Course reflection

Each student is required to complete a course reflection in the form of a blog posting. This final blog posting should fulfill three major requirements:

1)      Reflect on the work you’ve completed in the course (book talks, mini-lessons, unit plans)

2)      Reflect on the theories and concepts we explored in readings and discussions

3)      Reflect on how you think your participation in this course has influenced your thinking about yourself as a teacher

The process of continual reflection is essential to your growth as a teacher.


This class really challenged me.  Although there weren't many assignments, the work that I did required time, effort and thought.  I had never written in a blog before this class and it took a few times for me to understand it, but I found that it is a good way to get my thoughts out of my head.  This can be a good tool for teachers and students to communicate.  For students, a blog can be a safe way to get their thoughts and opinions written down with no fear of judgement from others.  Teachers can use the blog posts of students to get an insight as to how their students are thinking.  When I am a teacher, I hope to integrate a blog of some kind into my class.

I really enjoyed the book talks.  It was our first presentation in front of the class, and I wish I had done a better job.  The day I was presenting, I left all my notes at home, and had to go off of what I remembered writing down.  As teachers we will have opportunities to select literature for our students to study and this exercise showed what some possible challenges would be to choosing what literature to teach to our students.

I think my mini-lesson went well.  Obviously, my lack of teaching experience left me unsure of the real world success of my lesson, but it helped me to practice teaching in a safe environment.  I have never been one comfortable with criticism, but the feedback portion of the presentation was helpful, and I should have taken a photo of the feedback comments, because it would have made the reflection go a lot easier.

The unit plans were the most challenging part of the quarter for me.  I didn't realize just how much work teachers put into lesson plans.  This assignment made me happy that most schools use collaboration among the department, so there will always be ideas for lessons, and as a new teacher, I am looking forward to the advice and support I will receive from my fellow teachers.  I learned a lot from doing the unit plan, and I think the most important aspect of the project was time management.  I was thinking about the assignment all throughout the quarter, and I am grateful for the rough draft assignments, but I should have written my ideas down, and worked on some aspect of the project each day.  I caused more stress for myself by waiting until the end of the quarter to compile my final drafts of the sections.

I found the theories and discussions of the various reading and blog posts beneficial to my student development.  It was helpful for me to see what other people had found useful and I will find ways to integrate the articles and readings into my classroom.  I enjoyed our class discussions about the readings useful, because we could ask questions and usually, someone else had a different insight into what I had read that I haven't previously thought of.

This class has helped me to see that I can be a teacher, and that I can reach my students.  I am still a little nervous for when I am on my own, but my experiences with this class and the confidence from my mentor teacher is helping me get over that fear.  I am glad that I took this class, and the help I received from my professor and fellow students is something I will take with me to my career as a teacher.

#9 Readicide

The very title, Readicide, tells the reader  that reading is dead or dying.  I remember a time in school where we had silent reading, and it was my favorite part of the day.  I also remember that standardized tests were not nearly as common as they are today.  I had teachers who loved books and taught students to read for gathering information, and also for the joy of the story.  Reading was an escape for me as a child, and I still love reading whenever I get the chance.  I find however, that I enjoy reading much more when it is my choice of what to read than if it was an assigned reading.  The one thing that is difficult for me as a future teacher is the idea that we read to be tested.  What happened to reading for fun?

I am lucky to have a master teacher who loves books as much as I do.  We encourage our students to read and keep reading.  Instead of reading just for the test (because there is always a test of some sort), we talk about what we have read and see how we can make connections to our world.  Kelly Gallagher gives some great ideas about reading and why we do it.  I understand that students need to be tested, and Like Gallagher, I believe that students don’t need to take as many standardized tests to prove they have mastered a particular skill.

I like the appendices that are included with this book.  The list of books that reluctant readers like to read is priceless for a teacher that needs to motivate kids to read.  If I use the hints and tips in this book, I am hopeful that I will be successful in creating lifelong readers who find as much joy in the story as they find in understanding what they have read by making connections to their individual realities.

#8 I Read It, But I Don't Get It

I never struggled with reading comprehension, but I have noticed in my practicum class that many students do.  I really enjoyed the book, I Read It, But I Don’t Get It.  For a methods textbook it was very insightful and an interesting read.  I was able to take the classroom experiences that Tovani wrote about and find similarities with my own class of students that are lacking some skills in the English/Language Arts areas.

It is impossible to do justice to this book in a few short paragraphs, but there are a few sections that I found particularly helpful.  In Chapter 3, the author explains that marking a text in different colors that mean different things, can be helpful for students that have trouble with comprehension.  I liked the idea to read through the text each time with a specific goal in mind.  This was difficult for me to understand at first, because, I had been taught in school, to never ever mark the text, so annotating text has been a difficult thing for me to learn.  I will be using this book in my future teaching classroom.

I particularly enjoyed the section about knowing when students are confused.  While it would be cool to be able to read my students’ minds, I realize that in the real world, that’s just not possible.  We depend on cues from our students in the form of questions or a simple “I don’t get it” from them.  It is important for students to be able to ask questions at any time during the reading process to get clarification to help in their comprehension.  In my class, I have had students tell me they “don’t get” something, and I have learned that finding out what they do know is just as important to their comprehension as what they don’t know.  This helps me to understand what I need to do differently during direct instruction.  Tovani is a gifted teacher and author, and the way this book is written, makes it less daunting to teach any type of remedial English/Language Arts class.

