Course Reflection

1.    Reflect on the work you’ve completed in the course (text presentations, content portfolio, etc.)

     In English 486, we worked on text presentations, blogs, in-class discussions, and content portfolio over the course of this quarter. I really enjoyed creating a presentation for the textbooks I chose for visual literacy, writing, and literature. Since I started the teaching program, I have had so many how questions. These how questions grew when I decided to add English as a minor. Some of those questions consisted of, “how do you engage students in reading? Or how do you help students improve their writing skills?” So, I decided to choose textbooks that provided teaching strategies and answered my questions. Each textbook included teaching ideas that I began to use in my student teaching and that I will use in my own future classroom. I enjoyed presenting these texts to the class because I got the opportunity to share with my peers’ resources that I find valuable. The textbooks my classmates presented, I found some resourceful and valuable as well. In my student teaching placement, I realized that a lot of students are struggling reaching their reading goals because they are not reading at home. A classmate happened to present a reading textbook that provided strategies that I can use to help motivate students to read. The first step I took was reading my own book while my students were given time to read inside class. Throughout the course, we created blogs where we responded to texts we were assigned to read. I appreciated that you presented the creation of blog posts as a free resource that we can use as future teachers. This was my first blog post, so I was really excited about creating it. I believe blog posts are a great opportunity to share my ideas and what I have learned. I see myself using blogs post in my future English language arts class because I want my students to share their writing with their community and peers. As for the content portfolio, reflecting back to coursework and experiences that helped me learn the four categories of literacy strategies came easy. They came easy because I had great learning experiences thanks to teachers and professors I had. The teaching strategies they used helped me retain the information, make connections, and understand its purpose. By thinking back and understanding how it helped me as a student, I hope I can use the same strategies and build the same learning environment. 

2. Reflect on the theories and concepts we explored in readings and discussions

By reading and analyzing sections of the NES book and the common core standards, it eased my anxieties. I had developed stress and anxiety over common core standards because I always heard how much people disliked them. After analyzing them, I realized that the common core standards convey the four categories of literacy. I learned that the common core standards do not tell you how you are going to teach the content but outlines the skills, knowledge, and learning goals each student should meet. I believe the NES presents the same valuable information the common core standards presents. The NES covers various English language art skills, teaching practices, and essentials to teach ELA. The readings were due prior to the class in preparation for group and whole class discussion. I appreciated that you explained how you tiered the questions you created for the Socratic seminars. I understood what formal discussions should look like and that the questions I create should be open-ended. 

3. Reflect on how you think your participation in this course has influenced your thinking about yourself as a teacher

My participation in this course has made me feel prepared for what is coming. In the past, I dwelled on the idea of failing as a teacher because I have not learned everything that I need to know to be a good teacher. But thanks to Sean, he has helped me understand that I will not graduate knowing it all and that my learning will continue throughout my teaching career. I appreciated that Sean shared his teaching experiences and expressed how he grew over the years. The in-class discussions and presentations has helped me understand that there are so many resources that I can refer to for future lessons. It also showed me that there are thousands of ways to teach content and if one does not work, there are other options. 

Content Portfolio Reflection

Content Portfolio Project Reflection

-Yaritza Morales

English 486

Fall 2019

Writing/Composition/Grammar

Informative Essay: Dual Language Program

In writing my informative essay, I realized how easy I became engaged in the process because of the academic freedom I was given to choose my topic. As a former English Language Learner, I was intrigued to research and inform on a current issue or area of concern related to teaching ELL students. A challenge I came across during my writing process was focusing to write to inform and not persuade my audience. Relearning the purpose for informative essays, I was able to address my challenges and reconsider how to address my revisions. I learned how I could have benefitted from a brainstorming activity to organize my ideas. As a future teacher of writing, I would create a brainstorming activity, rubric, and lesson plans that explicate informative essays for my students. Overall, my experiences in writing this informative essay showed me the benefits of academic freedom, dual language programs, and how I can use this writing experience to explicate the importance of informative essays in my future classrooms.

