Week 2:
After reading through the syllabus and the readings for this week, I have developed some new goals for this course. I really want to learn about the development of language arts skills and how to work with students at varying levels of abilities in reading and writing. I have learned about language arts concepts in other courses, but I know that this course will teach me more concepts, as well as strategies, to help me better teach language arts in a diverse classroom.
I plan to teach in an urban school district in an urban community. I am aware of the challenges that I will face, which I felt were outlined well in the Jigsaw article I read (Fleming, et al). I do, however, wish that the article had not been so negative and also reflected upon some of the rewarding aspects of teaching in an urban school. I know that I will have a classroom most likely filled with students with varying reading and writing levels and I hope this class can teach me some strategies to address those varying levels and still allow the students who are excelling to continue on their paths as well as help those students that are struggling to begin to make sense of things for themselves.
I am very aware that I do not know much about literacy instruction. I know that I am a great reader and love to read books aloud, but I am not sure how to teach other language arts concepts in a way that is effective when teaching the 8 year old children I work with on a weekly basis. I am hoping to gain more skills in this arena throughout this class. I am passionate about language arts, so I look forward to learning strategies for effective instruction for my future classroom!
In addition to the comments that you have offered Emily, I also have a few things to add. After reading Lenski's article as well as our other articles from our math class, I have found that assessments seem to be a key in developing the skills of students. Not only assessments that deal directly with the development a child has made, but also as a way to assess where your students are in effort to be the best educator you can be. Chapter 1 from Gibbons book discussed how we may perceive ELL students as having the ability to read and are right up there with the rest of the class in literacy, but are still unable to successfully communicate their ideas. Therefore, I think as we are entering this semester, I want to gain a deeper understanding of how to identify these needs of my students, especially for ELL students, as Lenski addressed.
ReplyDeleteI too am quite interested to learn strategies that I can take to the classroom that deal directly with language arts in the classroom. I find myself a bit overwhelmed by the notion of having to meet all the reading needs of my own students as they all enter the classroom with different abilities and at-home agency.
To be completely honest, teaching someone how to read is a huge responsibility that scares me. I personally struggled with reading when I was young, and it was not until a tutor broke everything down for me did I learn to read. When working with my third grade students during reading time, I find myself constantly telling them to "sound it out." Although this is not necessarily incorrect, I also hope to learn more strategies that I can use to help each individual student become a stronger reader as well as class room management techniques to use during reading time. Going along with what Kori discussed, I also noticed how often our readings (for both classes) brought up assessments. I do not think giving assessments will be difficult, but I would like to learn more about steps to take given the results of the assessments and what assessments are most effective and accurate.
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