When I started considering going back for my Master’s Degree at Michigan State University, I began with a certain level of uncertainty. The school that I was working for at the time was rough in regards to behavior management. I was coming off of my first full year of teaching, and if I’m being honest, I was exhausted. My students came to me at a level of trauma and emotional deficit that I wasn’t sure if I could truly help with with. I worked extremely hard to build a degree of trust all year, but was struggling with not knowing what would happen when they had to start it all again the next. While in this situation, I was made aware that after the end of that year, my Graduate requirements earned from my Undergraduate experiences would expire. Because the year had already, been such a difficulty, I decided to take some time to substitute teach, and observe/network with other educators, to learn, and fast track my Master’s to use my credits in enough time. The only issue left was what to study. After some consideration, this was made clear.
One of the main issues of disparity that I noticed, both in my personal classroom, and my internship experience, was student’s level of reading attainment. From the very beginning of my jump into the field of education, this was where I had placed my interest. My sophomore year of college, I worked for the Read to Succeed program as a volunteer opportunity. This opportunity gave me weekly 1/1 tutoring experience in reading specifically; and I loved it. In my internship year, my Mentor Teacher was actually the Read to Succeed liaison of our school. Together we worked together to decide which students had the greatest tutoring need schoolwide, as we only had a certain number of tutors. Comparing the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) scores of the students in my school was frightening, because based on the numbers, almost all students (60-80%) needed help in some way. It became a question of which students needed the most help. After I completed my internship, I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going next. Part of me wanted to jump straight into classroom teaching, but part of me wanted to spend some time substituting, after enjoying doing so for the Lansing School District. Through circumstance of life the job that I found after graduating, in 2017, was a reading interventionist position. It was part time, and didn’t necessarily pay well, but it taught me a lot about what the ‘interventionist’ side of a school looks like. Before this point, I had only operated from the perspective of a classroom teacher. AT this job, I loved my experiences. It was lifechanging to witness the way's that students confidence grew from repeated, small group, instruction. Though I did go back to the classroom for a year and a half (a 1st grade position at Washington Parks Academy), in 2019 I again found a job doing part time reading intervention work. With my teaching certification, I was given an entire grade level (Kindergarten), my first year in this position. This was the position I held through most of my experience in this program. The combination of the two experiences revolutionized my perspective as an educator.
One of the first classes that I took as a part of my Degree Program was TE 848: Materials and Methods of teaching Children’s and Adolescent Literature. One of the first questions I was asked in this class, was what books OUR favorite books as a child were. It had been years, but suddenly my obsession with Junie B Jones, Magic Treehouse, Babysitters Club, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and so many more came flooding back to me. As a kid I would read 20 books a week from the library, so entering the course drawing from this natural passion was meaningful. This class exposed me to texts from diverse authors, and children’s and young adult’s books that had won awards. Inside Out and Back Again is one of the novels that stuck with me from this course. This class also had me consider the deeper topic of “Why Read”, a creed that has become my foundation as an educator. The “Why Read” essay showcased on my Selected Works tab delves into my final thoughts on this topic by the end of the semester. During this time, I had also just started a new job at Hanover Horton as a reading interventionist. One of the things that I admired about my boss was the complete, and organized, library that she had put together for students in her RTI (Response to Intervention) program. Students in her program could check out any book they wanted at the end of their RTI lesson, as long as they had ‘signed’ the book out on one of the ‘library cards’ she kept organized in her room. Oftentimes students in RTI had a hard time with reaching the required level of “AR” points; where they would essentially read books and complete online tests. Checking out books from the personal library helped these kids get excited about reading, as well as catching them up on AR points for their main classroom. This class gave me an idea of the kind of high quality literature that I would want to buy for my students, and since then, I have been buying books (in small amounts), that I could see myself adding to a library like this. Right now, I keep these books in my classroom, and use them for targeted read alouds. My quest for books, and encouraging students to love literature, has extended into my classroom in other ways as well. My students this year have been writing their own stories, and frequently ask me if they can bring them in to share with the class. Teaching them to take pride in their own writing, to be respectful of their classmate’s ideas, and take risks (even if they’re nervous), is a large part of who I am as a teacher. I really do think that this class helped lay the baseline for this.
