Reflection

I don't even know where to begin when thinking about reflecting on what I have learned in this class. I can honestly say that this class was extremely beneficial to me, and you can't always say that about every class that you take.

The topic that is in the forefront of my mind at the moment is the writing process. When we first discussed the writing process in this class, I kind of thought to myself well that was a nice reminder. I didn't think much beyond this nice reminder until I had to observe and apply the writing process. Actually, I can say that this incident rang true a couple of other times as well. I didn't truly grasp the concepts that we talked about in class and until I observed them in my field experience or was asked to apply those concepts in some other way.

Normally you might not hear a student say that they enjoyed having to write up observations. I can truthfully say that in the moment I do no enjoy writing up observations either. However, I have learned that I learn more and have a deeper understanding of concepts and topics when I observe them taking place in a classroom and then have to connect what I observed back to my readings.

In general, I have found myself reflecting more. You always hear, especially in Teacher Education, that one of the teacher's most important tasks is to reflect. Reflect on the lesson that you just taught, reflect on what went well, reflect on what could have gone better...I hear it in all of my classes. It may just be because of where I am at on my journey towards becoming a teacher, it may have been because I've heard it so many times that it finally just stuck, or it may have been a result of this class, either way I am reflecting more willingly than I have in the past. I have found that reflecting is indeed useful and sometimes a bit fun (especially when you realize that you actually do understand a concept that you thought you had no idea about).

As far as things that I will take with me to my future classroom goes I know I will willing and excitedly be taking the writing process and probably writer's workshop. Of course, you never know what kind of class that you will have before hand, but after I have seen the writing workshop take place in my field experience and talking with the teacher of that classroom about it I definitely see it's benefits. I will also be taking books galore to create a reading enriched atmosphere. And most importantly, my Intro to Language Arts textbook, just in case there is something that I forget! :)

Field Experience

I have truly enjoyed my field experience this semester. I had the opportunity to observe a great classroom of students who were ready and eager to learn and a teacher who was just as eager to teach them.

I would say that my field experience definitely made my course readings more meaningful. There were some topics that we discussed in class such as reading and writing workshop where I felt like I was always forgetting the details and the steps. For awhile when we were discussing reading and writing workshop in class all I saw it as at the time was a bunch of steps to follow. However, being able to observe a writing workshop a couple of times, I am now able to see how helpful it really can be in the classroom. Yes, there are steps in a writing workshop but now I am able to see the meaning behind those steps. I was fortunate enough to see how an effective writing workshop is conducted.

I will say that sometimes the connection between my course readings and what I was seeing in the classroom did not always immediately jump out to me. My reflections and looking for how what I observed connected to our readings was helpful for me as well.

Overall, I had a great field experience and would be willing to do it all again!

Peer Conferencing

I think it is very helpful to have someone else look over my paper before I turn it in. I always peer conferencing for many reasons. First off, the person revising and editing my paper have never seen my paper before. They are reading it for the first time and are able to catch mistakes that I am not always able to catch. Sometimes when I have been working on a paper for a length of time, when I re-read my paper I end up reading it the way it should be, the way it is in my mind, instead of reading exactly what is written. Also, sometimes when writing a paper it is easy to leave out minor details about a subject that you as the writer already know about. Having someone else revise my paper ensures that my paper makes sense to a reader who has no knowledge of the subject that I am writing about. Sometimes when someone else looks over my paper they approach the topic or a portion of the paper from a different perspective that I had not thought of.

I believe that peer conferencing has many benefits. However one downfall of peer conferencing in the classroom could be that the students expect their peer to "fix" their paper for them. Some may not submit their best first draft because they know that their peer will provide ideas and edit the paper for them. Other than this downfall, I believe that peer conferencing can certainly work in a K-5 classroom.

I believe that peer conferencing could also be used in a middle/secondary content specific classroom. This could be used for science lab write-ups, history papers, book reports, etc. However, if having one person revise and then other person edit a paper takes up too much time you could have one person read through the paper twice: once for revising and once for editing.