Ryan Ball

ED 228

Professor Flo Barnes

3 December 2018

Final Reflection Paper

Over the course of this semester, the future educators of ED 228 have been introduced to

a number of objectives. These objectives serve to guide us on our path toward becoming skillful

teachers. We cannot claim to be passionate or effective educators unless we continuously strive

to master these objectives. In this paper, I will be reflecting on the work I have done toward

mastering these course objectives.

Content literacy is “the ability to use reading and writing for the acquisition of new

content in a given discipline” (McKenna & Robinson). In other words, content literacy is being

fluent enough in a given discipline to not only teach it, but to be able to teach yourself new ideas

within that discipline. The National Council of Teachers of English defines literacy in the

content area of English as the ability to “support students to comprehend, construct meaning

from, and interpret complex text, as well as to create a written product that interprets or responds

to a text” (NCTE). This means that English educators must do more than simply instill a basic

understanding of a text in their students’ minds. Rather, students must be able to analyze the text,

put it in its literary context, and write critically about it. I have attempted to master this objective

by having always having a “Why?” when I teach my students a topic. I also try to let my students

unpack that topic through performance tasks. For example, when teaching my students about

allegories, I explained why they were important. Specifically, I explained that Animal Farm was

written during a time that it would have been dangerous to criticize the Soviet party outright.
Once I was confident my students understood the concept, I assessed them by having them create

their own short allegories. By contextualizing and unpacking my lessons, I strive toward mastery

of content literacy. I still have some work to do. One simple yet necessary way to improve my

content literacy is to study English literature in general. This way, I can more accurately

contextualize texts and place them within the English canon, thus giving my students the

information necessary to meaningfully respond to a text.

Another course objective we discussed was using assessment data to change a lesson

plan. The purpose of any lesson plan is ultimately for your students to achieve a learning

objective. As educators, we determine whether our students have reached a learning objective by

assessing them. As author Cathy Vatterott states in Becoming a Middle Level Teacher: Student-

Focused Teaching of Early Adolescents, “Objectives are validated by assessments. Assessments

are used as evidence of how well objectives have been reached” (Vatterott). I think of it this way:

If the entire purpose of teaching is to reach learning objectives, but the assessment data shows

that your students have not yet achieved those objectives, then you simply must change your

lesson plan to accommodate your students and get them toward the goal. I have put this notion

into practice during my tutoring sessions: Once, I showed my students a video about world

building in a fictional story. I then asked them to write three things that stood out to them from

the video so we could unpack it. Both boys were unable to come up with three ideas, and one of

them said that the video “didn’t really teach them anything.” I took this failed attempt at

collecting assessment data as a hint that I needed to change my lesson plan. I instead fed the boys

concepts one by one and guided them as they created their own fictional worlds. The boys were

much more engaged with this approach and enjoyed getting creative. As an educator, I strive
toward being adaptive for the sake of my students. I believe I am well on my way toward

mastery of this objective.

I am also trying to get better at creating measurable objectives toward content literacy

skills. I believe I did well with this course objective when I taught my students about symbolic

meaning. I first had my students participate in an activity where they imagined they were

receiving text messages. They ranked different versions of “okay” from passive aggressive to

friendly. This introduced them to the idea of connotation versus denotation. I then had them list

the symbolic meanings of different colors and images (such as flowers and fire). Finally, I

introduced them to allegories and had them create their own one-sentence allegories. I followed

the same theme throughout the lesson, but each topic was incrementally more complex. By

assessing for understanding at each increment, I was creating measurable objectives toward a

greater content literacy skill.

As educators, it is critical that we select strategies that will yield data. That way, we can

assess that data and measure how close our students are to grasping learning objectives. This

course objective goes hand-in-hand with another: We must articulate how our strategies are

connected to data and purpose. Performance tasks are perhaps the most effective solution to both

these challenges. A performance task is “any learning activity or assessment that asks students

to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency” (Defined Learning).

