Vince Cancilla Pelham Park Outreach Reflection

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EDU 667 Dr. Ahuna

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Pre-Student Teaching Observation Reflection
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I spent 3 years observing and teaching at the Pelham Park Outreach with the Apostolic

Christian Church (Nazarene). This outreach provided meals and a Bible study for young men
and ladies from Pelham Park, a government-housing neighbourhood in Toronto.

Best Practice Focus

Definitely my best practice was related to customizing the content of the lessons to be
suitable to the students areas of interest and being aware of how applicable the content would
be to their real life struggles and personal situations. With many of the students at a sensitive
transitioning age becoming teenagers, and being in a neighbourhood that was known as a
major crack dealing area, they were at risk for getting involved in drugs and gangs. Getting
student engagement was key as these kids came voluntarily to this outreach, but by making
personal connections with them on a friendship level and teaching them life lessons that
would help them in their specific circumstances, we were able to get a high participation rate
and many of the same students consistently attended for years.

So the curriculum and

instruction went hand in hand, and helped to engage students and open up discussions in class
as well as afterwards during lunch.

Setting
The students ranged between ages 12-18 (grade 6-12), and class sizes and demographics
varied from week to week, sometimes as few as 5 students and other times as many as 12-15.
Adults from the church were also present for the lesson sometimes. It is a poor, government
housing, urban area in Toronto, and we had a mix of racial demographics of black and white
students primarily, with some occasional Middle Eastern students. There were few girls in
attendance, most of the students were teenage males. I assisted and taught classes all through
the years 2008 until the end of 2011. Classes consisted of a time of music (the group sang a

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couple songs, and I usually played guitar for these), followed by a bible study lesson that lasted
45 minutes to 1 hour approximately. This was followed by a lunch that we provided, usually
ordering pizzas or bringing prepared sandwiches. Other activities included community sports,
BBQs, and Christmas dinners, as well as gatherings outside of class time where wed have a
movie night or go out to bowling or a restaurant with many of the kids.

Description
So after the songs to kick off the class, the teacher moves into the lesson. Starting with
a passage of the Bible, we get students involved in answering questions about what they
understand the passage to mean, defining terms, addressing any questions, and asking leading
questions to help them interpret the text. Usually it centred on something very practical and
relevant to their situation (i.e. peer pressure to do drugs, etc), or more narrative and storytelling type passages which would keep their engagement level. The classroom was limited in
terms of technology, so the main teaching area had a white board and that was it for tech.
The students struggled with attention span at times, and I had to be careful that
students who tended to fight or provoke one another didnt sit beside one another. The format
was meant to be highly interactive, so myself and the other teachers structured the lesson to
engage the students by asking them a lot of questions, and using a Socratic method to lead
them to understand the connections and come to conclusions themselves. Students were free
to comment on others answers in a constructive way. Disruptions and misbehaviour was dealt
with on the spot, and sometimes might result in asking a student to leave the classroom, but in
general this was rare.

Analysis (Connection/Links)
I didnt know it then, but the best practice of adapting the content of the classes to be
very relevant to students situations and backgrounds was actually using the Culturally
Responsive Teaching approach which is described by Geneva Gay. We selected songs that were

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appropriate to their demographic, introduced them to Christian rap music, and also made
connections with their families and homes and did special community events, like a basketball
tournament and summer BBQ events. All of these helped make the program relevant to the
community and provided an integrated rather than segmented approach to building up the
children in that neighbourhood.
Since I plan to teach high school English, this experience connects well with my
program and competencies, providing direct teaching and observation experience with students
in the age groups I hope to teach. It was good also to get experience in an urban context,
which contrasts well with the observation hours I am getting at Craig Kielburger S.S. in
Milton, which is a rural context.

Applications
The most valuable best practices that I would continue to apply in future teaching
opportunities are culturally responsive teaching (customizing content appropriately to meet the
students needs) and community involvement. I often had kids from the program over at my
house for a dinner or just took them out to the mall or some other activity. In this way I was
able to build relationships and get to know what they were really up against in family and
community struggles. I also visited their homes and spent time in their community.
Although a high school context would limit some of these activities (due to a mandated
curriculum and restrictions on social interactions outside of class), I believe I could still apply
these principles effectively. I could work within the curriculum goals to find books and create
lessons with material that would resonate with the children in my classrooms. In terms of
building rapport with them at a deeper personal level, I could get involved in extra-curricular
activities or plan field trips that would help foster those relationships, as well as keeping in
touch with parents and getting involved in community events when possible.