Reflection 02/14/09

Oh, where do I begin? I never knew I had a learning disability until I went to marriage counseling with my husband. I was diagnosed with ADHD at the beginning of 2005. Once I was told that I suffer from the combined type of this disability, my psychologist, my husband, and I started to put the pieces together. After this, I was able to look back on my school years to see how it affected my academic and social skills.

I struggled through school with reading comprehension and writing abilities. I was a very friendly person, but I wanted to please everybody. I was eager to have people like me, so I would become annoying. My grades were okay, but I found it very hard to really focus on one thing at a time. I had a lot of energy which caused me to have problems sitting still during class. I also found it very hard to control my impulses. For instance, I would always speak out of turn, or interrupt someone, or show my frustration by snapping at someone. In 7^th and 8^th grades, I was assigned 500 word essays for talking so much in class. Once I had exhausted this punishment, I started receiving demerits. If a student got a total of 8 demerits, she was sent to ISS (In School Suspension). Luckily, I teetered between 6 and 7 demerits. When I started high school, I was able to control some of these urges, but I could not squelch them. Throughout my school years, I was constantly told that I was lazy and was never encouraged to apply for college or anything beyond high school. I worked many jobs after graduation. At every job, I learned to compensate for the lack of control I lived with. I found ways to organize things, even though no one could ever figure out the “method to my madness.” My longest job lasted four years, and these wonderful people learned to live with me. Finally, I felt accepted.

After my initial diagnosis in 2005, I went to a psychiatrist to receive medication. Let me tell you something. This gracious doctor has given me a life. He understands how my mind works, and he helps me find the right medicine and dosage that I need. If I did not have my husband and this doctor in my life, I would not be where I am today.

Because of the issues I continue to face every day in college, I am determined to provide my future students a classroom environment and teaching style for all different learners. I learn new things I can do all the time, and I want to share these skills and advice with my students. No student will leave my class feeling as if he/she did not succeed. I will not give up on my students. I know what giving up feels like, and I do not want my students to feel as if they have failed.

Class Reflection 02/02

Because I am a little older now, I cannot remember too much about elementary school. I will share what little bit I can recall, but I will also share my own children’s experiences too. In kindergarten, I remember the alphabet letter people. They were these inflatable letters, and the class learned a new one every week, maybe? I remember reading from these skinny books about a Panda Bear. I think the Panda’s name was Buffy. I do remember the smell of the books because they were new. Other than that, I can jump to seventh and eighth grades. We still had spelling books and had weekly spelling tests. This is when I found my love of spelling!

For my three children, the language learning has been different. Miranda also had the inflatable alphabet people in kindergarten, but I don’t recall anything else as far as language learning for her. My older son, Tyler, still has trouble with his spelling and language. He originally learned to spell phonetically, and he has never been corrected in school. I get very upset at the teachers who are doing him a disservice by not correcting his spelling mistakes. I worry about Tyler because he is in sixth grade, and he still has spelling problems. I really feel like his teachers are only concerned with his sentence structure, grammatical errors, and etc. When I try to patiently show Tyler his spelling mistakes and help him, he gets mad. He tells me that I should not worry about his spelling because his teachers do not worry about it. What bothers me the most is my youngest son, Kieran, can correct Tyler’s spelling. I admit that Kieran is really advanced for his age, but he shouldn’t be teaching his older brother how to spell!

I really wonder what has happened in Tyler’s education. Did I do something wrong? Did the teachers do something wrong? I question this all the time. Even though I cannot place the blame on one specific person, I am very determined to provide my students with all the help they need in learning everything I can teach them concerning language, which includes spelling.

Capable Readers

One of the biggest factors to me as a future middle school teacher is to find topics of interest. I believe that if I provide several book choices and allow the students to decide which one to read, I am encouraging reading. I want my students to find a book interesting or exciting. I want my students to relate to the protagonist in the book in some way. The teacher needs to be a model reader. She should tell her students what she has been reading to show her love of reading.

Reading in class

There are several different ways to read. Independent reading is simply reading alone. The student would need to have a copy of the text to take home and read. There would also be time in the class dedicated to reading independently. One big drawback with this method of reading can come from a student who has difficulty in this particular language arts area. An even better way for reading comes from guided reading and buddy reading. Although I do not intend to use buddy reading in middle school, I can see the benefits in elementary classrooms. The children would be reading with a peer, but they need to understand that both of them get an opportunity to read. The guided reading method reminds me of literature circles. I really like this idea and had the chance to participate in one last semester. The biggest role the teacher plays would be assuring all group members participated. Reading aloud to students is a great way to start the day. I enjoy listening to Dr. Duncan read Sahara Special in our class. There is one issue with this technique though. Because I am not reading the book, I have a hard time remembering what was read in class. After all of this explanation, I believe the shared reading method may work best in the middle school classroom. I want to encourage all students to participate in some way. Yes, I would have more control over this process, but I want to maintain my students’ attention. I can read a little, and I can choose students in random to read a little out loud. This would help strengthen a student’s reading ability, but it could also evoke other peers to help each other with any difficulties. I see this as building a stronger relationship between the students.

Five Stages of the Reading Process

The five stages of the reading process:

1. Pre-reading is the time spent choosing topics for books. An example would be for the teacher to have some idea concerning each student’s interests. At this point, the class could discuss several possible book choices and pick the one they would most likely enjoy reading.

2. Reading involves exactly this: reading. Although this can be done through several different means, I like the shared reading and reading the text out loud.

3. Responding is getting the students’ reactions on what they are reading. During this process, students are asking questions, using a journal to show they understand what they are reading, and discussing the book with others in class.

4. Exploring is going a little deeper than responding. The students can take on different roles in a literature circle, or students can study the background of the author and discuss the relationship between the author‘s life with the text.

5. Applying is the last stage in the reading process. An example would be having the students create a pamphlet of the book they just read in order to entice other students to read the book.