Mastery of Learning Paper 1

Mastery of Learning Paper

Dean Smith

Arizona State University

Mastery of Learning Paper 2
Mastery of Learning Paper

When I think about the type of teacher I want to be, there are several qualities that come

to mind. Caring, funny, respectful, engaging, understanding, and competent. These qualities are

the characteristics that will help me be a great teacher. There are four key ideas that I have

learned this past year that I plan to incorporate into my future classroom to ensure that I become

the teacher that I want to be. The first concept is to utilize student’s “funds of knowledge”. The

second concept that I plan to implement in my future classroom is to create a highly visual

classroom. The third idea is to construct mental scaffolding to ensure that students are able to

enter and remain in their “zone of proximal development”. The fourth idea to utilize small and

partner group discussions consistently throughout the school year. These key ideas also

contribute to creating a sense of community within my classroom. Maintaining a strong sense of

community within the classroom is important to me as an educator because of how well it aligns

with my philosophy as an educator. All of these concepts coupled together will help me not only

become the teacher that I want to be, but also it allows me to best support all of my students,

especially those who are emerging bilinguals.

As previously mentioned, the first key idea that I plan to implement into my future

classroom to allow me to become the teacher that I want to be is to build upon and to utilize my

students’ funds of knowledge. Funds of knowledge are the personal experiences that every

person had experienced (Gonzales 2005). These experiences often provide the student with

unique insights that can be related to and shared with the class in a discussion. By gaining access

to students’ funds of knowledge students are better able to acclimate to the classroom community

by bringing light to their unique experiences. This is especially useful for students who are
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emerging bilingual and it also allows the other students to potentially gain insight into new

cultures, further adding value to the classroom environment.

Studies such as Gonzales 2005 have shown when the content being presented in class is

culturally relevant to the students, especially those who are English Language Learners, ELLs,

students are more likely to engage and participate since they’re able to relate the content with the

funds of knowledge, especially previously acquired knowledge. If I were to implement this key

idea into my future classroom then my future students will have an easier process of contributing

to a strong sense of community within the classroom. This key idea will help me become the

teacher that I want to become because it best supports my Emerging Bilingual students.

The second key idea that I plan to implement into my future classroom is to ensure that I

create a highly visual classroom. This could look like filling the walls with academic posters that

help provide classroom instruction or even filling the walls with images and posters of course

relevant content. Creating a visual classroom also means to use handouts or something visual to

support the lesson. An example of this would be to print the transcript of the speech or video so

that students can follow along while listening as well. This strategy has been proven to benefit

not only the students who are visual learners, but also the students who are Emerging Bilingual

because it creates more exposure to the language and provides students more experience with

listening and reading the new language.

Implementing this second key idea into my future classroom also contributes to

developing that sense of community within the classroom. Creating a visual classroom

environment could allow students to contribute to the posters on the walls by creating a poster

that has cultural relevance to the current content being taught and the student’s unique
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background. This also allows for students to form more meaningful connections since they can

relate the content to their funds of knowledge.

The third key idea that I plan to implement into my future classroom is to utilize mental

scaffolding to ensure that students are able to enter and remain within their zone of proximal

development. The zone of proximal development is a theory created by Soviet psychologist Lev

Vyotsky. This theory presented the idea that students need to be challenged to a certain extent, to

be able to best learn and retain the information. If the instruction and concept is too hard for the

student to grasp, then the student will mentally shut down and will not learn nor retain any of the

content.

On the other hand, if the content and instruction is too easy for the student, then the

student won’t engage with the content because it’s uninteresting. However, if the content can be

presented in a way that challenges the student in just the right way, causing the student to enter

into the zone of proximal development, then that is where the best learning will occur. In the

zone of proximal development, students are more likely to retain the content for longer periods

of time, rather than when they are outside of the zone of proximal development. By ensuring my

students enter and remain inside of the zone of proximal development, I am becoming the

teacher that I want to be.

The fourth key idea that I plan to implement inside of my classroom is the consistent use

of small and partner groups. For partner groups I plan on implementing a “buddy system” where

I would partner up a student who is an English Language Learner with another student who is

already proficient with English, whether they are a native English speaker or not. This allows the

ELL/EB student to get more comfortable with their English skills. On the other hand, it allows
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for the other student to “teach-up” the EB student, demonstrating a higher level of understanding

regarding the content.

For small groups, I plan to have students work in groups of three to four students. All of

these groups would be balanced regarding their understanding of the content. Like the buddy

system, small groups allow students the opportunity to “teach up” other students. Small groups

also allow students to develop and improve their team working and collaboration skills. It also

allows students to gain new insights from the other students. Implementing this key idea into my

future classroom helps students develop a sense of community within the classroom, further

supporting students who are Emerging Bilinguals, and thus aiding my goal of becoming the

teacher that I want to become.

To reiterate, this past year I have learned several key ideas that I plan to incorporate into

my future classroom to best support my emerging bilingual students and to become the teacher

that I want to be. The four points that I really want to focus on implementing are utilizing

students’ funds of knowledge, creating an extremely visual classroom, entering and remaining in

the zone of proximal development, and consistently utilizing small and partner discussions. All

of these ideas help not only to better support my students, especially those who are Emerging

Bilinguals, but it also helps me become the teacher that I want to become.
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References

Bennett, C. B. (2020, February 12). Funds of Knowledge as Rich Resources for ELL students.

ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/ell-students-funds-of-knowledge-4011987

Little, S. L., & Chesworth, L. C. (n.d.). Funds of Knowledge. EULiteracy. Retrieved April 27,

2021, from http://euliteracy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Funds-of-Knowledge.pdf

Mcleod, S. (2019, March 24). The Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding. Simple

Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html

Peregoy, S., & Boyle, O. (2016). Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL: A Resource Book for

Teaching K-12 English Learners (7th ed.). Pearson.

https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/243604/sp/54516588/mi/231099327

William C. Zahner. (2012). ELLs and Group Work: It Can Be Done Well. Mathematics Teaching

in the Middle School, 18(3), 156-164. doi:10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.18.3.0156