Portfolio+Kristy+Bugg

English 486 Timothy P. Shea, Ph.D  Final Portfolio of Course Experiences Kristy Bugg December 13, 2011

__Final Portfolio of Course Experiences__ **// “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” //** **// — Anne Lamott //** I entered into this class with the conception that reading is a basic skill, a crucial skill that without it, at the very least a basic level, life would be seemingly impossible. Amazingly and sadly, in this day and time, there are people who still cannot read. With all the wonderful things life now has to offer I find this inconceivable. Entering the world of teaching I realize I will have students in my classroom who will struggle and those who will exceed expectations. Reading is more than just the process of identifying words and getting the gist of an author, it is the focus on ideas represented by the written language and gaining knowledge and meaning. This class has opened my eyes to the fact that my responsibilities as a future teacher will go beyond developing the reading skills of my students; it will be collaboration with my students in helping them to become lifelong readers who will “look at reading as a transaction (Wilhelm)” and consider the significance of text to get the most meaning.

The Rambling Autobiography in our Daybook made me reflect upon my experiences as a reader from childhood to adulthood. When we discussed and shared our entries in class I realized the huge generational differences I had with my reading experiences compared to that of my younger classmates. The opportunities they had in high school with classics and great works of literature I have only come to seize since I have been a college student. Although I consider myself a highly engaged reader I lack experience with many well known works and of well known authors. As a learner I feel I have grown and become empowered by the suggestions and strategies from the classroom discussions, activities, and readings. As a learner I also feel an immense excitement and hunger to continue to read more and more. In addition to all the methods of teaching literacy and instructional strategies we had explored in class, as a future teacher my reading experiences I pass on will help my students become better readers. As Atwell says, “Incidents of teaching, whether implicit or explicit are demonstrators … everything anyone does demonstrates not only what can be done and how it can be done, but what the person doing it feels about the act.”

To create environments that support readers and learners as future teachers we must understand as Miller points out that “one size does not fit all.” His concept of teaching readers not books provides ideas for conceptual and thematic links. No one piece can reach all the readers in the classroom, therefore, we need to resort to alternative methods to achieve a reading community that will have an motivate and engage the students. We need to get to know our students as individuals and recognize their strengths and weaknesses as readers. Most importantly we need to create a safe, risk-free learning environment for our students so that they feel free to share their ideas and perspectives, while building their confidence and skills in social interaction.

Teaching literature in the classroom is a valuable learning experience for students. Helping students become competent and confident in literature not only provides for the students personal growth, but as a teacher it helps us to meet some of the requirements of state standards in our classroom. Students study literature to gain historical knowledge, and learn about cultural and social backgrounds. It invites them to participate in a human experience that can give them understanding of a specific time, place, or people, and even help them to develop empathy. It fosters their imagination while giving them perspective. They unfold layers of depth and interpret to find a common, deeper meaning, a meaning of universality. Though challenging and controversial at times it can teach them life lessons. Reading literature is like opening a timeless work from the past with the potential for passing it on to future generations. Teaching literature to struggling readers at a level that is not discouraging may also provide for them a new means of motivation for increased reading. Unfortunately, there are cases, which we may run into as future teachers, where a school district will not allow a work to be used in a classroom be it reasoning of offense or inappropriateness. In this situation, as a teacher we will have to make a choice to make a passionate plea and a very good case to our school board as to why we should be allowed to incorporate this work into our curriculum.

Text is a representation of written language to convey a meaning.Providing students with new and unique types of text gives them alternatives when making choices about reading materials. Teaching using alternative texts in the classroom may add a spark and maybe awaken a dormant reader while allowing the students to engage in a new intellectual curiosity of sorts. They use and develop rationale, are inspired to develop critical thinking as with literature, and hopefully develop personal growth. They can learn about and gain a better understanding of significant issues and insight into life lessons. It can instill in them with an acceptance of differences. It can teach them about roles and responsibilities of different people, different cultures, and different values. It can just be plain old fun. Alternative text opens the doors to lifelong reading opportunities as it peaks their interests in new areas. Again, as with teaching literature this is an opportunity for combing fresh teaching opportunities with the teaching requirements using a different format.

Struggling readers need to be taken into considered when creating our lesson plans. The idea of a classroom library gives opportunity for choices to both highly engaged readers and struggling readers alike. Additionally, free reading time or group reading can help to engage struggling readers. I intend to employ reading aloud to my students in order to bridge the gap between struggling readers and engaged readers by using that for common ground or even a jumping off point. Milner, Milner, and Mitchell give us strategies with goals to help struggling readers become more intuitive as they become better readers these include: Think alouds; pre-reading responses, during reading responses, and post reading responses; and encouraging and providing for the students an area and a time for pleasure reading. Along with these suggestions they believe that struggling readers can be enticed through visual features and non-traditional choices. Providing struggling readers with more choices will help to evoke interest and inspire them to keep moving forward.

My ideas about reading and teaching reading have undergone significant changes since the first day of English 486. I find myself struggling at times with reading new material or when introduced to a new genre of text. I realize that we read for both pleasure and information. Yet I was a bit perplexed as to how to combine both and still make reading a required text an experience to construct meaning while not overwhelming the student in the process. I have discovered through our readings and discussions that reading doesn’t have to be a complex process to be purposeful. Our reasons for reading often impacts the way we read and comprehend. It can become frustrating if the text doesn’t make sense, therefore to clarify ideas and gain understanding we may have to employ rethinking and rereading strategies to accomplish the purpose for reading. I now find myself using these strategies when approaching a text I find complicated. We also need to encourage our students with gentle nudging rather than brute force to explore new text with our guidance, incorporating activities that will encourage and inspire.

I have also come to understand how important feedback is to students to support their reading development as well as how important it is to provide opportunities for students to respond to reading. Through regular opportunities for responses, whether it is a journal entry, a discussion, or a creative activity that allows them to express, they reflect upon their reading and really discover how much they have learned. This is so powerful in many respects. As an added bonus when developing increased reading skills students also become better writers, but more importantly they learn more about themselves as individuals and experience personal growth. One of my favorite authors, Dr. Suess, once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

__Works Cited __ Atwell. Shea English 486 Ereserves. Millersville University. []

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Miller. Shea English 486 Ereserves. Millersville University. http://jefferson.library.millersville.edu/reserve/

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Milner, Joseph O., Lucy M. Milner, Joan F. Mitchell. __“Bridging English.”__ Boston, <span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif';">MA.Pearson Education, Inc. 2012

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. __“You Gotta BE the Book”:Teaching Engage and Reflective Reading with Adolescents.__ New York, New York: Teacher’s College, Columbia University 1997.

=**__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Daybook Entries __**=

=**__Artifacts__**= //The "B" Project allowed me to apply what I learned in establishing a topic and building around it for the purpose of motivational instruction.//

//The Reading Protocol for my reading partner that I learned by prepaing my own Reading Protocol in English 486 class.//

//The final Reading Partners Project in which I utilized all the information throughout the semester to profile and diagnose my reading partner.//

The "Glogster" allowed us to display the banned books from the "B" project. It was quite the learning experience. I had never created a "Glog" before this project!

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