Reading Response 1

Resources Used:

• Making the Journey Chapter 3
• Getting to the Core pages 1-18
• Gorlewski, Julie. "Research for the Classroom: Seize the Data." English Journal 100.6 (2011): 99-102.

My Response

The text, Making the Journey, describes methods of teaching in terms of scenarios to show the reader ways certain techniques can be helpful or in some cases harmful to one's approach to teaching. Chapter three introduces the five modes of educating a class: Teaching as Telling, Teaching as Inspiration, Teaching as Maintaining a Creation, Teaching as Discovery, and Teaching as a Reflective Practitioner. Since each style has the potential for having both positive and negative effects on students, I believe a mixture of all of them in a unit is the best approach to engaging students with content and helping them actually enjoy the learning process. What really resonated with me (and that I know I will use one day in teaching) is how the teaching process is a two-way street; as an educator I will learn just as much from my students as they learn from me through the materials I use to teach (93). By hearing their opinions and their own concepts based on the literature I provide my class, I can see which teaching method is best for my class. The backward design highlighted by Getting to the Core of English Language Arts examines the way educators can focus toward the end goal of the class and use different techniques to get the end result that they desire. By having a “destination in mind first,” creating the journey can lead to a successful way of educating one's class (9). With this in mind, as well as having the concept of a mutual learning experience, I can set out to teach my class as they educate me in what they like and understand from my lesson.

As a reflective practitioner, questioning the class can help me recognize what my students understood and what they had problems with as by observing the transmission of information in my classroom setting. By evaluating the students as well as myself, I can see what I can build upon from my lesson and what I can take away from the original scaffold. Through change, I can equip my lesson with modern texts and additional materials students can relate to in order to lead them to my overall goal of that unit. By using literature students can enjoy and relate with, I can incorporate content with my end goal. In addition, I can help prepare students for challenges they will face outside of the classroom by introducing them to real world topics through modern texts. This approach to teaching literature can encourage educators to further delve into modern scenarios in literature that students will surely deal with in their lives. Through engaging literature and relatable characters that can connect them to real world problems, students are able to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for their lives outside of school. Here, this issue is an important topic for me as a future educator as students will gain skills that they can use outside of the classroom setting. With a “good pedagogy” we can incorporate a strategy that can inspire and enrich our students using literature that teaches students the essential tools they will need in their everyday lives. Overall, I greatly see the importance of a good teaching strategy, as it can help fellow teachers in how to connect and understand their students on a level that can provide a way to influence their pupils for the better.