Chapter 1: The Classroom and School Context

Josue. Mirabelle. Jackson. Deja…Taylor? Ms. Foster glances through the seating chart that she made during first period and attempts to picture each of the students who looked back at her today, on the first day of school. It is just 100 minutes into Ms. Foster’s first day as a teacher. The 22 names are the students in just one of her classes; there will be two more today and then three new ones tomorrow. The numbers will change over the course of the first two weeks, but based on the initial rosters, it’s likely to be about 150 total students. Karissa knows basic district demographics such as median income, race and ethnicity data, popular clubs and course offerings, and impressions of the school from the community based on some initial internet research. She feels a wave of nerves as she wonders: how in the world am I going to learn about these students? I’m struggling just to remember their names!

Teaching well is not the same as pinning ideas on Pinterest; it’s not even the same as borrowing or purchasing a unit of instruction and delivering it, whole cloth, to students. Instruction begins with the students and the teacher in the room. As those who are learning to teach progress through their coursework, It is a common phrase that teachers should know their students. But what is the best way to do that? This book is designed for those who already have some knowledge about the teaching profession, but who are still on the journey to developing specific pedagogical expertise. Learning to teach well cannot be done in one semester or even a few years–it takes several years of dedicated practice, reflection, and adjustments before one can be considered a skilled teacher.

All teachers are not the same. That is just one reason why schools can be such incredible places. In one day of ninth grade, a student can interact with a teacher who is fluent in three languages, another who can guide them to learn new musical instruments, and another who can look at just one week of their students’ writing and recommend a book they will like with nearly 100% accuracy. You will consider your own teaching persona and identity and the reasons for them as you read this text.

Many schools, districts, or teacher training programs will use a lesson planning template. As this text develops, we will identify the relevant aspects of a shared lesson template that is used in one teacher training program. This chapter provides guidance on the first two rows of this template, which are the first things to consider when planning a lesson: who are the students in the room, and why are you planning to teach this lesson to them?

Lesson Plan Template

Learning about Students and Schools

As you plan instruction for your students, there are many strategies–all free–to use to learn more about the schools where you will teach. Written reflection in the form of journaling or notes on lessons or units that you will revisit can be very useful. It is time consuming, challenging work, but when you work to learn as much as you can about the learners in the room, it will strengthen your teaching practice. One of the biggest ideas that is conveyed in early classes in teacher education programs is to know your students.

The Physical Environment

Once you enter the school, whether as a volunteer, substitute, or teacher, careful observation will reveal a wealth of information about the community. The decorations in the halls and classrooms; the clothing that students, teachers, and administrators wear; announcements (written and verbal) of what clubs, activities, and sports will occur each week; the messages that teachers give to each other and to students in common areas: these are all relevant and important sources of information. Consider a new principal who introduces himself to students with a reminder of a no-hoodie dress code rule, compared to one who sets aside her first two weeks to be devoted to listening and learning from students, teachers, and staff about what is important to them.

The layout of a school building can also affect the ways that students interact with each other and with adults. For example, “open classrooms”  were once popular in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in the United States, and have become popular again in some districts in recent years. The ways that teachers interact with other teachers, administrators, and students can be affected by the layout of a school or classroom. Imagine a warehouse-like open space with stations for various kinds of tasks; compare that to a classroom that is tightly packed with desks in rows. Sometimes a teacher cannot decide the room’s layout for themselves; in some schools, especially secondary schools, a teacher may move from room to room with their supplies on a rolling cart. Some schools use outdoor spaces for activities, lunch, or class meetings, while others may not have access to safe outdoor areas.

Figure 1.1:  Two Classroom Layouts

Consider the layout of the two rooms in Figure 1.1. What kinds of interactions would be possible or expected in each room? Where is the teacher likely to be in these two rooms? What is hanging on the wall now, and what could be added? Adding decorations can be engaging and help students recall information, but it can also be busy and distracting if the walls are covered in pictures and words. Remember that a teacher might not have control over the furniture or decor in the room, and sometimes the size of the class will mean that certain seat arrangements are not possible–and while a teacher in the first classroom above could have students follow a procedure for moving desks into small groups, sometimes that is not possible with certain classroom furniture. Often classrooms will have another space that we can’t see in these photos: the Learning Management System or a class website, where students might go to hand in assignments or access resources.

