Content Portfolio

Originally I wanted to do something other than a blog post and make it more fun and accessible to my classmates as I believe that sharing with others can really help both parties when it comes to preparing for the education program and for teaching. I think this is the next best way to share with you all and hope you enjoy reading my experiences and how they helped me feel more prepared to become a teacher. 

Speaking/listening: 

1. My first artifact for this is the experience I had in Communications 200 class giving one of my first public speeches and how that helped me become more prepared as a teacher of speaking and listening. 

In Communications 200, the class was assigned a personal narrative speech. Essentially we were told to tell a story and if we hit the time mark of three minutes we would get credit for the speech at a full credit. I was pretty nervous because although I had given presentations in front of my classmates before, I had never told a story in front of so many people and this would be a lot different because for the first time I felt like people would not just drift off while I talked or while others did but that the speech would be built on engagement with the audience. Before the speech had been assigned, we had talked a lot about body language and what to do with your body when you are giving a speech and how to use your body to benefit your speech and keep your audience engaged; for example, using signposts. A signpost is when you hold up a finger or gesture in a way that engages the audiences while also making a point or bringing them to the next point. We were also taught that pauses could be good and could help your speech build up to a dramatic moment or event. Now, moving back to my own speech. All of this information helped me when giving the speech and I found that I became more aware of my own body language through this speech than throughout the rest of class because I got the chance to be creative and share a story of my own. In the speech I shared about my experience skydiving and was able to use pauses in my speech as well as signposts to build suspense. This speech not only helped me become more aware and confident with my own body and gestures when delivering speeches or lectures, but I realized that in order to teach speaking and listening skills, I needed to give other students the chance to do this as well. This speech helped reshape how I thought about speeches and lectures and what went into creating them and making them worthwhile. I believe that this helped me become a better teacher in this subject matter because of the new understanding of the subject that it gave to me. It showed me that not all speeches have to be related to something super specific and that sometimes in order to help students enhance their skills in a subject matter, they need to be allowed to put their own creative touch on something. I have found that this is especially true when it comes to speaking and listening skills. 

2. Next I would like to talk about one of Dr. Green's classes and how heavily discussion based they are and how this has helped develop my speaking and listening skills and how it has helped me be more prepared to teach them. Let's talk about the first class I took with him, ENGL 270 Intro to Fiction. 

Before taking this class with Dr. Green I had never been in a class where I felt a real and true discussion took place. Looking back at the class, the way he had it set up was similar to the guidelines of Common Core. He had us come prepared to class, set a goal with what the discussion was supposed to be about or reach, and led the conversations in a way that enabled the students to show a true and full knowledge of their own on the subject matter. The Common Core sets these similar goals and I think that this prepared me as a teacher of speaking and listening because I got to see for the first time how a class, based on discussion, is run. However, it should be clear that I am not advocating that all English Language Art classrooms should be based on discussions. Nonetheless, discussions should still be taking place. The class showed me that you must have read what was assigned before the class period or you would be lost. You must have also been an active reader, meaning taking notes and making sure that you had text evidence to use at your dispense. This not only made me a more active reader and enhanced my learning skills in other areas of English, but it helped me be prepared with what I was going to say in the discussion in order to not just receive credit for the day but ensure that my thoughts were clear, concise, and heard. This is big when it comes to speaking and skills and I think that it is important that these same things are practiced in order to ensure that students have these skills and are prepared to demonstrate them in future classrooms. Dr. Green also made sure that when he asked you, or if what you said was not easily understood, that you had the time to prepare your ideas more, by coming back to you, or giving you a second to think again before you spoke, or sometimes he would explain what you said back to you, so that he and the rest of the class knew exactly what you were trying to say. All of these skills I think are vital when it comes to teaching speaking and listening. I feel like this class was a great example for how I could use these skills in my own classroom by taking them and practicing them. I think the most important one is to repeat what the student said back to them if what they said was unclear. It gives the chance for the students ideas to be heard and expressed in the fullest and most correct way, and also gives them a chance to respond in correction or find a new way to say what they were thinking. This is important because that truly is progress through failure and shows that the student is trying to get better at both speaking and listening to what is being said by and around them. It also is very important when assigning the students with a project to ensure that the expectations are clear on what the assignment is asking of them so much so that they can repeat the goal of the assignment back to them. It also shows tolerance for all in a classroom because it gives the students who may not have those speaking skills yet a chance to explain what they are trying to say and build those skills. Oftentimes students who feel as though they can't talk or shouldn't talk in a discussion or class may be afraid to express what they are thinking but have really excellent thoughts. I think replicating the skills talked about would make me a better teacher of speaking and listening. I actually think that even just acknowledging that everyone should have a voice in a discussion and a classroom makes a teacher that much more prepared to be a teacher of speaking and listening. 

