ELA . . . Final thoughts

When I first started my ELA course in September, I really didn’t know what to expect. I had a somewhat negative view of the subject going in that was rooted in my negative ELA experiences in elementary school. I remembered classes focusing on Language Arts text books, spelling tests and little choice in materials.  Before entering the first class I resolved to keep an open mind and see where the journey would take me. Little did I realize how much had changed since my days as an elementary school student. The ELA that I knew is dead and gone. ELA today is focused not only on reading, writing, listening and speaking, it also includes representing and viewing. There is no longer a rigid approach to writing that focuses on grammar and spelling from an early age. Children are encouraged to explore and play with language, and use representing to help them communicate their ideas with the world. The ELA classroom environment is much more supportive and encouraging than I remember.

My opinion of ELA has changed for the better since the start of this course. In my first blog, I commented that I wanted to make ELA fun for my students and help foster a lifelong love of literacy. My overall vision of my future classroom has not really changed. I still want it to be a supportive and engaging learning community that inspires all of my students to achieve. My students will still have a wealth of material to choose from and critical literacy skills will still be an important focus in my classroom as I feel that these skills are paramount in the navigation of the complex world we live in. What is different in my vision is that I now feel as though I have the foundations and the tools to get there. A few key points that I am taking away from this course include:

• There is a wealth of information available to help teachers engage their students. From graphic novels (such as Bone and Baby Mouse) to poetry (such as Love that Dog) picture books, there is reading material available that can spark the interest of any student.
• It is important to give students a meaningful purpose and an authentic audience. There is nothing worse than doing a task when you don’t see the reasoning behind it. Giving students an authentic audience helps give purpose to tasks.
• Although my ELA class touched on many effective strategies that can be used to aid in the ELA development of my future students, due to time constraints, we barely scratched the surface of what is out there. There are fabulous resource books such as 50 Literacy Strategies and Creating Writers Through 6-Trait Writing available that outline techniques and strategies that can be adapted to suit any classroom. As a beginning teacher, these resources will be invaluable sources of information that I can use to help my students. As teachers, we never stop learning!
• Communicating with colleagues is incredibly important. This was illustrated perfectly in our class discussions and group work. The more we bounced ideas off each other, the better they became. Communicating and working with fellow staff benefits everyone involved, ESPECIALLY the students who benefit from the results.     
• Keeping communication lines open with your students and having a continuous dialogue with them is key to their ELA development. This was illustrated extremely well in Sharon Creech’s book Love That Dog. The teachers written responses and dialogue with her student ‘Jack’ helped him to blossom into a confident writer who enjoyed the process.
• The IRPs and PLOs are not to be feared. Yes, the IRPs are daunting at first,  but once you delve into them they do start to make sense. There is a tremendous amount of useful information contained in those documents.
• It is important to incorporate technology into the classroom. Today’s students are surrounded by technology. It is a key part of their lives, and as teachers we need to recognize this and incorporate it into our classrooms. Podcasting, video casts, ipads, smart boards . . . these are just some of the ways that technology can be used for good in today’s classrooms. 
• Balance is key. There is still a place for the grammar and spelling conventions that were used extensively when I was younger, but they must be balanced with the freedom to explore and play with language. Freedom is good, but too much freedom is not good for all students. There needs to be some structure for students to reach their potential. It is also important to have a balanced approach with teaching styles to help engage all students and cater to different learning styles.

At the beginning of this course I had an idea of what I wanted my future ELA classroom to look like, but I had no idea how I was going to achieve that vision. Thanks to the experiences, skills, and knowledge gained in this classroom, both from my professor and my classmates, I now feel like I have a toolset that will help me create an ELA classroom that is inclusive and supportive for all my students. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m actually excited to teach ELA!

Writing and Representing in the Elementary School Classroom: What is important in the Grade 5 classroom and how can it be supported?

