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Brian Kohout

Professor Trombley

RDG 323

25 April 2021

Course Reflection

My learning goals for the course this semester was that I want to be able to

understand disciplinary literacy to the best of my ability, I wanted to be able to learn new

teaching strategies that are proven to be effective, throughout the duration of this course, I

intended to further my understanding of what I can do to become a successful teacher, and I also

wanted to understand what it means to be literate in the 21st century. The artifacts that I selected

to demonstrate my overall understanding of the course and the attainment of my goals do so by

displaying how far I have come in this course.

The first document that I selected was my disciplinary literacy paper, I really struggled

with this assignment, I tend to overthink things and my thoughts got the better of me. This paper

really made me think of what literacy looks like in my discipline, which is history. I know what

resources and texts I can utilize in my class. The second document that I chose was the

differentiated lesson planning, this assignment helped me process the understanding of before,

during and after (BDA). The assignment also taught me that differentiated instruction can

significantly improve student outcome. The third document that I chose is the diverse learners

graphic organizer, this assignment showed me the misconceptions that I may have had about

students with learning disabilities, I had plenty for sure. It showed me that as a teacher I have to

acknowledge the biases and misconceptions that I have, that is how you are suppose to teach.

The fourth document that I chose is the formative assessment, this was not an overly challenging

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assignment, but it made me think about how would gauge my students for their understanding of

the content I was teaching them. It made me look at the exit ticket in a whole new light, I had

been introduced to the exit ticket before, and I really did not appreciate the concept that much at

first, I just thought it was inconsiderate of the teacher to hold students until they submit

something, but it changed my mind. The fifth document that I chose is my think aloud planning

sheet and my think aloud recording, I also struggled with this assignment due to my tendency to

overthink things. This assignment taught me the importance of going over the text or literature

that is apart of your class, teachers can not just assume that the students know what to do with

the text you provide them with, a teacher should highlight what they want students to focus on.

The artifacts that I have selected represent a change in understanding of literacy in my

discipline by displaying the knowledge that I have gained from this course. I now know that I

can utilize more literature in my class, I have understood for a long time that relying on the

textbook as the main text in the classroom is not only boring and tedious for the students, but it

also limits what they can learn about. I do plan on utilizing books and other pieces of literature

for my students to use, this just seems like a better way to shake things up a bit.

The skills or strategies that I have developed as a result of completing this course is that I

now have a better understanding of what it means to be literate in the 21st century. I know how

to utilize technology in my class and I understand the importance of differentiating instruction. I

also learned about before, during and after (BDA), I am still trying to develop my full

understanding of breaking down the process of an activity or a lesson, but in time, I know I will

master it. I was introduced to so many useful resources throughout this course and I plan to use a

lot of them. I am grateful that I got to be apart of this course, I am glad I got to learn under a

great instructor.