#7 Reclaiming English Education: Rooting Social Justice in Dispositions

What is social justice? Social Justice in education can be defined as “a way of approaching public education, and teacher education, that ensures that it will be as open and equitable as possible to all children, regardless of their identities, biologies, or experiences” (Alsup and Miller, 199). This means that as teachers we must acknowledge and support all students regardless of their individual perceptions of their world view.


The idea of social justice in classrooms is a fairly new concept. It might seem obvious that social justice is discussed in English classrooms because of the literature that is taught. Every story we read has some element of social justice or injustice, but it shouldn’t end with the literature we read. Each classroom has its own diverse mix of students who may see the world differently than their classmates. Social justice is also about fairness and equity for all students. Being a teacher is not just about the knowledge that we are teaching, but we are also teaching our students how to successfully navigate the world outside of school.


This article was helpful to me as a future teacher because I need to be aware that every student in every one of my classes will be different from others, and will require me to be able be aware that different students may need to do something differently than others in the class. Teacher candidates can benefit from classes and workshops about social justice as well as paying close attention to how the kids in the field study classes communicate and work together. New teachers need to develop a disposition towards social justice, and if we can develop a knowledge of social justice and injustice, we can help our students also adopt an acceptance and tolerance for people who might be different to them.

#6 Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School Classroom

This chapter reminds us as future teachers that while there are required texts that our school districts will require us to teach our students, we are still able to be creative with those texts and teach how they are relevant today.  Regardless as to what kinds of resources that our schools and students have, we can alter our lesson plans to integrate current events and pop culture to make our lessons relevant in today’s culture.

While all schools have students, it doesn’t mean the student culture will be the same in each school or even each class.  Different groups of students listen to different types of music and watch different types of moves/tv.  I can’t see using rap music lyrics to help understand poetry would work with students who listen to country music.  Whatever we choose to bring relevance into our classrooms needs to be relevant to the students in our class.  I really like the idea of letting students choose pop culture items and required curriculum elements to create a presentation of the material where the students are showing their classmates how the two go together and are relevant to their time and culture.

As a former high school student and future high school teacher, I can understand the perspectives of both the teacher and student in making what we are teaching informative and interesting for the students.  Teachers want classroom management to go smoothly, and students want what they are being taught to be boring.  Students may think that if we are only using traditional texts that we don’t care what is going on now, but it is possible to take the traditional texts and add relevancy by comparing the ideas and story plots to media that is accessible to modern students like internet, video clips, music and lyrics.  If teachers can find modern comparisons to old texts, it could be an interesting learning experience for everyone.

#5 Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Wow!  I have never viewed students as being oppressed, or teachers as their oppressors.  After finishing the reading for this post, I realized that our teaching methods could in fact be oppressive.  I remember a time in school where we were thrown a bunch of facts and we as students were expected to memorize the facts and dates and who was involved.  I have a good memory so I was able to remember those facts, but I don’t remember learning why those facts were so important to learn.

I don’t agree with the “banking” method of education.  I as a teacher am definitely NOT all knowing, and my students are not completely devoid of knowledge.  I like the approach to teaching where we discuss things and find out why the facts are what they are.  I have found in my practicum class that the more discussion that happens, the more students will retain the facts and the events leading up to to facts.

It is my goal as a teacher to talk TO my students and not AT them.  I enjoy finding out what they think and why they think it.  I find that my students know more about certain things than I do, and I am always looking things up if I am not sure of what happened, why it happened, and who was involved.  I want to encourage my students to learn as much as they can about anything that interests them.  Throwing names, dates and places at them will not encourage the kind of deep thinking that I want them to do.  I look forward to making our discussions interesting and meaningful so that what they are being taught finds a place in their minds and grows thoughts towards other things they can think deeply about.

#4 Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

This week’s reading was interesting because I got to see ideas on different ways to accurately assess whether or not students are learning the task that was assigned.  I liked the Spokane County Schools grading handbook.  I agree with most of it, but I’m not totally on board with the section about not using zeros as a score.  I believe that if a student chooses not to do an assignment, they should receive a zero as a grade.  My daughter is a sophomore at Cheney High School, and her English teacher doesn’t believe in failing kids for any reason, so if a student decides to not complete an assignment, they still get a 50%.  If the student doesn’t complete any assignments for the entire grading period, they still can earn a D for the class.  Her teacher uses tests instead of homework assignments to assess comprehension and understanding of the target standard.

I love reading and talking about literature, but I struggle with writing critical analysis’ of literature I have read.  Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning helped me to understand that there are more ways to assess progress other than tests and essays.  The students I work with hate essays, because they seem big and scary and eventually they complete them successfully.  One alternative to essays and testing is to do a journal, blog or chat.  Before taking this class, I had never done a blog, and it took a little bit for me to figure out how to do it, but now it seems pretty easy, and it’s a good way for me to articulate what I think about the reading and how it relates to me and my current life.  When I am a full time teacher, I will probably find a way to integrate this concept into my lesson planning.

