The Last and Great Reflection


In this course, I have completed several fairly large assignments this quarter, the lesser of them being the book talks. For my talks, I chose a book that I was interested in and a book that I could use in my classroom. For the book I was interested in, I chose Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is a household favorite for myself and my family. It presented me with an opportunity to discuss with my peers about a critically acclaimed book with deep and rich lore that I enjoyed. The second book that I chose was Manga Classics: Romeo and Juliet. This manga was originally supposed to be part of my unit plan, but I substituted it for a traditional graphic novel at some point for simplicity’s sake. My unit plan was inspired by this version of Romeo and Juliet, and as such, I felt that talking about the manga was necessary even though I did not end up using it in my unit plan.

The greater of the assignments that I have completed is the unit plan. For my unit plan, as I previously mentioned, I taught Romeo and Juliet to 9th graders. During the lesson, I used a graphic novel to supplement my students’ reading of the play. Among the assignments in the unit, one of my favorite assignment that I assigned to my students was a comic strip about a scene or summary of a story. In my unit, I tried to experiment with using art in my classroom as well. It seemed fitting given the prevalence of the graphic novel throughout the unit.  For another assignment in my unit, I had my students in groups prepare a poster describing the character that they were assigned. Later in the unit, they were to revisit this poster. For their final project, they were to describe their character again and determine how, if at all, their character had developed throughout the story. Thus leading into a discussion about dynamic versus stagnant characters. Throughout the unit plan assignment, my biggest struggles were time management and motivation. I struggled not to simply stare at my computer screen and waste time. I finished it, sure, but I regret not spending more time working on it, despite feeling lithe I did not extra time to work on it.

One of the important concepts that we covered in this was the Common Core State Standards. Prior to this class, we had briefly discussed CCSS in Education 200 or 201, and prior to that, I had only heard of CCSS in passing, mostly from people who despised them. This class gave me an opportunity to learn more the Common Core State Standards, and after researching them, they are not as bad as many people seem to think. The other important concept that we discussed was the notion of teaching social justice in the classroom. This notion is strictly opposed by a number of teachers that I know of, but I believe that it is imperative to prepare our children for the real world and help them better it when they leave our classrooms.

My participation in this course has shaped me in a number of ways. Before this course, I thought about reading and writing as an individual task. I read to myself for myself, and I wrote almost solely for myself. Despite preparing to be a teacher, I had not thought about how to read with a classroom as the teacher. Since this is a literature class, I was forced to approach my unit plan with reading in mind, thus forcing me to think about how to teach literature. As I worked through my unit plan and through the book talks, I had to stop and think about to teach Ender’s Game and Romeo and Juliet to students. Coupled with English 408, I am now prepared (mostly) to teaching reading and writing to my students.

Before—honestly, and during—this course, I grappled with self-doubt. It was difficult for me to picture myself being able to teach reading or writing even now, but when I write these reflections I start to feel better about the fact that I am still learning how to do this, and will probably still be learning how to teach for decades. Every day we should strive to learn something new, and I certainly learned something every day this quarter.

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