 Writing and Representing are hard work. As an adult, I still have moments where I find myself staring at a blank page wondering how on earth I am going to start something. Sometimes, the words and images come easily, and the document writes itself. Other times, I fight with myself through the entire process, struggling through road blocks and distractions along the way. Organizing my thoughts into a clear and coherent product can be downright exhausting at times! I clearly remember the moment in upper elementary school when I realized that what I was writing would be GRADED. Somewhere along the way, it was expected that I  would go from writing creative stories with made up spellings to coherent, well laid out, grammatically correct documents. There was little in the way of support offered. It was just expected that this was the natural progression in the writing process. It was a shock, but I adapted. Much like Page in Casey and Hemenway’s article on the importance of balance between freedom and structure in the writing program in schools, I figured out what my teachers wanted, and adjusted my style and output accordingly.

The ability to express thoughts and ideas through writing and representing are integral in today’s society. As teachers, we are fundamental in the development of these skills in our students. We are expected to take them from children who cannot hold a pencil or form a letter to young adults who are capable of writing deep, meaningful and intellectual prose. When children enter kindergarten, the writing and representing process is new and exciting. They want to hold the pencil. Forming letters and drawing pictures is something that is regarded with excitement. The challenge we face, as educators, is to maintain that enthusiasm throughout our students’ educational careers.

I feel that it is of utmost importance to show students WHY writing and representing are important. As students get older, they increasingly need reasons for doing the tasks that we ask of them. Students need to see that what they are doing in the classroom has application in the ‘real world’. The project approach can be a useful tool for giving purpose to assignments, especially when students are allowed to follow their own interests. Julie Gellner used the project approach in her Grade 4/5 classroom to much success (Bainbridge, 246-250). The ‘Restaurant Project’ grew out of student interest in media reports of unsanitary conditions in some city restaurants. What started as a student generated idea in the classroom grew into a 3 month project culminating in a ‘restaurant evening’ at their school (which showed the students that not all projects need to have a formal written report as an end product). Her students conducted research, wrote reviews for restaurants they visited, applied for restaurant jobs with resumes and cover letters which they sent to the manager (Julie), wrote menus, designed time tables and did many other restaurant related projects. By providing a tangible purpose for the assignment and allowing her students the freedom to explore their interests within a framework (the Restaurant Project), Julie provided her students with an environment where their interests were piqued and their thinking and writing were challenged. “She created a community of learners that supported one another in asking and answering questions, and in which the children and teacher respected one another’s ideas (Bainbridge, 246).”

Providing real audiences and purposes for students helps to develop their writing skills. The students in Julie Gellner’s class were allowed to explore the writing and representing process in an area that was relevant to them and were given an audience other than just their teacher. “When children enjoy writing and discover they have something to say to a real audience, their skills will improve (Casey, 68).” Increasingly, the PLO’s in the upper elementary grades focus on developing a voice and writing for a wide range of purposes and audiences. In Grades 4-7, students are expected to develop a ‘voice’ and style suitable to the purpose, content and audience of their writing and to define who their audience is (BC IRP, 88). Students cannot possibly be expected to develop a ‘voice’ and write for an audience if they have not been given an audience to communicate with. An audience can be as small, such as a group of classmates or a parent, or larger, such as the entire school or the community. Giving students an audience to target their writing and representing towards gives a sense of purpose and importance to their work and helps keep them motivated to continue with the process.

The BC IRP Grade 5 PLO’s C1 to C4 focus on developing different writing styles and making meaningful representations to communicate ideas (BC IRP 108-111). It is important to provide students with ample time for the writing and representing process. Equally important is giving students’ balanced exposure to different writing styles such as narrative, expressive, expository, persuasive, explanatory, and poetry. Not all students will be comfortable with all styles of writing and it is important to allow students to explore different styles to help them develop their skills. Giving students options for their written responses (journal, draw, cartoon, chart, etc) can help students become more comfortable with the response process in the classroom. Students need to know that not everyone thinks the same way or understands at the same rate and that every student in the class will respond differently to a question, and that’s ok.

