Reflective+Letter

Dear Interested Reader,

All my life I have had an extraordinary ambition to become a teacher despite antagonizing words from my friends, economic concerns from my family members, and the increasingly nation-wide attack on schools and teachers in the media and social consciousness of the American people. This ambition and feeling has always lived inside of me and has only grown more intense over the years due to professional experiences in my practicum classes at various grade levels and schools, my education classes at Eastern Michigan University, and also the new theories and approaches I have read help one to teach effectively. It is hard to see a change in someone's passion and interest over time because this change happens so gradually that it seems almost unnoticeable, but when one stops and really take a moment to look and reflect, they will be able to see everything clearly. It's like a midnight shadow in the summer that following its owner but the owner never really noticing until he or she stops and really looks at how the shadow falls on the ground and creates its shape. The following papers,reflections, and professional development artifacts are included in this portfolio for many reasons, but their primary purpose is to show you, the Interested Reader, my growth as a professional and my experiences as a student in regards to the teacher I hope to be in the future, and the type of English classroom I hope to create and foster for my students.

Before I can dive into informing you about my students and their literacy and experiences with English Language Arts, I must first inform you, the reader, a little about me. First, I am perhaps one of the world's biggest fans of realistic-fiction, especially realistic-fiction that contains Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered elements, themes, and characters. As my __**first journal**__ (under the **My Literacy-Cole** section) alludes to, I am a big fan of LGBT realistic-fiction because of my experiences within the LGBT community throughout my life. As a gay man these days, things can get pretty rough but I always have my novels to escape to and hide my troubles (if only it is for a few brief moments of time). LGBT realistic-fiction novels were probably the main reason I continued my interest and passion in becoming an English teacher, and I owe the authors and the amazing characters within each book I have read a great deal of respect and gratitude.

Though I am a HUGE fan of Literature, I have not always felt this way growing up. As my __**second journal**__ (Under “**My Literacy-Cole**”) talks about, I have had periods within my life that made me feel illiterate and as such, made me very disinterested in learning English Language Arts content or even read altogether. This is why my belief on teaching Literature is so powerful because I believe Literature should be taught in such a way that every student is continually interested in reading and interacting with all forms of Literature. Because I was that student who struggled with reading at a fast pace like my peers, I know to offer my students lists of books, poems, dramas, etc. ahead of time so that everyone is on the same level with the text in terms of reading. Also, my philosophy regarding writing while reading is greatly inspired by my past and interactions with students because it allows students to convey their knowledge and opinions in ways that are comfortable to them. I believe writing and reading go together like peanut butter and jelly. Each one taste really, really good, but combined, they make something even greater and delicious. This is why, as a teacher, I will have many writing assignments that go along with the texts students are interacting with in order to create well-rounded, literate, Literature-loving individuals.

My philosophy on language (in terms of prescriptive vs. descriptive speech, dialects, etc.) is greatly affected by one simple fact: I grew up in South-East Michigan and have lived here all my life except for a semester in Chicago and a semester in Japan. As such, I have a Mid-Western dialect that is labeled as “Standard English” according to English Acquisition books. As such, I have always had a greater interest in prescriptive speech and have always wanted to teach English in this manner. My experiences in Japan only furthered this desire because (Thanks to my Standardized English) non-native speakers of English were able to communicate more effectively with me than other Americans who exhibited other regional dialects. As such, I had a first-hand experience with the benefits of prescriptive speech. But, as a global citizen within the 21st Century, I have always understood the importance of descriptive speech as well in terms of mass communication and technology. As one can also tell by reading my third journal under **My Literacy-Cole**, my views on teaching language and grammar changed with my experience at Westwood Cyber High School in terms of my approach to teaching prescriptive and descriptive speech.

I have included two papers I have written in other English classes because they offer some support of my literacy in terms of my philosophy on writing and the writing process. I have included these particular papers because, plain fact is, these are the two best papers I have ever written in my opinion. I remember writing both of these papers and engaging with research and the primary text in such a way that I felt like a skilled researcher set out on a mission. Not only were these two papers a sign of all my hard work and research, but also as symbols of my deep passion with Literature and English as a whole. After writing my //__**Children's Literature**__// //__**paper**__// (located under “**My Literacy-Cole**), I realized the very necessity of the writing process and its uses. Throughout my college and high school career, I never really thought about the writing process and how it applies to writing effective argumentative papers, quality and well-rounded research papers, or amazing projects. When teachers in the past talked about the writing process, I just thought about how unnecessary and a waste of time the whole process seemed, but after getting really into my Children's Literature paper, I really wanted to turn in a masterpiece. I felt like I had to have a paper that was worthy of putting my name on when I turned it in. This is the type of approach to teaching writing and the writing process I want to take with my students because really, once you learn the basics of writing and the writing process, your own passion takes control and you just do the writing process to the best of your ability unconsciously and/or willingly. It is my most sacred belief that motivation drives student performance within and outside of a classroom.

