EDUC 580 Children and Adolescent Literature
Reflection
and Artifact
My artifacts for EDUC 580 Children
and Adolescent Literature are two literature clusters that I created to enrich
the literature used during two of my themed units. The first literature cluster is focused on
character education, and the second is focused on the farm.
Character Literature Cluster by kateschroeder
Professional
Growth
In my
twenty-two years of teaching, I have read many books on a variety of
topics. I have gathered my favorites
that I use every year, and I am constantly looking for new additions. The literature cluster project helped me to
really look at books that I use and to identify genres or levels that could be
added to units to make them more inclusive.
I noticed that poetry was often an area that I overlooked. I have plenty of poetry books in my room, but
I was using them more during poetry time rather than integrating them into
units. Are you quite polite and Beyond Old McDonald are two
additions to my classroom library because of this assignment. The literature
cluster assignment also helped me organize books and activities, especially for
the character unit. I have always
started the school year using books that have a message about friendship and
how to treat others, but I had never made a list of the books and connected
them to activities. By doing this, it
helped me to have a more organized library which will allow me to pick the best
books to meet the needs for my particular class.
Student
Growth
Because of
the literature cluster assignment, my students have access to a larger variety
of books on common themes. Since the books cover a range of genres and levels,
the students are more likely to find a book that interests them which has increased
student engagement. I found this
particularly true for the farm unit. I
had several students who were really interested in the nonfiction books especially
the ones focusing on farm equipment and farm animals. My students will also benefit from my
increased organization between books and appropriate activities. For example when I have a student who is
struggling with anger and impacting others, I will use How I Feel Angry
as a bridge to a class discussion. This
book along with a class discussion would help students understand why children
sometimes become upset and what they can do to help.
Connection to Standards
Standard #1: The
teacher understands the central concepts, assumptions, debates, processes of
inquiry, and ways of knowing are central to the discipline(s) s/he teaches. One of the goals of this standard is for the
teacher to evaluate teaching resources and curriculum materials making sure
they are comprehensive. I met this goal
when I looked at my current library in connection to each of the literary
clusters. I was able to identify areas
of need and then add books in order to make my collection more
comprehensive.
Standard #5: The
teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior
to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction,
active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. I met this standard with each of my
literature clusters by providing student choice. Each of my clusters provided a
variety of genres and levels around a given topic in order to allow students to
pick the books that they found most interesting. When the students interacted with the books,
some were drawn to nonfiction while others preferred the picture books. Because there were a variety of books in each
cluster, the children seemed motivated to have a turn looking through
them. My character education book
cluster also meets the goals of this standard.
This goal emphasizes the importance of the teacher helping children learn
how to work cooperatively and productively.
I used the character books at the beginning of the school year. After reading each story, we had a class
discussion about the author’s purpose and books message. Once we had read several books and had an understanding
about friendship, honesty, and the golden rule, we wrote our social
contract. Our social contract guide our
class’s expectations and interactions for the school year.
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