❃ Unit Reflection 2 ❃

Within the second unit, the class readings and discussions were primarily based around transforming ideas into different mediums such as drawings or symbols as well as collaboration within the classroom. All of the readings also had the same common theme of keeping assignments interesting to students so that they stay engaged within the classroom. 

In our first reading, "I just need to draw," by Kathy G. Short, Gloria Kauffman and Leslie H. Kahn, the idea of transforming understanding into pictures as well as other mediums was portrayed. Students would read a text, have a discussion and create a drawing that reflected their understanding of what they had read. I feel very strongly about this article because every child is not the same and as a future educator, it is our goal to cater to ever student’s needs. One student may be a very strong test taker and not a great public speaker, while another student may be very good at contributing to class discussions and not a very good test taker. By giving students the option to draw a picture of a scene within a novel, give a presentation on a character that a student connected with the most or even make a song summarizing the work, it gives the students a chance to excel in their own way. In the future, I hope to give assignments where students have the option and can pick and choose how they want to present. I don’t think I will let the students run free and do whatever they want, but I will certainly give 3-4 options on what the students could do.

Next, we explored the idea of keeping things interesting within the classroom. My favorite article of the next three we read was Making the Classics Matter to Students through Digital Literacies and Essential Questions by Jonathan Ostenson and Elizabeth Gleason-Sutton. This article stuck with me because it posed a serious problem within classrooms; how can we keep kids interested in the classics? Most students today find it hard to read and connect with Canon classics since they were written so long ago. To make reading the classics easier, the teacher within this article decided to pose a question before the students even started reading the novel. From there, the students progressed from discussions to character analysis and finally, a multimodal project to portray their “answer,” to the question. I really loved this article because it showed a new way to help students focus and stay engaged when reading a classic novel. By giving students a question or theme to look for, it will help them focus in and simply read for whatever theme they are given. Also, with the multimodal final project, it gave students the chance to answer their question in the beginning in their own way. One student used a song to show disgust towards a certain character while another student used pictures of one footprint on a beach to show loneliness. Every student can use their own personal experiences with music or media to show meaning and I think that is incredible. I think that within my future classroom, this would be a great introductory assignment on how to read classic novels. I would probably start with a lesson like this and then have the students be on their own for the next novel to see if they really took what they learned from the first assignment to heart.

Lastly, while reading Chapter 4 of Create, Compose, Connect! by Jeremy Hyler and Troy Hicks, I really loved the idea of group collaboration during an assignment. Within the chapter, the students had to write a book review and have their fellow classmates edit their work. The students would get into small groups and read their book reviews out loud as well as pass around their work for their group members to read themselves. Personally, I am a huge fan of peer editing because it gives the writer another perspective on how to write. Being a former writer for my high school newspaper, I can genuinely say that peer review and peer editing made my work stronger. Everyone has a different writing style and certain people see different mistakes and even form sentences in a new way. Pulling different ideas from others into your own work will keep the writing interesting and diverse. Also, reading your own work aloud over and over again to other people can pull more mistakes out and make it easier to fix. I plan on doing a lot of group discussion and group editing within my classroom because in my opinion, being able to receive constructive criticism is such a great quality to have.

After finishing this unit, I feel as though I have learned a lot of a new ways to keep students engaged. Whether it be through multi modal projects or collaboration with fellow classmates, there are endless ways to make sure every student succeeds. I cannot wait to use some of these ideas within my classroom in the near future.