MASTER PORTFOLIO: LANGUAGE ARTS 1

Masters Portfolio: Language Arts

Brenna Kennicker

6/10/2020

University of Alaska Southeast

Beth Hartley
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Abstract

The Candidate demonstrates understanding of the central concepts, tools of

inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning

experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for

learners to assure mastery of the content in the areas below: Reading, Writing,

Comprehension, and Oral Language (speaking/listening) Candidates demonstrate and

apply understandings of the elements of literacy critical for purposeful oral, print, and

digital communication.

Language Arts Statement

For the literature section of my master’s portfolio, I would like to discuss the philosophy

of literature for intermediate elementary I wrote as part of ED615. This was written at the end of

spring semester in 2014, after I completed my first methods course in an intermediate classroom.

Before, the entirety of my teaching experience had been at the primary K-2 level. The

philosophy focused on three main ideas: that students needed to read high interest materials, that

students needed ample opportunities to write, and that any curriculum must be balanced between

reading, writing, and speaking.

In general, by the intermediate grade levels most students are no longer learning to read,

but rather reading to learn (Weaver, 2009). Having mastered the technical skills required in

primary, most students are seeking out literature that interests them. In my experience with 4th

and 5th grade students these tend to vary between graphic novels, fantastical fiction, and non-

fiction works on a topic of interest. Even in 2014 I believed that “authentic” text for students

shouldn’t be limited to novels. I felt in 2014 that materials like magazines and graphic novels
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were viewed by many as somehow lesser, and saw teachers try to push students away from them.

I believe in the years since this has radically changed, and I see a greater understanding in my

school for how engaging these can be. Graphic novels contain the same complexities of

traditional novels, simply with images to support the development (Mascott, 2020). In my own

classroom I heavily advocate for these “alternative” mediums of reading. It is more important to

me that a child is reading, and enjoys doing so than which book they have in their hands.

Another thing I wrote in my philosophy was that students don’t pick up comprehension

skills passively, they need to be taught and modeled extensively. I have built this modeling into

my daily class schedule by including read aloud. I was hesitant at first that perhaps fifth graders

were at the age where they were “too cool” for a read aloud, but it was for many of my students,

the most treasured part of the day. Through story telling I could model inference strategies,

(Barrentine, 1996) or as I was reading have students use a graphic organizer to take notes.

Taking the twenty minutes in the morning to read aloud to my students also primed them for

language arts later in the day, where they would use the strategies practiced earlier to gleam

deeper understanding of the text.

At the time I wrote this, the school I was visiting was using a direct instruction model for

their ELA curriculum, and as much most students were not writing much. Coming from primary,

where students were writing and illustrating in journals daily this came as quite a shock. What I

did appreciate in the upper grades was my host teacher’s focus on word study. He believed that if

you understood the Greek and Latin roots of words, you had a better chance of being able to

decipher a word’s meaning, even if you didn’t know for sure. As someone who personally enjoys

linguistics, I have peppered word study into my ELA teaching. In teaching the prefixes, suffixes,
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and roots of words to my fifth-grade class I noticed they were able to more easily identify the

patterns in words, which in turn helped with spelling (Bloodgood & Pacifici, 2004).

Unlike my host class, which limited writing to a very specific period of the day, writing is

the thread that weaves the different subjects of my class together. A large part of my school’s

adopted math curriculum revolves around using writing to express thought processes, a concept I

fully agree with. To me, writing feels like mastering an instrument; the more you practice the

better you get. To assist students, I like giving students ample opportunities to write both

formally and informally in class.

Something I did not take into consideration back in 2014 that has become a large part of

how I think about teaching is the role of collaboration with students. My student teaching class

of fourth graders thrived on collaborative and team activities, as did my fifth-grade class this last

year. We know the third step on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954) is love and belonging,

which for our students, includes their social relationships. Students need to be able to talk with

each other, bounce ideas off each other, and feel that they can do so safely in the classroom

environment. I was lucky to be able to take a professional development course on Kagan (2014)

structures focusing on neuroscience. I have since used several of the collaborative strategies

suggested in my classroom with great success.

I have brought these strategies into my ELA classroom mainly because of the Response

Principal which states that students must have opportunities to respond to what they are reading

(Allington, 2005). In an elementary classroom one of the best ways to have students respond is

via talking with their classmates. By increasing opportunities for student response using Kagan

strategies, I hope to foster increased comprehension of both texts and strategies for reading.
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Overall, the experience I had in 2014 in ED615 did a lot to shape my philosophy of

literacy education, a lot of which is still part of my philosophy today. What has changed is how

these ideas are implemented in my classroom, and the detail in which I think about them as I

design and teach curriculum.

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References

Allington, R. L. (2002). What I’ve learned about effective reading instruction: From a decade of
studying exemplary elementary classroom teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(10), 740–747.
https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170208301007

Barrentine, S. (1996). Engaging with reading through interactive read-alouds. The Reading

Teacher, 50(1), 36-43. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20201705

Bloodgood, J., & Pacifici, L. (2004). Bringing word study to intermediate classrooms. The Reading
Teacher, 58(3), 250-263. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20205473

Kagan, S. (2014). Brain friendly teaching: Tools, tips & structures. San Clemente, CA: Kagan
Cooperative.

Mascott, A. (2020, March 4). 3 Reasons graphic novels can be great for young readers. Retrieved June
10, 2020, from https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/3-
reasons-graphic-novels-can-be-great-young-readers.html

Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper and Row. Maslow, A. H. (1962)

Weaver, C. (2009). Reading process. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.