Student Demographics, Interests, and Opportunities

The earliest lessons about students can come through research before you even enter the building. The school and district websites can share demographic details such as race, ethnicity, gender, and percentages of students receiving free and reduced lunch. Home Language Surveys should show what languages your students speak at home. School websites or social media can reveal information such as what clubs and sports occur on campus and how students, teachers, and families interact in these spaces. Knowing this kind of information is a first step to knowing your students: what is important in their lives? What is their family structure like? Children have basic needs such as feeling safe and loved, and having food, shelter, and medical care (CDC, 2023). The kinds of experiences that kids have at home can affect the ways that they interact with their peers and teachers at school.

Students’ mental wellbeing and physical health is crucial to their school experience. Do students feel safe in the school buses, buildings, fields, and classrooms? One way that some teachers or schools support students’ basic needs is through care closets, where students can have access to snacks, meals, or personal care items such as lotion, tampons, or deodorant. Some students will have Individualized Education Plans or 504 plans, where they will have goals and services that teachers must know about in order to meet their needs. Through careful and consistent observation, a teacher might be the first person to notice that a child needs glasses to see the whiteboard or that feelings of intense anxiety emerge whenever a student is asked to take a high-stakes assessment.

Not all challenges and strengths are visible. It takes time and patience to learn about other people, and at times you may be shocked or surprised to learn about the details of a student’s situation. The most important lesson to remember is that learning is nearly impossible if one’s basic needs have not been met. No matter the grade or content area they teach, teachers must be aware of student needs and respond accordingly.

Shared Teaching and Learning Practices

The ways that teachers teach and students learn inside of a school building reveals a great deal about the values of the community. Once inside of a classroom, discussion–whether one-on-one interactions or in a small or large group–shows the amount of talk that students are expected to contribute in the classroom. The ways that they engage with their peers or listen, the language they use, whether eye contact is frequent or something that is uncommon in their culture, and the topics of conversation during casual moments can all serve as lessons about what is important to this community.

Many schools utilize a Professional Learning Community (PLC) structure, where teachers meet in small groups to co-plan instruction and analyze student data. A PLC may be formed in a variety of ways; for example, all of the following are examples of PLCs in a local school district:

• Third grade teachers in one elementary school
• History 8 teachers in one middle school
• Art teachers in all schools in the district
• Psychology and sociology teachers from all schools in the district

PLCs were conceived around the 1990’s; they can be effective but require thoughtful organization and attention to issues of leadership and communication (Stoll et al, 2006). As with nearly any policy in education, teacher buy-in is important for success. While the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for educators and students in myriad ways, one benefit in some schools and districts was that teachers were able to collaborate in new modalities and with teachers at other schools through tools like Zoom or Google Meets.

Practical Experience

In most teacher education programs, you will participate in varied classroom settings; this is often called a practicum, internship, or clinical experience. Just as doctors complete rotations and residencies, so too do teachers complete a period of observation as they learn to teach. A skill to hone early in a teaching career that will serve you well in life seems simple, but is actually deceptively complicated: how to observe. This chapter has described some parameters to observe to learn about students and schools. Being present in a classroom as an observer deepens the kinds of lessons that you can learn. When you are in a classroom or other educational setting, consider the following questions:

• What am I looking for?
• What is important here?
• What is the goal of this lesson?
• How do students respond to the teacher’s actions?
• How does the teacher respond to the students’ actions?
• Why did the teacher decide to teach this content in this way?

In addition to learning how to observe, teachers must know how to reflect. The only way we can become skilled, experienced teachers is to reflect frequently on what we see occur in the classroom. Skilled teachers are able to handle many things in the classroom at once. It is almost as if some teachers have eyes in the back of their heads. One way to get to this place is to hone your powers of observation, whether you are completing a practicum experience or working in a classroom as a teacher. Here is a short list of situations that occurred within just 30 seconds of a recent class period in Algebra 2:

• Jill glanced at the clock, and then down at her phone.
• Malik asked Max if he was going to the homecoming dance next weekend.
• Tyler began drumming a pencil on the desk.
• Fiona pulled out the book Poet X and began reading
• Riley rushed through some homework problems that were due at the beginning of class.
• JP put his head down on the desk and closed his eyes.

What might have happened just before these events that led them to occur? What were the reasons that each student made these choices? A teacher couldn’t possibly learn about or react to every single one of them, but every student has life experiences outside of the class, and they continue during and after class, every day. Each class meeting is one tiny moment in their lives, and when a teacher takes the steps to understand each student’s story, the chances are better that students will be invested in the content. Anyone observing in a classroom should ask the above questions and many others, such as

• What can I take away from this experience?
• In what ways does the teacher attempt to engage with the students?
• How does the teacher use technology, and why?
• What kind of messages has the teacher sent to students’ families, and how were those messages received (positively, negatively, etc.)?

