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Linked below is the google doc containing my groups curriculum plan
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8yCSc1gfNgXCQPyHW6A5H8g5kgis1-s2vwNYiVr_UE/edit?usp=sharing

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After watching the videos and reviewing the article I believe critical literacy is an extremely valuable asset to include within the classroom. Along with that it is vitally important that teachers structure their classrooms to promote this notion of critical literacy and encourage their students to explore it. One of the most noticeable examples of critical literacy within the videos was firstly establishing a safe space for students to read and write critically within their classrooms. A good example of this from the first video was having students write about a prompt that could be as simple as writing about their weekend and then having every student share a few sentences from their writing. By doing this it removes the usual fear of being singled out or put in the spotlight when it comes to sharing your work. It gives students time to prepare and really makes sure they are able to share confidently and comfortably without the fear of being the lone example. In regard to critical literacy this example helps to get students thinking critically by having them answer prompts that ask the critical "how, what and why" questions. By encouraging students to write about book, articles or other readings and answering questions along those lines we develop a critical thinking environment within the classroom. Along with that by having students share out and respond to each other's writings the teachers are encouraging student led dialogue and discourse which can help open students up to new perspectives they may not have previously considered. If I were to change instruction to use a critical lens and support the building of a critical literacy-based instruction, I would start by employing the teachings of the article we read earlier this semester. Within the article it speaks on the fact that we as educators need to foster an environment that promotes students' ability to ask these critical questions and use them within their projects and assignments. Given that we first need to alter our lessons to allow for this student-based exploration of critical topics, according to the article "Integrating Critical Literacy in the Middle School", "Once teachers have developed a critical lens and considered their views on what middle school students can and cannot do, they must begin examining their existing lessons as well as planning new ones to incorporate critical literacy"(Paul, 2016). With that being said we must also learn to first develop this critical lens which involves being able to look beyond the surface level of the content we include in our classrooms. For example, when choosing a reading or article we must first look deeper into what the author's background is and what possible perspectives may be represented within the reading and which ones are left out or glossed over. By doing this we can choose the most culturally responsive as well as effective readings for allowing our students to think critically. Ultimately, I believe the crux of critical literacy it to help our students go beyond the basics of understanding within literacy and ask the questions about the perspectives and motives behind their readings and writings. To do this we must be invested in our students abilities to succeed and provide them with the proper material by using a critical lens to ensure that we are setting them up with the proper foundations to employ their own critical thinking. Education for far too long has been simply telling students information about how something is done/was done and expecting them to memorize it for a test. Critical literacy seeks to have students search this information out themselves and draw their own conclusions to garner a deeper understanding of the classroom content.

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I chose to summarize the "Bringing Words to Life" article written by the NCTE. In this article the main focus is on how to encourage fluency & vocabulary within the classroom specifically in regard to middle school students and adolescents. The main focal point in this article is that while there is no "one correct way" to approach fluency in the classroom there are many strategies we can employ to foster a literacy rich environment within our classrooms. The author supports this by providing a few strategies that they employ within their classroom and touching on the increase and success in engagement that her students see. The first of these methods is promoting the A.C.T. policy within her classroom. In this strategy the "A" stands for access which focuses on ensuring students have access to books and other reading material in the classroom whether this be having a small class library or having newspapers or other articles that students can access during free reading time. It is stressed that these resources must be "not just the library or media center, which is often intimidating to reluctant, striving readers"(Moen 2007, P.21). The "C" within A.C.T. defines that students must be able to choose the material that they read and engage with during their independent reading time because students are far more willing to read when it is a topic they enjoy or they feel they have a say in the matter. The last part of the acronym stands for "time" meaning that students should absolutely be provided independent reading time during the school day to promote literacy and reading in areas that they are interested in which can also help introduce new vocabulary. The next strategy mentioned in support of the aforementioned claim is participating in teacher read aloud within the classroom. This is most effectively done when teachers read content relevant books to the class that also introduce new vocabulary and how to use it. These read alouds are extremely valuable as they provide students with an opportunity to engage with new vocabulary words and grammatical ideas and hearing them used in context and how they appear in the real world. The last strategy touched upon is the thirty second vocabulary activity that is done over the course of several days. On the first day students are given a new list of vocabulary words that the teacher then demonstrates the correct pronunciation and usage of the words. The second day consists of organizing students into groups and giving them a couple minutes to teach an individual word they were assigned to their classmates. In doing so they are working to provide context for a word previously unknown to them. The third day involves having students getting involved in activities that have them engage with all aspects of the words, these activities can be something like drawing/creating notecards of the words or creating pictures and having classmates guess what word they relate to. Day number four consists of learning through play as according to the article; "students need to work with words, but they also need to play with words"(Moen 2007, P.23). This can involve having students play a number of vocabulary games that the teacher organizes or creates, in this way students can get involved with the vocabulary while also associating these activities with fun. The last day involves monitoring students to see if they begin using the words in writing and language throughout the day as this is how teachers know the students truly learned the words. The main point here is that there are many ways to involve literacy in the classroom and by doing so we can aid our students in their phonics and vocabulary skills. This article can be a valuable resource for teachers looking for ways to increase student engagement with vocabulary as keeping students focus and interest is paramount to having any sort of instruction create a lasting, meaningful impact.

