Blog Post 2

 For blog  post #2, you will think about your literacy experiences from grades six through twelve (your secondary school years). Were they positive? Negative?

Which books impacted you the most during that time? Why? Which teachers impacted you the most? What did they do that was either positive or negative? (Please do not use real names if negative).

How will you use those memories/experiences to make your classroom a place where literacy is a good word? Explain.

The questions should be answered in the content of the blog post -- in other words, don't just write answers to the questions. Write a paragraph or two where you weave in the answers to the questions in a well-written and understandable blog post.

Secondary schooling and literacy often did not reflect what I have witnessed at my time in HBU and student teaching last semester. My time in the classroom with literacy often was take this book read it and come back ready to talk about it in class several weeks later or; dissection of this text usually poems, short passages, three page articles, and play writes. I definitely wouldn't say my experience was positive as it truly gave me a distaste for reading that didn't rub off until college. It often felt overly forced with little understanding to why this was written this way or how come an author could get away with something I could not. It was most successful for grammar but even then I found YouTube videos or websites that were more specific and helpful to me for the hard visual aspect instead of a teacher presenting this as the true way with little to no overall explanation.

I would honestly have to say the Percy Jackson book series influenced me the most not for its grammar prowess or literary expertise but ability to connect with me as an individual with ADD. The main character being similar provided the ability for me to follow along and be engaged in a way that most the Nobel and literacy classroom books did not. Most of those to me felt outside due to having little to no personal connection especially to my generation. The teachers while trying their best I think choose books based on what was the strongest literary devices for schools today but would rarely follow up making much of the lessons mute. Their (teachers) overall impact wasn't exactly negative but it often felt tailored to those who with literary prowess and the expectation was to grasp at the heart of every text. Which is acceptable and allowed me to skim read in college and come away with strong answers for questions but often left me feeling unfulfilled as a reader. It presented too much focus on the heart rather than the body of texts making me less engaged but with more studious prowess. In the end I think I gained one set of skills and lost another.

I think my experience would make me as a teacher work with the students on literacy. Often it was focused to much on the teachers wants and I feel literacy needs to be at the pace of the average student or even below average as they have the most to take away from these courses. This would be because at the end of the day being literate is a fundamental skill and those who excel will continue down that path more than likely where as the strugglers could easily give up after leaving secondary school.