Reflection on ENGL 4800

I particularly enjoyed this class and getting a chance to explore literary theory. I had very little experience in working with literary theory and this class opened my eyes to how literary theory can get students interested in reading and understanding a text. The aspect of the class that I truly appreciated was listening to everyones presentations of their final projects. Cassie brought up many websites that have real world applications for when I set out to teach in the middle school or high school setting. Working with the texts we discussed in class, I feel that I am more prepared to teach literary theory in the classroom. I believe that through this class I have gained a lot of new strategies for teaching texts not just through one way but through many ways that open students eyes to many social justice issues and events in their lives that they need to clarify. Reading is an important element in teaching and learning and by engaging students in it they will gain a skill that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. I really appreciated the insights of my colleagues in class and their opinions in addition to the comfortable atmosphere that was presented in class. I felt that everyone was given an equal chance to voice their opinions and were heard. I also got a chance to read three pieces of diverse literature that helped me gain an understanding about how to teach and why we teach. I will take what I learned in ENGL 4800 and bring it into my future classroom to help benefit my students reading and understanding of life and literature.