The English Teacher's Companion: An Overview

As a project for my Methods in Teaching Language Arts class, I created this dynamic presentation using Prezi, an online presentation tool, highlighting what I believed to be the most important aspects of Burke's The English Teacher's Companion.  Also check out my Google site and click on "Professional Reading" to view an online newsletter containing my reflections on the book and important quotations.

Teaching Writing

I must say that one of the biggest challenges I face as an English teacher is teaching writing.  Ninth grade students come to me in August with a vast range of abilities in all aspects, but writing is one of the most prominent areas of discrepancy.  Some students write like a college student (or beyond), while others can barely string together a coherent sentence.  Writing comes naturally to some students; to others, it is a chore, and because of that, they don't practice enough to get better.

In Jim Burke's English Teacher's Companion, he devotes an entire section to teaching writing.  Reading this chapter has helped me immensely, and I have gotten a great deal of inspiration on how to incorporate an effective writing curriculum in my classroom.  In his book, he explains what a good writing program should include, which involves giving students ample time and opportunity to practice writing and also expose them to other students' writing to help guide them.  He suggests teaching students how to write a meaningful and well-developed paragraph, which will make stringing multiple paragraphs together a bit more manageable.

A couple of innovative ideas Burke suggest include a group essay and having students write in response to various texts of their choice, both literary and visual.  Both of these ideas provide students with a fresh perspective about writing, making them more willing to both participate and become engaged in the activity.

Teaching writing, a once daunting challenge for me, is now something I have begun to look at with a fresh perspective.  The more excited and enthusiastic students are about writing, the more interesting and enjoyable their writing will be for me to read!

Thinking about teaching and learning

In the second chapter of Jim Burke's The English Teacher's Companion, he discusses four components of effective teaching and learning: construction, occupation, negotiation, and conversation.  Not only does he explain these four components, but he describes what each component "looks like in the English class," and gives examples of tasks and activities that encompass each of the four components.  For example, he defines construction as "not only making things but also studying how they are made and how they work."  He goes on to explain that construction can be exemplified by manipulating words to change their meaning and constructing, deconstructing, or reconstructing texts to better understand how they work and what they mean.

Burke has meaningful things to say about each of the four components, but the component that most appeals to me is negotiation.  In this component, teachers create an environment that allows students to think of the classroom as theirs.  There is a great deal of buy-in from the students, and they take ownership of their learning.  Burke states, "Negotiation challenges those teachers who see the class as 'their' class.  My students remind me that by inviting them to share and think about their lives, the English class necessarily becomes a communal space where the students assume control as they progress toward independence."  When I really thought about this particular quotation, it made me realize that English teachers have the unique ability to really get to know their students in a way that a math or science teacher doesn't.  In English class, we talk about how texts relate to our lives, and by that means, we have the opportunity to get to know our students as people, not just students.  Because of this, students have the opportunity to feel that they have control and choice, and it's up to us to foster that.

At the conclusion of this chapter, Burke suggests that readers view a movie about inspiring teachers: Dead Poet's Society, Freedom Writers, Stand and Deliver, and The First Year.  I have seen most of these films, but all before I became a teacher, and I think it would be interesting to view these movies through the eyes of a teacher.

The English Teacher's Companion...A Fitting Title

Why didn't I know about this book in 2006 when I started teaching?  One complaint I have with many professional books on education is that they are mostly theory with very little information that can be brought directly into the classroom.  I cannot make that complaint about Jim Burke's The English Teacher's Companion. He writes in a conversational tone, and I found myself relating to his comments and experiences from the very first chapter when he writes, "It's August when the dreams begin again, each one signaling summer's end and school's beginning."  He also refers to summer notes he's made as "hopeful notes of someone who believes that this year I will do it better, get it right."  When I read this, I thought "he understands me and how difficult our job can be!"  Instant credibility.

After scanning the remainder of the book, I discovered that Burke includes not only advice to new and veteran English teachers, but case studies in which he shows and explain exactly how that advice can be implemented, complete with student artifacts as evidence.  I think this book will definitely be exactly what it claims to be: a companion for English teachers.