Literacy has always been something that has interested me. Growing up, I loved reading and I wanted my friends to love it just as much as I did. Today, as a college student studying education (with a concentration in Language Arts), I am still trying to figure out how to spread the joy of reading to other people. Now, I know not everyone is going to fall in love with the idea of literacy, just as not everyone likes math, science, or history, but my goal as a teacher is to find a way to present material (including literature) in a way that actively engages students and provides them with an opportunity to learn literary techniques as well as an opportunity to witness the important of literacy.
We are in a day and age where we are constantly reading- whether it is the word "STOP" on a stop sign, a phone number from the side of a cab, a story before bedtime, or a text message/ Facebook post/ tweet. Right now, you're reading this blog. Everyday tasks that take minimal effort are directly related to our development in terms of literacy. However, these tasks do not come so easy for many individuals.
I have witnessed in my placement, and through my volunteer work with at-risk children, that some students are falling behind in terms of their education in the language arts area. In my experience, and I know all experiences are different, the students are falling behind their peers because of a lack of resources- as a girl who has high hopes and dreams of teaching in an urban area, this situation is extremely troublesome.
I am expecting this course to introduce solutions to this trouble on my mind. I believe this course will provide me with proper techniques in order to ensure each of my students is receiving an equitable education. I hope that it will also provide me with resources I can use in my internship year and beyond to obtain meaningful materials that I can present to my future students. I want to learn about how to make these techniques and materials relevant to my students' lives. Furthermore, I want to walk out of this course being able to say "I can provide my students with multiple opportunities to find something that sparks their interest in terms of literacy"- if I can do that, the course has not only done it's job, but I have done mine.
-Allison Pargoff
I think Allison makes a lot of really wonderful points in her post. As teachers, particularly urban educators, we all seek to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to learn or become engaged with the material. We recognize that to create effective learning environments for our students we must first recognize their lives outside of school and the accessibility they have to literature. If we are educating students to be learners of the 21st century we must first make sure that they are being given opportunities to learn from 2st century literature! Constructive theory recognizes the fact that teachers are not directly responsible for student literacy skills, but instead are responsible for providing students with opportunities to learn! This is important, and I think Allison's experiences documented in this post really reflect this.
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