Final Reflection

     This semester has been an extremely difficult one.  I took five classes that interested me, but at the same time I found each of them to be challenging in their own way.  Teaching Literature in Secondary Schools was no exception, the only difference from it and my other classes was that a lot of the enjoyment I experienced in the class came from the challenges I had during it.
     Comparing this class to last semesters Teaching Reading with Literature I found them to be the perfect foil to one another.  One stressed the importance of young adult literature while the other showed how to use YA Lit in conjunction with canonical texts.  The main argument for canonical text coming from our text book Classics in the Classroom by Carol Jago.  Having just one of these classes without the other would have led to what I imagine as a pretty one sided curriculum, that might have stressed one over the other leaving students with a lopsided understanding of literature and its place in the world, past, present, and future.
     Our two main in-class assignment, facilitating classroom discussion and our expert group presentations, were two of the most helpful activities I've ever had the pleasure of participating in.  Obviously we were not in an actual classroom setting when performing these task, but I still think they served their purpose of preparing us for when we are in the actual situation.  When standing in front of the class I found a confidence that I never knew I had, sure I was nervous, but once I got going it seemed more natural.  I found this more in the discussion activity then the expert groups, but it was in both.  With the expert group I think I finally gained a level of comfort with writing lesson plans.  Lesson plans were something that used to make me very nervous, but after this activity I was able to see the amount of freedom you can have even when dealing with standards and bench marks.  I found the best thing is just not to allow yourself to become overwhelmed with everything you are trying to include, keep it simple and expand upon it if applicable.
     I really enjoyed this class and I think the knowledge I gained from it is pretty invaluable, I'm going to be holding on to the book for a while I now that much for sure and I also plan on buying Critical encounters.  Both books seem like they have a lot to offer teachers and I plan on getting a lot of use out of them both.  I wish this class didn't have to end I feel like as much as I have learned there is still so much more and I want the lessons to just keep coming, but I definitely look forward to using all that I learned in my very own classroom someday.