What is Worth Teaching”

Just a few more sleeps until our third face to face for cohort 21 and I’m so excited! This meetup is always a thrilling one for me as the people around me begin to share and develop their professional goals and dreams. Pretty exciting stuff, huh?  I get to spend a day listening to others declare how they want to effect change in their classroom. Or their school. Or maybe the world! Some will share that they are grappling with a really tough question with seemingly few answers.  Yet.  Others will decide to try something new. Really new.  (And maybe really scary.)  All of this is happening in just two short days! And I’m lucky enough to get a front row seat!   

With all of this potential awaiting to be released, I thought I would use the remainder of this post to consider some big questions I’ve been grappling with as of late. I recently read an article by Dr. Spencer Kagan entitled “What is Worth Teaching?”  for my writing specialist course.  The article begins by asking the astronomically large question: “What do we most want to give our students?” As we approach Cohort 21 eve (it’s a thing, isn’t it?), so many of us will be developing ways and plans to answer that very question!  What do we want to leave our students with? When considering that question,  I am reminded of an action plan last year that explored bringing more joy into schools. Others considered how music can change our learning.  In my own attempt to answer that question, I spent last year reflecting on happiness and what makes us happy.

As a Senior English teacher , I’m up to my eyeballs in grading, marks, looming deadline and such.  This article was fortuitous in that respect…as I mark essays, assignments, writing portfolios and the like, Dr. Kagan’s article reminds me that there is more to my teaching, my students, and their journey than simply the grade at the bottom of a rubric. What do I want my students to take away from their time with me?  From their high school English classes?  From their writing?  From their academic career? Kagan offered five ways to “burn brighter fires” in our students.  We need to fan the fires of Truth. Beauty. Empathy. Innovation and Excellence.  I thought I would reflect on the three that most resonate with me.

Truth: When considering the notion of truth as it pertains to the English classroom, I hope that we are creating students who are seeking to ask questions, to seek truths in the texts we study and in the very words others write, and finally our own words. In recent years, our English dept has come to acknowledge that we may not be sending students off to universities in the humanities. Long are the days of English majors leaving our hallowed halls, full of the canon and ready to face university.  With the rare exception, our students are going into business, law, medicine or science.  As someone who so deeply believes in the value of the humanities to teach what it means to be human, to make connection, and to seek the truth, I still feel comforted that the English classroom has a place in “truth seeking”.  In terms of writing, so many of our assignments seek to answer this question: “What does the author say about how the world works?”  By asking that simple question, we begin to ask how the world works, our place in it, and the universal truths of life.  That feels like a pretty daunting and awesome task for us all.  

Empathy: Kagan points out that empathy is so closely linked with truth as it is “seeking the truth about another.” By the nature of what we do in English, I think empathy is built into so much of our courses and conversations.  We read and write to know we are not alone. When we read of Scout and “walking in the shoes of another”, we are emphasizing with Tom and Boo. When King Lear’s heart is “broken into a thousand shards” over his wicked and ungrateful daughters , we can’t help but feel his pain.  As I reread the article, I was struck by how fundamental empathy is. It is the foundation of “human relations: caring, kindness, charity, cooperation….” and so many other qualities that will make our students empathize with others. When considering how to bring more of this into my class, I loved the suggestion Kagan offers of the paraphrase passport. How often do our students (and teachers?) listen with just enough focus on how we will respond?  This activity suggests that during a class discussion,  you must paraphrase the person who went before you in order to continue to conversation.  I can only imagine how much better we would all become at really listening to each other, with that strategy!
Excellence: This is something both teacher and student must purposefully seek.  The section that most resonated with me was driving for excellence as well as self acceptance.  Without those paradoxical forces, “we would beat ourselves over the head in an attempt for excellence and yet [we] will never be good enough.”  Ultimately, this feels like the most crucial of all lessons. How can we work to our fullest potential?  How can we know we have done the very best we can, and that our best is good enough?  That is the crux of what we want our students to grapple with as learners, and as humans.  In terms of writing, I think collaboration and feedback build excellence as well as empathy and self acceptance.  These skills are not simply adopted but need to be modelled, practiced and celebrated when done really well!

My action plan still remains the same, but with a renewed sense of why I’m here as an educator.

With gratitude for the journey,

Danielle