Narrative Description of Each Course Taken

EDC 619 Assessment of Reading Growth and Development [Fall

2013]
In EDC 619 Assessment of Reading Growth and Development, I
learned about the ways to recognize and diagnosis reading problems
and how to apply those techniques to a learner and in a learning
environment. Each student in the class was paired with a child through
the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. My student was a third
grader who was growing up in a bilingual home. Along with his mother,
he identified himself as an unmotivated reader. I began trying to
understand why he claimed to not like reading. I wondered if it was
because he struggled with comprehension or decoding. Meeting my
learner started me on my inquiry-fueled journey to find out why he did
not enjoy reading. I would try different assessments and mini-lessons
and discuss how they worked with my peers in the class and my
professor. This process helped me learn how to come up with ideas
and strategies by myself, but also, how to collaborate and work with
other literacy professionals to help a struggling student. I also learned
a great deal about working with a parent. The learners parent would
pick him up after every session. Throughout the experience, I had to
learn about the assessments I was using, how to learn from those
assessments and plan future lessons, and how to effectively

communicate that information to the parent. In my case, I had a

parent whose first language was Russian and was just learning English.
Effective communication for this parent meant lots of visuals, bringing
her artifacts to look at, being patient, and not overloading her with too
much information in one meeting. Working with a bilingual family also
brought up different challenges like the mother being worried that the
student would lose his Russian. This class helped me learn about,
understand, and use different types of reading assessments through
readings and application. I also learned how to work with other
teachers and my professor to share ideas and put together lessons
based on assessment results. Lastly, I learned how to communicate
with my student and his family about the assessments and lessons.
EDC 621 Language and Literacy Development [Fall 2013]
In EDC 621 Language and Literacy Development, I learned about
the foundational knowledge related to language and literacy
development and how to read, understand, and think critically about
research studies through reading responses, an article critique, and a
literature review. This biggest thing I learned from this class was how
to think critically about research. One of the first assignments was a
reading response where we were supposed to summarize and critique
a study. This was my first experience with an article critique in
graduate school. I remember reading my article and thinking it was

the best thing I had ever read. I distinctly recall asking the professor
what to do if you had an article that was perfect. I still cringe thinking
about that now and look back at that article and remember how much I
struggled with critiquing it. I learned so much about how to begin
thinking about critiques in this class. We first discussed the elements
that make up research such as research questions, theoretical
framework, data collecting, findings, discussion, etc. Next, we
discussed how to go about critiquing by looking at a few initial
questions such as: Were the required elements there? Was there
enough information within those elements? and Did they make the
case for the importance of their study? I did not come out of this class
being a master of research studies, but this class is the foundation for
my learning and understanding of how to find research studies, read
and understand studies, think critically about research studies, and use
research studies to create a literature review for my own research.
EDC 777 Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction: Literacy
Leadership [Fall 2013]
While 621 taught me how to be critical of research, EDC 777
Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction: Literacy Leadership taught me
how to be critical of literacy programs within school by learning how to
evaluate reading programs, mentor teachers, and advocate for
students. This class focused on being in a literacy leadership position

within a school. The big project for this class was a literacy program
evaluation. We had to choose a school, conduct an interview with the
principal, classroom teacher, and the literacy professional, and conduct
an observation of a classroom literacy block. This assignment had me
applying my learning to the actual school setting more than I thought I
would be. By critiquing reading programs, I learned how to discuss the
design, facilitation, and effectiveness of reading programs with
professional educators. The best part of this class was that we were
evaluating real programs, not just hypothetical ones discussed in the
classroom, but we were going out into the schools to evaluate real
programs and see how they were being implemented and evaluated. I
learned a lot about the issues with ineffective communication between
leaders. During my interviews, I found that the literacy coach said the
reading goal for the school was 80% proficiency, while the principal
told me her goal was 100% proficiency. This disconnect could have
negatively effected how the teachers felt about their standing and the
programs effectiveness. I also learned more about professional
organizations. As a class, we were encouraged to attend the KRA fall
conference. This was my first experience with attending a professional
literacy conference, and I felt like it was an important first step in
thinking of myself as a literacy professional. The experience of coming
together with other professionals, networking, and discussing literacy
was a huge takeaway for me from this class.

