Content Portfolio Project

·      Speaking/Listening:

1.     Speeches

In my Intro to Communications class, our class was required to do a narrative speech and an informative speech. A narrative speech is “…often one that is based on personal experience is used to tell a story” (https://www.thoughtco.com) I told a story about my grandpa’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and how this affected me negatively and positively. An informative speech is, “An informative speech is one that provides information and educates the audience on a specific topic” (www.myspeechclass.com). My informative speech was about the world’s plastic addiction and its effects on the planet.

The informative speech taught me to verbally sight my sources, so I could avoid plagiarism, as well as provide interesting knowledge/facts in a way that is easy for people to understand (while also stimulating). This also taught me to rely on information is a way that isn’t necessarily persuasive. The narrative speech taught me to tell a personal story that was able to interest an audience by touching on their emotions. Additionally, I learned to tell a story cohesively (chronological progression of events) and verbally. The verbal part was difficult because I was previously used to writing, but I overcame this struggle very quickly.

These artifacts have influenced me as a future teacher, teaching ELA because I now recognize the importance of speaking/listening. Before these projects, I had no idea how complicated speaking and listening can be. Cohesive storytelling, education of an audience, and presentation of personal experience are some of the many characteristics that make speaking and listening very important. In my future ELA classroom, I would enjoy implementing a project like this so my students can practice, and hopefully perfect, speaking and listening for their grade level.

2.     Class discussions

Class discussions taught me how to properly speak in a way that is not only comprehensive but also respectful. Class discussions also taught me how to collaborate with others because I was able to go off of other people’s perspectives to help translate my ideas. Additionally, class discussions taught me to participate in class. Sometimes I’m shy and classroom discussions helped me break out of my shell because everyone else was participating. Previously, the fear of being wrong or embarrassed hindered me from speaking but classroom discussions provided enough stimulation for me to want to engage and contribute to the class. The atmosphere of classroom discussions that I have been a part of include: not talking when others are speaking, giving constructive feedback, and keeping subject matter appropriate. Without these characteristics, I feel that I wouldn’t have flourished as much as I did during classroom discussions because I wouldn’t have felt comfortable.

In general, Classroom discussions have influenced me as a future teacher, teaching ELA because now I know that discussions can be used as a way of teaching. While I have the ability to go up in front of the class and provide a lesson, an easier and untraditional way would be to let the students teach one another. Some students may not understand the information I present, so, a classroom discussion may be useful for students to translate that information differently in order to someone else to understand. As a future ELA teacher, I would love to have classroom discussions with my students.

3.     Music samples

Music samples are an untraditional way to teach speaking and listening. In my Intro to Fiction class, our professor had the class listen to a music sample (that has no lyrics) and then come up with a story of what the song was about. I feel that music samples were a great way to teach speaking/listening because you have to listen to music in order to understand what musical beats/cues you can use to influence your story. Additionally, I had to listen to other people’s stories which helped me better understand how to 1) create my own story from music and 2) comprehend why people made the narratives choices that they made during the exercise.

This influenced me as a future teacher, teaching ELA because now I know that I don’t have to rely on just books/writing in order to teach ELA. I’m able to rely on other forms of media that can help engage my students in a specific material and maybe even learn a thing or two about music genres.

·      Visual literacy/visually representing

1.     Ekphrasis “The use of detailed description of a work of visual art as a literary device” (https://corridor8.co.uk/article/adventures-in-ekphrasis-a-report-a-consideration/)

In my Intro to Poetry class, our professor asked the class to look/analyze a Norman Rockwell painting and then come back to class the next day with a poem relating to the painting. The professor didn’t give a specific criterion about the poem, he just asked for any poem. Since I have never written poetry completely on my own before, this was really challenging. However, I powered through and I wrote a poem with a simple AA/BB rhyme scheme. I tried to write a free form, but I felt that the lack of structure didn’t work well for me at that point in time. Because of ekphrasis, I learned to analyze a piece of art, and write a poem based on that analyzation.

Ekphrasis influenced me as a future teacher, teaching ELA because it showed me that you can creatively critic different media without having to be explicit. Additionally, this influenced me because if I used this method in my own classroom, I would be able to see where my students are with their poetry skills while also seeing what poetic interpretations they have about a particular topic. Because of this influence, Ekphrasis is a method I would love to implement in my classroom.

