Learning Letter

Hey Sean, here's what's up... 

1. Reflect on the work you’ve completed in the course (text presentations, content portfolio, etc.)

Overall I really enjoyed the work required for this class, as always I think that the book presentations are helpful in making sure that we cover a lot of different styles and concepts in such short amount of time. I have found these to be helpful in almost all classes that do them and enjoy finding new books and materials to add into my life. I also really enjoyed the work done in this class because I was constantly getting new ideas for lessons and games to play with students. The content portfolio project was incredibly challenging just because it is sometimes hard to dig that deep into my own life and experiences, but I think that it was also really great and beneficial at least for myself to see where I have come from as a student. One thing that I really struggled with in this class was the blog format, not having things on canvas sometimes made me forget that I was even taking this class which made it hard to keep myself on the right path toward completing everything (doing the blog thing is still cool though). 

2. Reflect on the theories and concepts we explored in readings and discussions

I feel like most of the things covered in this class were things that I have covered in other classes or gained knowledge of from being a student myself but we learned them in different ways that helped me really get a grip on what we were learning. I especially enjoyed getting to take a guided look at the NES study book.

3. Reflect on how you think your participation in this course has influenced your thinking about yourself as a teacher

I think that by showing up to class everyday and participating in class discussion/presentation that I gained a lot of new knowledge and some new ways of thinking. As a teacher there is a very broad spectrum of struggles faced in the classroom and I feel that this class helped me understand better ways to handle giving lessons and dealing with pushback from students. 

Here Is My Content Portfolio Project

https://lmportfolioproject.blogspot.com/

CCSS Book Handout

Blog post #7 Reading Informational Texts

On this weeks reading of the NES practice book there were several things that I recognized as important such as the need for evaluating reasoning, evidence, and examples in persuasive texts as well as the extensive information on poetry. Both of which are important for teaching in a secondary education setting.These ideas also flow into the common core standards for reading informational texts and are demonstrated in the NES book by breaking down each of the concepts. i.e. -Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. Since students are held to these standards it makes sense that this type of information would also need to be provided and understood for the NES. 

Grammar/Writing Presentation Handout

Blog Post #6 Writing CCSS

Writing standards for high school writing are stay relatively the same after 9th grade, which is why the standards for 9&10 are grouped together and the 11&12 grade standards are grouped together. The standards are so similar within these age groups that the standards don't really need to change much.As a future high school teacher (hopefully) I found this to be really interesting. I personally don't remember my own experience in learning for writing in high school so it was a little bit of an eye opener to what is actually expected and what I perceived as being expected.
In the grades 9-12 it seems that it is important to teach things like writing an argument and beginning the look into how to writing research papers as well as conducting research itself.
NES wise; everything in this section of the book seemed to be very cut and clear on what needed tobe known and what didn't. I was familiar with things like using punctuation, conducting research, writing/ citing research. I think that if I was going to teach this kind of stuff that I would definitely have to spend a large chunk of time running through the different sections. 

Blog #5 Common Core -Visual Literacy

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/

     First and foremost, the CCSS website does not have a visual literacy specific spot but that does not mean that there isn't standards for this type of literacy. Interestingly enough, the literacy for visual learning is mixed in with almost all other types of standards. Visual learning can come from and be used in reading literature, understanding informational texts, speaking and listening (producing healthy conversations within your classroom) and several other topics throughout English. 

    Teaching students how to effectively analyze visual literacy is very important for not only use in the classroom but for the rest of their lives. Being able to understand the meanings, messages, and values that are being displayed within visual types of literature stretches into things that are not just used in an academic setting such as media. I personally did not have a good teacher for teaching me how to read into media or into any sort of visual literacy and I really find it to be important as far as teaching in a secondary education situation. I was just taught to read a passage and respond, rather than to read into things such as media or images as find the underlying meanings, themes, purposes, or anything else that could bring a deeper and bigger meaning to whatever it was that was just read or looked at.