EDC 620 Design and Implementation of Reading Instruction

[Spring 2014]
EDC 620 Design and Implementation of Reading Instruction was
a continuation of EDC 619. I was back at the Carnegie Center for
Literacy and Learning and back with my same student from the
previous semester. Now that I had done most of the assessments I
thought were appropriate, this class was really about applying what I
had learned about my student and putting together lessons based on
that information to help him grow as a literacy student. My student
scored within normal ranges for most of his assessments with the
exception of The Motivation for Reading Questionnaire. Therefore, I
focused most of my attention on reading and writing activities that
could help motivate him based on an Interest Inventory. I remember a
big turn for him was when his mother talked about how the teacher
asked her to read more with him at home and she was confused about
what that meant. She thought she was supposed to read books with
him on top of the books he was already reading. I explained that there
are other ways to read together; such as if she was cooking dinner, he
could read her the list of ingredients, if he had a question, they could
look up the answer together and he could read it, etc. She said with
the activities and the increased reading together at home, she saw him
choosing more books to read and saw that he was more motivated to
read and write. This class helped me learn more about the application

of the information gained from reading assessments. I learned how to

take that information, make teaching decisions based on that
information, and communicate the progress and results to the parent.
I also created an interactive case report for my students mother at the
end of the semester. Because my students mother was a second
language learner and did better with visuals, I created a PowerPoint
museum, which was an interactive museum you could walk through
and see the different artwork on the walls. You could take a closer look
at the artwork by clicking on the pieces, which would give you a close
up view. In this case, the artwork would be video clips from lessons,
lesson artifacts showing growth and accomplishments, and other
information from lessons. My biggest takeaways from this class would
be how to effectively use assessment information to design,
implement, and evaluate lessons, and how to effectively communicate
information with parents and students.
EDC 642 Research and Theory in Teaching Language Arts
[Spring 2014]
The EDC 642 Research and Theory in Teaching Language Arts
course was focused on the study of research and theory in oral and
written language acquisition and literacy in the classroom setting with
a focus on their relation to the language arts classroom. This was the
class where I felt like I learned the most about putting together a mini-

study and actually completing the study. For this class, I proposed a
mini-case study with my little sister and book choice and reading
motivation. This study is where I really began developing my research
interests and learned more about the application of research
techniques. I had learned all about observations in research studies,
but this was my first time actually doing an observation for my own
research study. Because of the huge application aspect to this class,
my biggest takeaway from this class would be how to go through the
entire process of a research study. This was obviously on a smaller
scale and for learner purposes, but this was the first class that made
me feel like I could actually do meaningful research. All of the classes
before this on how to think critically about research studies helped me
create my proposal and think critically about my own work, and the
class gave me the opportunity to actually get out into the research
field and attempt to apply all the learning I had done up to that point.
EDC 618 Advanced Study in Teaching Reading [Summer 1 2014]
EDC 618 Advanced Study in Teaching Reading focused on
research and reflection on reading assessment and instructional
approaches, while giving students the opportunity to review, analyze,
discuss and apply research. The assignment that I learned the most
from would be the book share assignment. First, we choose a book
about reading instruction to read. I chose, Good-bye Round Robin

Reading by Michael F. Opitz and Timothy V. Rasinski, which was a book

on instructional alternatives to the widely used, but ineffective strategy
of Round Robin or Pop Corn reading. We read our book and created
a presentation of the book for the rest of the class giving a summary of
the information, a critical analysis of the books strengths and
weaknesses, how we could apply the information learned from the
book to the classroom, and a metacognitive reflection of our reading
process with the text. This assignment not only put me in the shoes of
a teacher researching and reflecting on an instructional approach, but
also in the shoes of the student. I had to consider how effective these
strategies would have been for me as an elementary school student.
This class was only a month long, but I feel like I learned so much
about how to learn more about reading instruction ideas, critique those
ideas, and implement them into the classroom setting. This class
focused on teaching us how to be life-long learners and continue to
inform our teaching practices for the literacy students with diverse
backgrounds and reading abilities.
EDC 641 Research and Theory in Teaching Reading in
Elementary School [Summer 2 2014]
While EDC 621 taught me how to begin looking critically at
research, and EDC 641 Research and Theory in Teaching Reading in
Elementary School taught me how to take that a step further and

specifically address strengths and weaknesses in methodology and

design of a study and how to begin thinking of possibilities for
improving the identified weaknesses in said studies. This class went
further into the design of research and gave me more experience with
creating a research proposal. In order to do this, we learned how to
critically read, analyze, and reflect upon education research from
qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods perspectives. One of the
regular assignments was a Design Option Worksheet where we
identified a research topic or question and created an overview of what
that research would look like if it were designed from six different
approaches. This taught me how you design choices can affect how
you design your research question, how you collect data, and how you
present your findings. This was helpful for me because I realized in
previous assignments in earlier classes, I was not looking closely at
design choice when critiquing research. I also realized I had not been
thinking about design in my own mini-research ideas that I had worked
on in other classes. Understanding the different designs and how to
use them to create a study helped learn how to put together my own
research proposals more clearly.
EDP 600 Life Span Human Development [Fall 2014]
EDP 600 Life Span Human Development is a course that gives
you the basics of human development theories across the life span