Performance tasks benefit both the educator and the student. The student benefits because they

get to perform a task that encourages engagement and creativity, rather than a mere recital of

facts. Not only are performance tasks a more memorable form of learning for the student, but the

yield a slew of data for the educator to assess. That is because performance tasks are multi-

faceted: They prove that the student not only has knowledge of a topic, but they are skilled in
that topic and can analyze the topic. I try to incorporate performance tasks regularly into my

lesson plans. I learned quickly that students react poorly when you ask them to simply

regurgitate information. Instead, educators must create more engaging activities that allow

students to prove their understanding of an idea.

As a future educator, another objective I have is to constantly support my students.

Teachers need to be flexible: We need to be prepared to adjust our teaching strategies if our data

indicates that those strategies are not helping our students reach learning objectives. Another way

we can support and engage our students is to relate the curriculum to their personal interests. I

used this strategy at Shortridge. When teaching my students how to write fictional characters, I

asked them who their favorite character from any story was. The boys, who were friends, both

picked Tony from Scarface. So we had a conversation about Tony as a character. I pointed out

that Tony’s fatal flaw was his ambition, much like a Shakespearian tragic hero. Surprisingly, this

angle was highly effective and my students were interesting in learning more about tragic heroes.

While I talked to my students about their favorite fictional character, I was working

toward the mastery of yet another objective: I was keeping educational theorists in mind.

Specifically, I was thinking that Urie Bronfenbrenner would have approved of me making

connections to popular culture and developing a stronger bond with students. Bronfenbrenner

theorized that adolescents are influenced by a series of ecological systems. The smallest of these

systems is the individual and the next system is the microsystem, which includes family, friends,

and school. Popular culture falls into the largest system: the macrosystem. By allowing my

students to discuss their interests, they developed a stronger connection between their

individuality and their microsystem (their education). By connecting my lesson to the

macrosystem (popular culture) I illustrated that English is relevant outside the classroom.
 Finally, an educator must reflect on the impact relationship building has on teaching and

learning. As Vatterott writes, “Early adolescents need unconditional love and acceptance and

often go to great lengths to attain it. They also need to feel a sense of belonging, of

connectedness, of membership in a group” (Vatterott). In my experience at Shortridge, the most

important relationship building I did was fostering a sense of mutual respect between the

students and myself. We talked to each other about our hobbies, the video games we played, and

sometimes the problems we were facing. I think bribing my students with popcorn went a long

way in building our relationship. The connection between myself and the students grew stronger

each week and it made my lessons go noticeably smoother. I tried to bring a sense of humor and

a friendly demeanor to every tutoring session, which allowed my students to engage with a topic

that they might not be interested in otherwise. I would like to end this paper with a transcription

of the delightfully honest and heartwarming reflection letter one of my students wrote me:

I mean it was cool but boring at the same time cuz I hate school but I did learn a

lot. The reasons it was coo because that was a smart dude and he was kinda funny.

So that made it better and he was tryna make it fun as possible.

So yeah coo.

To: G-Dog

From: Jalyn W.
 Works Cited

McKenna, M. C., & Robinson, R. D. (1990). “Content literacy: A definition and implications.”

Journal of Reading. 34(3), 184. March 9, 2011. ProQuest Education Journals.

“About Us.” NCTE, www2.ncte.org/about/. NCTE.

Vatterott, Cathy. Becoming a Middle Level Teacher: Student-Focused Teaching of Early

Adolescents. McGraw Hill, 2007.

Defined Learning. “What is a Performance Task?” performancetask.com. April 12, 2015.

http://performancetask.com/what-is-a-performance-task

Flanigan, Kevin & C. Greenwood, Scott. (2007). “Effective Content Vocabulary Instruction in

the Middle: Matching Students, Purposes, Words, and Strategies.” Journal of Adolescent

& Adult Literacy. 51. 226-238.