I think that my knowledge of literacy in and outside of the classroom have expanded exponentially. Literacy is a part of our daily lives and impacts us almost everyday. What I have learned about the importance of literacy has made me want to pick up a book again. And guess what? It’s not a book that I was forced to read. Im actually reading on my own time and learning how to comprehend like a movie. This is all due to the strategies that I have been introduced to throughout my semester in READ3400. Here’s the thing though, literacy is not just about reading books. Literacy can take on many forms, such as videos, audio, and even just speaking. You can see why literacy is such an important part of our daily lives. We do at least one of these activities on a daily basis. Whether you are texting and friend, using social media, or watching Avengers: Endgame, you are using your literacy abilities.

During my semester of student teaching in my Mrs. Bradford’s 7th grade class has showed me a lot about the level that students at this age are on. One thing that surprised me the most was the fact that a lot of these students are reading book that are almost on a level that I am at (which is scary). I was blessed to work with some wonderful gifted students at Berkmar Middle School that have opened my eyes to the literacy world of the future. Let’s start with books. For the most part, students at Berkmar love their horror stories. Over 50 percent of the students would prefer a scary book over any other genre. That’s the same for me too. There’s something about the suspense of a horror story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. If i could somehow relate a scary story to whatever subject I am teaching in history, I know those kids would be engaged. Alright, now let’s talk about writing. Most of the students that I asked were not big fans of writing. This isn’t a surprise to me. Most students have been forced to write about something that they do not have interest in. Let these kids write about something that interests them. Maybe when I have my own classroom, every Monday, I’ll allow students to just write me a quick 5 minute “How was your weekend” paragraph just to get those brain cells pumping after a long weekend. Give them something they want to write about and I’m sure you’ll see more engaged writings. Alright, now videos. Not a shocker that most of the students also preferred horror movies, but a good comedy movie can always keep kids engaged. I already try to implement comical videos into my lessons, and I’m sure that I will continue to do so when it comes to teaching my own classroom. I’m definitely sure I can find some horrific historical events that will “wow” students as well. What do they listen to? Music. These kids love their music. So do I. I got all kinds of different genres that kids listen to. The predominant genre that appeared was Hip Hop. Hip Hop is sweeping the younger generations. I just made the cut because it swept me too. I love how I could relate to my students talking about Hip Hop music. I even played a Gandhi rap video in one of my lessons and the kids absolutely loved it. I will definitely be bringing music into my classroom. I want kids to see the fun side of learning. I know where to find those goofy rap videos that still provide the basic knowledge that students need to know. What do these students like to create? Although I don’t believe I touched on this subject with my adolescent literacy project, I did get to see the drawing that kids love to put on their assignments. I can tell that a lot of students like to doodle and draw pictures of popular television characters. I like to acknowledge the drawings on the students’ work that they turn in just to give them a little thumbs up to keep up that literacy! I almost forgot about social media. Now here’s a big daily literacy practice. Students love their social media. Whether they are reading posts or writing posts, it’s literacy! Snapchat and Instagram seem to be the big ones these days. Goodbye to Facebook I guess. So there you have it. A whole lot of literacy happening in this younger generation that I bet you didn’t even know existed. For all of you younglings that may see this one day, keep doing what you’re doing. Dont stop the literacy. Just don’t forget the to, too, twos and their, there, they’res.

I think that there are a lot of way to implement these practices into the classroom. As you can see in the above paragraph, I listed quite a few. For history, there are numerous videos and audios that you can use to help teach kids what they need to know. It doesn’t always have to be a document or text that students need to read. Spread the literacy love. When it comes to reading and writing in the classroom, it is imperative that teachers provide the resources and support that students need. In the “Subjects Matter” book, Daniels and Zemelman discuss multiple strategies, such as annotating and turn and talks, that can help students get the support that they need while reading difficult texts. These strategies can help students stop and think about what they are reading in order to comprehend the text better. I have always been a fan of reading aloud to the students and letting the students read aloud to the classroom as well. After a certain amount of paragraphs we regroup and talk about what we read. I feel like this forces engagement and allows students to practice talking in front of people.

