Prompt 6
Writing Background
Recently, much has been made of teachers' responsibilities to schools, students, and parents. Students, however, need to face the fact that they too have certain obligations to the school, teachers, and themselves.
Writing Situation
In a well-organized essay explain to your future students what you see as their major personal, academic, and ethical responsibilities in high school, and how you as a teacher can foster students' awareness of those responsibilities. Make sure to include specific examples and details to reinforce your point of view.
Prompt 7
Writing Background
Probably each person at some point in his or her schooling has developed an anxiety or apprehension about a particular subject. Usually the source of that anxiety can be identified as a particular event or sequence of events, a negative reaction to teaching methods, or a lack of understanding or preparation in the subject.
Writing Situation
Review your own experience with various subjects; identify one about which you have had considerable anxiety. Assume that you are writing to teachers of that subject. Explain to them in as much specific detail as possible how your anxiety began and how it grew. Also discuss what steps, if any, you and/or your teachers have taken to reduce the anxiety. Your basic purpose is to help teachers recognize the symptoms of such anxiety and come to a better understanding of how they might help students with similar apprehensions. You might choose a letter format in which to write but remember this should be a well-organized essay.
Prompt 8
Writing Background
All of us have seen the effects of peer pressure in school situations. The pressure can result in bullying, in unusual competition, in experimentation with alcohol and drugs, or even suicide. Other results such as non-conformity with school dress codes, unwillingness to display academic ability, etc. are less dramatic but nevertheless just as real.
The Writing Situation
In a well-organized essay consider your own experiences with peer pressure in school settings. Identify a particular example, either one you personally experienced or one you observed; describe the situation, the kind of pressure exerted, and the result. Indicate what implications there might be from this experience for how you, as a teacher, can help students to cope with peer pressure in school.
Prompt 9
Writing Background
Student behavior makes a difference in whether learning takes place in a classroom. For this reason, classroom management becomes an important concern for teachers. Some teachers rarely have discipline problems; others seem to have little or no control over student behavior. What makes the difference?
Writing Situation
As a teacher, you will face the issue of classroom management. What do you think makes a difference in terms of student behavior? Drawing upon your own experience as a student, identify a particular classroom setting that encouraged or discouraged learning. Provide examples of student/teacher interaction, time management, and teaching tools used, analyze their effectiveness, and discuss the implications for your own teaching.
Prompt 10
Writing Background
One of the most popular teaching methods in educational circles is the use of small group work for students. Many teachers see this practice as a way to encourage responsibility and to actively engage their students in the learning process. Other teachers see it as encouraging students to talk and to become discipline problems. Still others see group work as placing too much pressure on the hard workers in the group, while distracting other students.
Writing Situation
Using groups as a teaching practice in classrooms is becoming very common. Using examples from your time as both a teacher and a student, construct an argument either for or against this teaching practice and how it can affect the learning environment.
Prompts 1-5 Prompts 6-11
Prompts 11-15 Prompts 16-19 Abstracts and Proposals