3. My last artifact is actually from my Ethics class at SFCC with professor Weise. (Wishing I remembered the course number)

In this Ethics class that I took at SFCC we had to analyze the intention of the writer in different forms of texts and visual media such as social, political, and of course philosophical. Again, before this class I had not done anything like this. We were to take a text in one of these forms and analyze it stating what we thought the author's intention was, and what parts of the text we thought were irrelevant and why. This played into being a more prepared teacher of speaking and listening skills as this was actually almost spot on with the Common Core State Standards. I plan to take this idea and show a short video or commercial advertisement in my classroom and have my students do the same sort of thing and share. They should analyze what people are arguing in the videos, and this will show that they are listening to what is being said. They should also then state what they think is irrelevant in what the speaker is saying because oftentimes this has a purpose of its own. Whether it be to distract the listener from something else that the speaker is arguing or persuading the listener in one way or another, it is important that students have the skills and ability to understand and find that within in argument, especially a spoken one. This is one of those things where students will ask, "why do we even have to learn this?" and this is one of those times where the teacher gets to answer because you really will use this in everyday life. People will try to persuade you and create ideas in your mind through possibly irrelevant or incorrect facts. I think this definitely prepared me for the CCS standards of speaking and listening and I know that whenever I get the chance to teach something that students will use and need as a skill in everyday life I get very excited, which thankfully for me is most if not all of what ELA teachers teach. 

Visual Literacy: 

1. The first artifact that I have is another story about the first time that I read a book with graphics in a secondary or above. It was again in one of Dr. Green's classes and it was the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. 

This was the first and my favorite book that I have read with any sort of graphics that go along with the story. Reading this book has made me more prepared for teaching visual literacy in a classroom because it helped me realize that sometimes pictures help explain the authors very abstract ideas. In the book there is a picture of a snake and other people misinterpret the snake for a hat when really it is a snake that has eaten an elephant. This was very important to be able to see visually because it looked so much like that of a drawing of a little kid that I was convinced of the argument that the author was making almost immediately. The author then goes on to explain the different types of people and their flaws by using the Little Prince as a character that travels to these different worlds. Of course, the person on each rule has a flaw and their flaws are similar to that of many people. Whether the flaw was drawing sorrow in unhealthy ways, or ownership and greed, the pictures helped the ideas seem more relatable, real, and easy to connect ideas to and with rather than merely just abstract. This prepared me to teach visual literacy because it enhanced my ability to read and understand visual literacy and its importance in the classroom. The Little Prince now has a movie that goes along with it and it would be  awesome to be able to teach this book in my classroom and then be able to show parts of the movie and have the students determine what was similar and what was different, what did they think was well done, what didn't they think was well done and in which one. I think this book has opened my mind and helped me understand and become a lot more interested in visual literacy and therefore helped me as a teacher be more prepared to teach visual literacy, and hopefully use this book as a way to do it because there is so much that it taught me. Whether its ability to use pictures to connect to abstract ideas, the use of colors and how they change over time in the book, or the importance of visual literacy, I know that after reading this book I am one step closer to becoming a well rounded visual literacy teacher. 

