The literacy case study serves as a tool that helped me analyze my students from a wide range of angles and with a variety of focus measures. For this assignment, I developed pre and post -tests for selected students in order to determine their skill levels before and after instruction. I noted and reflected on their progress, skills, and abilities throughout the process which allowed me to create an in-depth analysis of effective literacy practices and create a thoughtful and complete study.
This inquiry essay allowed me to delve deeply into into my students’ literacy practices and explore effective strategies to support students. Additionally, at the time of this inquiry, it allowed me to look closely at the evidence-based practices that exist to support the students that I had in my current classes. In this inquiry I was able to examine the literacy practices that my students engage in outside of school, the literacy goals for our students – now and in the future - and the possibilities my students’ literacy practices suggest for our curriculum and practice.
Showcase
The showcase displayed below highlights my experiences in the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program.I focused my program work on literacy and shaped my experiences around new media and digital literacies and technology use in the classroom
The artifacts selected each represent my work throughout the program. They also highlight what I have learned, tools and ideas that I have been able to use in the classroom and new understandings that have shaped my focus as a teacher and learner as well as contributed to the evolution of my philosophy on teaching.
My showcase is organized into three categories; Literacy, Technology, and Creativity. All of the artifacts are interconnected, and many could be positioned in multiple categories, however, the placement they are in represents their primary contribution to my showcase of artifacts representing my skills and experiences.
Follow the underlined links below to explore the artifacts further and preview the work and additional images in the gallery showcases. Click the images if you would like to find out more about them or link to the artifact.
Literacy
Technology
Creativity
The unit plan and lesson plan each required me to think practically about writing instruction, particularly argument writing, and its effective application in my classroom context. I drew from my students' practices and interests and examined ways of integrating evidence-based practices. In creating these curriculum plans I considered how I could make use of the reading, writing, and reasoning accomplished in the courses, the application of our learning and thinking to our own practice and students, and the use of inquiry-based instruction to purposefully engage our learners in literacy in our content area.
This project was a very open-ended and creative project, but I chose to focus primarily on the use of Google classroom in the high school English classroom. In this research-based writing, I was able to connect my learning about writing theory and pedagogy to my own classroom experiences and create an individualized learning experience. This research project offered me a space to learn more about technological literacy practices and look for creative literacy application. This was our opportunity to try something new in our classroom, and I believe that this allowed me to develop my experience and practice with Google classroom, and similar digital creation tools, more completely.
This written reflection was centered on the exploration of how technological innovation impacts the learning of new things and its educational significance.
In this writing, I reflected on my own experiences with technology and how I have been able to use these experiences in my practice and application of new technological tools and innovations. Additionally, my exploration and explanation of my experiences also drew support from current research and discussion of the impact that technology has had on education and my practice as an educator.
This Weebly site was designed to highlight new media texts and tools used with the text, The Catcher in the Rye. In developing this site I was able to consider and incorporate a variety of literacy dimensions, analyze a range of interesting text-tools for a variety of teaching and learning situations, anticipate and plan for the needs of diverse learners, The creation of this site brought into discussion the inclusion of “fun” or emotionally engaging graphics used to improve student learning. Because this was a complete site with a variety of purposes, i its creation also pushed me to consider what types of new media and articulate my personal vision of new media integration.text-tools that would work but may not yet be fully developed.
This infographic highlighted formative assessment tools that could be utilized in the classroom and provided an opportunity for exploration into the different kinds of assessment that varied digital tools can support. Through the creation of this infographic, I was able to discover new kinds of assessment that are possible because of new technologies, new skills that students need to develop if they are to demonstrate learning and be assessed in digital contexts, and how digital tools can make assessments for learning universally accessible for all learners.
I created this Minecraft space while I was learning about and exploring game-based learning. Throughout the process, I was able to learn more about the core principles of games as a paradigm for teaching, learning, and assessment. This exploration also offered me insight into how student learning could be assessed with digital games, and why Minecraft, in particular, is so popular with students, and how teachers can use it to teach core concepts, and as an assessment of student learning,
The creativity and flexibility in this writing portfolio were important components in my overall program. This piece allowed me to experiment with different writing formats and consider the perspectives and experiences of my students. With all of the standards and guidelines that must be met and followed, it is important to seek out opportunities for creativity in our practice and in the lessons we create. While the creation of this writing portfolio served as a way of experiencing genre from the inside out, its reflection provided an opportunity for engagement in the writing process and thoughtful review of processes that out students go through daily in their writing.
Attribution: Image from Wix.com
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