One thing I realized was that there are six language arts which I never knew before. I never really thought talking and listening were a part of language arts learning. I never really considered them to be and I believe many of my previous teachers did not either because it didn't seem like many of my teachers allowed me to freely speak in class. I also learned about different types of reading which I was able to view in my classroom observation when Mrs. Smith read aloud to the children. I also learned about reading and writing workshops which I was able to observe as well. If my teachers had allowed me to participate in reading and writing workshops, I would've probably liked school more. It was wonderful to see how enthused students were when participating in these workshops and to see how enthused Mrs. Smith was about them when I asked her in the interview. I really believe Powell elementary is doing the right thing by having those children participate in reading and writing workshops because I could tell students were benefitting from them. I know in the future I will implement reading and writing workshops in the classroom because I have seen the benefit from them and I am intrigued by the independent learning that is going on in these workshops. I also learned about the different types of listening and all about phonemes, grapheme, and morphemes which I had never heard about in my life before this class! I also really enjoyed learning about the different stages of spelling, which I know will come in handy when looking at future papers written by students.
I really loved the fact that almost everything I learned about in class I was observing. I believe that really engrained the mateial into my head. I learned so much about writing workshops because almost every time I went to observe that is what I saw. I was so excited to get in the classroom and witness the writing workshop taking place because I knew what was going on within them. In the interview I felt really knowledgable talking to Mrs. Smith about the writing workshops because of what I learned in class. During a reading workshop I observed in Mrs. Smith's class, a little girl was reading and using sticky notes to mark the main idea of the book and other things. I remember learning that students did this in the reading workshop while they were reading. So many things I learned from class I was able to observe in the classroom which reinforced what I learned in class.
The final project in Introduction to language arts helped me learn more about the writing process. I learned about the different steps in the writing process but also practiced each step when I was writing my book. I really enjoyed writing the book, because it gave me a chance to share my story of my life in elementary, middle, high school and college. I was able to be creative in organizing my text and pictures the way I wanted to. I believe this would be a wonderful project for students to take part in because they are able to apply the steps in the writing process and be creative.
Overall, I believe I have learned a lot from my introduction to language arts class this semester. There are many things I am going to do in my classroom such as literature circles and reading and writing workshops. I can't believe this semester is coming to a close, but I can proudly say have worked hard and learned a lot from my classes and my self. Now its time for summer and preparation for my senior year!!!
Great stuff! So glad you were able to learn about language arts topics, but more importantly, I'm glad you were able to learn more about yourself as a student and how that will impact you as an educator. Well done!
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