The Pedagogy of Real Talk by Paul Hernandez

Author:Paul Hernandez [Hernandez, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2021-05-27T16:35:57.120637+00:00

Adaptability

Adaptability requires attention to your students’ needs and to their levels of understanding. It is important to incorporate appropriate assessments throughout the semester. Just listening to the students during our class lessons is one way to assess their learning. For example, during an alternative lesson on making inferences, comparing, and contrasting, my students struggled to grasp the concepts. I led our discussion toward students’ dream cars and had the students do an in-class side-by-side evaluation of three of these cars. I had already extracted the three most popular dream cars from previous Real Talk discussions we had had in class. Students used the internet to gather information about prices, engines, and performance; descriptions of the interiors and exteriors; lists of safety features; and reviews by both experts and car owners. They also found photos of each car. They presented the information via the overhead projector and then proceeded to evaluate the three cars.

This type of alternative lesson engaged the students; subtly reinforced the concepts of inference, comparison, and contrast introduced in the initial lesson; and helped eliminate their confusion about those concepts. This lesson did not require hours of preplanning. The students had already given me the information about their dream cars through our Real Talk discussions. The internet resources were instantly available. This impromptu lesson took little more than listening to student responses to recognize their confusion and the ineffectiveness of my planned lesson and a willingness to be flexible and change the lesson context while still delivering the necessary lesson content.

Adaptability is also key in meeting the needs of different classes. Don’t force students to adapt to rigid lesson plans. Instead, if needed, adapt lessons and ideas from one semester to the next and from one group of students to the next. I found that allowing students to have a voice in the class helped me identify what was successful with them and what was not; then I tweaked the lessons to ensure student success. This ultimately allowed me to teach the students the material and be within Meyer’s successful teacher characteristic of being able to teach the students. Although flexibility and adaptability are a focus of my pedagogy, I also try to instill in my students that these are characteristics they need to work with different types of instructors, employers, and coworkers.

Students are extremely diverse in their personalities, styles, and interests. We as teachers must adapt to the different personalities and groups of people that our students represent. Although I saw many teachers attempt to force, intimidate, punish, or ignore students who were not the type of person with whom they felt they could relate, it is far better to adapt to your students. I tried not to superimpose my views or interests on my students or make assumptions about them. Instead, I listened actively to gain insight into who they were as people. I adapted to students who at first glance seemed annoying and irritating or who were standoffish or aggressive toward me. I attempted to build positive relationships through my pedagogy with students and learn about their personalities.

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