Another class that truly made an impact on me was TE 848, Writing Assessment and Instruction. Through this class, we were given a number of different books, in which we pulled different methods for teaching writing. Some of these methods were for struggling writers, some new to the English language, some were younger students, some older. At this time, I was noticing that my older students at the school that I was working at were struggling with motivation for longer segments of writing. We would do worksheets, and I would ask them to answer in complete sentences. Oftentimes these answers were unorganized, with students putting as little words on the page as possible to get to the answer. I decided to directly address this issue, by introducing a writing unit with these students. Because the struggle was with reading, I had these students reading articles, and finding answers and opinions. They would then use these articles as a basis for writing about their own opinions about a subject. Unfortunately I only got to implement this lesson for one day before the global pandemic took effect and the entire world went virtual. That being said, I still put a lot of work into this unit, and it gave me valuable lesson planning experience in putting a unit together. The texts that I used for this course would also be useful if my younger elementary students were struggling. I can see myself referencing these texts for implementation of future writing units for my students. This sort of lesson planning creation also prepared me for writing my own lessons, and units. This baseline of knowledge allows me to work with my current scripted curriculum, Journey’s, but differentiate to meet the needs of my students, no matter what level of academic ability.
The final class that truly made an impact on me, was TE 846, Accommodating Differences in Literary Learners.. This class essentially gave us exposure to a number of different reading assessments that could be used to attain a students grade level in reading. We were also exposed to high level strategies for catching struggling students up, once determining their grade level. As part of our final project, we were expected to run several different reading assessments with one student that we had targeted as ‘struggling’. I used one of my regular reading group students to showcase. After running assessments with this student, I determined he was reading at approximately a 3rd Grade level, in the 5th grade. At this point I was working with my 5th grade students with ‘syllabification’ and ‘morphology’ as a way of helping them chunk out words. I wanted to formally assess if these strategies were directly addressing the need presented, or if I should take another route with this group of students, and my assessments reflected these lessons. I then wrote up two lessons that I did with just him, supplemental to the lessons that I was doing ‘whole group’ with the rest of my students. The results of this project can be seen in further detail in my Literature Case Study, showcased in my ‘Selected Works’ tab. The skills that I learned for identifying student need in this course have been extremely beneficial to me this year, as a new teacher to the Lansing School District. While several of my students were reading at a 2nd grade level, a number of my students came to me with DRA test scores starting as low as Kindergarten. As their teacher, I wanted to be aware with the areas where these students were behind and find a way to address these needs both in whole group lessons, as well as targeted small group lessons. My assessment and lesson planning experience in this course gave me a baseline knowledge of where to start here; and after running assessments I ended up putting my class into small groups based on phonological need. I have one group of students working on short vowel sounds, one group working on digraphs, one group working on vowel teams, and one team working on r controlled vowels. I use printed "Blend it Books" for homework, and also in small group with my students, for students to practice their reading (and eventual sight word) fluency. These books directly address the skill being worked on in their small group. This style of small group instruction has led to significant progress in most of my students by this point in the year. Most of my students students moved anywhere from 3-12 levels in their Spring DRA assessment. Without this class, I may have been overwhelmed by the varying levels of academic need in my room. While it was still overwhelming, with the tools from this class, I at least felt like I had a place to start.
Overall, my work throughout my graduate experience gave me a wealth of knowledge that prepared me for my future as an elementary school teacher. My work through my Master’s gave me the tools necessary to put together targeted, culturally relevant, reading materials for my students. This program prepared me to differentiate education for my students, so that even if I have a class ranging in reading levels from Kindergarten to 2nd grade level; I can still meet the needs of each student. It prepared me to lesson plan, both detailed and intricate lessons, but also week long units. Further, this program gave me the tools and experience that could help me move onto the next stage of my academic future, potentially running an RTI program. After completing this program, I believe, more than ever, that reading is the key to success for many of the underperforming students in our low income districts. I’ve seen firsthand, what not being able to read can do to a student’s confidence. They struggle with math (word problems), science, and social studies. I’ve watched far too many students start to hate school under these conditions. These students usually fall behind under this system, and just get passed along year after year. While there are many steps that need to be taken to solve this problem, I believe that one of the most attainable, for my current job experience, is within the world of Reading Education. It’s where I plan to spend my future, and I don’t think I would be prepared to do so without the experiences brought to me by my graduate degree. This is by no means the end of my growth within the field of education; rather, the beginning.
