Final Synthesis Post

Starting off the semester, I was confused as to how this class would work. How could social studies and especially science be incorporated into literacy. It also does not help that literacy has never been my favorite or best subject. When looking at the syllabus, I did not know how any of the assignments would help to connect these subjects. However, my opinion of the connection changed drastically as the semester went on.  I think the most important thing we learned in class were the reading strategies. The reading strategies were explained in the book we read throughout the semester, Subjects Matter. When we first were introduced to them, I thought that they were insignificant. I thought this because a lot fo them for me were automatic. I automatically assumed what happened before I ever read a text. I always underlined or highlighted. I have always made automatic connections while reading any sort of text. After reading, without making myself, I always summarized the text. I think I did this because I was touch to do this and practiced it so much it became systematic. I now understand why it is important to make students do these strategies. This makes reading and understanding so much easier to do. If you have questions during a reading it is important to write them down, so when you get done reading, you can go back and hopefully answer them. During the progression of the class, we applied these reading strategies to different activities. Doing this, allowed me to see how you can use the reading strategies for any subject with any version of a text. 

Secondly, I thought the podcast assignment incorporated with the bookclub was a very useful tool for connecting literacy with other subjects. I enjoyed how the book selection was chosen by us. I think when incorporating this into a classroom, I would give a more narrow selection as it would need to cover a certain topic or standard. However, I love how the bookclub incorporated the reading strategies in with reading. So when assigning this to a classroom, the students would be learning about a certain event through the book, they would be using the reading strategies to help them better understand the book. Then after that we took a different view of the book and incorporated it into a point of view. I think this would be an interesting way to put a spin on a traditional assignment. In a social studies classroom, I could have the students read the book Diary of Anne Frank and then do a podcast on how the book would be viewed if it were read in a time period before the Holocaust just to view their opinions of how people would react. There are many examples of how the podcast groups can be used incorporated into lessons.  Overall, throughout this course I have changed my opinion of literacy. I had always thought that it was something only to be taught in an English class. However, as this semester ended and I was reflecting on the things we have done over the course of the class, I understood how important these skills can be for any classroom.

 Thanks, Nick.

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