Finding Universal Strategies (Online Reflection #4)

It never fails to impress me when somebody knows more than one language. I tried in vain for years to learn Spanish, and for some reason, it just never clicked. This is why when I look at the English Language Learners (ELL) in my classroom, I know that they are capable of so much. Randy Bomer points out that not everyone believes this is the case: “Unfortunately, educators too often tend to see students who speak languages other than English as their first language as deprived rather than rich, as problems to fix rather than resources to draw upon” (41). I never want to look at any of my students as “problems,” and this is why I think learning how best to assist ELL students is so important.

My Time is Now (Genre Reflection #2)

 Their futures

in my hands.

The significance is just now

getting to me.

Changing me.

Making me see.

I’ll help them break free.

How will I do it?

Becoming a Consistent Grader (Online Reflection #3)

“Grading students can be a perplexing task” (Smagorinsky 101).

Something that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is how I want to grade my students, particularly when it comes to essays. Whenever both my mentor teacher and I grade something, such as in class speeches or short answer quiz questions, I have noticed that I always give the students a higher grade than she does. If I gave them a B-, she gave them a C. If I thought it was an A performance, she gave them a B+. Because of this and past experiences, I always though grading was subjective. Depending on who looks over the work, a student could receive a good grade or a bad grade. But, according to Randy Bomer, “[Grading’s] not subjective, but it’s not quantitative either” (182). This somewhat stumps me, so I want to explore the subject further. Is grading subjective? How will I decide to give grades to my own students in the future?

Finding Inspiration (KATE Conference Reflection)

Attending the KATE Conference amidst so many English teaching professionals who really have a love and passion for this field was really inspiring. I loved seeing how many English teachers were excited about new developments in the field and who wanted to share their expertise with other English teachers. Knowing that there’s an organization that is all about how much English teachers love their job and how much they want to support other English teachers is really amazing.

During the Conference I attended a breakout session during all six of the time slots. While I got something out of all the sessions I attended, two in particular stood out to me as particularly informative and important for me to have been there, so I’m glad that I chose those two sessions!

Planning with Intention (Online Reflection #2)

As September moves to October and as the semester is already somehow nearing its halfway point, I find myself more and more concerned about developing content and lessons for my current students and my future students. As Randy Bomer says it, “[t]he notion of design – of carefully combining elements to achieve a particular response – is crucial” (12).

While I may not have all the answers right now about how to plan an effective unit, I have many resources that can guide me through planning to the best of my ability. While my mentor teacher and I seem to have different outlooks and teaching styles, I know I can use her advice to plan my five-day unit I will be teaching at the end of this month. She wants me to do a transition between the semester’s two texts by facilitating a movie viewing of The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete. I watched the movie, and I liked it; it even made me cry. But how should I incorporate it as a transition between two memoirs written by two completely different people? What should the students be doing while watching the movie, especially because my mentor teacher told me today that they should not just be answering questions or filling out a worksheet.

The Sign I Needed (Genre Reflection #1)

Dear James*,

Thank you for walking in late to class. This may seem like a strange thing to thank you for, especially because day in, day out you stroll in late as if you have no care in the world.

But this day, this day it was different. This day the class was handing in their first reading questions and because you were late, yours was on the top of my stack I collected.

I don’t really believe in signs. Do you?

Becoming the Teacher I Want to Be (Online Reflection #1)

“Reading opened up the world” (Rose 21).

I just read that sentence in Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose, a book assigned to me for one of my classes. I’ve done a lot of thinking about what kind of teacher I want to be and what kind of teacher I will be, and that sentence succinctly states a lot of what I want to convey.

I want to give kids an opportunity to better their lives through reading and writing. I want to expand their horizons. I want to teach them about our civic responsibilities, which Randy Bomer, author of Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classroom, agrees is important. He says, “It’s essential that [students] be ready to participate in democratic communities, which means not just reading to become informed about those issues that may require a vote but participation well beyond that” (8). I want to encourage that participation.