Entry #11: Final Considerations

We've explored many components of literacy development throughout this past semester, examining many texts including, but not limited to, Kucer (2015), Muhammad (2020), and Tompkins (2019). At the beginning of this class I thought I was pretty well versed on literacy while considering myself a literate person, this can be seen in my "Literacy Beliefs Profile". However there are many key concepts that I have now developed a deeper, more principled understanding of.

Phonics is the first and most developed aspect that I have now gained a deeper and more principled understanding of. Prior to reading the phonics chapter in Tompkins (2019), I knew what phonics had to deal with but didn't really understand everything that really goes into it. When checking my background knowledge for the deeper dive into "Cracking the Alphabetic Code" hosted by Muratore and Patterson, I originally defined phonics as the way you put words together using sounds or break them apart to define words. I also mentioned that we use phonics to determine how to spell a word and also how to correctly describe and define those words. 

While both of these definitions still hold true, I now have a greater phonemic awareness. I recognize many of the different strategies used to manipulate spoken language, some that I didn't even realize were strategies, such as categorizing or substituting sounds. I also have a better understanding of how to teach phonics, which was very fun to learn more about because I had already been using many strategies that I didn't know were used for explicitly teaching phonics. My definition of phonics has also strengthened adding emphasis on spelling patterns rather than individual letters. I now feel confident that I can better teach phonics and utilize more fun and engaging strategies for instruction rather than blocks boringly dedicated to phonic instruction. 

Another aspect I now have a deeper and more principled understanding of is the Historical Responsive Literacy framework by Muhammad (2020). For a long time, I've already been doing many of the things within the HRL framework without knowing what it was called. It was just natural to me, especially considering my own experience in grade school as a minority female student. It was interesting to see how the historically responsive texts and lesson plans I was implementing in my classes are actually part of a greater framework to push students towards the pursuit of identity, skills, intellect, and criticality within their educational careers and after. 

In fact, I feel as though my keeping this blog throughout this semester has also helped me with my own pursuits by causing me to self-reflect and think deep about the many aspects we talked about this semester regarding literacy development. The deep thinking I engaged in with each prompt helped me to better understand the aspects of literacy development and also question things I was still confused about in a safe space. With my blog, I feel as though I have a permanent resource to go look back on while teaching literacy throughout the rest of my career. I really enjoyed keeping this blog and am even inspired to keep it going, writing and researching topics related to education that I feel are important to discuss. 

"Genius is the brilliance, intellect, ability, cleverness, and artistry that have been flowing through their minds and spirits across the generations. This cultivation calls for reaching back into students' histories and deeply knowing them and their ancestries to teach in ways that raise, grow, and develop their existing genius. The cultivation of the genius within all of us has been a call throughout history."

                                            

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