Jessica Worger

4/10/2014
EDUC 340
Case Study
In high school, the last job I ever imagined myself having was being a teacher. I
wanted to get as far away as I could from any type of school system. I thought the job of
a teacher was very easy and that teaching was an occupation that didnt deserve the
respect that other occupations received. After two years of college and three different
jobs working with kids, I have realized that teaching truly is my passion and that I want
to make a difference in a students life. After taking classes in education, I have realized
that teaching is a challenging job and the effort and enthusiasm that you put into your
lessons really makes a difference in the classroom. Ive learned that teaching is not a job
that you can put only 50% of your effort into; your entire heart needs to be in it. Through
the lecture, recitation, and lab I have discovered why teaching literacy effectively is
important in all content areas and I have also learned different skills that I will be able to
use in my own Spanish classroom.
It is very difficult to be successful in the United States without having adequate
literacy skills. Reading surrounds us every day whether it is sending an email to a
professor, filling out a resume, or even reading important medical forms. The higher
literacy level a person has, the easier it is for that person to find the important points of a
document or send a convincing letter. The quote All teachers are teachers of reading is
a quote that has an undeniable truth. Every teacher, whether it is a math, Spanish, or
music teacher, needs to be a teacher that emphasizes the importance of reading and that
builds the literacy skills of students while also teaching lessons in their content area.
For me, the chapter called Learning with New Literacies was one of the most
eye-opening pieces of literature that we have read this semester. When I thought about
the definition of literacy at the beginning of this semester, I only pictured books, articles,
and the traditional words on paper. This chapter in the book written by Vacca and Vacca
was very helpful for me to realize how important and how relevant literacy is in this day
and age. I had never realized that our definition of literacy has shifted to include
technology and social media. Teachers have so many options in this generation to use
music, social media, videos, and websites to assist in learning and to keep their students
engaged.
I think that this chapter gives some very helpful suggestion of ways that a teacher
can incorporate technology into a classroom. Every type of teacher can incorporate
technology into their classroom to help increase the literacy skills of students and to keep
the students engaged in their lesson. Web Quests or creating a Power Point Presentation
are great ways to teach students how to use technology efficiently, find relevant research
on the web, and learn more about the subject they are researching.
While in the classroom of Mrs. Healy, I observed the different ways that she
introduced new literacies to help her teach lessons in Spanish. The first project she did
was asking her students to use a program on the ipads called Puppet Pals to show their
Spanish speaking skills. In my opinion, this was a very effective project because the kids
were excited to be using the ipads because Puppet Pals is a very entertaining program but
they were also working together to write a script in Spanish. Another way that Mrs.
Healy introduced new literacies was by assigning homework where students had to call
her google voice mail and leave a message in Spanish about why they should be chosen
for a certain study abroad position. I thought this was very clever because she could
listen to her students speaking on her own time and really make the effort to focus on
each students pronunciation and grammar.
Vacca and Vacca explain that some of the new literacies include blogging, face
book pages, and wikis. I feel that teachers can use these resources to encourage literacy.
Instead of having a student write their reaction to a chapter in a book on paper, they could
write it in a blog and then both the teacher and other students could comment about the
blog. On a class facebook page, students could ask each other questions and have
discussions and this could promote reading and writing but students will be practicing
these skills in a fun way.
While I think that new literacies are important for every kind of teacher, I also
think that teaching students literacy skills will help them with comprehension in other
content areas. I have learned in my lecture class from Jan Seahorn that teachers can use
many different comprehension strategies to help students understand lessons in their
content areas. For example, in a Spanish class a teacher could ask students to write about
immigrations through multiple viewpoints. This is a strategy that would help students in
a Spanish class understand how different people feel about immigration and feel empathy
towards their ideas. Reading and writing is important in every subject in school and
every teacher should find ways to encourage students to improve their literacy skills.