Equity

Equity and equality are two distinct terms that are often confused. Figure 1.2 illustrates the difference between these two terms.

Figure 1.2:  Equity vs. Equality

Sometimes people believe that everyone should have the exact same experience, or the situation is not fair.  The root word of equality is “equal,” which focuses on the same treatment. In the first image depicting equality, we see three people reaching for apples off the tree while standing on the same-size boxes. Some people might define this situation as “fair” because every person was provided with the same box. However, if the goal is to get apples off the tree, we see how providing the same-sized box does not achieve this goal. The person who happens to be tall can reach the apples without needing the box, and the person who happens to be short still cannot reach the apple, even with the help of the box.

The second illustration depicts equity. If the goal is for every individual to reach the apples, each person will need unique, differentiated support. Some people would argue that this situation is “fair” because everyone has a similar opportunity to experience success. This is the guiding principle behind equity: individuals need varying forms of support to reach their full potential.

There are many examples of situations where you may have had help achieving a goal or completing a task–maybe you used a stepladder to reach a high shelf that a tall person might not have needed, or maybe you asked a friend to lend you money for lunch because you forgot your wallet. Equality would force everyone to use a stepladder to reach a high shelf, or for your friend to give everyone in the class the same amount of money because you forgot your lunch. Equity acknowledges that additional support is needed in specific situations and for specific individuals. As teachers, we recognize that infusing equity into our instruction requires providing personalized supports to allow all learners to achieve success. Additionally, the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) asserts, “one-size fits all curriculum perpetuates normative ideologies and othering that marginalizes particular students and groups. Ideal rights are routinely violated for students and groups who do not fit into White middle-class, heterosexual and English speaking models” (n.d.-b, “Equity,” para. 1.).

A guiding point: if you don’t believe that all students deserve respect and high-quality instruction, then you should not seek employment in a public school. It is that simple. As Professor of Education at the University of Mary Washington Kyle Schultz notes,

Even teachers who believe all students deserve respect and high quality instruction must take care to consider their biases. Many biases are subtle, unintentional, and the product of our environments. Because [some student]  needs may not apply to others, we need to have a more individualized approach to equity, ensuring each person gets what they specifically need to have their needs met” (personal communication, May 2023).

As humans, our brains are wired to sort new experiences into “folders” based on our previous experiences. This tendency can lead to bias; therefore, “although we may try to be neutral, we all have values, beliefs, and predispositions that impact how we relate to others” (NAME, n.d.-a, para. 1). Some examples of how implicit bias can impact our teaching are making assumptions by gender (i.e., assuming that boys are more likely to want to help move heavy furniture, or that girls are less likely to want to volunteer for a STEM experiment), race (i.e., assuming that your African American male students want to grow up to be football players, or that your Latino/a students do not speak English well), and other identities. There are various measures of implicit bias that can be found online, such as the Implicit Association Test available through Harvard University’s Project Implicit. It is important to process these results and consider next steps on your journey to understanding your own personal biases and from where they originate.

Theories of Education

While many scholars have written about the overreliance of theory in teacher training programs and a need for more practice-centered instruction, it is important to note that modern systems of education draw on several foundational theories. Many educators today are influenced by the writings of John Dewey, an educational theorist known for developing hands-on instructional methods such as field trips or running a school store. Another popular theorist was Maria Montessori, who believed in teaching students about practical knowledge and working through lessons in a student-led way with the guidance of a teacher. In Montessori preschools, children complete lessons in handwashing and cooking, and sometimes even host celebrations for families where they serve the food they prepared. One way that the general public will have heard of educational theories like these is through preschools or private schools, which are often developed in the tradition of a single educational theorist; in addition to Montessori, Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf philosophy is another one that many may have encountered. Waldorf schools stress the importance of creative play and outdoor time. Montessori and Waldorf are most commonly found in preschools, although some extend into middle or even high school. It is important to note that the United States does not offer free, universal access to preschool, although a few states and many other countries do; this means that not all students have the same access to evidence-based–or at least consistent–instruction.

