Reflections

Honestly when I first started this class I had a lot of questions. I wondered why I needed the class since I was not in an Elementary licensure program, nor do I plan to teach language arts. Over the course I started to see where particular ideas did line up with what I will be teaching, and I realized the significance of things in the mathematics class. I also was able to interview the language arts teacher and she made a point to mention the importance of writing between classes. She said that each team member works to incorporate writing, and the kids are much more interested in the process of writing when they see that it is important for all their classes and not just one. Through this class I have learned the importance of incorporating some form of writing into my mathematics class.

I also feel that in order to have stronger teams in school, and to have the ability to make stronger thematic units each teacher must know what the other classes are doing. Having taken this course I feel better prepared to keep up with the material that will be approached in the language arts class during future thematic units.

Through this course and my children's literature class I have become very aware of some great literature based resources that I hope to use in my future classroom. I was also showed very creative ways of introducing literature.

I am not sure how I will or if I will incorporate this, but I love mixbook.com. It is pretty much amazing, and I plan to continue to use that as a resource either in class or not.

I have enjoyed this course very much, and I have learned a lot about teaching language arts.

As a side note, blogging is not so bad after all. :)

Field Experience

My overall field experience was a good one. There were a few things that I saw that confused me, or I saw things I was a little skeptical of. Several times I found it to be interesting in the fact that I could go to the language arts classroom and say 'Hey we just talked about this in class.' I observed an 8th grade language arts class, so I did not get the opportunity to see structures such as: writer's workshop or reader's workshop that seem to be incorporated in younger age groups. Though I did not get the opportunity to see a writer's workshop, I was able to observe and see how writing and reading are incorporated into the language arts class for older students.

During my field experience I was able to see a thematic unit. The unit was awesome! It brought in the subjects of math, social studies, and language arts in the discussion of WWII. The students seemed to enjoy the unit, and I myself love thematic units. It was nice to see one unfold in an actual classroom.

Another thing I saw in the language arts class that I loved was the Shakespeare lesson. The literature came alive in the classroom! I loved that the students were given the opportunity to be creative and demonstrate their learning through other methods other than just a test.

I enjoyed the time I spent in the language arts classroom even though my concentration is mathematics. I will say this: the whole experience has made me consider getting trained and licensed to teach language arts.

Peer Conferencing

I really enjoyed the opportunity to have peers read my narrative story and give feedback. I also liked being able to help someone else in the process of developing their own story. However, I am not best person to call for editing purposes. I feel kind of bad for the person whose narrative I had to edit. With that said, I really liked the opportunity to get feedback from peers. I liked being able to get multiple perspectives instead of just one. However, a conflict I see, especially with editing, your help is only as strong as the helper. So as I said before I am not the best person to ask for editing advice, so some peers might get great editing advice while others get less than great editing advice depending on who they are paired with. I think the peer conferencing for content can be wonderful with younger students. I also think peer editing gives young students the opportunity to practice their grammar skills, but as far as the writer is concerned, seeking editing advice from the same young peers is probably not the best strategy.

I do not remember participating in peer conferencing during the Elementary years, but I do remember several times during the Middle and High School days. During Middle School it was great! Peer conferencing frequently meant free time. Sure you would read each others paper and give feedback, but then you also had plenty of time to chit chat about whatever. When the teacher would walk around you would pretend to be on task so that you had more time to finish “conferencing.” I think if I was to use this in Middle School I would provide the questions that were provided for us. I think the question will help keep students on task and force them to really care. During High School we were pretty good at staying on task for peer conferencing. Although I was in AG classes so I imagine some students would get off task. Providing questions for High School students would not be such a bad thing also. For the Elementary group I think I would focus more on content than grammar. I would encourage the students to look for things that could make their peers stories more interesting.