Literacy seems like a relatively simple term to understand. According to most, literacy is just the ability to read. After taking Early Literacy Development, I have grown to understand that there is much more to literacy than this simple notion. Literacy involves many different aspects. It includes phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. I have also grown to understand the deeper meanings of these terms and what impact they have on new learners. This course taught me many valuable lessons, not only in literacy, but in becoming the best teacher I can be for each and every student I encounter. There were many different resources available through this course that allowed such growth in knowledge. The text book …show more content…
I think that through hearing the ideas of others and seeing student work and progress, I was able to get more into teaching the lessons to my students and becoming the best teacher I could be. I also learned a lot about myself as a student and as a teacher through the assignments of creating and teaching literacy lessons in a classroom. I struggled initially with the phonemic awareness and phonics lessons because I have no memory of even learning these subjects in school. I was able to meet with the kindergarten teacher at the school I work for and see how she integrates literature into her classroom constantly. It was beautiful to watch students go from having no idea what the three letter word on their paper was, to sounding it out on their arm, blending it all together, and then suddenly fully understanding what it said. This happened on many occasions while I was teaching and observing, and it filled me with joy each and every time being able to see students have their very own ah-ha …show more content…
I think one of the biggest realizations I had was that even though I do not think I am very good at literacy and even though I have not always liked literacy, I can make a positive impact on my students and form them into expert readers. I was able to recognize that even though I am not the best at literature I can still teach it and teach it well. I also was able to recognize that even if it is not my favorite area of study I can still have a great impact on my students through the way I influence them to love reading. Instilling the love of reading is all about making it available, interesting, and challenging without being discouraging. I think that through this ah-ha moment I have been better able to become this teacher who can teach her students to love to