I think that there are a lot of ways in which history teachers can implement literacy into their content area. There is so much information that is provided on so many platforms. When it comes to reading, students have to know how to decipher primary and secondary sources. If the teacher provides the right supports, this can be an easier task than it sounds. Primary documents are essential in deciphering first hand history from the point of view from people during the time in which a history event occurred. This can provide information that can give students a historical perspective. Secondary sources can also be interesting if the right sources are found. It is important that we provide students with the basic information, but try to include some interesting material that can get the attention of the students and create more engagement with the text. When it comes to writing, students can write all sorts of material related to history. One of my personal favorite things to have students write about is their opinion on a historical event. This gives students a little leeway to write what they want to write rather than being forced to write something that they could probably care less about. However, it is important for students to be able to write about specific historical events without an opinion. It is important to vary the writing assignments in class so that students are not overwhelmed with only factual summaries about historical events. When it comes to speaking, students can do presentations, eulogies of historical figures, and so on. There are many verbal literacies that can implemented into the classroom. One of my favorites that I would like to try in class is a speed dating activity where students are a historical figure and have to tell their “date” about themselves. I think that this would be a fun, engaging, and comical way to help students speak about history. When it comes to creating things, students can create memorials for historical figures, pictures of historical events, and so on. One thing that my MT liked to do was to have kids create a historical figure from construction paper and write down quotes or phrases that help describe the historical figure on the body. This was a fun and creative way for the students to work together and apply what they have learned from the content being discussed. I think that this course has really helped me open up to the world of literacy that many people do not fully understand yet. I now have a better grasp of the different ways to implement history into my content area. I also now have a better understanding of how to support those struggling readers and writers. I definitely feel like this course has helped me see the many ways in which I can use literacy in my content area.

Big shoutout to Dr. Amatucci for making me more aware of the literacy the surrounds us. I’m sorry that I called you Mrs. Amatucci for so long. You deserve the Dr. in front of name. That’s my bad. Keep doing what you’re doing, you’re good at it. This is Mr. Harrington (Ace Baloosh) signing off.

I believe from my experience that ELL students do better in Math classes more than any other class. I believe that this is partly due to the fact that there is less reading in this particular class. Classes, such as Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts contain larger amounts of reading. I think that this is the area that most ELL students struggle with. They may not be able to comprehend a long reading as well as students whose first language is English. I think that Language Arts, especially with my students at Berkmar Middle School, is the class that most ELL students struggle with. This class contains extensive reading and grammar deciphering that these students may have a harder time being able to do.

I think that there are a lot of strategies in which we can support ELL students. My MT will have students read one paragraph at a time and have them turn and talk with their elbow partner and summarize what they just read. I think this is a great way to help ELL students learn how to break down the text and decipher the meaning of it. Having students read an entire document by themselves can be overwhelming and these students may struggle understanding the document. Another technique that I have seen in the classroom is being able to pick the most important sentence out of a paragraph. This allows for students to pick out which sentence they believe is the theme of the paragraph. My MT plays a game where students will pair up and read a paragraph independently. The students will underline what they believe is the most important sentence and they will share with each other. If the students both underlined the same sentence, then the students will high five each other. This is a fun way for students to be able to pick out the main summarizing sentence of the paragraph. Also, one strategy that I have tried myself in the classroom is doing popcorn reading. One student will volunteer to read. After that student reads one paragraph, we come back together and go over what we just read. Then the student who just read picks another student to read. The students find this to be fun because they will volunteer to read just so they can pick on one of their friends to read a paragraph. I tell the students that they must pick someone from another table to ensure that the reading aloud is spread around the classroom rather than just at one table. This allows ELL students to have a chance to practice reading aloud, and they also get to break down the text one piece at a time.

