Katie's Korner
Sept 15th, 2024
Prompt: Reflect on your evolving identity as both a teacher and a reader. Consider the significance of teaching literature in secondary schools and how your emerging teaching philosophy connects to the readings from this module.
My teaching philosophy is something that I am working to develop, and using the concepts provided by the readings is helping me start to create what the foundations of that philosophy might be. I particularly liked the Johnson, Koss, and Martinez Article Through the Sliding Glass Door: #EmpowerTheReader, as it presented reading literature in a way that I had never considered and made bridging the gap between reading literature and teaching literature much more understandable. Using the metaphors of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors helped me to think about the thought that goes behind choosing which pieces of literature will have the most impact on my students.
In an ideal world, there's a book out there that is all three metaphors combined, and that's all I would ever need to teach, but because each student comes into the classroom with a unique story of their own, there's no one band aid book that will cover all of the aspects that it would need to. So, that being considered, what I can take from these readings is that what will help my students the most is my reading base being as vast and as varied as possible.
A knowledge base that includes books that are windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors will allow me to be a more effective educator. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing the impact of a story that I've recommended to someone and have a lasting effect on them. I'm excited to learn how to best teach literature most effectively to my students while developing their appreciation and, hopefully, love for literature.