2.     Analyzing text by drawing a picture:

In my sophomore English class, we read The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It took our class about one week to finish the book and after every few chapters, the class had a discussion summarizing what we had read for that day. In order to make this lesson more fun, our class would assign specific people to play certain characters in the story. This way, if someone didn’t want to read, they didn’t have to; and those who wanted to read could read as much as they wanted. The purpose of reading The Crucible was to survey the Salem Witch Trials and other characteristics of this time period. I remember enjoying this unit in particular because I liked working together as a class. I also enjoyed the story our teacher picked because it was something I had never read before. While I learned about the Salem Witch Trials, I also learned about the varying themes within The Crucible which I found to be just as valuable as the historical aspects. Once we were 100% done with the book, our teacher asked the class to draw a picture representing one of the themes within the story, while including visual characteristics of the time period. The purpose of the picture was for the teacher to know that we understood the story as well as a visual representation for our personal use.

This method of teaching influences me as a future ELA teacher because I know it’s possible to teach aspects of history using novels and not just textbooks. While textbooks can be an easy way to teach certain subjects, using a novel is a more engaging way to teach topics such as the Salem Witch Trials because students are able to see parts of history represented as a narrative. In addition, drawing pictures based off of the story influences me as a future ELA teacher because it can further show students’ understanding of a subject. Furthermore, it can help spark students’ artistic creativity.

3.     Acting Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

During my freshman year of high school, our teacher dedicated most of our class to Shakespeare. Specifically, our class primarily focused on Romeo and Juliet. For this unit, our teacher put the class in reading groups, and within these individual groups, we read the story together. After we’ve read a certain number of chapters, we would all come back together as a class and summarize what we have read. For one day out of the week, our teacher would have our groups pick an activity that each individual group would perform in front of the class. Our group picked the scene where Romeo and Juliet both die, which looking back was pretty fun to perform! Aside from performing, working together with my classmates was fun because I was able to hear different ideas of how to convey each chapter appropriately, so it was visually appealing and entertaining for the audience.

Performing the different acts within Romeo and Juliet influences me as a future ELA teacher because I now know that students have the ability to comprehend different stories using visual literacy. In addition, if I were to use this method, I would be able to see my students channel their creativity during their performances. Furthermore, I feel that using this tactic would provide my future students with valuable skills such as, communication and organization, in order to have an entertaining performance.

·      Writing/Composition/Grammar:

1.     Madlibs

In my fifth-grade class, our teacher didn’t have specific lesson plans in order to teach grammar. So, my teacher did mad-libs with the entire class to help us learn about adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and verbs. Our teacher would pick the mad-lib to do then she would read sentence by sentence. Whenever there was a blank space for an adjective, noun or verb, she would call on one student to provide an appropriate response. I remember the most common words being, “chubby”, “dog”, “run” and other silly words! If a student wasn’t sure what a particular grammatical rule was, the teacher would define it for the class. While mad-libs was an untraditional way to learn about grammar, I felt it was a valuable tactic because to this day I’m still able to look back and remember grammatical rules from this time.

As a future ELA teacher, reflecting on this experience shows me that teachers don’t always have to rely on explicit lesson plans, in order to properly teach students common core standards. Also, I learned that mad-libs are pretty cheap, around $5. With that being said, I’m now aware that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on lesson plan material in order to teach your students. This is especially helpful considering the salary of some educators. Moreover, I learned that teaching grammar can be really engaging for students. As I remember, most of the mad-libs were really entertaining to read and this helped me stay engaged. Personally, if I wasn’t as engaged, I wouldn’t have learned grammar so easily and built memories from it. Overall, I would love to use mad-libs to teach, or at least introduce grammar, in my future ELA classroom.

2.     Revising Essays

Throughout my high school career, the majority of the English teachers had the students read each other’s writing and help one another revise them. As the class worked with one another on revisions, the instructor’s role would be to facilitate during the class period. The class would revise papers that ranged from fiction, persuasive, nonfiction and descriptive writing. Specifically, in my senior year English class, we were required to write four essays for the year. We each had to produce one nonfiction essay, but the remainder could be whatever style and subject we wanted. I remember nonfiction being my comfort zone, but I decided to write a descriptive essay about a family trip in order to challenge myself. The essay turned out great, but only because of the help from the other students who edited it. I remember receiving feedback from my classmates about how I needed to improve on using the five senses to describe specific details within my essay. I appreciated this feedback because it was constructive, and it was valuable enough that I still use this method in my writing today.