Although I do not speak another language, I am trying to practice my Spanish currently with duolingo. I try to get a lesson a day out of it, because I believe that it is important to learn other languages. Being fluently bilingual can be so beneficial to, not only students, but teachers as well. Teachers who are bilingual have such an advantage when it comes to interacting with ELL students in the classroom. For example, I know that Christian, in our history cohort, is very helpful in his ESOL classroom because he can clarify texts for students who speak Spanish. I would love to be able to fluently speak Spanish to be able to further support ELLs that may speak Spanish.

Culturally responsive teaching can definitely be a way to support ELL students. Being able to relate whatever is being talked about to everyday life can help these students make connection to better understand. It is imperative that teachers implement culturally responsive teaching in the classroom, not just for ELL students, but for all students. Relating content to everyday life, especially in Social Studies, will allow students to engage in a lesson and feel a connection to the material that is being talked about. I never realized the gravity of how beneficial it is to be able to use culturally responsive teaching until I began this program at GGC. It is amazing to see how students can actually understand a concept if they can connect is to something that they are familiar with. I think that this is a very important teaching strategy to help support ELL students.

I think, especially in history, that students need to be able to voice their own opinion. Having an opinion in history can really engage the students in the content material. The whole point of history is to question how or why these events occurred. I believe that students being able to have their own opinion can create a more engaging writing environment. Although there are times in which students will need to be able to summarize or analyze a historical event, I believe that teachers can create a more historical thinking classroom through opinionated writings. Teachers will need to implement fact based writing in the classroom to help provide assessment feedback for the teachers to find out how much a student knows about a subject, but this form of writing can be overwhelming for students. Teachers need to promote a classroom in which students can question history verbally and in written form.

As I have stated, I believe that students should be able to create what they are interested in questioning or talking about. Teachers should provide a basis in which students can take a concept and try to explain it in a way that interests them. It is nice for teachers to see the creative thinking that students can come up with during a verbal or writing assessment. Students are more engaged when they have an opportunity to express their belief about a certain topic. For example, when talking about the atomic bomb dropped on Japan, students can talk about whether or not they think that is was necessary or not. This allows teachers to see the mindset of the students and see what creative things that they come up with. Students can respond to many forms of literacy. There are many texts and videos that express an opinion towards a specific historical event in a biased way. Students should be able to question these different multimodal texts and form their own opinion on the matter.

When students have formed their creative writing pieces about the historical event or time period, they should be able to demonstrate what they are trying to say. For example, students can create a video or an oral presentation that expresses their viewpoint on the content material. I think that creating a video would be a fun and engaging way for students to express how they feel. Students can get creative and make a video however which way they want to. Teachers should provide multiple ways in which students can apply their writing. The purpose of this application of students’ writing and thought is to provide an outlet in which students can present their ideas to either the classroom or the teacher in a different way. For example, I loved the book Salt to the Sea that I read in my literacy class, but I wanted to tell everyone how I truly felt about it. I think that the digital book talk that we presented provided an outlet for me to express how much I truly cared about the content that I was reading about. If I were to have presented just a normal writing to my classmates, it would not have given the same emotion and persuasion to read the book that I would have liked. Applying what I read to this digital book talk helped me provide a platform in which I could express my attitude toward the book that I read.

I think that teachers can support students in their writings in numerous ways. One way would be to provide a demonstration in which students can follow the model to see how it is done. This can create excitement and relief for the students as they see what the standard is that the teacher is looking for. For example, to go back to the digital book talk, seeing other people’s projects helped me see the expectation and mad me get excited about the numerous ways in which I could convey the information from the book to my classmates. Another way in which teachers can support students during writings and presentations could be to provide specific details for what students need to talk about. Teachers need to be able to break down what is expected of the students and provide clear details as to what the teacher is looking for in these applications. Providing a clear rubric or guideline sheet can help students follow what they need to do. Teachers need to be careful about being too strict with the guidelines. They need to allow students to get creative and think of ways to express themselves without jeopardizing the goal of the project.