Free writes: Piece of Me

Inside my future classroom, I want to integrate various opportunities for free writes. One of my favorite free writes that I completed is called “Piece of Me,” where I was able to write about an object, person, or anything that represented a piece of me. My professor asked us to write about something that would be found inside our future classroom. Inside my classroom, I would have a picture of my eight-year-old dog named Fischer. I loved this free write because I got an opportunity to share something significant in my life, as well as learn about others in the class. I also love that free writes ease my writing anxiety, move away from formal writing, and can enjoy the liberty of free expression. This can easily be integrated in my future class at the beginning of the school year as an entry task. I believe giving students the opportunity for free writes is an important aspect of learning writing skills. It is possible that my future students may have writing anxiety as well, free writes can ease those anxieties. I want to teach students that free writes can provide an opportunity to dig deep in the inner wild thoughts, deliver the five senses, and understand that free writes can become something bigger. I also believe this will give me an opportunity to learn about my students and create classroom culture by having students share with their peers. 

Stylistic Imitation: Cherry Fields 

As a future teacher, I need to find writing strategies that can help all students from diverse backgrounds. Since, I know I will be returning to Yakima where there are a vast of English Language Learners (ELL), as an English teacher I want to help them improve their writing skills and confidence in their writing. Stylistic imitation is when one improves own skills by copying the writing of others. Inside my future class, I would use close imitation writing prompt created by Professor Reeves. Professor Reeves used The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter as stylistic writing prompt, as seen below. I believe this will not only help my ELL students but all students struggling in writing. I will present my stylistic imitation of Porter’s paragraph to my students. I believe sharing my own writing will provide me an opportunity to share something personal with my class, address that I am a writer as well, and show students that it takes practice for everyone.

Your Mirror Image of the syntax of Porter’s Paragraph 

_______ had __________________________ once, _________in the _______________herself and ________ing the _______ with just __________to ____. That changed a _________. _______ would be looking for a _________ __________with a ________ __________ _________ in her _______ and the _________ ________. _________ing ________________changed a ___________. ______ing ____________ ________ in the ________ when ________ _______ _______ ________ was another thing. [________ accomplishments were] _______ting up ______ ______ with ______ _________and ______ ________ and ________ _________ and hardly ever _________ one. _______, [she] hardly ever __________ one of them! 

            

Visual Literacy/ Visual representation

Red Rose: Bloom

For one of my education courses, we had to create a visual representation of the classroom culture we would have in our future classroom. I made a big red origami rose because it symbolizes my mother and represents what I hope for all my students to do, bloom. Her name is Rosalia which means “rose” but I also made it because she helped me bloom into the person I am today. On the red rose’s petals, I wrote a quote that I strongly believe in, “When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower” (Alexander Den Heijer). On each petal it also has what I want my students to feel inside my class: safe, challenged, blooming, cared for, and respected. The professor gave the class the freedom to create this visual project however we wanted, it was amazing seeing how everyone became creative in their own way. This project was our final for this course that we had to present in front of the class. This project further made me understand the importance of academic freedom. By giving students a rubric and the freedom to create their visual representation how they please showed the effort they put into it, each projected the rubric requirements, and covered various English language Arts skills (writing, speaking, and listening). For my future class’s final assessment, I would also give students the liberty to create their final how they please with an explicit rubric. 

The Kite Runner: Film

In eleventh grade, we read the book The Kite Runner.This was an amazing book that brought into light hard topics to discuss. This book was read only inside the class, but I recall talking to my teacher and telling her I could not wait till the following day. So, I checked out a book and read ahead of the class. Since this book had hard topics to understand and discuss, the teacher facilitated our whole class discussions. Once we got through the book as a class, my teacher surprised us by telling us that there was a film on and that we would be watching it. This book raised awareness on the social issues affecting the society the boys lived in. The film or use of multimedia further illustrated how the boy’s lives were conflicted economically, socially, and culturally. I believe that as teachers, if there is an opportunity to integrate multimedia inside your class as part of the curriculum we should do so. The film helped me gain a better understanding of the culture because I was able to see how people interacted with one another, view the landscape they lived in, dressed, and the social issues it brought into light. 

American Indian assimilation: Photographs

In middle school, we were reading a biography of an American Indian and learning about assimilation. The teacher created a slideshow of photographs to portray American Indian assimilation. The pictures, biographies, and history stayed with me. Especially, the before and after photographs of American Indians in boarding schools. Seeing the visual representation of assimilation, I understood how their culture was diminished and their lives were taken away from them. Last school year, I came across American Indian literature and I instantly saw those images in my head so vividly. So, I decided to do my final project on Zitkala-Sa aka Gertrude Simmons Bonnin’s Impressions of an Indian Childhood. Her stories reverberate her experience in assimilation, Indian culture, and suffering through imagery. I believe those photographs influenced my decision to research and write about American Indian literature in college. My own experience with photographs and their impact has made me understand that in my future classroom, if there is an opportunity to use photographs to convey what we are learning, I will integrate them. 