2. The second part that I wanted to talk about for visual literacy is making videos as projects in English classes.

I originally planned to talk about a different project that I had one in a class in which I made a five minute video that made an argument about a text that we read in class, but did so in the form of a conversation and camping trip that the characters (Tyler and me) went on. However, I feel as though my World Literature project more prepared me to teach visual literacy than any other project before. I learned how to use multiple different forms of website builder, Padlet, Sutori, and other forms of places in which videos, links and copies can be made to create one big visual literacy project. Understanding these different platforms has made me more prepared to help students learn in a visual way because I can now help them learn and navigate the different sites and ways to store their graphics. In our project we also had two maps that we created of downtown Spokane. One showed the places we went, in what order, and how to get to those places. When you clicked on a place or arrived at one, a link would appear on the screen and you would be taken to a video that we made about the space and an argument we created for it. On the other map we used Google Earth which gave the user a 3D tour of the spaces that we went to, showed them a street view of the places, and in some cases even gave the viewer a visual tour of the space within the building. I think this helped me be more prepared as a visual literacy teacher because it helped me create and demonstrate my arguments in a nontraditional way that made learning interactive and more fun. I think this was important for me to do because now I have the ability to help students design these sort of projects, and can help them express their arguments in different forms and visual mediums. This project has shown me that there are different ways to use and create visual literature in the classroom, rather than just making a video, which can also be very fun and beneficial for students as well. However, I am now more ready than I previously was to help students create a wide variety of different forms of visual literature that CCS and other Standards call for in a classroom and therefore am very grateful for this project and to be able to now understand and connect many different visual forms to one argument. 

3. The final thing for visual literacy that I wanted to touch on was using videos or clips of videos in the classroom. I know that many, including me, viewed some form of Romeo and Juliet.

I think that it is important to show videos in an ELA classroom. In fact it is in some standards and I know someone did a presentation on this in our class this quarter. I think that the experience of watching the older version in some parts and the newer version in others made it more fun to learn about the text and about how literature changes over time and the different ways to read a text. This is important when teaching visual literacy because it gives students the chance to feel for and understand how dramas and other plays were actually meant to be seen rather than just read. I think this even helps students remember what happened in the play more than if they were just to read the play itself, which I know some teachers do and still believe in. As a future teacher preparing to teach visual literacy I think this experience of watching them helped me a great deal because I got to see interpretations of how the play would have been acted out and therefore how they were meant to be experienced. This knowledge is very impactful because it is so much more beneficial for students to be able to understand literature and its changes over time and to be able to relate the ideas to the modern day, than sitting in a class for an hour and having a teacher or a student read the play in old English and not doing anything more with the play. In one of my classes in high school this happened and students did not connect with the text at all, so the teacher created a powerpoint for us, which did not help. I think sometimes literature must be seen, not just read, and this experience of watching the play and watching it in different forms helped me to realize that, and realize that's how I plan to teach visual literature in my ELA classroom. 

Writing/Composition/Grammar:

1. The first example for writing/composition/grammar that I have is about grammar. It is WSU's guidelines for grammar: here is a link (https://brians.wsu.edu/common-errors-in-english-usage/) It is a book written by Paul Brians called Common Errors in English Usage. 

The book has helped me become a better writer because of the grammar examples that it gives. What is awesome about this site is that it allows you to actually look up a lot of the common Errors in English without buying the book. It was actually my tenth grade English class that helped me place into Running Start at SFCC because of this book. Every day we came and sat down at our desks and the teacher would have an example of an error related to one of Brians’ examples from this site up on the board and we would have to choose which example was right or wrong and then correct the sentence. I thought this was a lot of fun. Although I did not thoroughly enjoy correcting the sentence in front of the class I thought it was good practice being in front of a class. It gave us each a good idea of grammar and its uses in the classroom. Much of what we did every day was as I mentioned before, on the college entrance exams. I think this experience of using this site did a great job in giving me ideas in how grammar works and the rules that conduct our language. It made me more prepared to teach students grammar because I know I have a place in which I can show them the common errors and how we can correct them and learn from them. It also helped me become more prepared to teach grammar because it again relates to students’ everyday lives which as I said before is something that I am excited to teach subject matter or find a way to make the majority of the subject matter something that they can and will relate to and use everyday. I also want to have students come into my class and sit down and practice grammar everyday. I think that boring stuff should be done first so we can move on to the stuff that will be more fun for them. It also helped me gain more knowledge in a subject that I know a lot of teachers, like me, are a little intimidated to tackle and teach. 

