While working toward my Master of Arts in Education degree through Michigan State University, I was able to take many courses that challenged my thinking and helped me grow into a more effective educator. My concentration in literacy education allowed me to improve my teaching practice through research, differentiation, and reflection.
These courses helped me realize how important it is to use research-based best practices to help students achieve their goals. In my opinion, incorporating differentiation into research-based instruction makes the most powerful impact on student learning. These two things work in tandem, which is why I put them into a section together below.
I have found that being a reflective teacher has allowed me to improve my teaching practice. When I take a moment to think about what is going well and what needs improvement, I am able to make powerful changes that directly impact my students. The second section is labelled "Reflection" and shows how I am using reflection to improve my teaching practice.
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Collecting and analyzing student data is an incredibly effective way for educators to tailor their instruction to meet the varied needs of their students. In this paper, I looked closely at the data from a 4th grade student, Sarah. By studying her Elementary Spelling Inventory and Informal Reading Inventories, I determined she would benefit from instruction focused on fluency and vocabulary.
Classroom management is a very important component of teaching and many new teachers feel unprepared to manage a classroom. This reflection allowed me to reflect on my current practices in classroom management and align them to research-based recommendations.
Showcase of Graduate Work
INTRODUCTION
RESEARCH-BASED/DIFFERENTIATED WORK
Similar to the student data project for Sarah, analyzing William's data helped me set instructional goals for him. His Informal Phonics Inventory, Elementary Spelling Inventory, and his Fry Sight-Word Inventory informed me that William would benefit from goals targeted at building his phonics skills and reading comprehension.
One powerful component of effective writing instruction is implementing writing conferences with our students. In this project, I used research-based best practices to help improve conferencing time during writing. I worked with three focus students and used writing conferences to help them set goals and work toward these goals.
REFLECTION
For this case study, I worked with a second grade student in my class. I gave her several assessments to paint a more detailed picture of her as a literacy learner. After analyzing her data, I decided to focus on improving her reading fluency through a variety of activities and lessons.
In this autobiography reflection, I was able to consider how technology has influenced my experiences as both a student and a teacher. Growing up alongside technological innovations has allowed me to familiarize myself with new technologies.
Teachers act as interpreters for their students as they guide them to interpret new literature and films. This paper is my reflection on how filmmakers serve as independent artists when they turn a book into a feature film. I focus on Brian Selznick's graphic novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and how it was interpreted into a feature film, Hugo, by Martin Scorsese.
Trying out the writing process for myself allowed me to gain a deeper perspective about how my students may feel as they progress through the writing process. I used Hillocks' book, Narrative Writing: Learning a New Model for Teaching, to guide me through reflecting on this process.
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