Wilhelm, Baker & Dube Reflection (Chapters 1 & 2)

"Strategic Reading, Guiding Students to Lifelong Literacy" Wilhelm, Dube and Baker argued many different theories, ideas and definitions of what teaching literacy should be like.  I was astounded when they mentioned how it is predicted that 95% of elementary school teachers use the basal reader as the curriculum.  The basal reader is a good way to find ideas on how to run a curriculum but it totally goes against the ideas Wilhelm, Dube and Baker stand by in these chapters.

The contributors kept stressing the idea of "Teaching must be reconceived as 'guiding students to more competent learning performances.'"  They also stood by the theory of having students in The Zone of Proximal Development instead of The Zone of Actual Development.  They explained that having students continue to work on information that they had already mastered was repetitive and pointless.  They stressed that real learning in literacy takes place in The Zone of Proximal Development where the teacher implements a strategy of teaching and becomes more of a guide.  This strategy that they support is: "I do you watch, I do you help, You do I help, You do I watch."  This strategy not only simplifies a seemingly complicated way of teaching but also stands behind Vygotsky's idea of scaffolding.  This also transforms the teacher into a guide where they guide the child by the hand until they master what is to be learned.

Wilhelm, Baker and Dube also stress how learning should be fun.  If learning is not fun or if students cannot see the correlation between learning and real life they will most likely be uninterested.  Especially if the learning is outside of The Zone of Proximal Development.  One of the theorists named Hillocks argued that the best learning engages students and is fun.  Hillocks also argues that engaged learning works because it is usually challenging and purposeful.  Hillocks said that if students are provided enough support and effective learning techniques they will learn.  The authors also went through and explained different kinds of methods for teaching reading strategies such as cognitive structuring, modeling, questioning, explaining/instructing, feeding back/naming and contingency management.  These two chapters really hit home as to what kind of skills I am trying to learn and master as a future teacher. 

How I Learned to Draw Graphically Using Different Types of Media and How it Influenced My Life

Growing up my parents always wanted to provide me with as much possible so I could succeed in my education.  They would buy sets of encyclopedias, hire tutors and also they bought me a computer at the age of ten.  For a while I had a computer without Internet because I did not need the Internet at that age.  Today, if you hand a teen a computer they would give you a dirty look and say, “What do you expect me to do with this?”  But at the young age of ten I learned the ins and outs of working with a computer without the use of Internet.  My favorite software had to be paint; I would sit in front of paint for hours and draw.  I would draw comics, cartoons and also lettering.  My drawings were not only limited to the computer but I also had a knack for drawing on paper.  My parents quickly realized that I could draw and that their investment in the computer was not going down the route they had intended.

            Some people will argue, “No art is ever original.”  But, I taught myself how to draw from observing other’s work.  My influences on my art came from two very distinct places.  My “graphic design” skills grew when my parents installed Internet.  Immediately I made a MySpace account and I remember surfing the website and finding beautiful, custom-made layouts.  People would create the graphics for the layouts and then code HTML onto their profiles and create beautiful webpages.  I remember that I immediately looked up as much information as I could about HTML and taught myself how to code from scratch. I then created my own layouts with different backgrounds and my name lettered across. The layouts would be created by hand using Paint and Photoshop.  Influences would come from all over including key layout artists I would look up and gain inspiration from their creativity.  My art on MySpace was highly regarded, I had over a 100,000 friends and people would offer me money to customize their layouts.

            For my paper drawings, I was heavily influenced by one of my art teachers in high school.  I always thought lowly of my paper drawings because I was not very good at drawing people or realistic items like fruit.  However, my art teacher in high school showed me artists who defied ordinary like Dali and Van Gogh.  Their art fit the other genre, which did not involve much people or realistic items. Throughout the art class I did get to work on a self-portrait, which with the guidance of my art teacher turned out pretty good.  My real talent and love was with drawings that had bold lines, graphic details and a fantastical touch.

            Once I hit my later years in high school MySpace got out of style and Facebook came in with it’s default, bland, blue and default layout for every user.  I lost a lot of my knowledge with coding HTML but drawing stayed with me.  Whether it is on a computer, iPad or paper, drawing has always been my favorite hobby.  I love sitting down with a full mind and just letting markers, pencil or my stylus do the talking.  Teaching myself how to code web page layouts not only taught me the power of my mind when I am determined but also showed me how amazing the human brain is.  I was a twelve year old who knew how to make complete web pages from scratch, something even adults with degrees in the field struggle with today.  It impacted my life because it taught me that many feats are possible with determination and goals.

            Being literate in drawing and graphic design helps me because I work with middle school students in an afterschool program.  My boss and I were told by the district to make visuals with our expectations for our youth and I decided to take on the task.   I made all of our posters from scratch which not only look fun but also colorful and deliver our important mission statement and message of “respect yourself, others and property.”  Other than creating visuals, the journey of learning how to draw has taught me that if a youth has the right amount of confidence, support, resources and knowledge they are able to achieve anything they want in their lives.