Speaking/ Listening

The Art of Racing in the Rain: Discussion

My first English class, freshmen year at Yakima Community College we read The Art of Racing in the Rain.This book was the assigned homework we had for part of course. We had to read certain number of pages so we can be ready for discussion the following class period. This small class of fifteen made it easy for us to get to know each other and feel comfortable to share with one another. This book had themes of life, companionship, friendship, self-destruction, and love. When we sat in a circle to discuss quotes, themes, motifs, symbols, and other subjects related to the book where the professor acted as the facilitator. In our discussions, my classmates as well as myself openly discussed personal life connections we had to this book. By discussing the book and listening to other student’s interpretations, I understood that quotes, symbols, themes, and motifs can have more than one interpretation. I hope to carry the same type of discussions in my future classroom. I understand that in order for students to feel comfortable to share ideas with their peers, I need to build a safe classroom culture. 

Journal responses:

Every day in this English class, we wrote in our journal responding to a video we watched as our entry task which was an opportunity for free writing and connecting with our peers. We were given five minutes to quietly to respond to the video, then we would trade journals with a peer to respond to their written response. We had to respond to peers we had not responded to before. The professor’s purpose of free write’s was to help us build confidence in our writing skills, inspired future writing ideas, and promoted process and not outcome. But the professor also used free writes as an opportunity to create classroom culture, ease peer discussion, and an opportunity to learn about us. I believe the journal responses helped me improve my writing skills and create connections with my peers, as well as build friendships. 

Jeopardy: Group project

As our final project in this English class, we had to choose one of the fiction short stories we read in class. This group project consisted of researching information about the author and related themes about the story. My group and I chose James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues.As a class, we had previously analyzed the story’s themes, characters, main ideas, literature as history, and overall historical criticism. The professor gave us the freedom to present the project to the class any shape or form, as long as we followed the rubric. As a group, we created a jeopardy game for the class, it had a section for themes, author’s biography, characters, and history. We put time and effort to create an awesome jeopardy game. We wanted to do something fun that our peers would enjoy doing while learning about Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues.We placed students in groups of four so that they were able to collaborate with their peers. Since we had previously discussed the short story, students had some knowledge about the book and author. Our project was to present other themes, author’s biography, and historical context of the book so students can gain a better understanding of it. By the professor giving students the flexibility to create their project their own way, it made it easier as a group to collaborate with one another. 

Literature/ Reading

The Yellow Wallpaper: Reading

In a prior English class, we were learning about different types of narrators. We focused on unreliable narrators for a couple weeks reading and analyzing different fictional short stories. I learned that unreliable narrators can be naïve, ignorant, mentally impaired, liars, or have deviant behavior. To gain a better understanding of an unreliable narrator, we focused on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. The narrator’s psychiatric issues or mental illness progresses as the story continues because she is kept in solitary confinement in her room. I believe that reading this book, along with others we read in that English course helped me understand what an unreliable narrator is. I kept the list of the books we read that had unreliable narrators as examples to refer to. As a future teacher of literature, I believe it is important to teach about the different types of narrators. This is an important concept in literature because it helps us understand the author’s purpose of using an unreliable narrator, theme, symbolism, and other literature elements. 

Plot elements:

I do not recall when I first learned about plot elements, but it is a literary element that I have been retaught over the course of several English language courses. I realized this is a literary element that is either taught or reviewed at the beginning of the school year. As a future teacher of literature, it is important to teach or reteach the most common parts of a plot. When it comes to reading and writing, students need to understand that the plot has an introduction, conflict, sequence of events, climax, resolution, and conclusion. At secondary grade levels, I will teach or review plot before diving into a reading or narrative writing.

Anticipation guide:

I recall completing an anticipation guide in middle school for the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. We completed the anticipation guide before and after reading the book. I believe that anticipation guides are a good strategy or hook to get students thinking about a new topic or topics in relation to the book. Anticipation guides present challenging statements that you rate from one to four, from strongly agree to strongly disagree scale. I plan to incorporate anticipation guides prior to class readings because I want to set a purpose to reading by connecting it to real world ideas. It also engages students to reflect their views.