Students need to be given strategies to help with the writing and representing process. Often the hardest part of the writing process is finding a starting point. One thing that I have noticed in the Grade 3/4 classroom that I am volunteering in is that many of the student’s struggle simply getting ideas down onto paper. They do not know where to start and consequently fight their way through the entire process. Some become obsessed with spelling and rather than try to spell it the best they can and move on with the process, they constantly ask how to spell every single word. Others cross out every second sentence, in an effort to get it right the first time, and some simply avoid the process all together by doing something else entirely. I feel that these students would benefit greatly from strategies to help them get passed their writing hurdles.

The following strategies are just some of many that can be used to help students navigate the writing process. Writer’s notebooks can be used hold ideas whenever they occur. Students can then go back to these ideas at a later date when they are stuck. Drawing on previous experiences often produces the best pieces of work. Students need to be told that it is ok to draw on what you know in the writing process and that their opinions, feelings and experiences are valuable and worth sharing. Different outlining techniques for stories can be used in every stage of the writing development process to help organize thoughts and plan out stories. When local author Robin Stevenson came to our class, she had us do a ‘group brainstorming session’ to create a story idea. By asking us a series of questions, our class was able to come up with an interesting framework for a story (Stevenson, 2011). In the elementary school classroom, group brainstorming techniques can help students overcome barriers to the writing process. KWL charts and double entry journals can help students clarify and organize thoughts. A classroom full of language rich materials and access to dictionaries and thesauruses aids in language and idea development and provides students with examples of different genres. Grade 5 PLO’s C5-C7 focus on the student use of strategies during the writing process and provides examples of prompts teachers can used to help scaffold learning (BC IRP, 112-114).  Teaching students strategies to help navigate the writing and representing process is critical in their development as independent learners, especially as they make the transition from elementary to middle school.

Students need to know that writing can be hard. Page, in the Casey and Hemenway’s article compared the writing process to combing hair.  “Sometimes it’s boring, like combing hair . . . [but] then I keep on combing it, and that’s like revising it more and more times. Then, once I’m done combing my hair, or once I’m done writing my story, it’s fun and I feel proud of myself and I get a lot of compliments (Casey, 69)”. This quote perfectly illustrates the love/hate relationship that many students have with writing and the sense of teaching themselves how to write by trial, error, hard work and persistence (Casey, 69). Students need to be taught to appreciate and understand the revision process. Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and presenting are all essential steps and increase our understanding of how and what to include in our written work. Writing is about taking risk and making mistakes. As author Robin Stevenson told us, students need to know that it is ok to write a ‘crappy’ first draft (Stevenson, 2011) and that the ‘first blurt’ is often not very good. Students need to see that even their teachers can struggle with the writing process and make mistakes. Showing students examples of your own writing and having them help with the revision process can make them more comfortable with the writing process. Writing with the class and going through the revision process with students helps them to see the amount of work that goes into a good piece of writing.

Providing students with a safe and respectful environment for constructive feedback is essential part of the writing and representing development process. Young writers want honest responses to their work. “All too often, teachers provide evaluative feedback in the form of grades and short (usually nonspecific) comments, often praise or censure. This kind of feedback tells students whether they are okay or not and affects their sense of themselves and their position in relation to learning, but it offers little direction for moving their learning forward (Assessment, 90).” Descriptive feedback “makes explicit connections between students’ thinking and other possibilities that they should consider. It is linked to the learning that is expected (Assessment, 90).” Feedback should build on what students know and have done, rather than simply criticise what is wrong with what they have done. “Kids usually write as well as they can. As you help them move forward, their best will get better. A piece of writing that isn’t working yet isn’t working yet; it’s not bad (Attwell, 225).” Feedback from classmates can be just as beneficial for students as feedback from a teacher. One tool that I feel would be particularly affective for student feedback is ‘two stars and a wish’ because it helps focus student feedback on a few areas and gives a framework for constructive criticism.

