Ryan Kurtz

Case Study/Reflection Paper

Due 4/30/2015
All teachers are teachers of reading has a lot of meaning to me as I finish up my
first semester in education classes. As I signed up for my classes last fall thinking, being
a science teacher will be awesome, I will get to teach the coolest subject and wont have to
deal with any of that literacy stuff. As I approach my last few weeks of school, I realize
just how wrong I was (not of the science being awesome part, however). Even being a
secondary teacher, literacy skills are still a very big chunk of what I will be teaching. In
my opinion, all high school teachers are literacy teachers, they all just teach it while
talking about history, math, or in my case, science. From what I have learned this
semester, more kids than I thought will be still learning to further their reading and
writing skills when they are in my class. As I observed Windsor High School teacher,
Chris Simmons for a project in my EDUC 275 class, I noticed then more than I ever have
that he is teaching literacy skills when he is teaching his biology class. I think it made me
realize that I had never actually noticed that I was being taught literacy skills in every
class in high school. To me, this is the most important thing I could learn in my whole
college career of education. Because if young adults arent continuously learning to read,
write, and communicate, then how are they supposed to learn anything else. Another
example was in my lab in Mrs. Bentons class. She had the kids create solar panel cars
and then they got to race them. Afterwards she had a lecture on how to win and lose in
the best possible manner and to never give up if maybe you fail a couple times.

One strategy that I will be using in the future, as should most, if not all, educators,
is the KWL charts. This strategy will be helpful for not only the students, but also me as
their teacher. The KWLs are a great way of activating the kids prior knowledge to a
subject that Im about to teach, as well as showing me what I dont need to teach them or
what I do need to teach them. Following that, the kids can see all the things that they did
learn and can be a reference to when they need that information again. The benefits of a
KWL, in my opinion, are countless. For example, in my class I might be just about to
start a unit on cell division, so I would have them all do a Know section of a KWL and
turn it in before they leave. That way I can review what they already know about it and so
I can skip over things if I need to, or add information that they dont already know.
Another literacy strategy I would like to take advantage of when I am a teacher is
the Cornell notes. Cornell notes are a great way to get down information effectively and
be able to reference them later. I happened to be using the Cornell style notes in my
classes without even realizing what they were. I want to really help kids succeed and I
feel like teaching them to effectively take notes is a big part of that success. I would teach
this style and while I would not require them to use it, I would highly suggest it because
it would be easy to look back and find definitions quicker. It would be best if they used it
while going over definitions of biology words that are used more frequently.
The last literacy strategy I would like to use is the visual verbal. I really like this
style because they really have to think about one word and how they would describe it in
many ways. Not only do kids have to figure out the definition of the word, but also come
up with a picture, and what it means in the students own words. It also is a good way
because for some kids, pictures will really help with getting the info to their working

memory. I would almost like for the kids to have a journal that has multiple verbal visuals
so that they could go back and find meanings of words that they might have forgotten. As
an example, I could have the students do a verbal visual on osmosis.
KWL Chart Example
Know

Want to Learn

cells are dividing

all the time

they use mitosis or

meiosis
Cells copy their
DNA using

What steps do they

Learned

Cells use prophase,

take to successfully

metaphase,

divide?
Why do they need

anaphase, and

to divide?
What determines if

telophase to divide.
Cells need to copy
their DNA using

chromatin to the

they use meiosis or

next cell.

mitosis?

RNA and proteins

-

in the cell
Cells divide using
meiosis when they
are sex cells, and
mitosis when they

are any other cell.

Cells need to divide
to replace and
repair damaged
cells.

Cornell Notes Example

Cell
Osmosis

Basic unit of life.

Diffusion of H20 through a semi-

Microscope

permeable membrane
A structure that allows us to look at

Prokaryote
Eukaryote

microscopic organisms or artifacts in detail

A cell that has a nucleus
A cell that does not contain a nucleus, such

Gene

as a bacteria
A molecular unit with DNA strands that
code for something

Verbal Visual Example

Word

Visual

Osmosis

Definition

A process of water
molecules passing through
a semipermeable
membrane from high
concentration to low to
reach equilibrium

Personal Explination

When water can get through a

wall to make its so that there
is even water on both sides of
the wall.