Teaching Situation and Rationale
I teach IB Diploma Program (DP) English Literature (Grade 11) and sometimes IB Middle Years Program (MYP) Language and Literature (Grade 9) at an International Baccalaureate magnet school in Pittsburgh Public Schools. Although students are not required to take the IB exams in their senior year, all students participate in the IB courses at my school. My school’s student body consists of 750 students in Grades 6-12. Out of this total, 72 percent are Black; 17 percent are White; 7 percent are two or more races; 3 percent are Hispanic; and 1 percent is Asian. One hundred percent of the student body is eligible for free lunch under the National School Lunch Act. No entry exam or essay is required to gain admission, but students must maintain good academic standing to attend my school. While some families are attracted by an IB education, many families enroll their children in my school because they feel it provides a safer environment than their assigned urban neighborhood schools. Under my school’s full inclusion educational model, students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) learn alongside regular education students of widely varying ability ranges, as well as students with Gifted Individualized Education Plans.
The diverse array of learners blended in each of my class sections makes student engagement, a community atmosphere, culturally responsive teaching, and differentiation essential within my teaching. I believe that every student can grow as a reader and writer and have meaningful interactions with written, spoken, and visual language. When designing instruction, I aim to create a challenging, relevant experience for all students, pushing them to grow from their current skill levels and providing them with the scaffolding and support necessary to do so. I am aware that I will have some advanced readers take on extra reading within the unit while others will need to read abridged or modified versions of the core text to meet the unit’s goals. Its graphic narrative format makes Satrapi’s Persepolis an excellent text to meet the needs of such a diverse group of learners. The text’s use of images makes the challenging topics of Iranian politics, history, and cultures less intimidating and more accessible to students. While at the same time, Satrapi’s craft, plentiful allusions to history, philosophy, religion, and pop culture, and her nuanced storytelling, provide ample complexity for advanced readers to grapple with.
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