Prompt:

Considering what we have read in Vatterott, Wood and Van Hoose et. all about the philosophy of creating middle schools and high schools that reflect responsiveness to students’ developmental needs, think about your impressions of Shortridge’s attempts to live a student-centered philosophy.  With a digital camera, document images of Shortridges “philosophy in action.” What does the image say about this school’s, teacher’s, club’s, etc. image of a learner?  Provide 2-3 images and 2-3 counter images. For the reflection component, provide a caption explaining the context of each image.  Then, provide a reflective rationale to address the prompt.

Response:

Shortridge, as a magnet school in the IPS system, plays a very unique role for students educated within its walls. Not only does the school have to provide (for some students) the most basic needs, but also critical support during the formative adolescent years. Throughout our readings in Vatterott and Wood, we have discussed the importance of providing basic supports during what is possibly “the most critical time in a child’s development, aside from the few months after birth.” Schools have to be prepared to offer students activities, supports, and a curricular structure that allows them to succeed and gain confidence and their own identity during this pivotal time period.

Shortridge attempts to accomplish this through it’s student focused instruction. The school has built in some interesting caveats in regard to the schedule, content, as well as student involvement in attempts to connect with their students and help them through this time. For example, there are no bells. Students are expected to keep their own schedule and to be responsible enough to accomplish getting to class in a timely fashion. As we can conclude from the pictures, sometimes this is better in the theory than actual practice.

But in other practices the school is much more successful at staying true to its philosophy. This is certainly the case when it comes to classroom instruction. Through working with Mr. Frame and observing his class, it is easy to see the Shortridge philosophy at work. Mr. Frame is especially good at analyzing what his class needs in terms of what can handle with their limited attention (INTASC 5). He works to plan his lessons around what the students are capable of doing and is creative in thinking of assignments and activities that encourage developing original thinking skills (INTASC 1,2,3). I was especially impressed with how he handled showing a video to his class. The students were expected to watch the film and fill out a worksheet. But unlike most teachers, Mr. Frame, created a worksheet asking meaningful questions, without any fill in the blanks. Throughout the video he would stop and verbally communicate with the group about the questions and asking new questions about the video to encourage the students to think critically (INTASC 6). At the conclusion of the film, he assigned an interesting writing prompt to the group. They were asked to write about the inconsistencies in the film. I enjoyed the fact he was challenging them to think carefully about what they had seen and analyze what the movie had informed them to be true (INTASC 1).

Mr. Frame is also exceptional at drawing back the focus of his classroom to the instruction and what is happening at the front of the room. Middle schoolers are a busy group. They need substantial movement throughout the day to burn energy and maintain their focus. From Vatterott we have learned it takes tact and skill to keep the attention of the class focused on the activity at hand and not what just happened in the hallway or lunch room. Mr. Frame is most adept at using humor with his students. He has developed a relationship with them and can tease his students into paying attention by making light of whatever is taking their focus from the classroom (INTASC 4,5). From the pictures we can see he has mixed results, but for the most part he is successful.

I hope I can someday work in a school that truly values student focused instruction, it seems to be a significantly more effective method for connecting with students. I cannot help but wonder how long it will take me to become as adept as teachers with more experience, like Mr. Frame, are with connecting with the students and building a student focused classroom environment.

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