This semester I have learned so many techniques and tools to use with students
when teaching Spanish. I feel like for every lesson I have to teach, there are at least 10
different ideas I have learned to make the lesson more engaging. My favorite tool that I
have learned this semester is the graphic organizers. A chapter written by Mclaughlin
had pages upon pages of different graphic organizers. I feel that there are thousands of
graphic organizers and that I can adjust each one to fit my content area.
Today in Mrs. Healys classroom, I observed her using a Venn diagram to show
the similarities between ser and estar. She drew the diagram very big on the board and
then asked students to fill in the blanks. The students were very engaged in filling in the
diagram because it was very similar to the puzzle. This diagram was very useful for the
visual learners in the class because there was not very much text, but it was still very
informational. I could use the graphic organizer called the flow chart to show how to
convert a verb like jugar into the past subjunctive form. I would have a blank flow chart
and have students fill in the blanks. The chart might look something like this:
Another type of graphic organizer that I encountered in the Mclaughlin graphic
organizers chapter that would be useful in a Spanish class is the semantic map. I would
use the semantic map for new vocabulary verbs. The new word would be in the middle
and then synonyms and antonyms would be connected to the middle. Finally, the fourth
graphic organizer that I could use in my Spanish class would be a timeline. If we were
learning about culture, I would ask students to make a timeline of some of the most
important events in the history of Mexico and maybe draw a picture next to the name of
the event.
Another teaching technique that I would use in my Spanish classroom would be
the KWLS charts. I feel that KWLS charts are very helpful in finding out prior
knowledge of a student and assessing what a student learned from a lesson. I would not
do KWLS charts every week, but instead I would do them for every new big unit. If we
were going to start learning IR verbs then I would ask students to write down all the
verbs that they already know so that I have a basis of how fast to move with the lesson. I
remember hearing in class from Ms. Schemer that instead of using What I know using
What I think I know because then it puts less pressure on the student if we share our
charts. I like this change in the KWLS chart and I would definitely use it.
The Frayer model was a technique that I thought would be very useful in my
Spanish class room. In Spanish classrooms we learn a ton of new vocabulary words and
most of those vocabulary words will not be remembered unless they are associated with
other parts of the brain. Therefore, if we had a list of 30 vocabulary words, then I would
ask my students to make a Frayer model of five of those vocabulary words. If a student
had to draw a picture, write a definition, list characteristics, and put down non-examples,
they are more likely to remember that word on a test.
Another technique that I would use with memorizing vocabulary words is
drawing pictures. I remember in my Spanish class that we would have to draw pictures
for very single vocabulary word that we had. Instead of drawing a picture of every word,
I would ask students to draw a picture with at least 10 of the 30 vocabulary words. For
example, if there was around the house vocabulary, I would ask the students to draw a
picture of their bedroom and label the vocabulary words. By drawing, labeling, and then
sharing their pictures with their peers, the students are more likely to memorize those
vocabulary words.
The last two literacy techniques that I want to discuss are RAFTS and character
maps. I feel that these two techniques can aid students in higher level thinking and allow
them to be creative with their writing. I love RAFTS because you have to completely
change the way that you think. I think this would be a great tool to use in my Spanish
class because I could ask students to do a RAFT where I give them the topic of Day of
the Dead. The students could be extremely creative with this topic because they could
choose to be whoever or whatever they wanted. RAFTs make students see things in a
different perspective and they will have to change their diction to fit their Role. I love
character maps because they also allow creativity and changing you point of view. For a
character map, I could ask a student to use an illegal immigrant as their subject. A
student would have to draw out all the difficulties that person goes through and different
aspects of their life.
This class, lab, and recitation have taught me so much about why literacy is
important in very subject and different ways that I can incorporate different literacy skills
in my classroom. I believe that every teacher really is a teacher of reading because
reading and writing surround almost every aspect of our lives. Now that I understand the
importance of literacy for students, I will be able to create lessons where I simultaneously
improve literacy skills, teach my content area, and encourage students to be engaged in
my lesson. I cant wait to start my career as a teacher so I can hopefully make students
excited about learning and literacy.