Allison Shaler Week 2 Blog

My learning goals of this course:

• Relate to all of my students
• Use effective literacy teaching strategies
• Actively engage students in the literacy curriculum
• Use many modes of literacy in my curriculum

To help me reach these goals, I want to learn the following about literacy instruction:

• Ways to actively engage students in the literacy curriculum
• Ways to make literacy enjoyable to students
• Ways to incorporate students' cultures into my classroom community
• Ways to create a classroom learning community
• Various types of literacy (e.g., with technology, book genres, writing genres, etc.)

I hope to teach in a diverse school in a suburban area.  Currently, I am placed in a suburban school, and my classroom is comprised of a diverse group of students (culturally, racially, economically, etc.).  Also, I went to a suburban school district that had a very diverse student population.  I really enjoy this type of environment, so I hope to teach in one similar to this some day.

The jigsaw articles helped me think about the kind of teacher I want to be.  The two articles I read brought up very important points for teachers to realize, and provided examples and evidence of these ideas.  Even though some of the ideas I read about were not new to me, it was important to see their value and success in teaching.  Through reading these articles, I realized I want to be a teacher who:

• Creates a classroom community of learners
• Connects the curriculum to the lives of my students
• Uses authentic literacy experiences
• Can relate to all of my students
• Is a constant learner of new information to better my teaching