Changing Minds: Rewriting the way English is taught

Manteca High School’s Stephanie Campiotti teaches her second period English class.

By BRYSON MCMICHAEL 
The Tower 

English is not most student’s choice when it comes to school subjects, but Manteca High English teacher Stephanie Campiotti is using different resources to change the minds of some.   

Campiotti is incorporating more common resources like novel studies with her new and improved ways of teaching. 

The way that I feel most that my teaching style differs is because I have an elementary background. I first started teaching in an elementary school, so a lot of my influences come from teaching younger kids. And while as a high school teacher, we are working with young adults, we are all just big kids at heart.

“Ms. Campiotti is an incredible teacher who always ensures a vibrant educational atmosphere in her classroom,” said colleague Sarah Haskett, also the school’s English Department chair. “She has the students learn important and necessary skills through various ways, allowing them to explore their ideas through the reading and writing of different texts, intriguing videos, and creative presentations.”  

One of the biggest changes she’s brought to the classroom is the use of podcasts and films.  

“I like to do novel studies, and on top of that, I like to think outside of the box with working with different medias, like podcasts,” Campiotti said. “So, it allows me, to really just tap into other ideas that you wouldn't, typically see in your day-to-day classroom,” 

 Using the story of a group of students at Woodlawn High School in the year 1999, Campiotti aims to “fuel the fire” in her classroom by engaging in debates with her students that go-on about their growth as English students. 

Campiotti, in her second year of teaching at Manteca High, has deep ties to this town. Growing up in Manteca and attending MHS herself in her path to teaching, she was the big sister to local Division I athlete Gino Campiotti and daughter to local business owner Gino Campiotti Sr.   

Manteca High School’s Stephanie Campiotti teaches her second period English class.

Having personal and family ties to MHS, Campiotti took some time with The Tower to meet with us about her backstory as a student and how she plans to further impact education at her alma-matter.  

The Tower: How has being at Manteca High allowed you to be creative in the classroom? 

Stephanie Campiotti: Being at Manteca High has allowed me to be creative in the classroom, because on top of utilizing really good curriculum that we have for our English department they allow us to partake in different types of supplementary units. So, I like to do novel studies, and on top of that, I like to think outside of the box with working with different medias like podcasts. 

It allows me to really just tap into other ideas that you wouldn't typically see in your day-to-day classroom, because we just have that flexibility to work hand in hand. And we have great administrators and a good districts that trust that we can, we can teach well.  

TT: How do you feel your teaching style differs from the average English teacher? 

SC: The way that I feel most that my teaching style differs is because I have an elementary background. I first started teaching in an elementary school, so a lot of my influences come from teaching younger kids. And while as a high school teacher, we are working with young adults, we are all just big kids at heart. So, I try and take learning opportunities that you might see in an elementary classroom and adapt them to the current teachings for my high school students, so it doesn't seem so monotonous and textbook. I like to keep things bright and fun and really just embrace the fact that we are all big kids. 

TT: How do you feel the classroom environment and the students in it are impacted by this newer way of teaching? 

SC: I think this newer way of teaching or allowing for different supplementary mediums in conjunction with our curriculum allows kids to, again, have fun, loosen up a bit. It's really intimidating to come into an English classroom because a lot of times kids struggle mainly with English and math. They either really love it or they hate it, and so my goal is to make it enjoyable for them to want to be here, to want to learn and to be present.