What I learned in this class...

This class has taught me a lot. One of the most important things I learned in this class is the significance of literacy. It is apparent everywhere, in everyday life. We as teachers must stress this and incorporate literacy as much as we can in our lesson plans and activities. I also realized that my content area, art involves much more literacy than I had previously thought. After realizing this and creating a unit plan, I will use this knowledge to incorporate literacy in all of my teaching. The unit plan was definitely a new experience for me. Although, it was kind of a pain, I have definitely benefited from it and hope to someday use in the classroom.

Final Post

What I didnt get that I wanted to learn was how to encourage kids to build their literacy while competing with all this audio/visual technology in their lives. In regards to reading... computers, movies, tv, ipods, iphones, video games, etc. are all other (more appealing) options/distractions for kids. They all have visual, interactive, and/or tangible elements that reading lacks. Kids would much rather do these things rather than read nowadays. Call it a sign of the times, but that is still a lame excuse.
I think we did touch on this matter briefly, but I wish we could have learned about it a little more in depth. What specific techniques are there? Yes, have them read things that really interest them. But for some reason, I feel it is a lot easier 'said than done'. I am a huge advocate for reading (and building literacy) and I am going to want to preach this to my students, but how the hell will I be able to compete with all this stuff. Maybe it will all 'click', maybe not. Anyone feel me?

One specific thing that I liked in the class was the lesson Dr. Dana gave when we listed things that came to our heads about "school," in general. We all listed things that were mostly negative experiences - when really, there are plenty of great positive things that were should keep in mind as teachers. It was interesting. For some reason that example really stuck with me.

There were good ideas in the textbook. Plus, the unit plan was a pain in the ass, but looking back, I realize how worthwhile it was. It was good experience. And it is something we can put into a portfolio - along with our philosophy statement (that was a good idea too).

Final Thoughts

Not trying to be a dork but this was my favorite class of the semester, because it wasnt just all lecturing but learning different teaching stategies. I feel like i learned more from this class than my methods for teaching class. I feel the book has some great ideas that everyone can use no matter which subject area they are.
I was really afraid that this class was just going to be about reading, and mainly for english majors but it really wasnt. Even though it is a required class i would recommend it to other students because it was a fun class and as a teacher you were very easy to talk to and to communicate with which is more than i can say for the majority of the teachers at this school.

Literacy and Education

For me, taking this class was a no brainer. I am an English major and in my mind and what I have been taught here at MSU, English IS Literacy. English IS reading. So I completely understood that I needed to take this course. I however never knew that so many other majors could be integrated through literacy into my major and vice-versa. I learned from the PE majors as much as I learned from the History majors and I hope that they took something away from me too. This for me was the most valuable thing that I took away from the course but I also really appreciated th text book. I plan on keeping the book to use some of the literacy ideas in my future classes. I already have used some of them for lesson plans I intend to teach next semester while in student teaching. This class was the first time I was introduced to KWLs so I am greatly appreciative that I learned about them as I think that they are an amazing tool not only for the teacher but for the students to gain perspective on their teacher as well. I really do feel confident that many things I took away from this class will help me in the upcoming months as I begin my teaching experience.

Class Reflection

Since English is my content area, I wasn't baffled as to why I had to take this class. Literacy IS English. Probably the most valuable thing I am taking away from this class is the textbook, because that one section with all the different ideas for lesson plans and literacy is going to be really helpful throughout my teaching career. I already have been using KWL's left and right (not really... but this class was the first time I was introduced to them and I think it's a great idea to start any unit... I'm using it for my Methods class unit plan.) Most of the strategies the book presented seem really useful for the classroom and I will definitely use them as a reliable resource. Other than that, this class was all right--I'm glad we had the opportunity to work with other people on the inquiry unit plan; I worked with two other people and I feel like we each complimented each other's ideas and brought something unique to the unit. The book group project was interesting, too.

Coming To An End....

This semester has brought up the importance of literacy in any subject field which has definitely taught me something. I never really thought of how literacy was used in any subject other than reading and writing classes. This class has discussed what literacy was, what components made up literacy, and helped me look for it in my own field.
Learning the significance of literacy has taught me that I should integrate it as much as I can in my lesson plans. When using different components of literacy in health and physical education, I have found it to be affective in different ways. Instead of just teaching how to play a sport, I could have my students read about it and talk about it in groups. This is just one example of how literacy can be used in a variety of ways.

Finally...

I finally figured out why we were supposed to take a "reading" course! Since I started the Teacher Ed program, I've been wondering what good a reading class could possibly do for me, a math student. This class showed me that not only is reading a very important aspect of any class, even math, but it can even be expanded on to reinforce what math teachers are already doing. I also really liked learning about literacy, and realized through this course that there are different kinds of literacy, and that teaching to math literacy is a logical thing to do, since it means that students will be able to take their knowledge from math class and apply it outside the classroom.

Thanks for clearing that up!