Systems of behavior management also derive from various educational theorists. What happens in a school when a student does not complete assigned work or commits what might be perceived by others as an infraction? Different educational theorists might answer that question in different ways. Here are some possible outcomes, with related theorists named after each one (see Drew, 2023 for these and more examples):

• The student loses one of their five “free homework passes” (Skinner)
• The student receives a failing grade (Canter and Canter)
• The student is offered the chance to resubmit work, correct behavior, or retool the assignment to suit their needs (Kohn)
• The student is asked to take a break and refocus so they can be successful (Glasser)

In Appendix A you will find a series of videos of educational theorists. Many more exist, and other courses in your teacher training program will likely introduce you to their work in greater depth; however, it is important to be aware that most of our current practices in education come from the work of theorists, researchers, and scholars who taught or learned from the work of teachers and students throughout history. You will form your own theories based on a variety of factors; be aware of whether you are developing or testing a theory or acting randomly or without all of the facts you have available to you.

Classrooms have changed over the years, and they look different across various countries and even within the same county or district; however, considering how and why a school or district has certain policies will help teachers, families, and students understand more about what to expect in the future.

Modern Schools

Today’s schools face significant challenges presented by current global, political, and social events, but are also equipped with new modern approaches to innovation to address these challenges. At this moment in time (2023), the state of United States schools can be alarming or unsettling. Whether it is the threat of gun violence and school shootings, a need for mental health support, book banning, or politically charged policies that affect students and teachers, it is a challenging time to learn how to teach. Some elections in 2022 were won on the basis of spreading fear and confusion about Critical Race Theory (CRT), which is a graduate-level framework developed by scholars including Derrick Bell and Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to explain racial inequity (Fortin, 2021). While ideas such as the lingering effects of slavery in America may be discussed, many experts in education agree that CRT is not explicitly taught in K-12 schools (Anderson, 2022). Two similar acronyms are Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) or Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT); these are and should be a key part of teachers’ practice. Practicing CRP involves knowing students well, respecting their individual differences, and helping them feel safe and supported in school (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018).

The events during and after the COVID-19 pandemic led some students and families to consider alternatives to public schools in ever-increasing numbers. Of course, not all families have the means to send their children to private schools or the time and expertise to homeschool them, which raises concerns about equity. In the fall of 2020, in the town where I (Janine) live, some kids–including my own children–attended school on Zoom because their public schools were shuttered. Each day would be a juggling act of who was on Zoom when, what devices were charged, and who was completing what asynchronous work. Then we would drive past some private schools where large groups of kids ate lunch outside on a grassy field. When lunch concluded, they would don masks and troop inside to learn in person. It was tempting to offer my own children that experience, but by that point those schools were at capacity.

Even teachers are leaving the profession at alarming rates, fueled by these events and other concerns. Scrolling on social media such as TikTok, Reddit, or Twitter reveals many examples of teachers who have decided on another career path. At the same time, sites and apps like these also show teachers who have personalized greeting rituals with their students, care closets in the classroom, and engaging songs or dances that they do with students to get their attention and meet their needs before they even begin to start delivering the curriculum.

The COVID-19 pandemic also produced innovations that continue today. Many schools embraced new, comprehensive Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Canvas that increased the ability for teachers to communicate with students and families and build logical and engaging classes. Another goal in many schools that may have been jumpstarted by the pandemic is teaching content in interdisciplinary, technology-enhanced ways and increasing opportunities for critical and creative thinking. While there are still many unknowns, artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and LessonPlans.ai offer some ways to simplify the work of both teachers and students.

Teaching is challenging work; this career is not for everyone. Those who teach well are skilled at observation, reflection, and interaction. Teaching is vital, empowering, and crucial work. This book has been designed to support you on your journey to teaching: we are glad you’re here.

References

Anderson, J. (2022, February 23). Harvard edCast: The state of critical race theory in education. Harvard Graduate School of Education website. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/22/02/harvard-edcast-state-critical-race-theory-education

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Child Development Basics. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/facts.html

Darling-Hammond, L., & Cook-Harvey, C. M. (2018). Educating the whole child: Improving school climate to support student success. Learning Policy Institute.

Drew, C. (2023). Thirteen effective classroom management theories. https://helpfulprofessor.com/classroom-management/

Fortin, J. (2021, November 8). Critical race theory: A brief history. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-critical-race-theory.html

Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Press.

National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) (n.d.-a). How do I know if my biases affect my teaching? https://www.nameorg.org/learn/how_do_i_know_if_my_biases_aff.php

National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) (n.d.-b). What is equity? https://www.nameorg.org/learn/what_is_equity.php

Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221-258.