Portfolio+-+Shannon+Carey

Shannon Carey Final Portfolio

As the semester ends, I realize that this class is just the beginning of my journey as I prepare to teach. I have been a substitute teacher for 4 years, but I have always been part of the “on-stage teaching” and never “behind-the-scene”. Standing in front of a group of students has never been difficult for me. I have always been able to show students how to do their work and answer their questions to work through assignments. However, my anxiety about becoming a full-time teacher is part of what Teaching Reading and Literature to Young Adults has highlighted for me.
 * Reflective Essay**

After returning to school to pursue my teaching certification, I went through the motions for the “required classes” and have only recently begun to take classes that are what I know I need to teach. I often questioned – How do I know what to teach? How do I gain student interest? How do I plan to teach students and motivate them to want to learn? After reading the text for this class, I have become more aware of genres available for students. The Young Adult selection of books has grown tremendously since I was in high school. This is exciting for me, remembering how limited I was as a reader. This has offered a variety of ideas and paths that I will be able to take with my students. At the beginning of the semester, we read the excerpt from the Book Whisper. I was fascinated that students were motivated to read 40 books in one year for class. Teaching for me is offering students an opportunity to learn more than what is required by the school district. This offers the ability to do that and see it can be accomplished! Like many of us I am sure, I want to be a teacher that students enjoy, but that makes an impact that changes the way they look at their education. I want school to be an exciting endeavor and gaining the tools to do this is significant to my success.

Throughout our class, I have learned ways to reach students of many different levels and interest. Reading is not just processing words on paper, but creating pictures in our minds and making connections to the story being told. Readers of all levels are able to do this but the tools needed to accomplish this often vary. Regardless of what their reading ability is, we must make sure we allow students time to enjoy reading. My A project is evidence of the importance of allowing students to enjoy reading and to also give reading a purpose in their life. Whether we do this through class discussion, quick writes, think aloud, etc. we must find a way to reach our students and help them to make connections.

http://teachingreadingf11.wikispaces.com/A+Project+-+Reading+for+Pleasure

The Daybook activity that had a great influence on my thinking about teaching was the “Quick Draw” activity. Although it was brief, I learned about this type of activity in another class and thought of the saying – “A picture is a thousand words”. Students often have difficulty reading because they cannot paint a picture in their mind about what they are reading. This type of activity is an easy way for teachers to assess that students understand what they are reading. I often learn better when I have a visual to refer to and can relate to how important it is that students are able to make that visual connection.

//Persepolis// was an important part of my learning this semester. Many years ago, a friend recommended I read the graphic novel //From Hell// by Alan Moore, but I did not find the same interest that I did with //Persepolis//. As I read //Persepolis//, I could easily see the significance of reading the pictures and the powerful messages that can be conveyed to a reader in this genre. I enjoyed reading this book that I quickly read //Persepolis 2// to learn more about her story. This would be beneficial for those that struggle with reading, helping them to “paint a picture” and then allowing them to fill in the spaces. Graphic Novels should be used more frequently in the classroom and offer a new type of discussion for teachers and students to explore. My RPP project partner had difficulty with reading and she is someone that would benefit from this type of reading. She is in 8th grade and reluctant to try new books because of the amount of required reading for school. However, I think if introduced in a classroom setting she would embrace this genre more willingly in her own personal reading and perhaps begin to enjoy reading more.

Incorporating technology into teaching is essential in our society today. Learning new forms of technology this semester has reminded me how quickly technology changes. Creating a glog this semester was a tool that I would like to use in my future classroom. The format reminded me of MySpace and a blog in one. Students would see this as a fun activity and would be able to put their personal touch on a topic. By doing this, teachers would be able to interpret their understanding of the topic. This type of activity could be used in a variety of subjects at various grade levels. []

Finally, creating our own lesson plans was an enlightening experience. While I have many ideas I would like to use in the classroom, the art of creating them using standards was a reminder of what lies ahead. We have only begun the process of implementing lessons and the work that we must put into them before ever presenting them to students. The complexity of teaching has begun and while I still have many questions, I realize that teaching is a work in progress and will never be perfected. http://teachingreadingf11.wikispaces.com/Lesson%3B+Persepolis

Reading is a process of interpreting text using prior knowledge and world experience. We develop our reading by using information that is already familiar to us. Each person processes the information differently and can often interpret text differently based on their prior knowledge. In order to improve our reading, exposure to various genres combined with life experiences will allow our minds to develop and grow. If we are not able to make connections to what we are reading, we may feel disconnected and are not motivated to continuing reading.
 * Daybook Entries**
 * What is “reading” and how do people develop as readers?**

Students learn when the information given is something they feel relevant to them. When making decisions about what we want to teach it is important to understand our student’s interest and background. Creating a portfolio at the beginning of a school year will allow the teacher to get information from students that they might not volunteer. Allowing students to have input about what they will be reading will also allow the students to feel a sense of ownership in their learning. Students can also set goals for the class. It is also important to discuss the text that is going to be read in class to give the students a comfort and understanding before they read. Providing several opportunities for students to excel in the classroom using their strengths is equally important to the text that is chosen. Some examples are skits, quick draws, quick writes, and literature circles.
 * What teaching choices and strategies support Yong adults as they engage with literature?**

We must understand students and their culture in order to provide a good foundation for learning. If we ask students to read texts that they have no prior knowledge, we are setting them up for failure. Students will lose interest quickly because they do not understand and cannot relate to what they are reading. Asking a student from an inner city school to read about a farmer and his animals when they have never seen farm animals or went to a farm is not creating an environment they will be able to learn from. However, if you take students on a field trip to a farm, show them YouTube videos, or show them pictures of these things they will have a better understanding. Teachers cannot expect students to succeed without some prior knowledge.
 * What must we “understand” in order to create environments and enterprises that support readers/learners?**

Text is a variety of things that we come across each day. We see text on cereal boxes, billboards, Facebook, books, magazines, newspapers, comic strips, etc. We must remember to use a variety of text in our classroom. This will allow students to see the importance of text in our everyday lives and encourage them to become masters of interpreting text. Our job is to show students the enjoyment that various texts can bring us, but also their significance in the world around us. We can use alternative text like glogs and Facebook to allow students to use things they are familiar with. This will help them to better understand the more complex text they are required to learn in school. We can make the complex text more accessible this way. After reading a text, providing a graphic novel or a movie interpretation of the same text can also increase students understanding. It will allow students to fill in the empty spaces of their understanding and perhaps increase their motivation to learn more about that topic.
 * What is “text” and how can we include alternative texts in our English classroom?**