In order to support struggling readers, there are a few research-based strategies that can be used. Teachers should be able to promote self monitoring for students while they read. For example, students should be able to pause after reading and comprehend what they just read. Students can annotate, highlight, write notes while they read in order for them to better comprehend what they are reading. This will allow students the chance to have a better understanding of what they are reading as they move ahead with the reading. This strategy can be helpful because it can scaffold a students ability to comprehend difficult texts on their own for the future. This specific strategy can be very useful while reading primary and secondary sources in history. Some reading in social studies classes can be difficult for students to read. Having students pause or write notes as they are reading allows them to decipher the text more successfully. Another strategy that can be useful for supporting struggling readers is providing books and materials in various formats. Some students can get fatigued by reading constantly from documents that are handed to them. Teachers can switch up the way in which they are delivering the reading material. For instance, teachers can provide audiobooks or graphic novels for the students to create better engagement. Teachers can also have students switch off reading different segments or read the text to the students so that they are able to follow along. These simple techniques can create a more engaging reading environment which could allow students to feel more confident about their reading abilities.

There are many ways in which teachers can motivate their students to read. One example would be to allow time for students to read a variety of multimodal texts on a daily basis. Teachers can take at least 5 minutes a day out of their lesson to provide a literacy based assignment that can slowly build the students’ confidence while reading. Using multimodal texts will prevent the students from getting fatigued from reading from documents by themselves on a daily basis. Students will slowly grow as readers and potentially grow a stronger desire to read in their personal time. Teachers should provide a variety of engaging texts that will grab students’ attention. Teachers need to be able to introduce a variety of readings into the classroom. If teachers only use fact based secondary and primary sources everyday that are not engaging, students will have less of a desire to continue to engage in the readings. Especially in social studies classrooms, teachers can find very engaging materials for students to read that can create a successful literate classroom. In my classroom, I would love to introduce historical fiction books that can engage students as it has engaged me personally. I feel that finding the right book that has to do with the content material can really be critical to developing a students’ literacy skills. I was never a reader when I was younger, but I feel that I have rekindled my passion for reading due to a book club assignment that was introduced to us in class. Now, I am already on to my second book that wasn’t even assigned for me to read. I actually just want to read a book on my own time.

As I said, getting the engagement of the students to read is a very hard process for teachers. Teachers need to collect data and find out what types of books or texts would be engaging for the students. I think that providing a wide spectrum of book or document genres into the classroom can help accommodate every students preferred readings. As teachers, it is important that we introduce new and engaging ways in which students can emotionally engage with what they are reading. Teachers should also create encouraging relationships with their students. When students feel that they are being pushed to do something in a supportive way, they are more prone to react positively. If a teacher has a good relationship with a student who is struggling to read, the teacher can recommend a book, article, or other text that may spark an interest for that student. If teachers have a good relationship with their students, they can help provide the materials that may be necessary for students to engage in what they are reading. Motivation and encouragement seems like such an easy concept to get students to read, but it is overlooked or misused a lot in education. Teachers may not be providing the necessary materials to actually engage students in their readings. In my field placement, at Berkmar Middle School, I am amazed by the amount of students who actually read in their free time. I think this is partly because of the free time that my MT provides for the students to read anything of their choosing. This promotes students to read books that actually interest them, which, in turn, allows students to have more confidence when it comes to reading in their content classes.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot from middle school assessments so this may be me recalling a shaky memory. From what I remember from middle school, tests and quizzes were the most common form of assessments given by my teachers in middle school. The only other real assessment that I can recall other than those are the homework grades that were practically a review of the material that we learned in class that day. I feel that middle school assessments today have come a long way from what they were when I was in middle school. I can’t even think of any other way that I was assessed besides projects, tests, quizzes, and homework. Projects, of course, being my favorite type of assessment because it allowed for us to show off our creativity and knowledge. Tests, quizzes, and homework were always boring and felt overwhelming. I do, however, remember the county test referred to as the dreaded CRCT. I say dreaded because teachers make you feel like your life depend on whether or not you pass this test. That may be true, but can you guys not stress me out that much. If I recall, the CRCT wasn’t even really that hard of a test. I don’t think I studied for any of them throughout middle school. To build on that, how does one test decide whether you move on to the next grade? What if I had straight A’s and just wasn’t feeling it the day of the CRCT? Seems weird, but I guess the county knows what’s best for the students.