Using rubrics can greatly assist in the assessment process by helping teachers to focus on one or a few particular areas of assessment. Allowing students (and parents) to see the rubric being used for evaluation can be very helpful as it gives students an indication of what expectations are for a given assignment. It helps them to focus in on specific goals for their writing rather than trying to prefect the entire piece. In addition to providing a rubric for assignments, teachers should provide examples of what ‘excellence’ looks like. “When students are striving towards a difficult goal, especially one that is complex and requires integration of new learning and a number of different skills, they benefit from seeing how it looks when it’s done and from the process that an expert when to get there. Having an image of where they are going, how long it takes to get there, and what the stages look like both motivates and provides targets that students can visualize and strive for along the way (Assessment, 90).”    

In an ideal world, every student would love the writing and representing process. In reality, this will not be the case. Not all students love writing and representing, the same way that not all students love math. I cannot make my students love a subject, but I can help them gain an appreciation for the processes involved and become willing participants with the desire to go outside their comfort zones. You don’t have to love a subject to be good at it. Every student it capable of becoming a good writer and producing creative, thought provoking pieces of work with the right tools and support. As a teacher, it is my job to figure out how to keep my students engaged and interested in the process and to determine how to best support them on their educational journey.

Assessment as Learning, Chapters 9 and 10, pg 89-109.

Atwell, Nancy.  In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. English Language Arts, Grade 5: Integrated  Resource Package (IRP) 2006.

Joyce Bainbridge, Rachel Heydon et al. Constructing Meaning: Balancing Elementary Language Arts. Fourth Edition. Nelson Education Ltd.: 2009.

Mara Casey and Stephen I. Hemenway. “Structure and Freedom: Achieving a Balanced Writing Curriculum,” English Journal, July 2001, p. 68-75.

Stevenson, Robin writer.  Talk Given at UVIC, October 2011

Podcasting in the Elementary School Classroom

Podcasts: I never really considered them to be a ‘resource’ until our ELA class discussed their use as an educational tool. The realm of podcasting is an area of the internet that I’ve never really explored before. I’ve listened to the occasional podcast here and there, but I’ve never actively sought them out. They were always this thing on the internet that I knew was there, but never really had the time or inclination to seek out. The idea of using them as a tool to develop oracy skills in my classroom had never really occurred to me.

Our class discussion on the use of podcasts in the classroom awakened me to their potential in the classroom. Podcasts bring relevance into the classroom in a way that tape recordings and radio may not. Today’s ELA learners live in a technological world that I could not even imagine when I was their age. They don’t know what the world was like before the internet. iphones and iPads top their ‘I want’ lists. They may listen to the radio, but not the CBC, or any other station that actually has relevant educational content. They want the ‘top 40’ artists. Podcasts, particularly ones with educational value such as those by David Suzuki http://castroller.com/Podcasts/DavidSuzukiFoundation, or on http://education.podcast.com/, can help students realize that not everything that they hear has to be the latest single from Lady Gaga or Justin Beber. Podcasts help students learn information by making it relevant in their world. The sheer number of podcasts available on any topic imaginable provides a huge opportunity for learning.

Not only is podcasting a useful tool for learning information, it is also an amazing tool that can be used to develop oracy skills in the classroom. Speaking out loud on a topic is often very difficult for children and adults alike. Voice recording allows for the development of the skills required without feeling like you’re ‘on the spot’. The ability to listen to what you’ve recorded and retry it also provides a level of security that is not present when you are speaking directly to a group of people.

Students can create individual, group or class podcasts on pretty much any topic in the curriculum at any age. Learners could do a ‘speakers corner’, interviews with characters from a book or an informational podcast on a topic that they are studying. Commercials could be created, stories could be told, voice threads could be created (http://voicethread.com), or older students could help younger students master the technology. Students could even publish their podcasts on a website such as http://www.kid-cast.com/ so that other kids could listen to their creations. The possibilities for incorporating this technology into the classroom are truly endless.

As wonderful as technology is as a tool for classroom learning, caution must be taken to insure that students are not placed at risk by its use. Before posting any podcasts or voice threads to the internet, parents and administration must be consulted and the anonymity of the students must be protected. Students must be taught that the internet is not always a safe place and should be instructed on the importance of keeping personal details private.

