Oh for God’s Sake, Keep It Accessible!
As a novice secondary teacher, nervous about standing in front of thirty-five assessing pairs of eyes, I asked a veteran teacher for advice on how to be a highly effective educator. The thought of being the “sage on the stage” was suffocating, nearly overwhelming and I needed some guidance. I believe my exact words were, “ICANTDOTHISPLEASEHELPME!” Their succinct response was, “Oh, for God’s sake, just keep it accessible.” We both chuckled (I, nervously) at the time, but I have since discovered that the unassuming brevity of that statement belied deep insight into pedagogical success. All the lessons I have learned from two decades of teaching middle school, high school, and undergraduate students can be distilled into a single reflective question: “Have I made the material accessible?”
Accessibility is not ‘making it easy’; rather, accessibility involves creating entry points that enable diverse student populations to engage with material and then pushing them beyond their current abilities. My most recent teaching assignments, in the disciplines of religious studies and African history, are especially challenging as students often approach these courses with specific mindsets and vocabularies that reflect their own particular contexts. Like most teachers, my lesson plans have always (at least loosely) resembled the template popularized by the famous American educator, Madeline Hunter. As any teacher knows, SWBAT, or “Students Will Be Able To…” is key to lesson planning. However, the art of teaching is not in the planning, but in way those plans are implemented by the artist-teacher. Students do not arrive in our classrooms as fully-formed scholars; they rely upon us to help them become successful lifelong learners and savvy consumers of information. Only by making both material and methodology accessible can we responsibly fulfill that expectation.
The learning process is many things — exhilarating, worthwhile, rewarding, and fun, but never easy. Students and teachers alike bring individual expertise to the classroom and both parties are tasked with finding effective means of communicating information, often within a single semester. When I first started as a university TA, I erroneously thought that interpersonal communication was a little too “high school” for undergraduates. I quickly learned that students of all levels often feel unmoored. One strategy I have since employed on the first day of class is to ask students to brainstorm with an in-class partner how their unique backgrounds/academic interests can contribute to the class. Students then briefly jot down their examples and turn them in. This creates a low-risk interaction in which students establish interpersonal and interdisciplinary connections, whilst informing me of the unique frames of reference in that particular group. When online, this activity is done in Zoom breakout sessions or on discussion forums. This information helps to shape my approach to teaching specific groups. For example, sketching out theological concepts using a flow chart/graphic organizer doesn’t just help math and engineering students, but also those who are new to religious studies. Once students understand the basic premise of a concept, they are excited to improvise on that foundation, usually through the ever-popular “what if” statement. This leads to lively interdisciplinary discussions in which all students move past their own entry points to synthesize information. This approach empowers each group of students to be its own particular ecosystem within the structure of the overall learning goals of the course.
Successful students are not passive; they are astute self-evaluators. At the heart of all of my diagnostic tools (free-writing, call-and-response, etc.) is the reflective “I can” statement which encourages students of all abilities that they are growing as scholars, while simultaneously causing them to critically examine whether or not their growth matches the overall course learning goals. Dialogic evaluation makes students partners in their own education and allows them the opportunity to diagnose and self-correct before cumulative assessments.
Successful students also employ critical thinking to be savvy consumers of information. To promote critical thinking, I have taught both argumentative writing and standpoint epistemology. In one particular project, students are encouraged to collect and critique both scholarly and mainstream media sources. However, they are also challenged to use those sources to develop arguments that are in juxtaposition with their own opinions.
At that early point in my teaching career, I could not have imagined that one singular, seemingly off-hand comment would completely shape my teaching philosophy. Frankly, I am pretty sure that veteran teacher did not intend to teach a life lesson to a rookie. However, if I were called upon to give advice to a novice teacher today, I am quite sure I could not improve upon the adage, “Oh, for God’s sake, keep it accessible!”
