Michelle Ezrachie

One of the key ingredients to teaching reading and writing is making students aware of the way in which they think about the material they encounter. This has been very effective for me. In general, while reflecting on how I learn best, I realized how important it is to not only find individual methods for my students, but also to work with my students individually to see the best way for them to learn.

When thinking about the ways in which I learn reading and writing, I know it is a very long process. Especially by now, I have found ways to improve my habits. For instance, when reading long passages, I will first read through everything and highlight as I read along. Then I will reread the highlighted information. While rereading, if I do not understand the concept I will attach a post it next to the line I do not understand and ask about it or look it up. In addition I keep a notebook of the very important information that I know I will need to learn because it will be elaborated in class.

In addition to my method in reading, writing is a lot more tedious and time consuming. Besides writing daily notes down, when it come to writing reflections or long papers the time spent on them is everlasting. An example of this is writing a weekly response for one of my classes. I first start out by reading the question to the prompt. Then, I reread the highlighted parts in my readings or the notes I wrote down. Following my notes, I write the outline, and then I write the response. In addition to the time spent just writing, I look at synonyms to make my writing more fluent. I not only proofread my paper, but I also have numerous peers look at it. Another example demonstrating the way I write is for long papers. Usually I will go to the Writing Tutorial Services to brainstorm. I will then write the paper based off of my brainstorming. I will add more ideas as they float into my head. From there I will arrange to have an additional meeting and they will help me reorganize the order of my paper to make it flow. I will then reread it and check for grammar.

Both reading and writing are very time consuming for me, however, both are very effective. By learning what works for me, it has enabled me to succeed. Although language arts do not come easy for me, it is my goal as a perspective teacher to not only show the methods that my teachers taught me, but also the methods which work for me. Every student learns differently and it is important to change the style of teaching to fit each individual student.