Entry #11: We Made It! (And We Learned Some Things Along the Way)

 It's so hard to believe we are already at the end of our semester - and thinking about the past few months learning about the various components of Literacy and Language, I can see a clearer path of understanding for myself in many of the topics we covered as a class. When we first began this semester, I had doubts and concerns about what exactly I would be learning. Would it really be helpful, or is this just a class we have to take in order to move on? I should know by now that every single class I've taken so far in this program is so essential for being an educator, and I always find myself learning way more than I ever expected. The same has already rung true with LTED601 - Foundations of Language and Literacy. 

I loved diving into our own literacy development at the beginning of the semester - learning about where we all came from, and how that impacts our teaching moving forward. We were able to create "Genius Collages" of what our own influences were during early literacy development, which was fun to go back and think about all these years later when I can actually comprehend (ah ha! Comprehension making a comeback) what literacy is thanks to our friend Dr. Stephen Kucer. 

Some specific things I really want to thank this class for, is a deeper understanding of Phonics and Fluency, as well as knowledge in the Skill, Will, Thrill of comprehending texts. 

In terms of Phonics, I'll be honest here, I did not know what this word meant for the longest time. Eventually I realized it has to do with reading of some sort. However, I really was a little afraid to ask what all it entailed (thanks for the encouragement, Stahl, Duffy-Hester, and Dougherty Stahl). Thanks to this deeper dive, I can include my phonemic awareness knowledge in my own future teachings - the importance of developing automatic word recognition, phonological awareness, spelling development, and not just teaching rules, but making the learning process exciting for students. 

Fluency is something I always just thought of as a stage you reach once you've learned enough about a topic and the ability to read completely in general. I now have such a large knowledge library of Fluency thanks to not only learning about the topic as a class, but presenting the Deeper Dive with my partner, Thalia. Having the opportunity to read an article and part of our textbook on our own, develop comprehension questions based off those readings, and lead a deep discussion with our class on a topic was eye-opening and really exciting to be able to put something together we thought would help the class as a whole. It also helped me to rethink many of my own thoughts on Fluency and what it meant not only for myself, but for others as well. Something specific I take away from our Deeper Dive on Fluency - but also relates to many of the other discussions/topics - is the idea of teacher modeling. 

"Children need to observe fluent reading by adults and other fluent readers. The value of adults reading to children is compelling. Reading to children increases children's motivation for reading, enlarges their vocabulary, and also improves their comprehension" (Rasinski, 2014, p. 7). 

In this instance, Rasinski talks about modeling fluent reading in order for children to become successful readers themselves. We also talk about modeling correct behavior in terms of developing fluent writers, teaching word-learning strategies, generating questions for comprehension, and many other foundations of literacy. 

All of this brings me to the article we just read this past week, "The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Comprehending Content Area Texts" - mainly the "Will" section of the article that just truly speaks to me as an educator of young children. Yes, students need to have the skills in order to be able to comprehend what they are reading, however I think a lot of the time, we forget about the encouragement and motivation it takes in order for our students to truly become successful. 

"Students need to experience motivation and engagement. There are specific teacher actions that help students develop the will to read, including choice, relevance, and inquiry" (Fisher & Frey, 2020, p. 819). 

I'm going to connect this to a quote from Tompkins when she talks about the Student's Role in Motivation:

"Teachers play a big role in shaping students' expectations, and teacher expectations are often self-fulfilling: If teachers believe that their students can be successful, it's more likely that they will be" (Tompkins, 2017, p. 282). 

Being a teacher, it is my responsibility to prove to my students that they are capable, smart, have opportunity and a right to learn, and have a say in their own education. This is something I consider to be a part of my teaching philosophy, and I thank both Fisher & Frey, and Tompkins for helping me to realize the importance of this.

All in all, I would say that being able to keep a blog throughout this semester has truly helped me in creating deeper meaning to all the topics and foundations of literacy we covered. I was able to really push myself to think at a deeper level, and connect with both classmates, my professor, and my inner self who strives every day to learn something new and add that to my teacher library. 

One of my favorite quotes on teaching, and one I come back to
 often when I think about my own teaching philosophy.