In my recent field experience I have noticed vast changes in the way that teachers assess students. Although tests, quizzes, homework, and projects are still a large part of the assessment process, there are also several new ways in which I’ve seen students assessed in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that these archaic assessment strategies are relevant and efficient ways to assess students, but I like to have a change up everyone once in a while. The teacher that I have observed in my field experience have assessed students by using group projects (videos, posters, songs, PPTs (aka differentiation)), plays, discussions, and hands on labs. My favorite assessment of those is the differentiated projects. The students got really creative and actually enjoyed creating things that were relevant to the content material. I may have to use this one in my future practice because the students were very engaged. Discussions are probably one of the newest ways to assess in which I’ve seen recent teachers implement into their classroom. Although these discussions are not for a grade, the students are still being assessed on their knowledge of the content. I feel that teachers are starting to implement discussion based classrooms a little more than they used to when I was in school. I remember most of my social studies teachers just did notes all day with VERY FEW other activities. The classic GCPS standardized tests, such as performance exams, Midterms, and EOCTs are still prevalent in the Gwinnett school systems. Teachers that I observed spent a lot of time preparing students for these exams, especially for the performance exam. The performance exam is a little bit different than your average standardized tests from GCPS. This test required students to create an essay relevant to the content. I think these tests weren’t too overbearing. I can see why teachers would implement a lot of tests, quizzes, and essays in order to prepare students for the real deal when the county tests come around. I think that the most effective form of testing is probably the discussion based assessment. Students are forced to be engage and give their opinion, especially in a student based discussion. This form of assessment strategy allows for students to think on a deeper level than finding out if a question is A, B, C, or D on a standardized test.

I think that literacy is an important part of education for students. That is why I think literacy based assessments should be implemented frequently by teachers. Specifically for history, I think teachers can use presentations, video reenactments, or even songs based on a particular event. There are many ways in which teachers can create fun and engaging activities that assess a students literacy in a historical setting. Presentations are always a good way to get students out of their comfort zone and allow them to practice their speaking skills. Video reenactments, in my opinion, are always exciting and students can really get in to that kind of stuff. The same goes for creating a song. Students like to have the opportunity to be creative and bring their own ideas into the classroom. Another form of literacy assessment could be as simple as writing a short summary about something that they just read or that was just taught to them. Teachers can tell students to give their own opinions and allow them to express their thoughts on a particular event in history, rather than summarizing a text. I do, however, feel that students need to be able to comprehend a text and be able to summarize it in their own words. This is a crucial part of education especially considering they will see this form of assessment type for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

So, in conclusion, I think we’ve come a long way from when I used to be in middle school and high school. I think that teachers are looking for more ways to involve students create a more students centered classroom. I believe that tests, quizzes, and essays will always be around. I think these forms of assessments are crucial to a students education, but teachers are now finding new ways to be able to assess their students. Literacy is one of the most vital forms of education for students, and I think there is a way to implement it in all content areas. Teachers can get creative and find engaging ways to assess students on a literacy basis. I truly don’t know what the best way to assess a student is, but I think it can be effective to allow students to bring their own creativity into the classroom that is relevant to the content material.