When other students revised my essays, I became more prepared as an ELA teacher because I know that students can learn not only from the instructor but from each other too. While I may need to provide some information on how to properly revise an essay and other English composition rules, one student may have the ability to better translate that information to someone else. Furthermore, some students may feel intimidated by sharing their first draft with their teacher. Because I want my class to feel comfortable with the writing process, if a student wants to have someone else revise their work, they should have that opportunity.

3.     Collaborative Writing

For me, my educational experience with collaborative writing was more for exercise and not really an explicit lesson. For example, in my sophomore year of college, our professor had the class create a short story. The professor would ask for things such as a character, setting, or a problem. The purpose of the exercise was to show us that creating a short story can be accomplished quickly, but you just need to be able to revise for improvements, if needed.

While this exercise was short, as a future ELA teacher I felt this exercise was still important. For one, I’ll be able to model what elements make up a short story and how these elements are produced quickly by collaborating. In addition, I felt this exercise was important because I’ll have an opportunity to get to know my students more, based on what they’ve contributed to the story. In the future, I would like to see how this exercise would work in smaller groups.

·      Literature/Reading:

1.     Literature Reviews

I was first introduced to literature reviews in my junior year of college. In general, to write a literature review, our professor required us to pick an example text that we’ve read, find a scholar that discusses ideas within the book, and then write a paper about the author’s findings. Because this was our first literature review ever, the professor allowed us to work in groups if we wanted. For me, this was especially helpful because I struggled with breaking down the massive amounts of scholarly information I was finding. The professor’s role was to facilitate between groups and answer any questions we might have had about this project. I specifically remember our class struggling trying to find our scholar’s arguments. Frequently, the instructor needed to help translate and dissect certain publications so we could provide solid evidence within our essays. Once we completed our literature reviews, we presented our paper in front of the class and discussed what we each did well and what we needed to improve on.

Literature reviews required me to challenge myself in a variety of ways as a writer. I struggled with the dense reading and translation of varying arguments. However, without literature reviews, I would not have developed stronger skills in these areas. As a future ELA teacher, I feel that literature reviews are a great way to help students kickstart their critical theory skills as well as improve their reading skills. Personally, I wouldn’t have my students do an entire literature review for the class, but I would be happy to introduce an exercise related to this form of writing. In general, it may be too advanced for high school students, and they will most likely not have access to the scholarly articles they need for research.

2.     Plot Elements

I was first introduced to plot elements in eighth grade. I remember having a basic knowledge of setting and introduction, but as my teacher went more in-depth, I learned about the rising and falling action, climax and resolution. In order for our class to solidify this information, the instructor had our class identify these elements within books and movies. An example of a book we used to identify plot elements was The Giver. As a class, we read The Giver and as we moved through the story, we discussed the characteristics and events that carried out. For instance, once the setting was introduced our class would devote time discussing what the setting meant, why it was the setting, and how it was an element within the story. The class repeated this throughout each element. Once we finished the book, we all had a movie day in class.

This method of teaching plot elements influenced me as a future ELA teacher because I learned that you can use examples of texts in order to teach plot elements instead of obvious lesson plans. While lesson plans are useful, it’s sometimes better to use other methods so students can stay engaged with the lesson. By using The Giver to teach plot elements, our class was able to understand the elements better because 1) we could see the elements within the narrative and 2) the class enjoyed the story. Overall, I would like to use example texts to teach plot elements in my ELA classroom.

3.     Example Texts (favorite books/authors)

Throughout my educational career, most of my teachers held reading days. During these reading days, each student could bring their favorite book to read silently for the duration of the period. The teacher would also bring their favorite book and read along with us. Through my experience, the main reason for reading days is just for students to relax and unwind for one day out of the school week. I remember this being especially helpful when I felt stressed in higher grades. In some classes, some teachers would allow some students to share the book they’re reading. Most students shared books that were interesting to me and because of that, I was able to discover new authors and books.

As a future ELA teacher, dedicated reading days influence me because I believe that students should be able to engage in a story they chose on their own. In addition, I feel that it’s valuable for students to share the book they’re reading if they want to, so other students can see if they’re interested in the author, genre or other characteristics. When I’m an ELA teacher, I would implement independent reading days for my students.