Emily Drake

EDUC 340
Case Study

Throughout this semester we have learned that literacy does not only mean
the ability to read the words on the paper before you. Literacy doesnt even always
mean reading text. Literacy can be the ability to communicate between two people,
what your interpretation of a picture or video is, or even looking at math problems
and knowing the next step. So, Ive learned that literacy isnt part of only one
subject, but its what can aid in connecting all of them. Although I plan on teaching
English, I will be able to incorporate all kinds of literacy into my classroom.
To begin, I learned that it doesnt matter what content area you teach, you
are a teacher of reading. The content area that is not English that stood out to me
the most as one that teaches reading was mathematics. Hearing stories of how
classmates struggled to teach their students how to do a new formula in math made
me realize that we really are all teachers of reading. In this case, they are teachers of
numeracy. Math teachers will have a strong emphasis on background knowledge
since each new formula builds upon a different concept. A few educational aids that
I think would be best for them are KWLs, RAFTs, and chronological sequences. I
believe these three will be most helpful because students can express what they
know in creative ways. For example, KWLs will give them a visual aid of what they
already know that will help them with the next concept. Also, RAFT activities will
allow students to use a more word-based strategy to explain a concept in math.
Lastly, Chronological sequences will present steps of what students
Social studies and science teachers are teachers of reading because they
teach their students to read a different kind of text than simple narratives. History
and Science are very factual so students will often have to read books and articles
depicting events and explanations towards theories. In addition to this, numeracy is
often used in science and social studies through looking at formulas and dates. An
extremely helpful tool that these teachers can use is graphic organizers. Any kind of
graphic organizer will help students be able to visually place information relative to
each other. Another form of literacy that may show up in these subjects is media
literacy. By this, I mean looking at pictures, videos, and listening to songs. These are
all part of different subjects that may show up in any content area.
Art and music teaches literacy of a different kind. A picture says a thousand
words. The one thing I have found that helps me most in my classes is when there is
a form of media that relates to the content I am learning. For example, in one of my
labs this semester, students created character maps to express the key elements and
symbols of the main character of their individual books. This allowed the students to
show that they understood the book beyond the surface. Music may show up in
science classes to help students memorize things. One thing that music helped me
do in high school was memorize the periodic table. So not only do art and music
teachers teach literacy, but other teachers can use these two content areas as tools
for teaching literacy in their classrooms.
My content area will be extremely easy to say that I am teaching literacy. I
plan to teach English. The most commonly understood form of literacy is text on
paper. I do not plan to only teach literacy as text on paper. I hope that I can
incorporate all forms of literacy into my classroom and teach my students how they
can be applicable to their other content areas. A few tools I learned this semester
that were most inspirational to use in my future classroom were graphic organizers,
KWLs, RAFTs, summaries and quick writes, the Frayer Model, chronological
sequences, and connections.
The first thing that I found most helpful when working with students this
semester was the concept of a graphic organizer. Mrs. Decker told my group that
worked in her classroom that the one thing she has relied on most in all her years of
teaching are graphic organizers. Whether we use graphic organizers to teach
students something new or have students use them to express their learning it will
be beneficial. It was interesting to see a graphic organizer version of character maps,
but I could tell it allowed the students who arent as in touch with their artistic side
to express that they knew about the character. The last group I worked with in Mrs.
Deckers class was the most diverse of all the groups I worked with throughout the
semester. One student, Abby, was more excited about her character map that was
drawn because, as she would tell you, she is not comfortable with writing since she
feels she cannot spell as well as her classmates. In this case, a graphic organizer was
able to help her.
Another thing that has been reinforced throughout the entire semester is
that different students learn in different ways. KWLs allow us to know what our
students have learned about a content area. Through looking at what my students
say on their KWLs I will be able to tell what was most effective in helping my
students further their knowledge. In cases like these, I would probably have
students do the KWLs midway through the semester, but I will be able to use the
KWLs at other times as well. For example, if I am going to start a section on a new
author I can find out what my students know about him or her, want to know, and
what they think theyll learn. If I am to do this the day or week before we start the
section, I may be able to tailor my lesson plan to best fit the students needs and
desires. I have a strong feeling this will be effective because one of my high school
teachers did this every time we started a new section in the class.
To determine whether learning is actually occurring in my classroom I can
give students an activity called RAFT. RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, and
Topic. RAFTs are creative allowing students to write in the role of a person or even
an inanimate object with an audience of a person or inanimate object. A RAFT can
allow students to practice writing skills or show that they are keeping up in class.
The group I was working with in Mrs. Deckers class had never done a RAFT before
and when I explained to them that it didnt have to be a letter they were so excited
and when I told them they didnt have to write from or even to the main character as
the role or audience they got more excited. This gave the students a different
approach to look at Touching Spirit Bear that gave them an opportunity to show that
they understood what important events had occurred in the chapter.
Summaries and quick writes allow students to practice their writing skills
and ability to pick out the most important parts of a text. While my students were
not as excited about summaries or quick writes, I knew it was a skill they could use
in the future. I am constantly writing summaries for classes and can even see
introductions and conclusions of essays as versions of summaries. If I can help my
students summarize I will be able to help them communicate better in the future.
Helping my students with their futures is my primary goal. If they go to an art
gallery they will be able to summarize what they see in the painting or sculpture
before them. If they get asked to send a quick email to their boss about the progress
of their work, they will be able to do that and not only be informative, but
impressive.
The Frayer Model will be more of a tool for my students. When reading they
will be able to pick out words they dont understand, create a Frayer Model and then
learn the term so that the next time they encounter it they will know what it means.
In addition to this, the Frayer Model will be a tool for them to explain to their peers
what words mean by having multiple expressions of the meaning which will
improve communication between one another since not everyone learns in the
same way.
Chronological sequences can be used in so many ways. One example given in
class for how to use them was so creative. Prior to handing out the next book
students will read, cut up the titles of each chapter onto strips of paper and allow
students to put them in the order they think the chapters are going to be in. This will
get the students engaged and excited about the new book. Another way to use this
technique is one that my high school English teacher did. If she thought that some of
us were not actively reading she would do reading checks. Mrs. Cladny would cut up
events from the chapter and have us put them in chronological order.
The last tool I absolutely plan to use in my future classroom is the idea of
connections. Text-to-text. Text-to-self. Text-to-world. I believe this will force my
students to think about the text on a deeper level. One of the last classes I worked
with students they were doing a connections activity with one of the chapters in
Touching Spirit Bear. While this was difficult for some students because they
couldnt read the book for what was happening on the surface, but they had to
actually think about what they were reading. I feel that this tool will help my
students remember what they learned in the past, but also help them to remember
what they read for future references.
So, as a Future English teacher I believe that all teachers are teachers of
reading and that all teachers can incorporate at least some literacy tools into their
classrooms. Some tools are more versatile than others, but all are useful. I truly
believe that all students learn at different levels and some learn better with different
tools.