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For me the most influential period for me regarding language arts instruction would have to be middle school (grades 6-8). At my middle school we had the same two teachers for E/LA for all three years we were there. We also had two full periods (41 minutes) devoted to the class, so we were able to do a lot more in a day than your average class. The first period was always divided into two sections, the first being spelling and the second half or when we finished our spelling work would be independent reading of a book of our personal choice. The second period would consist of whatever content area we were working on, be it grammar, a class book or some other form of analysis. The reason why these grade levels above all high school classes stuck with me was the guaranteed time for independent reading and the amount of content we were able to cover in one day. The ability to have free reading time every day in school helped me to flourish as a reader which in turn encouraged me to read more challenging material which strengthened my literacy skills and reading comprehension. Along with that we would often start our first period off with a journal entry based off of a prompt provided to us as soon as we walked in. We would spend about ten minutes maybe twice a week writing and responding to many different types of prompts to encourage us to be comfortable in as many different types of writing as possible. Our grammar lessons were also valuable to me because they were presented in such a way that made them fun. Our classes grammar lessons had a zombie survival them (the lessons being dubbed GrammarZ) and we would participate in many class activities relating to such topic that helped us to engage with the grammar lesson while also adding an element of fun to each lesson. Our spelling lessons were where I felt our class fell short on effective teaching methods as they split us up into advanced and standard spelling groups and simply had us memorize some 15-20 words a week and spell them over and over again on worksheets and then test on every Friday with the words we had been given. Another thing that was used within the class that I enjoyed was our quarterly book talks. At the start of each academic quarter, we would select a book from a genre the teachers selected. We would then spend the next nine weeks reading the novel and getting familiar with the text. The capstone to this was that at the end of each quarter we had to pick and present one of a list of projects given to us. For example, a couple that I did were creating a playlist for one of the characters in the book and explaining what each song would mean to them and why it held significance to the novel. Another was to create a box of ten keepsakes that one of the characters may have and explain the significance behind each one. These projects really helped me to learn how to dive deeper into text and learn to interact with the book beyond the surface level so that I could create the most in-depth project I could. Another downside to this class was that it was very worksheet and independent work heavy and while that teaching style works well for me it most certainly does not for everyone and the lack of variety in the teaching styles would sometimes leave some students struggling to learn the material. All in all, I would say I value it far above any high school class purely due to the independent reading time because all of my high school classes did away with it as they had only one class period to work with. As a result of the shift away from independent choice reading to required readings my desire to read dwindled and I began to read less and less frequently. Most importantly my middle class provided a large variety of content that often-included fun, interactive elements to keep us wanting to learn and I believe it to have been my most effective E/LA class.