Pose Portfolio #2

Pose: Providing opportunities for my students to be vulnerable and transparent with me

through writing.

Principles of Pose (What it looks like in action):

1) Allow students space within my classroom to openly and critically question the
world around them.

2) Engage with student resistance and work to genuinely understand why it is

happening.

3) Creating a transparent space within my classroom by welcoming diverse opinions

and stories in a respectful manner.

4) Be self-critical in practice, and allow myself to be flexible and open to student

input/agency within my classroom.

Why I Chose this Pose:

My pose directly relates to and builds upon my first pose: remaining vulnerable and
transparent with my students, even through difficult situations. As I have stated before, Being
vulnerable is a part of who I am as a person. I enjoy wholeheartedly sharing the different
facets of my life and myself - the exciting, the difficult, the confusing - to the people around
me - friends, professors, students, strangers. Ultimately, those facets not only make up who
I am as an individual, but they pave the way for how I have and continue to perceive and
value the world around me. I have learned to embrace my ability to easily be transparent
with people, particularly my students. It has been my way to help students feel at ease
within my classroom as well as kick start the learning-process.
The high-achieving atmosphere that embeds itself within Grand Rapids City High
School places quite a bit of emphasis on standardized testing and rigid summative
assessments. Subsequently, teachers seem to get overwhelmed with the demands placed
upon them to produce, while students lose themselves in the rigor of their classes. As a
result, the value for authenticity and creativity seems to go astray in practice - remaining
only alive in theory. Throughout my internship thus far, I have shown students my own
vulnerability by continuously working to position myself as another learner within the
classroom. Even though I am very transparent with my students, getting them to
authentically open up to me is a bit more difficult. In the past few weeks, I have come to
find that engaging with student resistance is a vehicle to really building relationships with
students. Any form of resistance a student displays, more often than not, is his/her first
attempt at being vulnerable -- a test, if you will, to see how much a teacher cares to
understand the reasoning behind his/her resistance. Therefore, I am learning that the more
I engage with these different forms of resistance, the more I learn about my students, and
thus, use what I learn about them to adapt lessons and units that more thoroughly cater to
their needs.

Methods of Practice:

1) Journaling

I have found that I learn quite a bit about my students through reading the in-class journals
I have them write. For one journal in particular, I had students watch a TED Talk by
Kathryn Schultz titled, On Being Wrong. The talk centers around the whole idea of why
we as humans hate being wrong, both in school and in life. Schultz clearly and effectively
connects her argument to how students may sometimes feel during discussion and just
school in general sometimes, as well as emphasizes the importance of being receptive to
ideas and opinions you may not necessarily agree with. Ultimately, Schultz sheds light on
the idea that being wrong is not only an acceptable and natural aspect of being human, but
being wrong is also essential for learning in many cases. Upon watching the TED Talk, I
asked students to respond to the following prompt:
What is the overall argument Schultz is making about human nature when it comes to
being wrong? Do you agree with her argument? Why or why not? How do you react when
you realize you are wrong about something? Why do you think you react like this? Reflect on
an incident or incidents either in school or in your life in general where you were wrong to the
point where you felt humiliated, incompetent, or maybe even inadequate. How has this past
incident(s) affected the way you approach situations where you openly share your opinion to
others (class discussions, conversations with friends/parents/teachers)? Has it made you
more or less receptive of others opinions when they differ from yours? How can we take the
message from this video and apply it to future class discussions and activities in this English
class?

Analysis:

Through writing, students tend to be more vulnerable, especially when they are writing a
reflective prompt within a journal. I wanted to give students who are normally reserved
and/or resistant during class the opportunity to let me get to know them on a deeper level.
Many of my students recounted vivid memories of being humiliated by past teachers, peers,
parents, and friends for being wrong. Their responses were not only genuine and
thoughtful, but their accounts shed light onto who each of them were not just as students,
but as people.

2) Exit Slips

I used exit slips as a means of gaining a better understanding for why one of our class
discussions/literature circles was not deemed productive or beneficial during one
particular class period. I stopped the discussion about 20 minutes earlier than normal and
asked students to take out a piece of paper and reflect on how they personally interpreted
the discussion overall and how they felt about class discussions as a whole.

Analysis:

I found the exit slips were a great way for me to actively engage with student resistance in a
manner that allowed my students to write down their genuine feelings regarding what they
think of class discussions as a whole -- I wanted to give them voice in the matter rather
than just scold them for not reading/coming to class prepared for the day. The exit slips,
though many of them were not more than a paragraph in length, shed light into some deep
rooted insecurities, frustrations, and struggles my students consistently grapple with
during school. One particular student opened up to me in her exit slip and told me she
struggles with dyslexia; therefore, completing and keeping up with all of the reading and
writing in the class is very hard for her. I was very thankful that she brought this to my
attention, and as a result we have scheduled time after school to meet and read and talk
about the class texts together. I will also be giving her extra help with the next big essay
due in January.

*There is a student sample of an exit slip attached at the bottom of the portfolio

Reflection:

One of the biggest challenges I have faced is knowing how exactly to approach and engage
with student resistance in all of its many forms. I will be honest, there are times when it is
very hard to not jump to assumptions about a particular students behavior. I have made a
continuous and conscious effort to step back during moments where I feel compelled to
shut down student resistance, and instead hear the student out completely. Ultimately,
reflective writing done by my students has been the most successful vehicle for me to
utilize when working to engage with resistance, whether this resistance come in the form
of explicit push back, or mere silence. When I am able to understand where my students
are coming from, I can create lessons that cater to their individual needs, which, in turn,
optimizes success for them on all fronts.

Questions:

1) Am I actively engaging with student resistance in a way that is not undermining my

authority as a leader in the classroom?
2) Is there such thing as too much resistance?
3) Are my writing prompts providing students enough opportunity to express
vulnerability to me?