Saad's+Reflective+Letter



Dear Reader,

At a young age, I developed a great respect for my teachers’ dedication to the education of the next generation. This respect eventually fueled my desire to follow in their footsteps. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of teaching English, which ultimately helped me compile a portfolio of my best and proudest work. This portfolio is a reflection of what I value in the belief of teaching literature, language and writing. I believe that all the components of English are necessary for personal growth and a smooth transition into the professional world. Herbert Muller argues that “Standard English is not just a bourgeois dialect, after all, but the most common and widespread form of English, and no education for life in a democracy can be complete without it”. Throughout my time in the College of Education at Eastern Michigan University, I have learned ways to integrate the teaching of English in a diverse and democratic society. My portfolio attempts to address the commonalities and differences all students face in order to achieve personal growth and success, through the teaching of English.

Every student has a different learning style, and finding ways to include all these styles into one lesson can be very difficult. Nonetheless, I believe teaching students to multitask while learning can be a very beneficial tool. In my __“Three Cups of Tea”__ unit, I attempt to integrate all the styles of learning (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Viewing, and Language Study), into each of my lessons. Randy Bomer stresses, “when we listen, we clear a space into which students can move, a space for them to grow into” (Bomer 21). Creating opportunities for students to listen can help make connections, otherwise unknown, to new ideas and practices. I believe that all these learning styles should be dependent on each other in order for me to reach all of my students. One way I engage my students is by purposing higher levels of comprehension, away from the standard reading and writing norms. In one of my lessons, students read a poem entitled, __ “The Second Coming” __ by William Butler Yeats. I encourage my students to view English through a creative lens with multiple purposes. Students are prompted to read the poem silently, listen to the poem read out loud, and watch a video clip that blends the words with images. By incorporating each style of learning into one poem, students are stimulated to view the poem in multiple fashions. Creating these spaces allows room for my students to grow and learn in creative a manner.

In one of my pre-student teaching experiences, a student asked me, “Why do we have to write so much?” I thought carefully about his question and how he stressed the words, “have to//”//, as if writing was a forced exercise for him. I began to explore the difference between //forced writing// and //voluntary writing//. We voluntarily write on a constant basis through emailing, texting, writing letters, etc. This type of writing is always reinforced by a response, rather than a grade. I believe giving students a similar response-based feedback when they write allows for them to value the importance of their own writing at a more personal level. This type of feedback prompts the reader to pose questions that surface the feelings and emotions in the writing piece itself. It also encourages readers to become unconscious of what the rules of grammar are, while focusing more on improving the writing at a meaningful level. Randy Bomer believes that if students “are able to develop a literate life, writing needs also to grow into a part of life outside school” (Bomer 56-57). I would argue that writing has already become an integral part of life outside the school, and that teachers need to find ways to help students acknowledge that by allowing for more response-based feedback in the classroom.

Language study is an area of weakness for many students, including myself. It relies on the amount of pre-knowledge an individual posses, and the level at which they are able to interpret a sentence. My belief has always been that it is not how much you know, but how well you are able to interpret the meaning of a word from the vase amount of resources available. Bomer argues that interpretation is a necessary part of language, adding, “students can collect instances of interpreting from everyday life and language and bring them into class for analysis, categorizing types of interpreting from the instances they collect” (Bomer 274). In all the units I have created, __language study__ has always been at the forefront of my agenda. Students are first prompted to break apart the meaning of the sentence as a whole, before focusing just on the meaning of an individual word. This encourages students to build connections between themselves, as the reader, and the writer. Just like writing, reading and interpreting is a process in itself; it takes time and patience. In the end, students will learn to grasp the idea of solving problems on their own by building on their own pre-knowledge. This problem solving technique is an important tool to learn not only for educational purposes, but also for life in general.

Another important area all educators face is inclusion. With my own experience in working with children with special needs, I’ve seen how difficult it is to develop lesson plans that include all learning styles and allows for a differentiated learning environment. One method I have seen to be helpful is to assess individual student growth through the creation of portfolios, like my own. With portfolios, teachers are able to see the progress of each student on an individual level. It also helps students appreciate their own work through constant revision and feedback before ultimately putting it in their own portfolio. Creating a portfolio pushes students to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses in their own writing, and be able to take away a collection of work they are proud to share with others.

The final essential part of my teaching philosophy is to create __formative and summative assessments__ that give students a chance to share their work with others. I feel that writing for a specific audience adds purpose and meaning to a student’s literacy landscape and overall writing experience. Bomer suggests that first students must write to think, before they can write for an audience. Applying this concept into my unit, I prompt students to read a text while stimulating different modes of thinking: “envisioning, listening, interpreting, relating to characters, etc.” (Bomer 155). One of my lessons, __“The Girl Effect”__, asks students to first think about what they read, and then respond by writing directly to one of the characters in the story. Here, students have an opportunity to make the text come alive by offering advice and asking questions to a pivotal character in the story. They are no longer writing for themselves, but someone else who is living halfway across the world. The hope is that students begin to understand the impact and power writing has on the lives of people not so different from ourselves.

My belief on the value of teaching was strengthened upon attending the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference in Chicago, Illinois. Though I attended this conference as an undergraduate, pre-service teacher, I was able to collaborate and network with other educators in the field and gain an insight on ways to become a better teacher. It motivated me to value and respect the field I am about to enter, as well as find role models I hope to emulate one day. I also learned that the role of a teacher in today’s classroom is ever changing. I believe teachers are more important now than ever before. I look forward to applying the concepts and lessons I learned throughout my time at Eastern Michigan University into the field as an educator. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “It is today we must create the world of the future”. I see no better place to do that, than my very own classroom.

__ Works Cited __ Bomer, Randy. //Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classroom//. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2011. 57-221. Print.