Final Blog Post - Synthesis of Course
I can say that I have taken quite a few gems of knowledge from this class and I have every intention of putting them to practice. The first gem was actually teaching comprehension to students in a way that will make them successful in my class. For example, before sending students home to read from certain texts, I am going to teach them how to comprehend the reading in a way that I would like them to. I, too, would have been a teacher that would have assumed that the students could pick up a psychology textbook and understand what I want them to. I was glad to gain that sense of awareness that will help me effectively help my students comprehend textbooks or any other form of input I am using to teach my content.
Another gem was hatching over ideas of critical literacy. We couldn't have discussed them at a better time. I was thinking and hatching over how I can manage my Spanish class while speaking solely in Spanish. As we were talking about critical literacy, I thought of how I could integrate that into my class. I am happy to say that many ideas that came to mind were based upon critical literacy and other theories of this class. Instead of throwing the students to the dogs by going straight into Spanish, I am going to ease them into it. I am going to set the expectations and the goal that I have of being able to conduct the class all in Spanish and then work towards those expectations. I will do activities all in Spanish and switch into English afterward for a small discussion on what is supposed to be going on their minds during these lessons and which cues do they need to notice in order to understand the translations without requiring that I tell them. Eventually, we would be able to conduct the entire class in Spanish and hopefully have the students right their with me. I recognize that these students have certain needs and I must build my lessons and activities around these needs. Students want to be empowered and have an influence in life and I want to create an atmosphere where they can feel both of these needs are fulfilled. This approach would create that and overall I feel like this will be a more effective approach to accomplishing a required goal for my class.
Another gem was the I-chart and learning how to give students content about which to write about. I know, for me, that I sometimes have a difficult time finding things to write about; but with the I-chart I can teach my students where they find information and how to build upon it and that, I figure, will give them plenty to write about. I liked the ideas of empowerment in writing as well and so I hope to implement strategies in my class where I can help my students explore a writing side of them that some may not know they have and to see the benefits writing can have.
One last gem that I can think about was how to teach students how to use oral language and how to integrate that into discussions. I really thought identifying the different "types" of people that can make up a discussion group can help students know which ones they are and compensate so they can make their group discussions more effective. I intend to include this into my class. I really liked the idea of teaching students how to become empowered through their ability to speak and that is something that I would like to put into lessons.
Overall this class helped me to recognize some negative trends in the lack of teaching reading and writing in my content area and I am excited at the prospect of being able to make some changes in my class so that I can be a more effective teacher. There were more gems that I learned in this class, but I decided to share these ones because of the impact the experiences associated with them had on me. Thanks for sharing them!
Another gem was hatching over ideas of critical literacy. We couldn't have discussed them at a better time. I was thinking and hatching over how I can manage my Spanish class while speaking solely in Spanish. As we were talking about critical literacy, I thought of how I could integrate that into my class. I am happy to say that many ideas that came to mind were based upon critical literacy and other theories of this class. Instead of throwing the students to the dogs by going straight into Spanish, I am going to ease them into it. I am going to set the expectations and the goal that I have of being able to conduct the class all in Spanish and then work towards those expectations. I will do activities all in Spanish and switch into English afterward for a small discussion on what is supposed to be going on their minds during these lessons and which cues do they need to notice in order to understand the translations without requiring that I tell them. Eventually, we would be able to conduct the entire class in Spanish and hopefully have the students right their with me. I recognize that these students have certain needs and I must build my lessons and activities around these needs. Students want to be empowered and have an influence in life and I want to create an atmosphere where they can feel both of these needs are fulfilled. This approach would create that and overall I feel like this will be a more effective approach to accomplishing a required goal for my class.
Another gem was the I-chart and learning how to give students content about which to write about. I know, for me, that I sometimes have a difficult time finding things to write about; but with the I-chart I can teach my students where they find information and how to build upon it and that, I figure, will give them plenty to write about. I liked the ideas of empowerment in writing as well and so I hope to implement strategies in my class where I can help my students explore a writing side of them that some may not know they have and to see the benefits writing can have.
One last gem that I can think about was how to teach students how to use oral language and how to integrate that into discussions. I really thought identifying the different "types" of people that can make up a discussion group can help students know which ones they are and compensate so they can make their group discussions more effective. I intend to include this into my class. I really liked the idea of teaching students how to become empowered through their ability to speak and that is something that I would like to put into lessons.
Overall this class helped me to recognize some negative trends in the lack of teaching reading and writing in my content area and I am excited at the prospect of being able to make some changes in my class so that I can be a more effective teacher. There were more gems that I learned in this class, but I decided to share these ones because of the impact the experiences associated with them had on me. Thanks for sharing them!
I'm glad you are coming away from the class with some useful knowledge and strategies for your students; it's my biggest goal that some of it is useful and that you as students feel empowered to adapt it to your own content and teaching. I wish you luck in your future teaching...just shifting your paradigm to include these strategies and see how they can set the stage for developing critical literacy in your students can lay a strong foundation for better teaching all around.
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