What I Did or Did Not Get from this Class

What did you get from this class?

Having taken this class, I now have a better understanding of what the term “literacy” means. Originally, I had thought that literacy was comprised of reading and writing skills only, so I was surprised to learn that speaking and listening skills were also part of the equation. Another thing that I learned from this class was how I can better support struggling readers. The textbook for this class offered a lot of new and innovative techniques (e.g., anticipation guides, bookmarks, double-entry journals, etc.) that I will definitely be incorporating into my own teaching repertoire. Since Dr. Dana is also really interested in technology in the classroom, I also learned new ways to teach content through technology. In particular, I thought that using iPods to give lectures or to give pronunciation drills would be great for my ESL kids. Before I had thought about teaching students language through music, but I had never really thought about using the iPod for anything other than music. Finally, this class helped me to shape my own personal definition of literacy. I realized that it’s not shameful to have magazines, comic books, and other less prestigious reading materials in the classroom. While I had planned to use these materials to teach literacy before, I had thought that most administrators and other educators would dismiss this idea and that I wouldn’t have the conviction to support it further. Now that I’ve heard other people confidently vouch for these materials, I feel more confident in their usage as well.

What didn't you get that you wanted to learn?

One thing I think I did not get from this class was feedback, and it drove me nuts. I am not a very confident person, so if people don’t tell me I’m doing a good job, I’ll think that I’m not. I never really knew where I stood in the class or whether or not I should be changing anything. In particular, I really would have liked if we could have had workshop days in the class for the unit plan. In other classes, I’ve had teachers review my lesson plans and then give me feedback. They helped me to write better lesson plans by keeping an open dialogue with me. Since I don’t feel like I got that from this class, I don’t know if I wrote lesson plans that really emphasized literacy. I just have to hope that I did. I also would have liked to learn more about the signs that indicate struggling readers. I don’t think we really covered this in this class, and I think it would have been beneficial to do so.