My //__**African American paper**__// (located under “**My Literacy-Cole**”) was also a key paper that I wrote that helped me discover my philosophy of reading and writing. After writing this paper, I realized how // strongly // linked reading and writing was in one's overall literacy. Though both my African American and Children's Literature paper dealt with elements of masculinity and femininity, they were so different in their own way. It was after writing my African American paper that I realized that though a piece of work contains elements commonly found in other novels, they are still so special and unique in their own way: African American elements of masculinity and femininity are drastically different than non-African American texts. This revelation, though very simple in itself, actually played a big role in developing my approach to teaching reading and writing because it really made me see the focus on the connection and bond reading and writing have with one another and how important it is to have your students read and write simultaneously either in a journal format, or through internet discussions/threads, or through learning logs. Also, this revelation helped me understand the importance of connecting reading and writing to the students' lives, the outside world in which we live, and the effects of author's intent, intended audience, and the effects of the author's life on the work of art itself. In addition, my African American literature paper also opened my eyes to the idea of intertextuality because of the necessity to incorporate other texts that involved elements of masculinity and femininity in African American lifestyles. Both of these papers helped me // really // realized the importance of integrating reading with writing and vice versa, but also the importance of intertextuality and its benefits in producing amazing papers.

Going through high school and college has taught me the impact that teachers can make upon his or her students by the way he or she approaches teaching his or her content area. I wish to be the type of teacher that students enjoy learning from and actually WANT to come to class and learn. This is why I always keep my students' lives, literacy, and interests at the heart of my teaching methods. My primary belief about teaching language elements within the English classroom is that the language elements that the teacher desires his or her students to learn need to be embedded within contextual examples to foster effective retention and application for the students. As shown in my //__**Summative Unit**__// (see link under “**My Students' Literacy**”) on Mystery for seventh graders, I include lessons on language development (specifically lesson 3) that inter-weaves with the story the students are reading and how dialogs and conversations occur in real life (short, often incomplete sentences, drenched in pragmatics, etc.). This way, students learn conventions of dialog and speech while reinforcing those conventions with the material they are reading. This way, things are connected: the teaching of grammar and language is taught side-by-side with the teaching of Literature. Also, within my Summative Unit, students learn language conventions by learning vocabulary words while reading and dissecting the stories, different forms of dialects based on characterization elements (speech, dialect, class, race, etc.), structures of sentences (dialog vs. narrative vs. internal monologue, etc), and grammatical punctuation based on different circumstances such as punctuation of dialog sentences vs. non-dialog sentences.

The __//**Formative Unit Plan**//__ (located under “**My Students' Literacy-Cole**”) that Alexander P., Justin B., and Steven B. collaboratively made, also displays elements of my philosophy on teaching Literature because I believe Literature should be taught in a way that it opens new windows for students to see through. Within the Formative Unit, students learn many aspects of special-education needs and what it feels like to know someone through their experiences who are labeled as handicapped. Throughout this unit, students are introduced to concepts that extend far out of the realm of just Literature and enter the world of inclusion; a world where Literature and the other curriculums come together to create a larger, cross-curriculum lesson(s). By following along with Marcelo and his journey to find his way into the “real world,” students are taught to open their eyes to people with handicaps and see not only their defects, but rather focus on their strengths and ambitions instead. By experiencing the world through Marcelo's eyes, students are able to come to understand what it feels like to have a disability and become more sensitive to those in their own lives, schools, etc. as people and not as people who are defective in some shape or form. This is the type of approach I wish to take when teaching Literature because I wholeheartedly believe that teaching Literature along with some over-arching theme creates a deeper connection and bond between the reader and the text, which will help foster more proficient readers who are able to really get into a story and are able to dissect and analyze the text in such a way that they get more out of the text than simply a story or a theme. Also, by means of the Formative Unit, more elements of my philosophy on reading is expressed because if one looks at the lesson plans for days one through ten, they will see many times where the students and I read aloud during classroom time. I firmly believe that it is essential when teaching Literature, especially within the first few days of introducing a new text, that the teacher stirs motivation amongst his or her students by engaging with the text together through means of read-alouds, group discussions, and journals that reflect what the students are reading. It is critical to engage students with the text at the very beginning when teaching Literature because it will foster a healthy relationship with the reader and the text and stir intrinsic motivation and interest. If one does not create this relationship, then he or she risks losing students along the unit due to lack of motivation, interest, and perhaps a sense of dislike due to confusion with the text. This is why the Formative Unit effectively shows my firm belief that teachers of English need to teach Literature in a way that creates a strong relationship between the reader and the text, because if this relationship does not exist, the teacher will have an uphill battle trying to teach the lessons to student who show no interest of motivation to learn the text or the literacy concepts.

