Sloan Tackett

     I grew up the daughter of a writer and spent most of my summers roaming the aisles of the local library looking for new books I could read as I stretched out in the shade of the backyard. I have always loved reading and hearing new stories. From an early age, I understood the power reading has to take a person to a new place and it’s ability to expose them to different worlds. When I was attending Michigan State University (MSU) for my Undergraduate in education, I came to a place where I needed to choose a concentration. The decision was an easy one- I would concentrate on literacy and reading. During my time at MSU, I took a variety of courses that centered on reading. These classes included ones on children’s literature, writing, and reading strategies. As I graduated from MSU, I felt confident in my skills and ability to teach reading to students of varying levels. I accepted my first job as a special education teacher at the middle school level. I was going to serve as the special education “Literacy Connections” resource teacher for the 7th and 8th grade at a Title 1 school. In this role, I was going to teach decoding and the other elements of language arts- reading comprehension, writing, and communication to students with special needs. It did not take long before I realized that no amount of education during college could prepare me fully for the need for quality reading instruction that I witnessed.  I was teaching 12 and 13-year-old students who were reading at a 1st or 2nd grade level. They struggled with the most basic decoding skills and had severe deficits in their sight word knowledge and comprehension abilities. It was clear to me that they greatly needed quality reading instruction and while I had the greatest of intentions, I was not yet trained or experienced enough to completely address their vast needs in the area of reading. In the end, this fact was a major reason why I decided to further my education with a literacy concentration at Michigan State University with the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program. While pursuing my graduate degree, my focus during each course remained on learning new and practical strategies to use with the students in my class to better the quality of their reading instruction. Three courses in particular were especially helpful in my quest to better my instruction.

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            The first course during the MAED program that had a great impact on my ability to teach reading to children was TE 850- Critical Reading for Children and Adolescents.  This course focused on the power reading can have within the classroom and the impact certain themes found in children’s literature can have on children and adolescents. Throughout this course, I was exposed to new examples of literature for children that

brought various themes to the forefront. These themes included racism, sexuality,

immigration, the act of dehumanization, and gender stereotypes. We were asked to

reflect on these individual themes and by doing so, I was able to see the importance of

incorporating conversations centered around these themes into my class as it allows

students to open up, make connections to their own lives, and learn to be conscious of

what others are going through. One text we read as part of this course was titled

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. This text was a biographical re-telling of a Jewish man’s

experiences during the Holocaust and how he survived while imprisoned in a

concentration camp during World War II.  The story was told as a graphic novel and

used animals to depict the different races (Jews were mice, Poles were pigs, and Nazis

were cats). While examining this book on a deeper level during the class, I was able to

see how the author used the book to clearly demonstrate the state of dehumanization

that was occurring in Europe during World War II. The use of animals to do so was

new and innovative yet made the point clear and meaningful. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale

exposed me a side of the Holocaust that I had not previously been shown and allowed me to experience human empathy in a new way. I knew that my students would be equally moved by this story and needed to read it as well. I created a Donor’s Choose project as soon as I could to provide my class with copies of this text to read. I was elated when the project was fully funded and quickly planned a complete unit centered on this text. Most of my students had not ever finished a book before and severely lacked confidence when asked to discuss what they have read. This completely changed when they read Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.  In the end, my students were engaged, intrigued, and motivated to read this piece of literature because of the quality of the story and the importance of the topic. The discussions that came out of this unit were thought provoking and encouraging to hear. TE 850 was a course that exposed me to new pieces of literature and encouraged me to incorporate difficult, yet worthwhile themes into my classroom to better my instruction and increase my students’ engagement.  