One of the main issues of disparity that I noticed, both in my personal classroom, and my internship experience, was student’s level of reading attainment. From the very beginning of my jump into the field of education, this was where I had placed my interest. My sophomore year of college, I worked for the Read to Succeed program as a volunteer opportunity. This opportunity gave me weekly 1/1 tutoring experience in reading specifically; and I loved it. In my internship year, my Mentor Teacher was actually the Read to Succeed liaison of our school. Together we worked together to decide which students had the greatest tutoring need schoolwide, as we only had a certain number of tutors. Comparing the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) scores of the students in my school was frightening, because based on the numbers, almost all students (60-80%) needed help in some way. It became a question of which students needed the most help. After I completed my internship, I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going next. Part of me wanted to jump straight into classroom teaching, but part of me wanted to spend some time substituting, after enjoying doing so for the Lansing School District. Through circumstance of life the job that I found after graduating, in 2017, was a reading interventionist position. It was part time, and didn’t necessarily pay well, but it taught me a lot about what the ‘interventionist’ side of a school looks like. Before this point, I had only operated from the perspective of a classroom teacher. AT this job, I loved my experiences. It was lifechanging to witness the way's that students confidence grew from repeated, small group, instruction. Though I did go back to the classroom for a year and a half (a 1st grade position at Washington Parks Academy), in 2019 I again found a job doing part time reading intervention work. With my teaching certification, I was given an entire grade level (Kindergarten), my first year in this position. This was the position I held through most of my experience in this program. The combination of the two experiences revolutionized my perspective as an educator.
One of the first classes that I took as a part of my Degree Program was TE 848: Materials and Methods of teaching Children’s and Adolescent Literature. One of the first questions I was asked in this class, was what books OUR favorite books as a child were. It had been years, but suddenly my obsession with Junie B Jones, Magic Treehouse, Babysitters Club, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and so many more came flooding back to me. As a kid I would read 20 books a week from the library, so entering the course drawing from this natural passion was meaningful. This class exposed me to texts from diverse authors, and children’s and young adult’s books that had won awards. Inside Out and Back Again is one of the novels that stuck with me from this course. This class also had me consider the deeper topic of “Why Read”, a creed that has become my foundation as an educator. The “Why Read” essay showcased on my Selected Works tab delves into my final thoughts on this topic by the end of the semester. During this time, I had also just started a new job at Hanover Horton as a reading interventionist. One of the things that I admired about my boss was the complete, and organized, library that she had put together for students in her RTI (Response to Intervention) program. Students in her program could check out any book they wanted at the end of their RTI lesson, as long as they had ‘signed’ the book out on one of the ‘library cards’ she kept organized in her room. Oftentimes students in RTI had a hard time with reaching the required level of “AR” points; where they would essentially read books and complete online tests. Checking out books from the personal library helped these kids get excited about reading, as well as catching them up on AR points for their main classroom. This class gave me an idea of the kind of high quality literature that I would want to buy for my students, and since then, I have been buying books (in small amounts), that I could see myself adding to a library like this. Right now, I keep these books in my classroom, and use them for targeted read alouds. My quest for books, and encouraging students to love literature, has extended into my classroom in other ways as well. My students this year have been writing their own stories, and frequently ask me if they can bring them in to share with the class. Teaching them to take pride in their own writing, to be respectful of their classmate’s ideas, and take risks (even if they’re nervous), is a large part of who I am as a teacher. I really do think that this class helped lay the baseline for this.