The Formative Unit Plan also displays my belief about using assessments within the English classroom. I believe that assessments within the English classroom should occur in two ways: formatively and summatively. Formative assessments, in my opinion, should cater to what is being taught then and now (quizzes on definitions, reader response journals, etc.) and summative assessments should respond to the overall arching theme of the unit or if the unit is a genre study, the summative assessment should involve students writing in that genre. The Formative Unit displays how I would use formative and summative assessments inside my classroom to foster intellectual growth and stimulate thinking within my students.

To really show my deep interest between reader and his or literacy, I am including my paper called __//**Student Literacy**//__ (located under “**My Students' Literacy-Cole**”) written in my first English methodology class. Within this paper, I expressively illustrate a time where I had to analyze a student in terms of his literacy. Due to my interactions with my student, I really came to understand what it means to be a student learning literacy concepts and acquired a deep understanding of what a teacher must do in order to foster a learning environment. After writing my paper on my student's literacy, I really started thinking about my approach and philosophy of teaching writing. I firmly believe based off of my interactions with my student, observing him, and communicating with him through a secession of letters, that teachers who which to foster a classroom that focuses on writing MUST incorporate student interests, past experiences, and interests within writing activities, projects, journals, etc. because it really fosters a strong relationship that will make students want to write more and more often. As the old saying goes, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” and I really take this idiom to heart in my approach to teaching writing because I know it is one element of English learning that students usually dread the most and I wish to make it the best part instead because it will allow students to really engage in writing that interest them rather than boring assignments that exist for the sole purpose to evaluate students. I was and am still a student and I know from experience that unless writing is fun and engaging, it can be a real pain.

To show I am very serious as a caring professional in terms of teaching and bettering myself, I have included examples of my professional development. First, I have included reviews to __//**Conferences**//__ (located under “**Professional Development**”) I have went to and participated in. These conferences helped me become a better teacher in their own way, but collectively, these conferences provided me tools and resources for future reference in case I need help, in case I need someone to answer questions or concerns I may have, and professional colleagues and friends with whom I may rely on in case I need help motivating students, designing effective lessons plans, etc.. Also, attending these conferences opened my eyes in terms of my various beliefs about teaching English because these conferences showed me things I have not learned within the educational classrooms at EMU or out in the field.

Also, I firmly believe that in order to be an effective teacher, one must always be researching new concepts, theories, and practices to promote better teaching practices and more well-rounded students. As such, I have included my __//**Teacher Researcher Assignment**//__ (located under “**Professional Development**”) to show my belief in the philosophy of writing in terms of technological use and my constant endeavor and passion to become the greatest teacher I can be. This paper should also inform the reader that I believe a teacher's job is never finished, especially after graduation. We, as teachers, must continually strive to do our best and learn new approaches to teaching in order to give our students the quality education they deserve.

To prove that teachers should always be researching new theories and try new practices within the classroom, I have also included my __//**Annotated Bibliography**//__ (located under “**Professional Development**”) to show the reader that adequate research is a MUST when trying to find out what new change is best within your classroom. Only you, the teacher, know your students, and you must assess and research the best practices and theories out there that will make a positive impact on the students in terms of their education. To show my seriousness in my attempt to provide my students with the best teaching practices, I researched many journals and articles that gave me the best information on how to include technology within the English classroom, and I believe this seriousness is demonstrated by the selected articles within my Annotated Bibliography and within my Teacher Researcher Assignment.

When looking at the three sections I have outlined within this reflective letter (My Literacy, My Students' Literacy, and Professional Development) one can really see that I am committed to becoming the best teacher I can be based on my experiences as a student (the pros and cons of learning based off of those experiences), my experiences with my students and their literacy (implementing my theories and beliefs about teaching writing, Literature, and language), and my stride to become a distinguished and effective teacher through means of professional development. It is due to all these experiences, papers, research, and practices that I am the type of teacher that I am today, and the type of teacher I wish to be in the future and the rest of my life.

-Christopher Taylor Cole Eastern Michigan University Japanese Language and Culture, K-12 Education and English Secondary Education

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