Demo Lesson

Yesterday I took the 2 train farther north than I've ever ridden it to teach a demo lesson at a charter school called Democracy Prep. The hiring process for Democracy Prep is, so far as I can tell, similar to that of other charter schools, meaning that there are a lot of hoops to jump through. After filing out an online application, which involved typing in my work history and answers to essay questions, and uploading my resume and cover letter, I got an email telling me that I'd passed the first screening step. I set up a phone interview via email, chatted for about 20 minutes with a representative from the school, then got another email inviting me to teach a demo lesson to a seventh grade English class.

I was not looking forward to the demo lesson, predicting that it would go badly, as I'm juggling a fair amount of unpleasantness at the moment and so didn't start planning it until the last minute. Also, having done a lot of reading about charter schools, I knew that they often had very rigid teaching procedures that the kids are accustomed to. I, of course, wasn't going to be bringing that to the table. Also, I didn't know the kids' names, nor anything about their reading levels or what they'd studied in the past and could be expected to know already. Plus, I was given only 30 (30!!) minutes to address the following aim: 

Scholars will be able to distinguish between facts and opinions within a text and determine whether they are being effectively used to support the main idea or argument or to relay and then disprove an alternate idea or argument.

This was a huge challenge because I had to come up with a text on my own for students about whom I knew nothing. I emailed the teacher. She wasn't sure which "cohort of scholars" I'd be teaching because they rotate a lot, so she didn't know whether I'd have the higher reading group (on grade level) or the lower reading group (way below grade level). She did, however, tell me that they'd already covered fact vs. opinion. Whew. At least I didn't have to start from the very beginning. I decided to find passages about books they'd read so we'd be on familiar ground, and she told me they'd read, among other things, The Outsiders and Nightjohn. Ok, bingo. I ended up going onto Amazon and augmenting book reviews submitted by readers; they always contain both facts and opinions that, depending on the quality of the writer, support their rating of the book in question.

Founder Seth Andrew

There are four or five different DP campuses in the city, and next year there will be six. The one I visited is not the one where I will teach if hired - they're considering me for the position of a high school writing teacher - so while I got a feel for the system in general, I didn't spend a lot of time deciding whether I could see myself at this particular school. DP has one wing of one floor of a building that contains several schools. Other hallways were raucous, but DP was orderly. I walked into a classroom full of uniformed students, all black with the exception of one Latina girl, to catch the last five minutes of a motivational/disciplinary speech by the founder of DP himself, a guy in his 30's wearing a suit and a yellow DP baseball cap over longish hair. He was cheerfully commending one student for having a "perfect day" after some previous rough spots, but he'd come down ferociously on anyone who whispered to a neighbor or was caught staring into space. The students would all flash thumbs-up signs at him whenever he asked a question they agreed with ("And that's what we want to see, right?") and to honor the student being praised, they extended their arms toward him and wiggled their fingers. I'd read about this sign language in charters before, but it was fascinating to watch it in action. It reminded me of watching a dog handler with a well-trained canine: the dog's eyes never leave the handler, and it immediately complies with a series of mysterious hand gestures, no matter how slight. The teacher, who was observing, corrected student behavior a few times during the speech with hand signals, and chairs were instantly pulled in and posture hastily corrected without a single word being exchanged. Interesting.

When it was my turn to teach, the classroom was generally quiet and the student's attentive. Over half were eager to volunteer answers, which is a far cry from my experience at Heritage, also a Harlem school, where the students couldn't have been less interested in what was going on. They were reasonably articulate and poised, and I'm sure I would have been more impressed if I'd seen them during an earlier period rather than the tail end of the very long school day. I learned quickly that a raised hand with crossed fingers does not mean that the student wants to answer or ask a question but that s/he wants to go to the bathroom - kind of cool system, really, because the teacher can either nod or shake his or her head and get on with the lesson without having to stop, listen to the request, then grant or deny permission.

I thought the lesson went ok, and during the debriefing session afterward I got much more positive feedback than constructive feedback, which was nice. One of the 3 (3!!) adults observing me said that it was obvious that I had great rapport with the kids right off the bat, which I was happy to hear because that's the kind of thing you can't fake. The two suggestions for improvement I received were aspects of teaching style that are really easy to fix, and even if I don't get the DP job, I can use them to improve my next demo lesson at another school. Now I just have to wait for their decision and, possibly, instructions about the next hoop to jump through.

I'm not sure that I'm head over heels in love with DP just yet, nor with any of the charters in the city. The school days tend to go from 7:15 until 5:00, and then there's after-school tutoring which is also run by teachers. It's a long, draining day, but since they target students who are behind, it's necessary to bring them up to speed. I think the teachers get a fair amount of time during the day to plan and grade (one school told me teachers instruct during only four of eight periods) so they don't have to do so much at home, but it's still a lot of hours. On the other hand, the pay is better, and both teachers and students are held to very high standards, which I like. Some charters, despite their lofty mission statements, end up flopping, although DP is one of the 20% that can demonstrate hugely positive results. The staff wants to be there, and they all have the students' best interest in mind or they wouldn't put up with the demands of the school. It would be nice not to feel that I was in the minority because I'm willing to work hard for the kids' benefit. There is a lot of professional development and support from mentor teachers, curriculum specialists, etc. And the families are grateful to be lucky enough to have gotten their kids into these schools (it's a lottery system and has nothing to do with student aptitude) so they tend to be very supportive and involved. Check out this video if you're interested in the DP system. (It's ridiculously motivational).

It'll be interesting to see what happens, and I'll certainly post updates as they come.