Best Piece of Academic Work and Reflective Essay

A Literacy Photostory: Improving Classroom Literacy Instruction

I feel that my best piece of academic work was the research project that I did during the 2015-16 school year.  This research project took three Missoula high school students and had them take pictures of what they thought of as literacy, and then reflect on the reasons behind it.

As an English teacher, this project really helped me to better understand not only what literacy is, but the possibilities of what it could be.  It helped me to know what high school students thought of as literacy, and what they were being taught.  Because of this project, I think that my students benefit from my enhanced knowledge of what literacy deficits students have during high school, and how these gaps can be filled. Though I have not yet spoken to any of my students about what literacy is, I have already incorporated multiple aspects of literacy into their instruction, including art projects, videos, reading, writing, speaking and listening, and computer practices.  Students need many forms of literacy in order to communicate in the world, and I think that it is important for them to get practice in multiple modes of literacy while they are in high school.

In the future, I hope to also talk to my students explicitly about what literacy is.  In my research, I found that students had only a vague knowledge of the definition of literacy, and often times it was only mentioned in their English classes.  I hope to change this in the future by implementing interdisciplinary lessons that introduce the concept of literacy in classrooms other than just English. I also hope to advocate to my coworkers and fellow teachers about how they can incorporate explicit literacy instruction into any content area.

I believe that this research paper showcases my content knowledge in English for many ways.  For this project, I had to write a literature review for the topic of literacy, which requires the ability to read and analyze the work of others, as well as incorporating these sources into my own academic work. I was also required to conduct interviews with my study participants, which falls into the field of speaking and listening.  My understanding in these areas helped me to not only conduct the interviews, but to do an analysis of them afterwards to incorporate into my paper. I also believe that the paper I did for this project showcases my hard work and ability as a writer.