Reflection Paper

However, regarding the entire high school, there are many areas in our literacy program that could use attention. I was shocked to discover that our literacy program infrastructure, fundamentally, does not exist; we do not have a program or even a librarian. My greatest concern is that we do not currently have an ongoing summative assessment process which we can use to truly identify students’ areas of need. A testing program could work to also strengthen our differentiated instruction since we would be able to provide students specific assistance in

Within my school literacy lesson will be planed by the teachers, the teacher will go over the

For this analysis I used the survey adapted by Patty, Maschoff, and Ransom. This survey helped me realize how my school is achieving in their instructional and literacy program. I talked to my principal at my school (Stetson Hills) and discussed the topic with her and helped get an idea of how the school was doing. I’m a physical education teacher and I’m not in tune as much as I should be with our literacy program so I’m hoping this class will help me learn more about how to help my school improve the literacy program and my own personal understanding.

At Brockton High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, the school put forth an initiative to integrate literacy-related instructional strategies across all content areas. This school-wide instructional goal has attributed to the overall boost to student achievement. The leadership team at Brockton High School recognized that changing the school culture would require the adults on campus to re-evaluate curriculum and instructional strategies.`Moreover, changing the mindset of school requires an examination of data to determine the area of need. The leadership at Brockton recognized that the greatest gaps in student achievement stem from the lack of literacy skills. With the use of content-specific information, literacy skills such as reading, writing,

For many decades now there has been a scope of definition for what “literacy” incorporates and those are the basics skills like reading, writing, and a variety of social and intellectual practices which involve basic communication skills, and hand and eye coordination. However, with the world of technology continually growing, and the level of diversity in the student population becoming vaster it has become necessary to also include speaking, listening, viewing, and visually aspects to the curriculum. One of the best ways to address a wide range of literacy is to pair the categories with each other based upon their connections in the real world. The categories include written language (reading & writing), spoken communication (listening & speaking), and visual language (viewing & visually representing). (Standards for the English Language Arts p. 6) Many of these can be done with a range of creative activities such as students being able to choose what they write about, share their own personal experiences in their writings, and then read them together; this helps the students stay engaged in the work they’re doing, and also increases their level of retention of the material. The importance of a student being engaged is best explained in the article “Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Brief” with, “The number of students who are not engaged with or motivated by school learning grows at

Jo Ann is a tenured literacy teacher at Arbor Intermediate School. Areas of concern have been noted with Jo Ann in regard to fully transitioning to the Reader’s and Writer’s Model of instruction. In addition, Jo Ann is inconsistent with maintaining program fidelity and tends to revert to methods not in line with the curriculum. Specifically, there tends to be a heavy reliance on worksheets to keep students academically occupied as well as not carefully monitoring students as they work independently in the classroom. Jo Ann is often found at her desk which does not allow for a review of student work, ensuring student engagement, nor the opportunity to work with students for the purpose of small group instruction. During formal observation Jo

A literacy-rich setting accentuates the significance of “speaking, reading, and writing” (The Access Center, n.d.), in the education of every student. To provide a literate environment for students, the teacher must offer respect and encouragement, provide a supportive physical arrangement, as well as language and literacy strategies, resources, and activities.

My philosophy is that I want to provide children with the best education possible. Every student has the ability to read and write, but all students are going to have different ways of learning. Some strategies will work better for some than others. It is my responsibility to find creative and fun ways to spark their want to learn. I believe to be effective in literacy instruction and assessment I have to develop strategies that balance vocabulary, reading and writing. I think with these three components including a positive learning environment that my instructions will be effective. I believe by providing students with instructions, modeling, guided practices, and independent practices; that

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

In the world of teaching, the teachers all hope for a day when the class group can work through a lesson as one unit, comprehending the grade level materials, applying the new knowledge to real life scenarios, and exceeding what is expected on any given assessment. In a perfect world, this may be the case. However, our world is not perfect and the students do not learn by molding to a “one size fits all” category. Learning is individualized, just like teaching, every student learns at their own pace. For some students, learning is a more difficult task and requires more from the teachers. More time, more practice, and more individualized interventions are required for these types of learners. A subject that often requires extra attention is literacy. Reading and writing is a basis for all subject areas, if these skills are a weakness for a student, then all other subjects will suffer to one extinct or another.

The efforts of a group always seem to outshine the work of an individual due to the varying talents and contribution of each person. And while I have met and worked with some excellent people at Liberty I have never seen the level of interest and thoughtful argumentation that seems present over a cup of coffee and in person.

Throughout this semester, I was able to actively participate in the service learning project. By doing so, I learned so much regarding how to apply the marketing concepts we’ve studied. The project I was a part of this semester was for the Ronald McDonald Charity House. Our CBO, Sven, assigned us two different assignments to be completed along with our marketing plan. First, we were assigned to create a promotional video for the “Meals from the Heart” program. Additionally, we were assigned to complete an assessment of their sponsor program, which corresponds with the “Meals from the Heart” program.

Over the course of the semester I felt challenged in several aspects of my writing during each paper that was assigned. Having the freedom of choosing my own topic and being able to focus and gain and thorough understanding of it throughout the course of the semester made writing truly enjoyable. Given all of these difficult assignments I believe that I have grown as a writer as a whole. Going through the process of writing a rough draft, editing that rough draft several times until the final product, although it seemed extraneous, in the end all the work payed off. The essay that seemed to pose the most challenging for me was the inquiry essay. It was not easy to find that balance between being informative, supporting my main arguments with personal knowledge and scholarly sources all while focusing on answering my main question “how is one’s psychological state affected when living with a chronic illness?”. As a result I decided to focus on my inquiry essay for the revision assignment, along with the feedback and suggestions I have receive from you along with Jina not only on the inquiry essay, but other essays that I wrote on the topic of chronic illness, that I believed pertained to this assignment.

In the first semester of Mr. McGee’s class was a very educational one. For the first time in my entire life I actually finished an entire textbook! The junior english B class had plethora of really amazing stories and poems. However, there was only a handful of stories and poems that really stood out for me. These stories and poems had a deeper meaning to them then the rest. Being in Mr. McGee’s class really helped me dive into a better understanding of even the most simple lines. I believe that this has also had an impact on the type of music I listen to as well. For the longest time, The sound and beat of a song was what made me fond of it. However, I am more drawn to songs with meanings now. I also believe that in benefited my reading techniques. The problem that I had with standardized testing for reading was not being able to focus on stories that had bored me. There were some stories that still made me feel this way, but at least now I can read through it and understand the basics of the text. The following paragraphs give a very opinionated reason as to why these poems and stories i choose were some of the best texts that we read in this semester.

It was Mission Sunday at First Reformed Church, sitting in a pew with my youth group when I was given the opportunity to go to Eden, Jamaica the summer after my freshman year. My youth pastor, Ross, was standing on the stage in church describing the past trip that he went on with our high school youth group that past summer. He talked about the mission work they did, the relationships that were created, and the amazing views they saw. He then went on to say that the next group of kids that were the incoming freshman through seniors. That was me! I was so excited! I really wanted to go!