Learning to Plan and Implement Strategies: A Self-Reflection
As I look back on this semester, it seems as if I have gained much new insight on my own pedagogical beliefs on incorporating literacy within my own classroom. Through our class readings, peer-reciprocal teaching discussions, vocabulary journal entries, and strategy assignments, I have learned a significant deal about how I learn best, what types of strategies I can use to support my students needs, and resources and tools that I can use with my students to infuse literacy curriculum within my classroom. I have always valued literacy within the social studies curriculum, but I know feel that I have a much better appreciation and know how for what I can do to provide my students with literacy rich experiences.
When considering the various self evaluations that I completed throughout the semester, it seems as if I have significantly grown as a learner and educator. Looking back at the self-assessments that I completed, I have seen much growth in several areas of the objectives we focused on in our course. First, I gained a greater understanding of the role that text and graphical features such as graphs, headings, and captions play in a text as well as the importance of using or knowing the readability of a text. Coming from a secondary background, many of my students are encountering the heavy use of textbooks and other new resources for the very first time. Billmeyer and Barton (1998) discuss how text features can have big implications for how well are students will understanding the material, “text features not only make printed pages unique; they can also significantly affect comprehension” (p. 16). When I completed Part one of the SCATP project, I was completely shocked by how disorganized the text features were in the social studies textbook that is assigned to my school district. The chapters seem to all mesh together without much distinction between different topics and reader aids ware are often scares. Since creating my own readability assessment on my courses textbook, I have not assigned one single reading out the text because the reading level was much too high and the text features were not friendly for many of my students. From this course, I have learned to take a closer look at the readings and texts that I do assign to my students to make sure that students will easily be able to comprehend texts. Sometimes I find myself adding textboxes or vocabulary sections to the bottom of readings I assign to help aid my students throughout their reading passages.
I have also developed an appreciation on facilitating essential vocabulary development and acquisition among students. Our weekly VSS vocabulary exams helped me to understand that sharing words with peers can be a very meaningful and authentic experience for students. Ruddell and Shearer (2002), discuss ways in which “social and environmental influences also can be used not only as a source of vocabulary acquisitions, but also as tools to heighten awareness and motivation for discovering the meanings of unknown words” (p. 354). The way we used social media to convey our interest in vocabulary words was highly motivating for as I challenged myself to learn new word meanings. As we know, our students are very social beings and the fact that they can share and discuss words that they discover on their own from outside of the school environment is very powerful. They can share their own interests and bring their own personalities into the classroom. Allowing students to select their own words is motivating and can allow students to show a sense of pride in their work, especially if it is displayed on a social media website.
Another area in which I have significantly developed an understanding for was a wide range of instructional strategies, many of which I have used with my students. Through the SCATP project I was exposed and created a variety of mostly new strategies that I had never used before. Prior to taking this class, I never really took into consideration the benefits of before reading strategies. For my SCATP project, I made an anticipation guide and the directed reading/ thinking activity which allows for students to stop and consider important concepts and preview the text for key information and text features. Using pre-reading strategies has made a huge difference in the way I now view reading assignments that I give to my students. Since the start of our course, I take more time introducing texts and preparing students for them to ensure students have a good sense of what they are looking for and can fully comprehend the text either independently or in groups. The strategies I created for my SCATP has really made me think in depth about my own studies abilities and how I can modify texts or use strategies to prepare students for challenging texts.
Throughout the course, I encountered several influential resources that were very insightful in my professional growth as a literacy specialist and content area teacher. Several books including the Fisher and Frey (2008) Word Wise Content Rich, which helped me gain a stronger appreciation for using teaching vocabulary in a non-traditional manner through the use of “peer talk” and other strategies and activities (p.59). The Billmeyer and Barton (1998) Teaching Reading in the Content Areas was very helpful for me to gain a better understanding of the differences between narrative and informational texts, text features, and many wonderful reading strategies, several of which I used for my SCATP project. When I consider what articles were helpful to my learning this semester, two articles that stick out to me. The Ruddell and Shearer (2002) article on vocabulary development helped me discover ways in which authentic words from our students lives can be meaningful and motivating for students in the classroom. The second article by Palinscar (1987) was on the concept reciprocal teaching and I believe that I can use this discussion based strategy with my own students.
One major course assignment this semester was particularly useful to my development and understanding of incorporating literacy into the content areas. The vocabulary self-collection strategy assignment was probably one of the most useful assignments to me because I was able to see and keep track of my learning in a unique way throughout the semester. I realized that I was motivated to keep track of newly learned words and actually was excited in a way that I normally do not get over class work. The words that I selected were personalized to me and I was able independently deepen my vocabulary spectrum while encouraging my classmates to learn my selected words as well. One of my goals this year is to allow my students to create a vocabulary journal for one of our upcoming units. Some challenges I foresee with this is students not having an email address to create a blog and most work would need to be done in school because not all of my students have access to internet at home. Overall, I think my students would enjoy embedding photographs, video clips, and being able to share this with each other.
Even though I feel as if I have gained broad depth of new knowledge about the role of a literacy specialist in content areas, I still have some areas in which I can improve my own level of expertise. First, after considering my end of the semester self assessment, I would like to learn more about using writing as a tool for learning. We did discuss some strategies; however, I would like to have read more or had group discussions about other activities my peers have used to stimulate learning from a writing assignment. I recognize the power in writing and would like to learn more tools or strategies for accomplishing this with my own students. Second, I would like to learn more about study strategies and how they can be used effectively within the content classroom. From our own VSS exams, I learned how I prepare myself for an exam. I think it would be beneficial for me to read more about study strategies so I can model different ways of studying with my classes. Third, I would like to learn more about achieving a balanced literacy curriculum across the content areas. I know that I can use young adult novels and children’s books to deliver content, but I am curious as to what other resources or ways in which I can add literacy into my social studies classroom.
Over the last several weeks, I have grown and developed my ideas of what a literacy specialist does and how they can integrate fundamental literacy skills with in the content areas. I have especially come to better understand what texts are appropriate for my students. Strategies have also provided me with tools for improving my student’s comprehension abilities and preparing students for new texts and readings. These newly learned literacy skills have been a tremendous helped me transform the way I view literacy in the classroom and the assignments and strategies that I give my students.
References
Billmeyer, R. & Barton, M.L. (1998). Teaching reading in the content areas: If not me than
who? Alexandria, VA: McRel.
Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2008). Word wise and content rich: Five essential steps to teaching academic vocabulary. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Palinscar, A. (1987). Reciprocal teaching: Can student discussion boost comprehension? Instructor, 98(5), 56-60.
Ruddel,M.R. & Shearer, B.A. (2002). “Extraordinary,” “tremendous,” “exhilarating,” “magnificent”: Middle school at-risk students become avid word learners with the Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (VSS). Journal of Adolesent & Adult Literacy, 45(5), 352-363.
