Lang. Investigation #2

In my earlier days in school, I never really questioned the way that I was taught because it was the only thing that I knew. My teachers explained to me that "this is the way that things are done" and everybody does things this way. At least when I was young I had no outside influences expect my family and school. Those were my two main sources of information. As I got older, I realized that there was diversity in terms of learning that I had never imagined. I am not saying that what my teachers did early on in my academic career was wrong or unsatisfactory. But rather it was appropriate for the audience and situation. Rules that we have discussed in CO 301D such as don't start a sentence with "and" or "but". These are things that are infused into our minds when we start writing but as we get older the rules become obsolete. The challenge for teachers is to have language, terms, and rules in the classroom without restricting the growing mind too much. These rules on constantly changing even in how they are being taught in early education. This is a good sign because what I have learned in my stages of the education field is that adaptability is essential and perhaps the most important skill that a teacher can possess. Having preparation of the type of language that you want in your class is important but what is more important than that is being able to change that language to better help your students learn and achieve their goals. The teachers that I have seen do this are the teachers that help their students retain and use the material they are expected to learn, especially in language arts subjects. If a teacher just attempts to but heads with his or her students because the students are not using the same rules or articulating the same language, that will not allow any party to grow. In classrooms where we had an excellent cohesion of language, rules, and respect, there was an understanding of different learning and literacy skills. This was an understanding between both teacher and students and between student to student. I have played sports all my life and I think learning from how I was coached has helped me to become more aware of how to teach my future students. Analogies between coaching and teaching seem to fit very well, and I see the meaning in them clearly. I use such an analogy when thinking of a teacher/coach setting precedent for language/rules in a learning community. For example, if I were a coach, how can expect to go into implementing an offense when I do not even know if my players have the fundamentals necessary to run the offense effectively. If they can't pass or dribble how can they do deeper things such as run plays or communicate different things to do to the other 4 teammates on the floor. This idea works in a classroom as well because how can I except a 10th grader to write a persuasive essay if they don't understand the structure of sentences or paragraphs. Understanding what you can do as a teacher as well as what the student can do in your particular subject is important to the language in classrooms. So what I take from this idea of language and rules is that the teacher needs to adapt what will be expected depending on the needs/strengths of his or her students.