Final Synthesis Blog Post

Throughout the course of this semester, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in assignments and activities that have specifically promoted the importance of becoming a good reader. I think the biggest takeaway from this class has been the realization that proper reading skills aren’t only needed in literature-based subject matter. Reading skills are universal and can be used throughout all areas of education, even in mathematics!

The most prominent class activity that helped shape my thoughts was when we took the examples from chapter 2 of “Subjects Matter”, and we talked about completely different texts. These three texts were about a cricket game, a soccer game, and a Georgia football game that most UGA student should be familiar with. The idea was that we all had some sort of prior knowledge that helped us dig through the hard texts to understand their meaning, and the text about the football game was so familiar that we knew the exact situation that was being read. To conclude this activity, we talked about how students need prior knowledge and basic reading skills to build off of, and we as teachers can’t expect great results when we don’t provide the proper teaching.

I think two, practical strategies/assignments that I would include in my curriculum would be the Think Alouds and the Book Clubs. Think Alouds are extremely helpful because it allows students to take their time and cultivate their thoughts. It’s common for any reader, whether experiential or beginner, to pause out of confusion throughout a text; ideally this reader should take a moment to question what it is that’s making the passage confusing. It’s not beneficial to simply skip over difficult content because the goal is to fully know what you’re reading about and not bits and pieces. Think Alouds can also be used to encourage students, especially when their teachers participate and communicate their own lack of understanding and their pursuit of knowledge. This shows students that they are not alone in their reading struggles, and it levels out the learning field.

Book Clubs are also important in furthering a child’s reading experience because it creates an enjoyable, less stressful atmosphere. It’s important to give students opportunities to read without being graded so harshly. Another important thing about books clubs is that teachers can assign several books giving the students the freedom to choose the one that interests them the most. Assigning fictional books is a good way to incorporate many different subjects in more entertaining storylines.

During our last week of class, we discussed the difference between pre-service and in-service teachers. The veteran, in-service teachers tended to be more stubborn in their teaching style, and unwilling to conform to new curriculum. As a pre-service teacher, I’m grateful for this LLED class because it has taught me the importance of reading and how vital it is for teachers to be willing to change in order to best meet their students’ needs. I was also able to practice different teaching styles that I can implement in my own teaching including but not limited to the Think Alouds and Book Clubs. As we discussed last week, change starts with us. We need to be willing to go the extra mile for our students. In the educational field, we can never know enough. We need to be actively pursuing seminars, articles, advice from other teachers, etc. because in the end our main job is to take care of our students. We need to properly educate and prepare ourselves to do so.

(WC: 586)