Podcasting is just one of many technological tools that can be used in the classroom. I believe that incorporating podcasts and voice threads into the curriculum is hugely beneficial for all students and helps make ‘teaching’ more relevant for the students. I plan on incorporating podcasting, and other technologies , into my classroom as much as possible.  

Today's learners and the IRP

Who exactly are today’s learners?

Canadian demographics are shifting and the Canadian cultural mosaic is expanding.  In 2005 alone, Canada accepted an additional 262,236 permanent residents into the country, and in 2001, approximately 40% of Canadians claimed their first language is a language other than English (Bainbridge, 15). Today’s learners reflect our countries shifting demographics. They are an incredibly diverse group of individuals who come from different cultures, linguistic backgrounds, countries, family situations, ethnic backgrounds, religions and socioeconomic brackets. Each learner is unique, and brings something special to the classroom community. However, what makes each learner unique also brings challenges.

Classrooms are made up of learners with a wide spectrum of challenges including but not limited to cognitive disabilities, giftedness, ESL and physical disabilities. Every student has a different learning style and level of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic). Some may be engaged in everything in the classroom whereas others may simply check out. Getting kids to work can be difficult, and motivating them to work and learn for the sake of learning itself can be even harder. As educators, it is our job to figure out how to facilitate the learning process for each and every one of these students while being sensitive to the different backgrounds that they bring to the classroom.

How do they learn?

Children learn new information in a variety of ways. Most people have heard of the VAK learning styles classification model, which determines the dominant learning style using the three main sensory receivers: Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic. This model is useful to keep in mind when developing lesson plans, as most students absorb information best using one, or a combination of these senses. However, defining how a student learns is not as simple as classifying them into one of the VAK categories. Children learn through immersion and engagement. If they are interested in what you are teaching them, they are more likely to retain and understand the information. Cambourne’s condition for learning model addresses the need for engagement and immersion to facilitate student learning. “In the Cambourne’s model there are seven main conditions: immersion, demonstration, expectation, responsibility, use, approximation, and response (Bainbridge, 24).” The authors of our course text, Constructing Meaning have taken Cambourne’s model a step farther and made engagement an umbrella over all the conditions (Bainbridge, 23). They believe (as I do) that the conditions are enabled by engagement and that it is central to the whole learning process (Bainbridge, 24). The VAK model and Cambourne’s conditions are just two of many models that attempt to quantify how students learn. I think both are useful tools for teachers to use when seeking guidance for how best to instruct their students.

Another extremely important factor to consider with regards to today’s learners is technology. Today’s students are immersed in technology to a degree that was unimaginable when I was an elementary school student. Blogs, ipods, ipads, Ps2s, facebook, video games, TVs, computers . . . many of today’s students spend more time plugged into technology in one week than they do in the classroom. The video “A vision of K-12 students today” presents a rather bleak view of the current use of technology and lack of student engagement in the classroom. 21^st century learners are ‘plugged in’ and technology is a key component that can be used to help learners become interested in material. I’ve seen firsthand how effective technology can be as the hook to grab a student’s interest. One of the boys in the classroom I am volunteering in had absolutely no interest in the math exercises that were laid out in front of him. Yet he happily did those same exercises in the form of a game on the computer. Without the technology, it would have been a struggle to get him to complete one question, let alone the entire exercise. Our students live in a technological world, and as teachers it is our job to utilize technology to the best of our abilities (and funding levels) to help keep our students interested.

How does a new teacher figure out what to teach? The BC IRPs . . .

The BC Integrated Resource Package (IRP) provides a framework for curriculum delivery and student achievement and contains the legally required education standards for students in grades K-12. These education standards, called Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLOs), outline the expectations for what students should know and be able to do in each grade and within each subject area. As a beginning teacher, my initial reaction to the ELA IRP was fear. At 626 pages for K-7, the sheer size of the document completely overwhelmed me, especially when combined with the equally long PE and Art IRPs that we are also looking at this semester.

