Aaron and Paula Byers

As husband and wife, we have over twenty-five years teaching experience in high school English. We have each taught the majority of our district’s English curriculum, including electives ranging from Heroes in Literature to Public Speaking. We were selected to create the district’s curriculum for the release of our Advanced Placement Language and Composition course as a new course offering. Traditionally, our primary efforts have centered on the standard 9-12th grade English classes including Regents and Honors level students and cooperative teaching with the special education department in our inclusion program.

Having shared ideas and designed lessons together, we have developed similar teaching styles where in our focus is on student based learning. Each lesson begins with an objective for the day’s learning which informs the class of our expectations for the day’s lesson. Additionally, we implement a “Focus and Review” activity to remind the class of the day’s previous material. With teacher driven direction, we both incorporate a wide range of teaching techniques including daily “focus and review” prompts, “turn and talk” breaks, partner/neighbor work, small cooperative groups, and individual practice. The various cooperative learning techniques practiced in the class room allows for a fresh approach to the day’s material and offers the students an opportunity to engage their peers. With this philosophy in mind, we have crafted lesson plans to be flexible enough to be applied in any of our classes ranging from Regents to Honors level. Since our lessons are text-based driven, where in students are required to return to the literature in order to locate evidence to support their opinions and answers, we have had success using the very same lessons effectively in our Special Education Inclusion classes. Overall, we like to have fun with our students and use humor as an effective way to engage our students on a personal level. Through the teaching of literature, we have been able to connect to our students with in depth discussions using the stories in our classroom to help our students weigh and consider their own lives.

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