Adolescence and Literature:

Establishing a one way route for teaching adolescents would limit the options available for teachers to
succeed in the classroom. Because there is no one way to teach all adolescents, my teaching philosophy
includes various research based strategies and methods that have helped me to understand the learning
process of an adolescent in the classroom; more importantly, how to make my instruction effective and
applicable to each of their lives.

Designing and Implementing Instruction:

Some instructional strategies I believe to be effective in the classroom are:
Pre-reading activities help students understand the context of the text before introducing the content.
These activities help students retrieve prior knowledge and allows me to build new content, especially
new vocabulary that students will be introduced to for the first time.
Instruction should be active just as John Dewey described in his philosophy of progressive education. This
type of instruction is concerned with the engagement of students throughout the lesson through visuals,
movement, color, and practice. I believe instruction will be effective with technology integration, hands-on
activities, and group discussions. Of course, time management has to be established in each activity.
Giving students choice is a strategy I learned from Deborah Appleman for motivating students to learn. In
specific occasions, I will allow students to choose from different novels and where they would like to
experience literature. These include ideas such as reading in the library, reading in literature circles, and in
book club form. If students have this choice, literature can be experienced, and it can enhance students
thinking process and create self-agency.
I believe in different types of assessments. Formative assessments should be practiced daily in the
classroom, it is the only way for teachers to evaluate whether learning is taking place in class. Also, I
support project-based assessment, they allow students to demonstrate their interdisciplinary skills in
conjunction with the content they have acquired.

Classroom Environment:
For me, building a sense of community in the classroom is
effective for student learning. I will have a variety of seating
arrangements that promote collaboration, such as groups, pairs,
and semi-circle seating. I will display students work as a way to
motivate them. In my classroom, I plan to have decorations on
the walls that lighten up the room and make students feel
excited about learning.

Professional Responsibilities:
The best way to improve as a teacher is to continue learning. My goal is to acquire as much knowledge as I can
to improve my instruction through workshops, conferences, and research. I accept that even though I am the
expert, I am still a learner, and this will give me great success in the classroom.