As I began to delve into the ELA IRP, I realized that it was an invaluable resource for all teachers, not just beginning ones. It is structured in such a way that the overview information for each grade is easy to find and compare between grade levels in the Prescribed Learning Outcomes section (IRP 45-92), and gives further indication with regards to achievement indicators in the Student Achievement section (IRP 93-430). I also found that the inclusion of the Classroom Assessment Model at the end of the IRP particularly useful for beginning teachers as it gives some examples of what student work may look like and methods of assessment. An example of this in the Grade 4 Classroom Assessment Model would be “The Cookie Crime Retold” (IRP 531), which includes a sample of grade 4 writing and the teacher evaluation.

The IRP PLOs are divided in three categories: Oral Language (Speaking and Listening), Reading and Viewing and Writing and Representing. The emphasis on Oral Language is a refreshing change from the curriculum that I had in elementary school, where ‘talking’ was not taught. Talking is something that we take for granted in society. Yet having a serious conversation on a subject is something that needs to be learned. As educators, it is important for us to teach our students how to converse “because at least some of the conversations our students will undertake in the future may shape the society in which we all will live (Probst, 45).”

Upon closer inspection of the ELA IRP, I began to see patterns and repetition emerge as I started to make sense of the document. For example, in grades 3-5 PLO B1 (reading and viewing), states that “it is expected that students will read fluently and demonstrate comprehension of a range of grade‐appropriate literary texts such as . . .” The PLO is the same for all three grades; the only difference is the variability of the material with age and the depth suggested by the corresponding achievement indicators. Many of the PLOs build on the corresponding PLO from the previous year. As a beginning teacher, this is particularly useful as it gives a sense of continuity between grades, and makes it easy to refer to the previous or next grade if required for individual students.

The PLOs appear to be quite flexible in their implementation. This is both a blessing and a hindrance.  As a new teacher I find the idea planning an entire year of curriculum based on loosely defined PLOs a bit daunting. The PLOs themselves give little indication of implementation or what ‘grade appropriate material’ actually looks like. How do I take the theoretical nature of the IRP and apply it to my very real classroom? I imagine that much of my first few years of teaching will be spent conversing with more experienced teachers to get an idea of how to implement what is required. However, the flexibility in the PLOs also allows for flexibility in material to suit student interest. As long as the material is grade appropriate, it is probably possible to create a lesson around it that meets at least one of the PLOs for that grade.

My concerns with the IRP surround the idealistic nature of the document. As a teacher, what happens when my entire class is failing to meet the previous grades PLOs? What about the grade 5 student who is barely meeting the PLOs in grade 3? It is easy to think that you could just simply teach and evaluate to the level of the student, but what happens if you cannot get that class or student up to the expected level by the end of the year? Lack of resources in the public school system further complicate this as many students are simply not getting the support needed to succeed. Not every classroom situation fits in with the IRP ideals. I have been told by many teachers to consider it a guide, and to not be afraid to ‘throw it out the window’ if it is in the best interests of your students. As a new teacher, I feel that the number of PLOs that need to be met at each grade level could be a hindrance, and I am unsure of the best approach in situations where teaching to the IRP will not work. I am also concerned that by trying to follow the prescribed curriculum exactly I may inadvertently take away from my students and what they actually learn. 

“A vision of K-12 students today” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8) 

British Columbia English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package (IRP) 2006.

Joyce Bainbridge, Rachel Heydon et al. Constructing Meaning: Balancing Elementary Language Arts. Fourth Edition. Nelson Education Ltd.: 2009.

Probst, Robert E. “Tom Sawyer, Teaching and Talking,” Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. Heinemann: 2007.

ELA in the classroom: Then and Now

I have always been an avid reader. I was one of those kids who could read, write and spell, albeit at a basic level, before they entered Kindergarten. My Kindergarten and Grade One teachers were outstanding and helped to foster a lifelong passion for reading. In these classes I remember creating vivid illustrations and spellbinding stories. I was engaged and enjoyed what I was learning. This was the best of my English Language Arts (ELA) experience.

