Final Reflection- Teaching Literature in Secondary Schools

This semester in Dr. Pytash’s methods course, I found my true teaching philosophy. Until this semester, I was petrified of student teaching. I truly was not prepared to teach and I felt horribly uncomfortable writing a lesson plan. However, I really did learn so much about creating lessons and teaching effectively.

I owe most of my discovery to the teaching metaphor. I tossed around different ideas all semester, but I did not love any of them. I thought they were all so impersonal and generic. Then, my dear friend Amanda Cox made it all clear to me. She said: “Just do something you love! Like running!” Well, I do love running! I made so many links between my teaching philosophies and running that I uncovered a few aspects of my philosophy I never even realized that I had.

What really eased my fears of student teaching was making lesson plans. I had made one lesson plan prior to this class, so it was such a relief to find that lessons don’t always have to take a week (or two) to create! This is not to say that careful planning does not go into making a lesson, but it is not as intimidating as I thought. I am so much better equipped with all of my resources and experience now!

I loved our classes on facilitating discussion. I think that I honestly know how to have a meaningful classroom discussion. The video with Yvonne Divans Hutchinson helped so much. It also helped to see her ease in the classroom!

I did my discussion with Lauren, and at first, things weren’t going as planned. I thought I had failed as a teacher for the first three minutes! However, I learned the importance of modeling. If Lauren and I would have shown what we expected, then it would have been much clearer and the beginning of our fishbowl discussion would have gone much smoother. Our discussion, once everyone figured out what we were doing, ended up being incredibly successful! Perspective taking seems to be my favorite way to analyze plot and character.

With all of the lessons that I created, the lessons of my classmates, and all of the online resources that have been shown to me, I think it is safe to say that I am ready to teach The Great Gatsby. I am so confident that I will be able to teach that book, because I know it inside and out! Jago gave so many strategies, too, that will help me to teach any novel.

The Literary Theory as Strategy assignment was so meaningful for me. It got me to think about what I want students to see when I teach a novel. I did Social Class, which actually revealed many of my beliefs that I truly was not aware of until this assignment. Somehow in the midst of writing this essay, I found my true feelings on our government, our society, capitalism, law and even immigration. This was important for me to make myself aware of my beliefs, but it was more important because I found that these strategies can enlighten students on their own beliefs and inspire them to be critics of their world. Which is what this semester was all about for me—I found that my ultimate goal is for students to be sophisticated readers and critics of their world.