Another class that truly made an impact on me was TE 848, Writing Assessment and Instruction. Through this class, we were given a number of different books, in which we pulled different methods for teaching writing. Some of these methods were for struggling writers, some new to the English language, some were younger students, some older. At this time, I was noticing that my older students at the school that I was working at were struggling with motivation for longer segments of writing. We would do worksheets, and I would ask them to answer in complete sentences. Oftentimes these answers were unorganized, with students putting as little words on the page as possible to get to the answer. I decided to directly address this issue, by introducing a writing unit with these students. Because the struggle was with reading, I had these students reading articles, and finding answers and opinions. They would then use these articles as a basis for writing about their own opinions about a subject. Unfortunately I only got to implement this lesson for one day before the global pandemic took effect and the entire world went virtual. That being said, I still put a lot of work into this unit, and it gave me valuable lesson planning experience in putting a unit together. The texts that I used for this course would also be useful if my younger elementary students were struggling. I can see myself referencing these texts for implementation of future writing units for my students. This sort of lesson planning creation also prepared me for writing my own lessons, and units. This baseline of knowledge allows me to work with my current scripted curriculum, Journey’s, but differentiate to meet the needs of my students, no matter what level of academic ability.
The final class that truly made an impact on me, was TE 846, Accommodating Differences in Literary Learners.. This class essentially gave us exposure to a number of different reading assessments that could be used to attain a students grade level in reading. We were also exposed to high level strategies for catching struggling students up, once determining their grade level. As part of our final project, we were expected to run several different reading assessments with one student that we had targeted as ‘struggling’. I used one of my regular reading group students to showcase. After running assessments with this student, I determined he was reading at approximately a 3rd Grade level, in the 5th grade. At this point I was working with my 5th grade students with ‘syllabification’ and ‘morphology’ as a way of helping them chunk out words. I wanted to formally assess if these strategies were directly addressing the need presented, or if I should take another route with this group of students, and my assessments reflected these lessons. I then wrote up two lessons that I did with just him, supplemental to the lessons that I was doing ‘whole group’ with the rest of my students. The results of this project can be seen in further detail in my Literature Case Study, showcased in my ‘Selected Works’ tab. The skills that I learned for identifying student need in this course have been extremely beneficial to me this year, as a new teacher to the Lansing School District. While several of my students were reading at a 2nd grade level, a number of my students came to me with DRA test scores starting as low as Kindergarten. As their teacher, I wanted to be aware with the areas where these students were behind and find a way to address these needs both in whole group lessons, as well as targeted small group lessons. My assessment and lesson planning experience in this course gave me a baseline knowledge of where to start here; and after running assessments I ended up putting my class into small groups based on phonological need. I have one group of students working on short vowel sounds, one group working on digraphs, one group working on vowel teams, and one team working on r controlled vowels. I use printed "Blend it Books" for homework, and also in small group with my students, for students to practice their reading (and eventual sight word) fluency. These books directly address the skill being worked on in their small group. This style of small group instruction has led to significant progress in most of my students by this point in the year. Most of my students students moved anywhere from 3-12 levels in their Spring DRA assessment. Without this class, I may have been overwhelmed by the varying levels of academic need in my room. While it was still overwhelming, with the tools from this class, I at least felt like I had a place to start.
Overall, my work throughout my graduate experience gave me a wealth of knowledge that prepared me for my future as an elementary school teacher. My work through my Master’s gave me the tools necessary to put together targeted, culturally relevant, reading materials for my students. This program prepared me to differentiate education for my students, so that even if I have a class ranging in reading levels from Kindergarten to 2nd grade level; I can still meet the needs of each student. It prepared me to lesson plan, both detailed and intricate lessons, but also week long units. Further, this program gave me the tools and experience that could help me move onto the next stage of my academic future, potentially running an RTI program. After completing this program, I believe, more than ever, that reading is the key to success for many of the underperforming students in our low income districts. I’ve seen firsthand, what not being able to read can do to a student’s confidence. They struggle with math (word problems), science, and social studies. I’ve watched far too many students start to hate school under these conditions. These students usually fall behind under this system, and just get passed along year after year. While there are many steps that need to be taken to solve this problem, I believe that one of the most attainable, for my current job experience, is within the world of Reading Education. It’s where I plan to spend my future, and I don’t think I would be prepared to do so without the experiences brought to me by my graduate degree. This is by no means the end of my growth within the field of education; rather, the beginning.