The subject started to go downhill for me in Grade Two. Whether this was a product of a new school, or the curriculum for that age at the time, my love of the subject quickly turned to dislike. ELA became about filling in blanks, memorization, and reading and interpretation of basic stories in a ‘Language Arts’ text book. There were better moments mixed in, but my overall impression of the subject was that it wasn’t very fun. I was bored, and rarely challenged, and didn’t really see the point in what I was being asked to do. I continued to read my way through the library and love reading, writing and researching, but in ELA lessons I completed what was required because I had to, not because I enjoyed it.

Looking back on the experience as an adult, I find it sad that the early spark that I had for ELA was stifled. My impression of the subject at the time was based on a very narrow range of activities and the dreaded Language Arts textbook. ELA was present in all my subject areas, but as a child, I only saw the repetitive activities, spelling tests, and memorization that bored me. I didn’t like it and I didn’t enjoy it.  At the same time that I was hating ELA, I was loving Science and Math because my teachers made it fun.

As a future Elementary School teacher I want to make ELA fun for my students and help foster a lifelong love for literacy. I want to keep them engaged and enjoying ELA the same way that I was in my early elementary school years. Literacy, in all its forms, is essential in today’s society. Today’s ELA curriculum has evolved from the text book that I dreaded. I envision ELA in the classroom today to be intertwined with other subjects. I can see imagery, words and colours around the room to inspire students’ creativity at all grade levels in any elementary school classroom. Critical literacy skills are a key area of development, especially at the Grade 4 and 5 levels. Without the development of these skills, students are ill-equipped to navigate the increasingly complex world that we live in. As students get older, it sometimes becomes harder to keep subjects like ELA fun as there is an increased focus on grammar, spelling and length of composition. While continuing to develop technical skills, I feel that it is important to allow students to explore and experiment with language and develop a sense of their likes and dislikes. Choice is important, and I can see a wealth of reading material for students to choose from, rather than the few books that were offered when I was that age.

I recognize the huge responsibility I have to my future students to give them the skills they need to succeed in the world. ELA forms the foundations of learning and communication, and I look forward to learning how to teach these fundamental skills. 

And so it begins. . .

Hi! 

My name is Ashley and this is my first time blogging. I find the whole idea of ‘blogging’ my thoughts to the world a little intimidating. However, it is through stepping out of your comfort zone that you learn and grow and I look forward to the journey.

A bit about myself. I am an aspiring Elementary School Teacher and have recently returned to school to pursue my dream. My desire to teach is something that sort of snuck up on me over the years. My first degree is a BSc. in Geography and I have worked for all levels of Government and the private sector over the past 7 years. I worked with children a lot (including as a swim instructor) throughout High School and most of my first degree. However, teaching as a career wasn’t on my radar at the time. I decided to return to school and become a teacher because I want to make a difference in the community. I was blessed to have excellent teachers in my middle and high school years, and their dedication and commitment had a huge impact on my life. I want to be one of those teachers who inspires their students and helps them reach their full potential.

I created Journey Through the Looking Glass as part of my English Language Arts (ELA) for Elementary School Teachers class. Although some entries in this blog will be done as part of the requirements my ELA course, I hope to use the blog as a tool to reflect on my journey towards becoming a teacher.  Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, is a book by Lewis Carroll, and is the sequel to the much loved children’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is set up as kind of a mirror image to Alice in Wonderland. At the beginning of Through the Looking Glass, Alice ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror, and eventually discovers a way to step through the mirror into an alternate world. As an aspiring teacher, I find myself much like Alice. As I take my first steps towards teacherhood, I am learning to see things from a different perspective. Throughout most of my life, I have seen things through the eyes of the student, and now I am learning to see things through the eyes of a teacher. Just like seeing through a looking glass, it is the same world, but a very different perspective.