Lessons Learned in This Semester

Overall this semester I learned a lot about reading from your own experience. I learned this by hearing my group mates talk about why they read into something in the text a certain way due to their own personal experience with the group being discussed. I also learned how my personal experience affects my read of books. I also learned a lot about the opinions surrounding the insider outsider debate. This helped me think about my previous view that insider books are better and form a new view of what books I like and think are quality works of literature. Some questions I still have would be how to fit these works into my curriculum. How to facilitate discussion around these works in the classroom and any opposition they bring from the community. Lastly, many new teachers want to fly under the radar of their principals making sure not to make a ruckus so how do we work with higher ups that don’t see this work as important to education? This class has expanded on so many skills I began developing in 348. I plan on using these skills, such as critical analysis of literature, in my future readings and preparation for my classroom. This class also got me thinking not only about how diversity is portrayed in the literature but how it is viewed and portrayed in the world at large. All of these amazing lessons learned in this short semester will help guide me into becoming not only a great teacher but also a better person.