Final Semester Post

I am more excited now than I ever have been about teaching my students literacy in the social studies. Literacy in social studies is about learning how to question, how to research, and how to develop arguments. Through using diverse texts in my classroom, I am not only teaching my students to look at things differently, but I am honoring the diversity of learners in my classroom. I will encourage my students to discover and formulate new knowledge through the assignments in reading, writing, and speaking I will require of them. I am excited to be teaching at a time in the world's history where information is so readily accessible. I am excited by the opportunity to have my own ideas change as I continue to question my own knowledge. Using every chance that I get to make the students in my classes feel valued through literacy is really important to me. I want my students to take the risk of writing! I want my students to know that people listen when they speak and because of that, they should know how to speak well. My synthesis of my Language, Literacy, and Learning in the Content Areas course is brief, but essentially and critically changes the way I approach my pedagogy as a social studies teacher. When my students and myself learn more deeply because of the way I integrate literacy in the classroom, we all benefit.

Practicing Teaching Analysis

The teachers that I have observed this semester did not do as great of a job at supporting English Language Learners as I would like to in my own classroom. I saw opportunities for vocabulary instruction, but it was minimal in execution. However, over the course of my experience in the secondary education program, I have seen teachers that do a good job of supporting ELL students and use every opportunity they see for vocabulary instruction. I think it depends on how important the teacher feels that vocabulary instruction is. The teachers I saw that were better at it were middle school teachers. In middle school, everyone is learning vocabulary, not just ELL students. In high school, teachers sometimes assume that their students have the same vocabulary they do (which is not true 9 times out of 10 even for non-ELL students). In my teaching career, I would make sure that even if I am teaching seniors in high school that I am incorporating some sort of vocabulary instruction.

Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is the ability not only to read something and understand it, but it is the ability to read something and question its value, find answers, and make connections. If students don't have the language skills necessary for critical literacy, however, it can sometimes be challenging to get on that thinking plane. The beauty of the situation, however, is that there are millions of texts that can be drawn from. Millions of texts that don't necessarily require a college-educated parent teaching you their vocabulary. Please do not get me wrong. I am in no way saying that because we have these texts that we can just forget about teaching students vocabulary and language skills. But what I am saying is that if I can use critical literacy in the classroom myself, then I may be able to close the gap if only a little between the critically literate students and the functionally literate students through the use of multiple texts. Having an understanding of how critical literacy can change the classroom environment is important. In my own classroom, this means really using a variety of texts, perspectives, and opinions. It means working to the point where all of my students can say they really can interpret those various texts. It means honoring these various texts as valid sources of learning. I know that my own critical literacy (constant questioning and researching and discovering and interpreting) will change my classroom, my life, and the lives of my students.