What I Have Learned

Throughout the course of Literacy in Secondary Schools, I have learned valuable information about literacy in the classroom and in my own life. One main area that I was largely unfamiliar with were teaching strategies for literacy. There were several strategies that I became equipped with in this course in order to help students in their literacy lives.

When students interact with texts, they need to truly engage with the content using several strategies in order to comprehend and absorb the information presented in front of them. When a student complains that they “read it but don’t get it” there are a few tools to provide as thinking tools. These include envisioning, listening, expecting, monitoring, activating knowledge, and creating relationships with characters. These strategies help students deeply engage with the content and self-check their understanding. Envisioning the text is when the student imagines what is going on as the article or story progresses. Listening is when the student follows the rhythm of the words to flow through the text with the author. Expecting is when the student makes predictions of what is going to happen next in the text. This helps the student recall what has previously occurred in order to create a foundation to build from. Activating knowledge is when the student engages with the content to create connections to their personal life in any way. Last but not least, creating relationships with the characters is when the student empathizes with the characters and relates to the characters. This strategy helps the text to come alive in the student’s mind as he or she becomes friends--or even enemies--with the characters in a text.

In our textbook, there was a chapter where Bomer expounded on strategies that even I use but did not realize I use. He explained that tools students can have when interacting with texts include talking, indexing, sketching, charts/organizers, and performing. These are all strategies I have used when interacting with academic content in order to create more connections with the text. To further explain, talking is when the student speaks out their thought processes which can include retelling the story. This helps them manually process information by externalizing the content. Indexing is when the student uses highlighters, post-its, and notes in the margins to connect different sections of the text, place importance on certain elements, or analyze the information. Sketching is when the students draw out what they read and charts are a good way for the students to organize their thoughts or think about the “big picture.” Performances are when the students act out the text and is a fun way for students to become engaged in a deeper way.

In this course I also learned about errors in approaching literacy. Everyone is a literacy teacher even if he or she technically “teaches” a course other than English. Also, there is not a one-size fits all program to combating lack of literacy in students’ lives. In this course, I learned that I am a writer because I write. I learned that there are many ways we are literate and interact with literacy. From reading recipes on Pinterest, putting notes in my husband's lunch, and reading Bomer's text for class, literacy fills my life. There were so many wonderful tools I gathered from this course such as the slice of life, padlet, bullet journals, found poems, multigenre projects, and book talks. I will continue to use these in my literate life and in the classroom with my future students.

Thank you so much for all that you have equipped us with, Dr. Giles.