Literature Review

Becoming a teacher in today's society is much different than it has ever been before.  The testing system and curriculum that teachers across America are forced to teach under hinders the value and benefit that high school students are receiving.  This stress on teachers and students requires a greater expectancy and performance from both groups.  Teachers also have to deal with other changing aspects of society, such as diversity and different learning styles.  

Nancy Schnog addresses the problem of testing and harsh curriculum in her article titled "Why teens don't read: English teachers ruin it".  While this article's title may seem to be harsh, the author is a high school English teacher and is therefore able to see an insider's point of view and get feedback from her students.  

Diversity in modern day schools requires an acceptance from teachers and lack of judgement.  In order for a class to function as a community, knowledge of each other's cultural background and ways of thinking is necessary.  Teachers must keep an emphasis on "cultural identity" in our "pluralistic society", according to Elizabeth Quintero's Becoming a Teacher in the New Society: Bringing Communities and Classrooms Together.  She focuses many of the chapters of the book on how families and communities correlate with what goes on inside the classroom.  Students are greatly affected by their environment and a teacher can not assume anything when working with teens.  They must be open to anything and be fully understanding while still remaining fair and critical.

This diversity lends itself to the need to create and use new methods of teaching.  Sue S. Minchew and Peggy F. Hopper are former high school teachers that speak of using humor and fun in the classroom as a means of teaching.  They speak of specific strategies that Language Arts teachers could easily include in their day to day teachings.  

I would like to focus my research on how Mrs. Lynde from Blacksburg High school overcomes the problems of testing and curriculum while dealing with diversity and also accommodating different learning styles.  This will help me better understand what makes the community successful as a unit.