This document discusses creating a student-centered classroom that fosters critical thinking. It emphasizes using sociocultural theory and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development to scaffold instruction based on students' varying abilities and backgrounds. Specific strategies are proposed to model metacognition and critical questioning of texts, including think-alouds, QARs, and questioning the author. The document argues literacy and academic language are essential to empower students and promote transformation through access to knowledge. The goal is to make the classroom a safe space for intense learning where students' natural predisposition to think critically is nurtured.

1. Lorena Oceguera Tamayo
EDUC 505
Dr. Mary Anne Hillier
March 12, 2013

2. Educating for the practice of
Freedom
student community & classroom
 Sociocultural theory, the theory that
 My ideological stance is student centered emphasizes the importance of society and
and child centered. I include both because culture in the cognitive development of
I want to acknowledge the growing and human beings informs how I implement my
developing nature of our students. No child teaching practice. One of its main
is a closed book. I will always make room theoreticists, Lev Vygotsky, the Russian
for the process they are going through and psychologist, came up with the theory of the
the potential they embody. I am deeply Zone of Proximal Development (Ormrod,
influenced by bell hooks and Rudolf 2011).
Steiner who speak about educating for the  I am committed to the potential within each of
practice of freedom (hooks, 1994). This my students. This means actively working
practice includes helping students become within the Zone of Proximal Development
critical thinkers and self-directed grounded in careful observation and
learners, who are agents in their own lives. knowledge of my students (Poehner &
Critical thinking skills enable students to Lantolf, 2005). This observation and
ask themselves about the "who" and "why" knowledge necessarily acknowledges the
of any situation. This is democratic—and diverse communities the students come from
an essential skill of all participants in a as well as the unique community created by
democratic society. each group of students in the classroom.
 My own process of reflection on my students
and their learning will be a big part of this
practice as well.

3. Child Centered Ideology
 Focused on the growing  Awakening critical
and developmental nature thinking skills in
of students. adolescents by using
 Integrating Research on cognitive tools to scaffold
cognitive development in instruction.
children. Using this  Acknowledging and
research to scaffold leveraging the different
instruction for students of cultures, languages, and
various abilities, both communities represented
talented, and challenged, in the classroom.
as well as EL students.

4. Waking up Critical
 Think Aloud: this strategy models
Thinking in Social thinking through trouble spots in a
Studies Classrooms text. Students have the opportunity to
To awaken critical thinking in
see the teacher model it, and then
social studies classrooms it is practice with a partner or in small
necessary to bring in activities that groups.
help students become aware of
how they think (metacognition)
 QARs: This strategy makes explicit
and question information they are question/answer connections and
reading in a text. Modeling relationships while reading texts. By
comprehension strategies will help exploring the different categories the
students become aware of their
thinking and also begin to think
students can learn how to find the
critically about the various points information they need.
of view they must encounter in a  Questioning the Author (QtA): This
social studies classroom (Vacca,
Vacca, & Mraz, 2011). strategy involves asking the author
These strategies involve modeling questions to comprehend text. This
and opportunities to practice the can be adapted to social studies
skill making it easy to use the Zone content by also asking questions about
of Proximal Development of each
student.
motive and point of view of the author
(Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011).

5. Literacy, Equity and
Academic Language
 In Spanish the graphic states that a literate community
“Leer es pronunciar el mundo, es will never be subdued, or put under control. Literacy is
the great equalizer because once a community is literate
el acto que permite al hombre y a then it has access to information and knowledge that is
la mujer tomar distancia de su potentially transformative. The quote in Spanish from
Paulo Freire states that to read is to pronounce or speak
práctica (codificarla) para the world, and it is an act that a woman or man uses to
conocerla críticamente, volviendo separate themselves from their practice, to know it
critically and to return to it to transform it and to
a ella para transformarla y transform themselves. This transformation is not
transformarse a sí mismos.” possible without literacy. I would argue as well that to
have access to information that is transforming the
— Paulo Freire (Freire, 2000) individual must also have the necessary tools (critical
thinking) and a wide and varied vocabulary which
includes academic language and language of the
discipline used in the social sciences.
 I would also argue that the way one teaches also is
learned by the students. I will also strive to teach and
use content in a way that makes students feel inspired
and empowered rather than being subdued or under
control

6. Awakening
potential
I am committed to making the
classroom a safe place for fierce
engagement and intense
learning. Children are
predisposed to being critical
thinkers but unfortunately
taught early that thinking and
questioning is dangerous. I
want to have a classroom where
the students will have the
opportunity to experience
thinking as a passionate and
pleasurable activity. (hooks,
1994)

7. Works Cited
Works Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved from Morguefile.com:
http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/b/bullofriverside/preview/fldr_2008_11_02/
file000530252079.jpg
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Ginott, H. G. (1972). Teacher and child: A book for parents and teachers. New York: Scribner Book
Company.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge, Chapman &
Hall.
Levene, D. This is India. The Guardian, London.
Ormrod, J. E. (2011). Educational psychology: Developing learners. Boston: Pearson Higher Education.
Poehner, M. E., & Lantolf, J. P. (2005). Dynamic Assessment in the language classroom. Language
Teaching Research, 233-265.
Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2011). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the
curriculum. Boston: Pearson.
Valeria, A. Pigeon Freedom.