My Language Arts Instruction!

To be completely honest, I can only remember one strategy that my language arts teacher used when I was in elementary school, and that was: Thematic Units. We probably spent three to four weeks on one certain unit, got tested on it, and then moved on. I remember within these units were a lot of chapters and material we covered. For example the unit would be parts of a novel. One week we would cover characters and the next week we would cover plot and so on. We would probably read two to three books within a unit (depending on length) and then discuss. There were many pros and cons to this type of method. The thing I enjoyed about it was that it covered a lot of relevant stuff. For example characters, setting, plot; they all associate with each other. The other thing I enjoyed about this was the books we read. The one that sticks out to this day and is one of my favorites is The Outsiders. The cons to this method was when it came to testing. There was always a big unit test at the end and that was one thing I COULD NOT STAND. I just remember trying to study for these tests and having to memorize so much information. Sometimes, if out teacher was nice she would do an alternate form of testing for some of the books, so there was less material on the test. The alternate form of testing was usually a book report. One I specifically remember doing The Rats of Nimph. We had to get a cinder block and make the home of the rats. It was by far one of my favorite reports!

As far as literature circles, readers workshops and so forth, I do not remember using those types of strategies in elementary school. That does not make me think they aren't worth using though. From taking previous classes at Meredith, I have been able to experience literature circles and I enjoy them. I think literature circles are a great way to learn about different parts of a novel. When the students come together as a group and share what their part, it allows the other students to learn something they may have missed. I certainly think I will use literature circles in my classroom.
The one thing I remember doing that may have been similar to these approaches was Book It. We would have to read a certain number of pages and if we reached the goal we would receive a free Pizza Hut personal pan pizza (I wish they did this in college!)

Assessment

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of assessment is testing. I automatically think of a multiple choice or true/false test in which a teacher can assess what I know. I believe there is a good way to asses and a not so good way to asses. Although in some cases multiple choice tests is the easiest of best way to asses a child, I tend to disagree. To this day, I still can not stand multiple choice test. All I do is memorize what I need too, answer questions on the test and then simply forget it the day after. It just has no meaning to me. I feel like it is absolutely pointless because a day later I have no idea what I just had a test on. As a college student, I guess I never really understood that when I was younger I didn't realize I was just memorizing. I actually thought I was learning something, but turned out I kind of wasn't. I think the best way to assess a college student is through essays. My favorite tests were when I was in EDU234. We had the test questions prior to learning everything in class. When I would go to write the test, I could actually write what I learned. I applied what I learned in class to case studies within the class. I really enjoyed this, because I can honestly say because of those tests, I consider that class one of the more informative classes I have ever taken.
As for becoming a future teacher, I am sure I will give my fair share of multiple choice/true false tests, simply because second graders can't write full out essays. I think I would be able to asses children based on short essays the best. They are writing what they have learned and this would allow me to see if they are learning or if they need some extra learning. I think another great assessment for the primary grades are checklists. This has recently become one of my favorite ways to asses. I think that is because I have what I need to look for in front of me. If a child can do it, all you simply have to do is write yes or no and then any other additional comments.
It's hard to think about what kinds of assessment I want to do in the classroom, but I'm sure I will be doing a little bit of everything!