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            The second course that motivated me to better my daily classroom instruction was TE 848- Writing Assessments and Instruction. This course centered on writing instruction and also discussed some assessments that can be used to assess students’ writing. When I was planning my course schedule for the MAED program, I deliberately searched out a course on writing, as this was a specific area of literacy where I thought I needed additional education. My experience teaching writing had showed me that I struggled to create units that applied directly to my students individual needs and rarely knew where to start when teaching written expression. TE 848 did two things for me- it gave me a well-rounded education on teaching writing and also allowed me to step into a writer’s shoes. Through this course, I used the information I learned to plan and then implement a nonfiction-writing unit for my 2nd grade students that in the end was one of the most effective writing lessons I have ever performed. The pre-teaching, modeling, example texts, rubrics, and assessments that I incorporated into the unit were a direct result of the information I took from TE 848. My students were able to successfully research and then write an informational brochure about an animal of their choosing. Each of them were incredibly proud of the work they completed and their writing was significantly better on this assignment than previous ones. This course also provided me the opportunity to step into the shoes of a writer and produce pieces of my own that were meaningful and reminded me of the ability writing has to empower the writer. By the end of the semester, I had written a personal narrative about the death of my grandmother that allowed me to reach a level of healing that I had not previously been able to reach.

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            The third course that had a powerful impact on me as I continued through the MAED program at MSU was TE 842- Elementary Reading Assessments and Instruction. This class highlighted various reading assessments that can be used within the classroom and provided tips and strategies to teach the different elements of reading. Teaching reading is one of the most crucial aspects of my current job as a kindergarten-2nd grade special education teacher as this is the time when a child’s foundation in reading is developed. Learning how to teach reading in more effective ways was also one of the main reasons I pursued a masters’ degree in the first place. When I first started teaching, it was disheartening to see my students struggle to read and comprehend even the most basic texts so I was motivated to learn new teaching strategies and methods to teach reading in TE 842. Prior to this course, I thought I had a good understanding of how to teach reading, yet when I saw the reading levels of my students time and time again, I constantly felt like I was falling short. This course was extremely detailed and broke the act of reading and comprehending down into its individual steps. These steps are outlined on the Modified Cognitive Model, which we consistently referred back to throughout the semester. (See Figure 1) Thanks to this class, I was able to take a step back and realize that my students difficulties in reading goes much further beneath just the surface- they struggle with reading and comprehending because there is a deficit in one or more areas of reading. These areas could include their sight word knowledge, decoding skills, or even their background knowledge about the meaning of a word. TE 842 also allowed me ample opportunities to learn about new reading assessments and then practice looking at and using data to make instructional suggestions. We looked at case studies and examples of our own students and then wrote a report demonstrating our understanding and sharing our suggestions for that specific student’s reading intervention. The material covered in this course closely resembled the work I was doing within my own classroom, which I found encouraging and practical. Being a special education teacher, completing reading assessments is a crucial element in order to monitor my students’ progress as well as to write their IEP goals.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

     

 

     While I only outlined three specific courses I took during the MAED program here, the program as a whole had a tremendously positive effect on the teacher I have become. I have seen a direct result with my content knowledge, behavior management, and literacy instruction all thanks to the courses I have taken. I began this program after witnessing a clear need for better literacy instruction within our schools, and I can confidently say that I have achieved exactly that. This program has made me a better teacher overall. I am a well-rounded teacher and have a firm understanding of reading instruction and assessment, writing instruction and assessment, and behavior management. My passion for children’s literature is even stronger than before and I am motivated to pass on this love for reading onto my students. Since finishing these courses and the others that were part of the MAED program, I have incorporated elements into my classroom on a daily basis. I have used the assessments- both reading and writing- on an almost daily basis to guide my instruction and to help me write appropriate IEP goals. I also have used specific texts I learned about during my time in the program after seeing the powerful impact they could have within the classroom. Finally, the knowledge I obtained has allowed me to step up as a leader both within my classroom and my school as a whole. I now see myself as a specialist and someone my coworkers can come to so they can learn new techniques or strategies to teach reading, especially to struggling learners. One of the most important pieces of wisdom I learned during my time in the graduate program at MSU was that teachers need to complete a full cycle of assessing, planning, teaching, and then reflecting. The courses that I took during the consecutive semesters provided me with the knowledge and skills I needed to do exactly this. Prior to entering this program I felt as if I was just yet another teacher walking through the profession-seeing children struggling but not really knowing what to do to help. Now that I have attained my master’s degree at MSU, I am confident in my skills and my knowledge to help these children. I am motivated to make a difference and thanks to the MAED program, I now have the ability to do just that.