I don’t think that writing assignments in general are evil, but I do think that they need to be well thought out and a planned part of the curriculum.  One of the struggles I deal with as an “older” college student is that in the 20+ years since I finished high school, the way we write essays and research papers is very different than I remember.  I am having to teach myself how to properly respond to a writing prompt as well read and analyze the material I am writing about.  I look forward to finding new and interesting ways to keep my students engaged with the writing task.

#3 Assignment Template Aligned to California's CCSS for ELA and Literacy

Until I read this article, I never realized just how involved reading a text could be.  Even if students are just reading for fun, there are things that a reader needs to do to completely understand what is being read.  I have always loved to read, so I never have thought about breaking the text down to its individual parts.

As a teacher, I am learning that when my students read a selection, they are doing more than just reading.  Pre-reading is an important concept, and it is my job to make sure that I provide as much information as I can to help my students understand and integrate what they are reading into their present educational experience.  In my practicum classroom, the most important pre-reading activity is a vocabulary sheet.  I am trying to get the students to use the definitions in their text books as opposed to the internet, because the definitions in the text book are in the correct context to the story they are reading.  During my future teaching opportunities, I will be looking for examples of pre-reading exercises that I can share with my students that will help them to fully understand the text.

This article has opened my eyes to the possibilities that are available to me to teach my students   to fully grasp what they are reading.  I liked the section about “Surveying the Text”.  I can teach my students about different things like titles, length of selection, and the topic of the reading.  I can have them do investigatory exercises about the author and what was happening in the world (specifically the author’s corner of the world) to help with understanding why the author wrote what he did.

A challenge that I face in the classroom is getting the students to talk about what they have read and what it means to them.  This article is extremely helpful because there are sample questions that I can use to get the discussion started.  I like hearing what my students have to say about a particular subject.  They usually tell me something that I haven’t thought of or didn’t already know.

# 2 Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards

Let me begin by saying that I realize that Common Core is here to stay, but several teachers that I know don’t really like it and think that it is just making jobs harder for teachers and students. I know from reading this article that if done correctly, common core can be a benefit to all who use it. I agree with the author that it is important for students all over the country to have learned the same standards and skills in their respective classrooms. As a college student, I know that the skills I learned in high school are important for me as I continue my education. College professors expect students to have learned and mastered certain skills, and they don’t have time to re-teach what should have already been learned.

When I saw the Common Core Standards for the first time, my heart dropped. It seemed really overwhelming and confusing, but in the course of my practicum, I am learning that we can meet the “standards” and still have a diverse curriculum that meets the needs of teachers and students. The task of a good teacher is to take the standards they want to work on and find or create fun activities that incorporate the particular standard and draws the interest of the student. I think that some educators believe that the CCSS are put in place to regimen what they can teach, but they are meant to be helpful for teachers to make sure all students are learning the same things.

CCSS are not a regimented lesson plan, but simply a list all in one place of the skills students need to know to be successful in college or life outside of the public school system. Classrooms have different types of students who all have different learning styles and cultural diversity. There are many ways to teach standards that are interesting and fun for students, and I look forward to finding and implementing them with my future students.

# 1 Discussion in a Democratic Society

While reading this article, I really liked how the author explained that discussion was an important and valuable tool that if used correctly in the classroom can be an inspiration to teachers and students.  In most classroom settings there are a good amount of opportunities to witness the diversity of our students, both culturally and academically.  In my placement at Central Valley High School, I have three different preps.  I have Pre-AP, LA Basic, and regular english classes.  I count myself lucky because I have an opportunity to have discussions with students who span the entire spectrum.  I believe that discussion can be different for each group of kids and still be highly effective.  In my Pre-AP class, our discussions are different than our discussions in the regular English Class and different still in the LA Basic class.  While we can't all speak at once, there is an order of things, every voice is heard, and that is what the democracy in discussion is about.

Good discussions require participation from everyone.  I have learned that participation is more than just listening and throwing out the occasional random comment.  Participation requires active listening from both the student and the teacher.  In my placement I have learned that while small class sizes can seem easy from the grading standpoint, it is much easier to have a meaningful discussion with more students than less.  We recently read a poem by Sylvia Plath, and I was surprised and thrilled at the conclusion that students were making to the poem and modern life.  They had things to say that I never thought of and it is refreshing to be able to have a mature discussion about the poem with my students.  It is my goal to use the information from this article to enhance my abilities in organizing and facilitating discussions with my students as I get more practice in the classroom.

By the time I finished the article I came to a stronger realization that students can't learn as well in a lecture/note-taking environment as they can in an open discussion setting.  Students need to be able to listen and ask questions, and even to dispute a statement if they disagree.  Part of successful discussion includes investigating all sides of a particular issue. While engaging in discussion, participants need to be aware that their point of view may not be the only valid point of view.  It is up to the teacher to facilitate the discussion to make sure the debate remains moderate and under control at all times.    I realize that as teachers, we are tasked with making sure all voices are heard equally and that all students are encouraged to lend their ideas to the discussion.