Firestone Experience (Kist)

Given the resources, or lack thereof, that we had at Firestone High School, I think that it may be a bit difficult to include multi-modalities into test preparation. However, I think that this issue will be different when I have my own classroom. Including multi-modal literacy into test preparation will benifit students. One idea that I stumbled upon on the Internet was http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/readwritethink-notetaker-30055.html?tab=4#tabs This interactive web-based note taker shows students how to make an outline. This tool would be useful in teaching how to respond to an essay prompt on the OGT. I noticed that my student did not pre-write before responding to the prompt unless I made her do it. Pre-writing and outlining are essential tools that aid students in their response to essay prompts. This interactive tool can present outlining in a fresh way that may be more appealing to students.

Another fun multi-modal idea to use in the classroom is music. I found this song on the Internet that deals with vocabulary. Give it a listen! http://www.songsforteaching.com/fillyourhead/iaintgot.htm This website is full of songs that are fun and educational. This song on vocabulary would serve as a sufficient model for a project. Students could prepare songs that help with test taking. They could take one teacher-approved idea and write a song about it. (It could be something about process of elimination, think aloud, etc.) Then all the groups could present during a class period. The students serving as an audience would take notes about each groups presentation. Not only would this experience be fun but students would remember the material and be excited to share it with the class!

Another interesting multi-modal way to help prepare students for tests would be through photography. Students could be assigned a few vocabulary words. Then students could then take photos of what those words mean and present them to the class. (The teacher would approve the photos beforehand, of course.) The photos may be literal or abstract. This exercise would help students learn to visualize what words mean and would help make learning vocabulary concrete. This idea of thinking in images would then translate to the thinking process that students go through while taking a test. Using multi-modality in the classroom engages students and thrives on an educator's creativity.

While working with my student at Firestone it became apparent to me that she had little knowledge of vocabulary and test taking skills. She also did not mark up the text as she read. I think that common sense things that are not taught in the classroom should be taught explicitly. Teachers are assuming that students are actively reading. Teachers also assume that students know how to use context clues to figure out what words mean. In my future classroom I'd like to explicitly teach independent reading and I'd also like to teach the thought process behind figuring out new words-- not just giving my students a list of vocabulary words to memorize for Friday's quiz. I also think that it would be helpful to hold a test-taking workshop in preparation for the OGT. I think dedicating one or two class periods to explicitly explain test-taking strategies would be beneficial for students.

There is a huge emphasis placed on test preparation in the modern American high school. I think that if teachers taught beyond the test there wouldn't be such an emphasis on whether or not students can pass a standardized test. Tests are black and white, multiple choice, and irrelevant to the modern definition of literacy. In real life students are confronted with colorful images, music, websites, television, and other texts that they read. It may be hard for students to concentrate on standardized tests because the way it is presented to them is foreign. They are used to more stimulation. Using a multi-modal approach to teach test-taking strategies may help close that gap between the world outside of the classroom and the standardized testing world. As a future teacher I want the material that I teach to stick. I'm willing to use multi-modality to achieve that.

One classroom issue that I noticed at Firestone was the lack of technology. One day, while I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the teachers lounge, I asked some teachers if there was a laptop cart or something that teachers could reserve for students to use in the classroom. I found it quite disgusting that the two teachers I asked could not answer my question. They had both been teaching at the school for at least three years apiece. I'm not sure if the school didn't have the equipment because of funding issues or if the teachers didn't look into using the resources that are available due to his or her own laziness. The worst idea that I had was that maybe the teachers thought that the students were not capable of completing assignments that challenged them. I noticed a lot of teachers that didn't seem to have hope in their students-- this posed the most problematic classroom issue to me. I will always challenge my students. I will always believe that they are capable to amount to something greater. This is where multi-modality comes into play. It is not easy to incorporate multi-modal literacies into test preparation or into the classroom in general. Teachers must be creative and put forth extra effort to include such things into their practice. I don't think that a classroom should completely revolve around technology but I think that including multi-modal elements into the classroom will benefit the students and help them connect their learning.

As a future educator I hope to have enough creativity and drive to include things into my classroom that create extra work for me. It's selfish for teachers to want to do the minimum because ultimately students are the ones that suffer. I saw too many teachers at Firestone scraping by with the bare minimum. I hope to establish a dynamic classroom and is booming with learning and I'm willing to go the extra mile and include multi-modality into my teaching to achieve that goal.