Cox Barker 1

Teaching Philosophy
What is my belief in teaching? Have I been programed as an essentialist? What
do I want for my classroom? What do I want for my students? Where do I go now that I
am out of the classroom? How much of my philosophy CAN I CONTROL?
I may not have all the answers but I know a few things for certain: 1) I believe in
constructivism, 2) I believe in social constructivism, 3) I believe in a collaborative
approach, 4) I believe technology must be integrated and 5) Parent Involvement has an
impact on student success.
Theory Base
I have learned about the work of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner.
They believed in active learning and scaffolding. Bruner created the Constructivist
theory. In this theory students construct their own learning with a hands on studentcentered approach. The teacher acts as a guide to support students current and past
knowledge through spiraling curriculum, active dialog, and schema building. This allows
a student to transform their knowledge into useful information (Culatta, 2013). Vygotsky
and Bruner addressed the social aspect of learning. Vygotskian sociocultural theories
focus on social interaction and shared cognition (Beam, Williams, Bridgman, 2013).
Constructivism and Social Constructivism are the foundations for my classroom
curriculum.
I believe students are the center of the classroom. On of my goals for teaching is
to allow students the ability to receive knowledge through explicit instruction, practice
with knowledge, and translation into their own learning. Pearson & Gallagher (1983)
referred to this as the gradual release model, this notion is related to instructional

Cox Barker 2
scaffolding which is grounded in Vygotskys concept of the Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD) (Wikipedia, 2015).
A companion approach to social constructivism is the collaborative approach. In
the collaborative approach students depend on one another, they are part of a classroom
of diverse learners, all together to share their knowledge, ideas, and support. I am a fan of
Kagan Structures. These structures foster students ability to create new learning, build on
their own, and scaffold language skills. Collaborative approaches also include skills of
the 21st century. 21st century skills require students to incorporate technology into
everyday learning. They may be collaborating with a blog discussion, creating Animotos
or working independently on an Educreation, whatever they are doing it is active
cognitive work within their ZPD. Outside of classroom theories, Joyce Epstein developed
a parent involvement framework. This framework allows parents to be an important part
of the school and community decision making process, as well as developing parenting
skills to help support students, and create home-school communication.
Developing my Instructional Practices
A shift in teaching happened not too long ago. I was able to move away from
teacher manual fidelity to teacher manual support and now we can throw our
manuals in the corner and discovery our own methods of instruction to meet the needs of
the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). CCSS are the foundations for my classroom.
They guide my instruction, but they dont help me scaffold my instruction. I still use my
manuals as a base for my instruction. I use the Core Teaching Resource book, Debbie
Millers Reading with Meaning, and Explicit Instruction by Archer and Hughes to help
guide my literacy instruction.

Cox Barker 3
I believe students need direct explicit instruction, followed by practice with that
instruction. Students are only released to create their own learning when the teacher has
guided them. Anita Archer and Charles Hughes write, students should construct or
discover knowledge themselves via exposure to information-rich environments, and that
the teacher primary role should be guiding students as they construct their own
knowledge in response to experiential activities, rather than actively role structuring
curricula and presenting content to student (2011). This may seem like an essentialist
approach however, it is a necessary to create a foundation for constructivism in literacy.
Literacy Development
I strongly believe in an explicit approach to teaching reading. I believe beginning
readers need structured phonics instruction and direct teaching of comprehension of
fiction and informational texts. Students should be exposed to complex texts through read
aloud. These texts allow students to develop vocabulary and language skills, build
comprehension skills, and understand connections being made within the text. I believe
students should be exposed to a variety of texts including books that explore culture,
history, nonfiction, fiction, decodable books, picture books, chapter books, and digital
texts.
My reading lessons start daily with 20 minutes explicit instruction. This is often
explicit phonics instruction based on CCSS. During this time students receive the explicit
instruction, collaborate with their peers during a buddy buzz time, and have the
opportunity to practice their newly learned and practiced skills during readers workshop.
Readers workshop is a constructivist approach. During the workshop time
students are achieving goals set forth for them as created by teacher/student. Students

Cox Barker 4
work within their ZPD, and creating or finding their own knowledge within their
independent work time. When workshop comes to a close, students collaborate and share
their learning. I not only apply this approach to reading I also apply workshop to writing,
in my primary class the gradual release model for writing includes an I do a lot of We
do- and a small amount of You do. As the year progresses and they are able to build selfconfidence and will be gradually released into more You do.
My Classroom as a Digital Space
The constructivist and collaboration approach fit very nicely with the 21st century.
I have recently come to love technology in my classroom. I love the social aspect it can
bring. I love the ability for students to construct using apps and web-based programs. It
allows my students to blog post, self check, clarify when they have misunderstandings,
and best of all my struggling readers can use the device to record their writing before they
write. Technology provides students with an excellent way to monitor their own learning.
Students may be asked to use an app to create a lesson on prefixes. This not only permits
them see what they know, it allows me to see through their thinking giving me the
opportunity to provide immediate feedback. The collaboration is amazing as well, if they
have to construct something with a group, all students can have devices, which allows
them to really be part of the group.
Parent Involvement for Classroom Improvement
Parents play an important role in my classroom. Students from all socioeconomic
backgrounds have parents that support their child receiving an education. I dont often
think parents know how to express their support but it is there. As a teacher I strive to
include parents in my classroom. I may do this with a communication journal, using

Cox Barker 5
email, or an app that lets me send messages without using my personal phone number. I
have found when I am more open and honest with parents concerning their child I will
receive better support from them. Parent involvement is a way to improve educational
outcomes for poor and underachieving students (McKenna & Millen, 2013, p. 14;
McLaughlin & Shields, 1987).
Next Steps
Now that I am out of the classroom, my next steps are to help teachers discover
the beauty of a constructivist approach. Many teachers are still stuck following
essentialism after all our years with teaching manuals. I want teachers to see the power
technology can hold and how important collaboration is. My goal is to help teachers find
who they want to be. Can they answer the questions I posed at the beginning? I am still
working on it.

Cox Barker 6

References
Archer, A. L. & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction. New York, NY: The Guilford
Press.
Beam, S. L., Williams, C., & Bridgman, B. L. (2013). Trends in literacy research of
elementary learners. The Ohio Reading Teacher 43 (1), 3-13.
Epstein, J. (2008). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for
action. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Ganly, S. (2012). Educational philosophies in the classroom. Retrieved from
http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/cte/ncteb-edphil.pdf
Gradual release of responsibility, (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2015, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradual_release_of_responsibility
Kagan, S. & Kagan, Miguel (2009). Kagan cooperative learning 2nd edition. San
Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing.
McKenna, M. K. & Millen, J. (2013). Look! Listen! Learn! Parent narratives and
grounded theory models of parent voice, presence, and engagement in K-12
education. School Community Journal, 23(1), 9-48.
Monteil-Overall, P. (2005). Toward a theory of collaboration for teachers and librarians.
School Library Media Research 8, 1-31. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org
van Compernolle, R.A. & Williams, L. (2012). Promoting sociolinguistic competence in
the classroom zone of proximal development. Language Teaching Research 16(1),
39-60.
Vesisenaho, M., Valtonen, T., Kukkonen, J., Havu-Nuutinen, S., Hartikainen, A., &
Karkkainen, S. (2010). Blended learning with everyday technologies to activate
students collaborative learning. Science Education International 21(4), 272-283.

Cox Barker 7