What Do I Teach?

I teach students, of course! But, I identify myself as English Teacher 2.0, so it's clear that we still make those discipline distinctions in high school. Last year I was asked to help make a video for the New Schools Project, an introduction to our work to share with state legislators, universities, and the like. In that video, I said that I was more a teacher of skills than of content. That statement's still true for me, but all summer, as I have studied Web 2.0, I have continued to ask the question, "What do I teach?"

The North Carolina Standard Course of Study eloquently describes the skills my students should master at each grade level. Our most recent Language Arts NCSCOS was approved in 2004, and it is very well-written. I appreciate the hard work that went into preparing it, and I find it very helpful as I begin to teach an unfamiliar class. I also appreciate that it is skills-based and, thus, gives me a great deal of freedom as a teacher to find literature and writing prompts that my students will find engaging. So, I teach communication skills: reading, writing, and speaking. Of course, these are the skills students need to confidently engage with others using Web 2.0.

The reading skills my students need for Web 2.0 are, in some ways, different from the reading skills I focused on with students in 1998. First, let me clarify: I define text broadly to mean not just written words, but also words spoken or performed and visual images in film and art. Today it is crucial that I teach students to identify credible sources of information on the web. Research is so much different when it happens in the Internet. I must teach students to validate texts for themselves, and to backtrack information to more valid sources when possible. Therefore, I am responsible for helping my students acquire a general knowledge of my discipline, so that that they may read critically the information they encounter on their own.

It remains important for me to model reading for my students by reading aloud in the classroom. I think individual students need me to help them learn how to read certain texts. In doing so, I am responsible for teaching the essential vocabulary of English class. And, I must expose my students to a variety of texts, so that they may identify their own passions as readers. Also, we must read different texts to ensure that students have a broad sense of the history of literature and the evolution of the art of writing through the ages, to help students organize their knowledge of literature. So, I still think there is something very valuable about the teacher who shares her own passion for learning by modeling for her students.

I have only thought about reading this morning. I hope to discuss the impact of Web 2.0 on teaching writing later.