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!