From my experience so far in middle school, I see that the majority of teachers will have students read primary and secondary sources relating to the content material being studied. I can tell that a lot of the students are tired of reading these documents on a daily basis. I think that students should read a mix of historical fiction and nonfiction documents or books. I believe that historical fiction can be entertaining and still provide the context needed to understand the environment of the content they are learning. For example, students had to learn about apartheid in South Africa. This particular topic took up a couple weeks of class. I think that it would be cool to have students read a historical fiction book about black in South Africa growing up during apartheid. There are plenty of historical fiction books that cover this material. The students don’t have to read the whole thing, but even just reading a couple chapters out of the book to all of the students could give them perspective of what it was like. “Books should act as windows, where kids look out not at their own reflection, but upon other peoples, other time periods, other stories, values, and ways of life” (Daniels and Zemelman). Sometimes students can’t understand the gravity of a particular event in history simply by just reading a document that tells the basic facts of what happened. Although historical fiction books are fun and engaging, I think that nonfiction primary and secondary books or documents do have to have their place in a social studies classroom. I think every history teacher in the world would agree that primary source documents are important for social studies classes. I think that teachers should try to find an engaging way to grab the attention of students to read these documents. Primary sources ARE history so it seems inevitable that they need to be included in a social studies classroom. Secondary sources, although they can be extremely boring, can also provide loads of information that are valuable for students. I think that implementing a fun instructional strategy, such as partner reading, can help students get more involved with reading these types of texts.

Multimodal texts can also really help students understand history on a different level. Showing a video about a particular event in history can shine a light on what the environment really looked like during that era. For example, going back to apartheid, showing a video or even a picture about what living conditions and segregation looked like during this time period can really put things in perspective for students. My mentor teacher at Berkmar Middle School tries to implement multimodal texts, such as videos and pictures, to help students see the types of conditions that these people were living in during apartheid in South Africa. I think that pictures and videos can provide a more in depth look at content materials in a social studies classroom. Many students will be engaged if they are shown a video or picture of what things actually looked like during an event in history. I think that listening can be another important multimodal text that can be useful, not only in social studies, but in all content areas. Instead of having students read a document or book, it can be helpful to have an audiobook or even let the teacher read aloud to the students. This can help students who might have trouble reading. Also, it can help ELL students that might have trouble reading primary and secondary documents that have difficult vocabularies. Listening to primary source speeches can be another way that teachers can implement multimodal texts into the classroom. For example, during black history month, students should be able to hear Dr. Martin Luther Kings speech and feel the powerful words that left a mark on history forever. I think there are many ways in which teachers can implement multimodal texts into the classroom without having to work around the tight time frame that teachers are given on a particular content.

While reading primary and secondary source documents, I think students should be able to analyze the documents on a deeper level. Especially when we are talking about primary sources, students need to be able to analyze the relevance of this particular historical text to what they are learning in the classroom. Using apartheid again, if students are faced with a speech from Nelson Mandela during apartheid, they need to be able to make the connections of how this particular speech plays a role in the events that took place during that time period. Deciphering primary documents can be difficult for students and may require a lot of practice and collaboration with the teacher. Students have to be able to interpret what they are reading, whether it is a primary or secondary source document. If students are reading a historical fiction in the classroom, they need to be able to evaluate and interpret the relevance of that text to what they are learning about in the classroom. This isn’t an easy task for students to be able to do. It takes time to scaffold students into learning how to use these skills such as, analyzing, evaluating, and interpreting, during their reading. Teachers should make this a weekly or even daily routine for students to practice these skills, because these are skills that they will need all throughout their life.

Students can have a lot of difficulty trying to interpret texts, historical fiction or nonfiction. I think that teachers need to try and implement different instructional strategies that can help students practice these skills and become good reading comprehenders. Teachers can provide a list of questions for students to think about while they are reading or using any sort of multimodal text. Providing students with questions to look for and think about while deciphering a text can help plant in their brains the type of things they should be looking for when there are trying to comprehend texts. As I have said, I think that there are many different instructional strategies that can help build on a students ability to comprehend what they are reading. Strategies, such as partner reading and read alouds, can really help students analyze what they are reading. Teachers should allow students to pause and decipher what they are reading to make sure that they are understanding it. During videos, teachers can pause the video and ask questions or expand on what the video is talking about in order for students to be able to analyze the videos. You would think that watching a video wouldn’t need any further explanations, but sometimes students have no idea what the video they are watching means or how it correlates to what they are learning about. This also applies to pictures. Teachers should allows students to interpret the meaning behind political cartoons or pictures that are displayed during class. This will build on a students ability to analyze pictures. While students are listening to speeches, books, documents, etc, teachers should allow time for students to stop and think about what they are listening to and decipher the meaning of it. This can be done with a simple turn and talk or another instructional strategy that has been proven effective in the classroom. There are tons of ways in which teachers can provide students with the materials and support that is needed to build on their ability to comprehend content specific texts. Teachers need to use their resources and see what engages the students. It is important to switch it up and use different forms of multimodal texts so students with different learning strategies can be accommodated. Literacy plays a key role in social studies and it is important for students to know how to TRULY comprehend what they are reading.