2. The second thing that I wanted to talk about is writing. For this section I want to share two pieces of my writing. Both are forms of analytical writing, one is from my first year in Running Start at SFCC and one is from my junior year at EWU. (They are labeled SFCC and EWU)

(Link to Padlet: https://padlet.com/mdickman979/gkwkgjubbo2f)

In the first essay, it is pretty evident that I had had little experience writing an analytical essay before. I included a summary of what happened in the book, and how I felt and my own experiences. These things I know now are a big no-no in writing. In the second, I have written a few more analytical essays now, but it is still not the best, but it was written on a book that I very much enjoyed and I used sources that happened to be very credible and that I had to go to an actual library to find. Which is sad to say, but it was a requirement and I am glad that it was because most people now want to find a quote on JSTOR and make it fit. I think that it made me more proud of the essay that I wrote. This helped me as a teacher of writing because I learned through this that it is important to keep writing every day, and with that to write in different types of forms and styles. Writing is something that does get easier with practice and I want my students to know that and be willing to practice. It also got me thinking about sources and how I might integrate a class period for students to learn how to find and use reliable sources online and another to teach them how to do it with printed text in a setting like a library. It also made me think about how if I am a teacher of writing that I need to be gracious when I grade and only grade heavily on specific content one at a time. I think this is important and helps students feel like they can be more laid back and expressive in their writing which I know has really helped me. I know if I would have been harshly graded on that first essay I wrote, instead of evaluated and taught the correct way to write an analytical essay then I probably would not be here today. I think this has also taught me that I need to make sure I find something positive and motivating to say to students each time they submit work because it was the motivation that my first writing teacher at SFCC gave me that continued to fuel my love for ELA. That is how these essays have prepared me to be a better teacher of writing and composition made me more excited to teach it than ever. 

3. My final example is the Grammar and punctuation handouts that my first English professor gave me at SFCC. There is two and they are both posted as PDFs on Padlet https://padlet.com/mdickman979/gkwkgjubbo2f

These really helped me with punctuation and grammar as I was never that confident in my punctuation and grammar skills, and truth be told I'm still not, but I think that these handouts gave me the basic knowledge that I needed and still help me feel like there is something that I can turn to when I am in need of help when it comes to grammar and punctuation. Thinking about how else this prepared me for teaching is because now I want to not just use this, but I want to create my own with this and Dr. McHenry’s class in mind and have it in my classroom for both me and my students to be able to use. I think that this is really important because so many teachers feel that lack of confidence when it comes to punctuation and grammar that I think both teachers and their students would benefit from having something like this in the classroom to be able to be turned to and used whenever they needed to. That is something that I have never had a teacher do in a class, is use the same handout to help them, or at least express it. After thinking about grammar and punctuation and my experience with it, I think that it is important to let students know that it is okay to struggle with it and that sometimes even the teacher does and that way you both can revisit it and learn together. I think these handouts have taught me just that, that sometimes it is okay to admit you don’t know either and that there is a lot of information and it is okay to learn together.

Literature/Reading 

1. The first thing when it comes to literature and reading that I want to talk about is in the book that I did a presentation called, How to Teach English Literature: Overcoming Cultural Poverty by Jennifer Webb. 

In this book, what struck me as very important, because it was always something that I dreaded in schools, was the different ways in which you can have students read. She talks about how sometimes the teacher can read, sometimes the teacher may want to call on students, and sometimes it is okay to have everyone be read to by an audiobook. For me, thinking about myself as a teacher I think it would be really hard to constantly be reading novels out loud for six hours a day. Although I am more than willing to do it, I can be a little slow, and a bit clunky the first time reading a novel or book but I know after that I would be very ready to do it. However, I can imagine that reading loud enough for all students to hear every day may take a toll on the throat, so it was good to read about all the different options. Thinking about how I want to teach I thought that it was interesting that she let the students read until they felt like they had read enough and stopped and then the students or teacher would call on someone else to read. I liked this, because I like the idea of the teacher deciding who gets to read and who doesn’t. This is because, and let's face it, kids can be mean. Although everyone should spend some time reading aloud I don't think every kid needs to everyday, especially if they don't enjoy it, while others may. I want to integrate this in my classroom. I also want to make it so sometimes the class listens to books. I was told that this would help build vocabulary by one of my high school teachers, and I really do believe it. For one, that is how children build vocab, and with students having brains that are still developing, I think that it is important that they are read to too. I really enjoyed and remembered stories a lot more when I listened to them, and continue to enjoy and remember texts a great deal more when they are read to me, even today. 

2. The second thing for literature/reading that I want to talk about is poetry and how it helped me become a better reader and lifted my mood. I want to do this by talking about Dr. Seuss. 

Although I am not an expert in poetry and I don’t feel that confident in the subject matter I want to be. Poetry is something that I have always enjoyed and would love to be able to teach it in my English Language Arts classroom. For me, poetry, especially that by Dr. Seuss has helped my reading and public speaking a great deal. I often read to the pre-k kids that I teach and their favorites and mine are by Dr. Seuss. At first I struggled with some of the funky rhyming words but then I got the hang of the pace of his work and how to read it. It helped my brain slow down and really think about what I was reading. Although they are only four, five, and six years old, it can still be intimidating to read in front of people. But because of Dr. Seuss’s books I have gotten a lot better at it. Although I probably won’t be reading his books to my secondary ELA classes, I want to make sure that poetry is a part of our class and that I continue to learn about it because thinking about how it has helped me as a teacher, it really has done a lot. I mentioned that it helped me slow down and read more carefully and that it helped with my public speaking, and it did. However, it also helped me be in a better mood when reading it and I think that is something that is very important. Students should be able to read and write in order to make themselves feel better, and poetry is a really good outlet. The reason that I didn't use poetry class as an example is that I didn't feel I really learned much from it, rather just regurgitated what the professor wanted me to learn. That’s why I will be continuing, like we did in this class, to find “how to” books in order to further my understanding of the subject matter and how to teach it. I do not want to do the disjustice to my students of not teaching them poetry even though it is hard and is something I am not totally comfortable with yet. I don’t know if I would have felt this way if I hadn't read Dr. Seuss to the pre-k kids, and that’s why for this, he was my artifact. 

3. The final thing that I want to touch on for literature/reading is something that was also in How to Teach English Literature: Overcoming Cultural Poverty by Jennifer Webb, but has been covered in a lot of my classes, in a lot of other books, and even in a lot of other students’ presentations. That is, that there is no wrong argument in writing, so long as it can be backed up with text evidence. 

The reason that I am using Jennifer Webb and her book as my artifact is because she is the one that I feel like best described it and was the most gentle in her approach with it in her book. She talked about how she lets her students know that as long as they can make a valid case for their argument then their reading of the book is not wrong. Thinking about myself as a teacher of literature/reading I think that to an extent I want to include this in my classroom and to an extent I don’t. I am a firm believer in this idea that there is no wrong reading of something, and in fact that makes reading even more enjoyable. However, some students in some grade levels may hear this and try to challenge you by coming up with all sorts of crazy reading. I am torn between letting this happen or saying there are some wrong ways to read the text. I am torn because although I think students should challenge their teachers I would not want them to fail in doing so or be  disruptive in the class. I guess this is something I will just have to decide on when I get there, although the book did prepare me for it. The author does say that this doesn't happen too often and that it shouldn’t scare teachers. Although something she addressed but didn't really answer is how it affects the students' tests. I think in some states, those designing the tests have different ideas. On the NES test for WA a lot of questions were based on the author's intent and what they meant in certain passages. Although there is no real way to know without asking the author, clearly these things are on the test. I would not want to mislead students by saying their reading and interpretation of something can't be wrong when clearly some people think it can be. So maybe I tell them some people don’t agree and think it can be wrong. As far as thinking about myself as a teacher I think that this is something that I will just have to play by ear and cater to each class, learning what I should say to them to best prepare them for life, future classes, and tests. What I have learned from this book, and from others is that you must be honest about this stuff and make them aware of what other people think about it, what I think about it, and what they will be tested on.