Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dora Pas1
Dora Pas1
ED318
Praxis Archive Synthesis #1
Looking back through my archive, I can see that I have definitely experienced a lot of
learning and grown my understanding about literacy concepts significantly! I have much deeper
knowledge relating to student motivation and background knowledge and how they influence
literacy practices. In my first reading response, I identified my beliefs that a child's experiences,
culture, and beliefs will influence how they approach literacy concepts and that literacy is not
simply ability to read and write words on a page, but also the ability to navigate and make
meaning of the world around us. My thinking when I was first writing these was very much
geared toward my goals when planning and implementing lesson plans and classroom
experiences. However, especially after reading the Bean and Flint articles (among others), I have
come to see that keeping these in my mind and applying them during individual interactions is
just as important. I never realized that it may be difficult to recognize when a student is applying
their background knowledge to create meaning. We have to seize the opportunities that students
give us to create meaningful connections as they arise. These cant always be planned for!
Continuing along with my evolving beliefs, I also identified that I believed in providing
students with choices (i.e. books they want to read, methods of expression) as well as
experiencing literacy authentically in ways that they will experience it in the real world. The
Duke chapters involving project-based learning really gave me so many things to think about in
relation to this. I realized that there was something underlying these beliefs that really connected
them and was a big reason I held them in the first place. This was PURPOSE. I want my students
to be able to make choices and have authentic experiences because I want to allow students to
practice literacy in a way that is purposeful, and therefore meaningful, to them. What I really
took away from this book in this regard was that you might design a project with a purpose that
you think your students will totally find motivating and meaningful, but they could turn out to be
totally uninterested. As a result, you have to take into account your students feedback and
collaborate with your students as a team to find purpose for your projects and other classroom
activities.
Throughout the last few weeks, we have also discussed our first essential question which
involved a quote from Mihaly Babits, who said Reading is thinking and writing is speech. We
were asked about what this means in relation to literacy and how it is learned and practiced. My
very first initial thoughts were that this is true because as we read, we are constantly making
meaning, forming connections, and forming new ideas in relation to the text. Reading is deeply
intertwined in your thought process. Writing is speech because you are taking your internal
thoughts and ideas and giving them an external voice that can be shared if desired. As we have
explored this, I have come to see how connected these two processes are with each other. Yet, in
classrooms reading and writing are often experienced separately. In real life, writing is almost
always in response to something, from to replying to an email to writing a journal entry venting
about a difficult day. In any case, your writing is highly dependent on your thoughts formed as a
result of your background knowledge and what you read. Reading in this context may not
necessary even be reading text, but reading peoples emotions or reactions, a sequence of
my unit and into planning for Bothwell week. I would also like to focus on purpose, and how I
can make my lessons purposeful for my students.
All in all, I feel as though I have come a long way in deepening my understanding of
literacy and continuing to develop my beliefs about literacy. I now possess a much larger number
of tools to help support my students literacy needs, and know how and when they are best
utilized. Despite this, I know there is still so much more for me to learn. I feel we have just
barely scratched the surface! In the next half of our semester, I am excited to see where we go
next, how my learning continues to develop, and how I progress in my personal goals.
Grade Justification
Expectation
Point
s
4/5
10/10
10/10
10/10
Relevanc
e of
Archive
10/10
Synthesi
s
30/30
SelfAssessm
ent
10/10
Ownershi
p
5/5
5/5
5/5
Quality
of
Archive
Punctuali
ty
99
Utilizing the rubric, I feel as though I very nearly met the goals for this assignment,
resulting in 99 out of 100 points. I took a point off for dating and labeling entries, because I have
some artifacts that were done in class that I forgot to put in my archive right away, and I didnt
write the date on them. As a result, for a couple of my artifacts, I am not totally sure of the exact
date they were completed. However, this was not a widespread problem. My archive includes
three or more entries per week, which include all of my submitted assignments, in-class
activities, responses to readings, blog posts I found, general thoughts and more. I made sure to
identify personal connections and why it was meaningful to me in either the artifact itself, or by
utilizing the comment function in the document. I also made sure to note any connections I made
between various artifacts. Over time, I was sure to check if new knowledge I had gained was
relevant to any of my previous artifacts. I utilized the comment function on a regular basis to do
this.
I assigned 30 points to the synthesis because I felt it was very important to making
meaning of the archive. I gave myself full points because I believe I addressed all of the areas
that were identified. My paper is within the 2-4 page length requirement, in which I talked about
how my learning has developed, my interpretation of the first essential question, and how I have
progressed in my personal learning goals. I devoted a considerable amount of attention to each of
these aspects. As I wrote this paper and put together my archive, I feel as though I put a
significant effort into creating quality, thoughtful work that best represents my abilities and
therefore it shows that I have been an active participant in my learning. Finally, I am turning in
my synthesis paper on time! Personally, I was not able to identify areas where I missed any
required elements besides a bit of disorganization on my part.