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Chalsey Slaughterbeck

SED 464

Anthony

13 October 2019

SA Rules and Procedures

Beginning/End of Class Procedures

Starting off class with a writing assignment/discussion is something that I believe will

help transition students from outside of class to inside class. Students will walk into class with a

warm-up question already on the board to work on for the first couple minutes while I take

attendance. The warm-up will usually have something to do with the reading they were assigned

the night before, so that they will be ready for a class discussion on the text. I also want to assign

warm-ups to gage how the students are understanding the material. Some of the books may be

confusing to people, so by discussing a warm-up about what we just read, I can see how much

the students understand what’s happening.

Along with warm-ups, I also want to start off the class by stating learning objectives. By

stating objectives, students will be able to track their learning from the beginning to the end of a

lesson. If they start out knowing what they are supposed to get out of the lesson, they will be able

to understand whether they got what they needed out of the lesson. An example of a learning

objective would be, “Students will be able to write a claim and provide evidence”. While going

through the lesson, I can check periodically for understanding by stopping the lesson, referring

back to the learning objective, and then rating themselves on a scale of 1-3 (1 being the don’t

understand it still and 3 being they understand it completely).

To end class, I want to give students the opportunity to have some time for themselves.

Their ticket to be able to start their “free time” would be their ratings on the learning objective

that was talked about above. Based on things I’ve witnessed in my internship and my own

experiences in high school, students pay more attention during class time when you give them

the opportunity to use their phones at the end of class or to work on homework. I plan on

allotting the last 10 minutes of class for this, so that they can actively participate during class.

They would also have some time to complete their homework for my class in these 10 minutes if

they wanted to. That way, they could get the reading done ahead.

Seating Arrangements

Since I am looking at becoming an English teacher, I want to have an open seating

arrangement. During normal class time (lectures, vocabulary units, activities, etc.), I want to

have students seated in groups. This way they can work on activities together, ask each other for

help, and engage in discussion. I am okay with volume within my classroom, as long as it is

productive conversations. Since group seating can get out of hand very quickly, I will be walking

around the room during the activities so that I can keep students on task.

During discussion time (Socratic seminars, class discussions, presentations), I want to

move my seating into a large circle. This would allow me to see if students are engaged, make

eye contact with the student speaking, and encourage a safe space to share opinions. A circle

seating arrangement for this portion of class is very essential for the type of lessons I want to be

able to implement in my future classroom.

To transition between activities, it will depend on the seating arrangement and the type of

activity that we are doing. I want to start off with a structure that follows a warm-up, discussion,

activity, and reflection. To move between each of the components, I will move students around
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the classroom (either into groups, individual seating, or into a circle). Based on the seating

arrangement, the students should know what kind of activity we will be doing that day. Along

with this, I will also transition between activities by stating the learning objective and directions

for the next activity. That way they know when we are starting something new because they’ll

have a new learning objective.

Managing Student Work

To manage student work, I want to be able to have separate bins for each class period.

Each period would have a “Homework” and “Late Work” bin. Homework would be due at the

beginning of class with no exceptions and students would place their assignment into the

“Homework” bin for their class period. If a student doesn’t complete it on time, their assignment

would be considered late. Late work would be anything that is turned in any time after the due

date. Students will be penalized for late work, with 10% being taken off for every day that the

assignment is turned in late. This doesn’t include weekends; I would only include school days in

my late work policy.

If a student is absent on the day an assignment is due, they will have the same amount of

days they are absent to turn in the assignment. For example, if a student misses 4 days, they will

have up to 4 days to submit the assignment to me. This would only be for absences that the

student shares with me beforehand (at least the day before). If a student misses class the day an

assignment is due (such as an essay), they will be responsible for emailing me the assignment

regardless by the time my class starts. Special circumstances and emergencies would be handled

separately, but the student would be responsible for talking to me before, after class, or by email

to let me know what is going on.

Miscellaneous/Procedures Addressed in the Syllabus

Students and parents will be responsible for reading and understanding my classroom

procedures. In the syllabus, I will go over all of my classroom procedures along with procedures

for parents. This is a portion that I am choosing to include because I want parents to also

understand their role in my class. Together, the students and parents will both sign a form that

states that they have read and understand the syllabus so that there are no disputes.

For parents, I will provide a separate email address that they can utilize to contact me

with any needs, concerns, or problems that arise. This would help to keep everything separate

and organized so that parents can feel like I genuinely want them to be a part of my classroom.

Through this email, they can schedule any face to face meetings that they would want to address

any concerns that they have. I want to make parents feel better about their concerns regarding

their student, but also keep it separate and establish that it is still my classroom.

Grading is one of the procedures that I will go over in my syllabus very in depth. I

believe that grading is very subjective to the class that you teach and your philosophy of

education, and that there is more to measure a student’s achievement than grades. Because of this

belief, my grading style is going to be different than a lot of traditional English teachers. Most of

the smaller assignments for my class are going to be graded based on completion points,

discussions are going to be graded on participation, and essays are going to be graded on

understanding the material. Instead of grading my papers based on conventions, grammar, and

the ability to construct a compelling essay, I want to focus more on the student’s ability to take

what they’ve read/learned and be able to apply it. I feel like that demonstrates more academic

achievement than being able to format an essay correctly.

A sample of an essay prompt that I could use for my classroom in the future would be,

“What is one theme that is present in ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott. Fitzgerald and how can that
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theme be seen in both the novel and society today?”. This prompt would allow for many

different responses and creative answers that would demonstrate a student’s understanding of

both the novel and the themes present within it.