The feedback provided by my supervisor, as well as the data collected from the students

work samples suggests the need for my instructional method to be altered. In order to meet the
learning needs of students, I altered my instructional approach to a more student-centered
classroom. Although it was not demonstrated within my lesson sequence exhibited within my
first student-teaching placement, I shifted to a more student-centered teaching approach in order
to refrain from my lecture based lessons. This was a suggestion made by my supervisor and
something I noticed after reflecting on my own lessons teacher-centered dialogue. Although I
provide ample time for students to collaborate with one another and make inferences based off of
guiding questions I prompt during the lessons, I notice that my own dialogue dominated the
classrooms conversation. In order to shift this sort of lesson to a more student-centered
classroom, where students are developing meaning from texts on their own and through
collaboration with their peers, I altered my lesson plans to include more student-centered
activities such as the protocols suggested by EngageNY.com.
Within my first student-teaching placement, after analyzing the observation notes
provided by my supervisor, I made an effort to clearly state the lessons learning target to the
students and repeat it throughout the lesson to assess which students require additional
instruction. At my second student teaching placement, Wisdom Lane Middle School, my
teaching method altered to an entirely student-centered classroom. Students developing meaning
from texts, drawing inferences from context clues and collaborating with their peers in order to
accomplish a learning target independently, or through collaborative work, is what makes a
student-centered classroom. I have found this method of teaching to be exponentially more
engaging for students and allows them to develop the skills or understanding of a learning

objective on their own, without the teacher explicitly stating what he or she wishes the outcome
of the lesson should be, due to the design of the lesson.
After teaching both a teacher-centered classroom and a student-centered classroom, I can
personally say that a student-centered classroom environment is one that I wish to instruct on my
own, someday. Students collaborating with their peers in order to develop an interpretation of a
text or analyze a texts ambiguous meanings, provides students with their own personal agency
to develop the English Language Arts skills they need in order to succeed in the world. Giving
students the power to teach themselves allows for a much more hands-on instructional method
that requires much more planning for the teacher, but if designed appropriately, will lead to a
very successful lesson. My theory of language acquisition focuses on the opportunities for
students to collaborate with their peers in order to construct meaning from texts and develop
language practices through a student-centered instructional method driven by students personal
agency.