from conception to death. We looked at the effects of early

experiences, language development, cognitive development,
social/emotional development, gender-role development, moral
development, and how these forms of development are studied and
understood. We were encouraged and taught to think critically and
critique the different theories and research studies. With the exception
of casual mentions and/or very general information, I was unfamiliar
with most of these foundational theorists that we learned about. This
class helped me understand where our understanding of human
development began and how to think critically of that and newer
research of human development. More importantly, this class helped
me expand on my knowledge and understanding of gender-role
development. My biggest research interest is gender and how it
relates to literacy. Learning about some of the research behind genderrole development, although most of the research presented in class
were written by male authors and really focused on male gender-role
development with half-hearted and underdeveloped mention of female
gender-role development. Either way, this class helped expand my
own interests and think more critically of the development research.
EDC 533 Teaching Adolescent Literacy Across Disciplines [Fall
2014]

EDC 533 Teaching Adolescent Literacy Across Disciplines was a

class that focused on integrating everything I had learned about
literacy into the content area classroom at the middle and high school
levels. In this class, we created Internet Text Sets that helped me learn
how to integrate online resources with a literacy activity and a specific
content area. I also learned how to work collaboratively to create an
Integrated Instructional Unit. My group did Global Warming. Each
member of the group had to create a lesson based on Global Warming
and their assigned content area while also emphasizing literacy
instruction. While this class specifically looked at middle and high
school, I was still able to apply a lot of what I had learned with
elementary literacy instruction, but I also learned a lot more about
integrating literacy into content areas. Working collaboratively with
other students helped because I was able to see our finished projects
and reflect on all the unique ways in which the different groups
integrated literacy instruction as well as learning to adapt what I knew
about literacy instruction to be developmentally appropriate for this
specific age group.
LIS 610 Library Materials and Literature for Children [Fall 2014]
LIS 610 Library Materials and Literature for Children taught me
how to effectively evaluate books for instruction. We were given a list
of 52 childrens books at the beginning of the class. These books were

categorized by a variety of subjects (fairy tales, non-fiction, children

with disabilities, etc.) or by awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott
King, etc.) While this class is not technically for education or literacy
majors, I found it extremely helpful in deciding which books to use for
literacy activities and how to better inform the creation of a classroom
library. Not all books are of high quality. That is the first important
thing I learned from this class. The second would be how to determine
what is and is not quality. This will depend on your purpose for reading
or using the book and the context in which you are reading or using it.
For example, one Newbery book could be extremely helpful in gaining
more understanding of a certain subject, but could be a difficult read
without appropriate background knowledge. Another book could be
extremely useful if used with a lesson about persuasive writing, but at
the same time a horrible example of a fairy tale. Reading 52 books in
a semester was not easy, but it was certainly realistic in thinking about
how quickly teachers may need to make decisions on whether or not to
use a book. As someone who values diverse characters, authors, and
stories being represented in a classroom library, this class helped me
learn how to quickly and effectively read and make decisions regarding
classroom or instructional reading materials. My final project in the
class was a comparative analysis of Cinderella stories. I looked at
Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm (1812), Walt Disneys Cinderella by
The Walt Disney Company (1974), Prince Cinders by Babette Cole

(1988), and The Rough-Faced Girl by Rafe Martin (1992). If I was doing
a unit on fairy tales and wanted to include a Cinderella story, this
comparative analysis would be helpful. I would know that the Brothers
Grimm version would probably be too violent for the elementary school
classroom. I would know that the Walt Disney version continues to
depict classic gender roles and all white characters. I would know that
Coles version switches the gender roles, which is a nice change
without losing the fairy tale elements and Martins version depicts a
Cinderella retelling from the Native American culture, which can add to
the diversity of a classroom library. I would try to go with the more
recent retellings for my lesson.
TSL 560 Literacy Development in the ESL Classroom [Spring
2015]
TSL 560 Literacy Development in the ESL Classroom was a fieldbased course that began with instruction on theory and research
regarding second language literacy development and ended with the
students applying that learning and understanding to the literacy
instruction of actual second language learners and the Carnegie Center
for Literacy and Learning. I always felt like I learned the most when
the class had a real-world application element and this is a perfect
example. I had a woman from India as my student. I went into the
lesson with so many preconceived notions of what an adult second