When I’m not reading text messages or status updates on Instagram or Twitter, I am typically more of a war novel kind of guy. I’m a big fan of learning about the World Wars and the context that revolves around them. For example, Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes was one of my favorite war books growing up. It is cool to see the wars from different perspectives of different countries. Nonfiction or fiction, the drama that surrounds the war setting is just interesting for me to read. Although I do love these war books, I find myself more inclined to get on twitter to read funny and entertaining posts from people. Sadly, a lot of the news that I read comes from twitter (yes, I realize that can be bias), but every now and then I find myself going through the Daily Mail on my phone to read about different news stories.

When it comes to watching tv shows or movies, Netflix is my go to. Since I’ve been in college, I rarely watch tv unless it is a sporting event. Nowadays, Netflix has consumed my life when it comes to watching shows or movies. One of my favorite movies of all time is The Social Network. This has been my favorite movie for years. My second favorite movie of all time would have to be The Other Guys with Will Ferrell. This movie can make me laugh every-time I watch it, and it’s the same jokes. Not to get cliche about my favorite tv show, but it would have to be The Office. I’m not kidding when I say I have watched this show over twenty times all the way through. I watch the show before I go to sleep, as background noise, on planes and car rides, etc. It is hands down my favorite go to show. Although a lot of tv shows have captured my attention recently on Netflix, I would have to say Game of Thrones is my next favorite show after The Office. Game of Thrones is your classic violent medieval plot twister that leaves you wanting more. This show isn’t really a watch more than once show for me, YET, but I can without a doubt say that it is one of my favorite shows of all time. There’s no shortage of The Office and Game of Thrones fans so it isn’t hard to strike up a conversation with someone about these shows. As a matter of fact, in our READ 3400 class at GGC, there are numerous people with whom I talk about these shows with.

I am not much of a “write for fun” kind of guy these days. Outside of the numerous essays that I have written for school, I would say texting is my closest thing to writing. I actually have a group text where we will just tell hilarious stories that make no sense every now and then. That probably sounds dumb… and you’re right, but we definitely get some good laughs out of them. I used to be a big Twitter guy constantly posting stuff on there, but the past few years I rarely tweet. If I do tweet, it is usually to support a sports team or retweet something that I found funny. I am not much of a writer it would seem, but I can definitely write when it is needed of me or there is an audience to appease.

When it comes to work-related literacy tasks, I use it occasionally for my current jobs. I work for a catering company where we use certain forms of literacy. For example, I am constantly collaborating with my colleagues to fill orders and get them delivered on time. I also make conversation with the customers. If I am serving the food to the customers, rather than dropping it off, I am constantly making conversation with people and getting them to come over to try our food. One of my previous jobs at Skyzone, probably forced me to use the most literacy skills. Before getting hired, I had to watch training videos and read the list of rules for the indoor trampoline park (which is a lot of rules). I had to learn these rules and be able to tell all the kids that came to the park what they were. On a weekly basis, we would have meetings about new facilities or sports that we were adding to the park so there were a lot of videos and documents that we had to go over.

It’s weird to think that literacy plays such a vital role in our everyday lives without us even noticing. Even sending and receiving a message is using literacy skills (if you’re not using the “texting language” that everyone does today). I guess it is pretty important to master literary skills because it seems like I use it a lot more than I thought (wait, watching a movie or tv show is really a literacy skill?).

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton