Learning Letter

Dear Dr. X

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Obviously, the unit plan assignment in this course is one of the largest scale assignments I have ever been tasked with. I remember the first time I wrote a single lesson plan and was completely wiped out for the week. Working on this unit plan trained me in the skill of whipping out concise, efficient, and connect lesson plans. It helped me look at the larger scale scope of a unit lesson and at the nitty gritty details of the daily activities. Additionally, working on the unit plan gave me the first solid piece of evidence that I can present to future employers to prove that I can successfully complete such a task.

               The book talk was probably my favorite part of the course.  I absolutely adore how each presenter during the book talks was thrilled to share and was so invested in their text. Education majors do not often have the chance to simply gush about a text that they love (of course there were educational applications). This assignment gave us the chance to look deeper into a text that we connect with and to learn about a text that others have found meaningful and that our future students might find meaningful.

               The mini-lesson was probably my least favorite part of the course. This is not because I didn’t enjoy the experience or find valuable. In fact, I loved having the chance to get feedback from my peers on my teaching style. However, the time restrictions that were placed on us made the lessons feel too rushed and too short. Twenty minutes just does not feel like enough time for a student to fully grasp and work with many concepts. However, I did appreciate the chance to receive valuable feedback on my teaching style from my peers and to reflect on my own teaching work.

               Finally, in regards to the completed course work, I loved posting on the blog and having the opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings about the course readings in this simple and unobtrusive medium. Often in English courses, we are forced to share our thoughts on books via papers that are graded not only for content but for structure, spelling, and punctuation. What I loved about the blog posts were that they were only graded on completion. This gave us the freedom to truly express our thoughts and ideas without worry of repercussions. Sure, there might have been a few editing mistakes (or a lot) but that was not the point. The point was to focus on how the text affected us.

There are two concepts that we explored in the readings and discussions that stuck with me. The first was the idea that CCSS are not all evil and useless government meddling. In all of my other courses and conversations with education focused individuals, CCSS have been painted with a light of pure evil. Thus, I didn’t think to form my own opinion and simply agreed that CCSS were one of the worst things to happen to the education world. Shame on me for this dichotomous thinking.  After reading about and discussing the various aspects of CCSS I have come to learn and accept the idea that there are good and less good parts of the CCSS. I have learned how to use those CCSS to my advantage and how to work around and with them when necessary. I have learned how to look at the CCSS as a tool for my classroom and a tool to support my students instead of a forced rule I have to endure. Of course, there is so much that I could discuss regarding the failures or problems with the CCSS but that is not the point. The point is that having the chance to read about and discuss CCSS opened my eyes to a more both/and type of thinking.

               The other concept that we explored in the readings and discussions that stuck with me was the idea that we can and should be using both classic text and modern text that applies more clearly to the needs and interests of our students. This is not necessarily a new concept but being able to discuss and express different ideas and ways that this might be achieved gave me the chance to see how important it is that our students connect personally and individually with the text that they are working with. It is easy to fall into the pitfall of thinking that when students are not connecting with text they are not trying to connect with the text. However, sometimes we just need to present to text in a different light or bring in a more relevant text in order to spark that light of interest and motivation.

In regards to how my participation in this course influenced my thinking about myself as a teacher I think that, overall, this course helped me feel more confident both in my planning skills and in my comfort level in incorporating varied texts in my classroom plans. Working on the unit plan provided me with the chance to test my skills as a planner and an organizer and gave me the confidence in my ability to truly shape the way my classroom is run and the way my students interact with content and text. Listening to the book talks and taking part in the mini-lessons allowed me to see how teaching and texts can be approached in so many different ways. There isn’t just one text or one way of teaching something. We can opt for classic texts and ways of teaching, but we can also stretch beyond our comfort levels and use comic books or teach via exploration. There is so much wealth when it comes to the ideas and creativity of our peers in education and this class gave me the chance to take part in that wealth of knowledge.