language learner would be. My student spoke excellent English, but

struggled with writing and culturally specific tasks such as creating a
rsum, applying for jobs, and navigating her schools website. I threw
out a lot of lesson ideas. This class taught me how to adapt to the
needs of my learner and throw out what is not needed. Many times in
this class, I would go in with a perfect lesson plan and a fun activity
only for my learner to say, Thank goodness you brought your laptop. I
need you to look at and edit my cover letter and talk to me about job
interviews! I was upset at the beginning, but then I focused on what
was truly important, the learner. I continued to work with this learner
over the summer at the public library. Working with my learner and
hitting the many speed bumps and detours with her helped me
understand the readings better. I had developed a deeper
understanding of the context of ESL teaching by working with my
learner. I realized it is not all about decoding and comprehension, but
that culture and context play a pivotal role in their learning and
understanding. I learned a lot from this class, but my main takeaway
was to center my instruction on the learner and their needs. If I had
not focused on my learner and what she wanted to learn about, we
would have never worked on her rsum or done all the mock
interviews that prepared her enough to get the job she wanted that
summer.
Narrative Analysis of Growth Across the Program

I have seen three main learning themes of how I have grown as a

teacher and as a literacy professional these past few semesters in the
Curriculum and Instruction masters program in literacy. First, I have
learned to think critically. Second, I have learned to apply my learning
to real-world settings whether that is the classroom, tutoring, or
research setting. Third, I have learned how to expand on my own
research interests.
Thinking critically was the first thing that was stressed to me in
this program. I had to think critically about research, instructional
approaches, assessments, literacy programs, and even my own theory
of teaching. I thought understanding material was enough, but
through all of the article critiques and developing of instruction, etc. I
learned that understanding was only a small piece of the learning. In
my first semester, I struggled to think critically about readings,
programs, and assessments. I remember learning about an
assessment and thinking it was perfect and could tell me everything I
needed to know about a reader. I have truly learned that there is
always room for improvement and growth. At first, I did not
understand the importance of the many reading responses and article
critiques, but now I can look at my own work and find the places for
improvement. That knowledge of how to think critically will help me as
a teacher to think critically of the professional development I get,

reading programs I am given, and lesson plans I create. It will also

help me as a future researcher in developing my own research studies.
The next learning theme I have noticed throughout my
experience in the curriculum and instruction masters program would
be the ways in which I could apply my knowledge and critical thinking.
In the classes that took place as the Carnegie Center for Literacy and
Learning and the classes that had me go out into the field, I learned
how to apply my new knowledge and understanding. Learning about
an assessment is great, but I was able to learn about different reading
assessments, give those assessments to a child, and apply what I
learned from those assignments to that students instruction. I do not
think this program would be as effective without the ability to learn
how to apply my learning by actually applying it. I was able to make
mistakes, reflect, and try again. When I went into a lesson with my ESL
adult learner, I was able to apply the information gained from the
readings from class, but also learn what can not be taught in the
classroom setting, like how to develop instruction fit for your learner
and how to make on-the-spot instructional changes to better meet the
needs of your students. I was also able to learn how to apply my
knowledge of research studies to my own study. I could read studies
all day and never gain the understanding that comes from trying to
design and complete a study on your own. Completing my own case
study helped me understand how to better comprehend and apply

information from other studies. The application of knowledge helped

me to become a more reflective learner. After I would attempt
something on my own, I reflected on how it turned and out what I could
do differently.
Lastly, I leaned how to move forward with my newly developed
research interests. All of the classes in this program left room for
developing my own interests. While I was working toward the learning
objectives for each class, I was also developing learning objectives for
myself. Each class has at least one assignment that was a little bit free
regarding the subject area whether that by choosing your own research
topic, book/reading, or essay topic. I began with the very broad
interest of motivation. I began finding literacy motivation research on
which to do my reading responses and article critiques. That
developed into motivation and book choice after my mini case study on
choosing a book piqued my interest. Shortly after that, I became
increasingly interested in also looking at gender and how that relates
to book choice. Because this program left room for my own decisions
on my learning I feel capable of using the information and skills I
learned from the different courses and applying that to my own
interests regarding literacy. If I were in the classroom as a classroom
teacher, I would feel comfortable researching a subject or topic that
would be pertinent to my class and applying it to the knowledge
gained from this program.