About this site

This product of learning was created for partial fulfillment of the Master's Degree in Reading Education at Appalachian State University, under the direction of Dr. Woodrow Trathen. These artifacts serve to demonstrate knowledge gained while in this program of study. All artifacts are directly aligned with North Carolina DPI Teaching Standards.

Reading Education Graduate Program of Study and Reflection


Personal Statement and Reflection

As an educator, I have adopted the widely held belief that teachers should be lifelong learners.  So, when Yadkin County partnered with Appalachian State University in a K-2 literacy initiative, I was excited about the new opportunity to deepen my knowledge about the teaching of reading.  I had no idea that this master's program would transform my reading, writing, and spelling assessment and instruction.  

In the first course I took, I realized that I had been leaving out one of the critical components to reading assessment.  After learning to accurately assess my students, I am able to diagnose and properly instruct struggling readers, as well as group all my students for instruction at their level.  Prior to this master's program I had a whole class reading lesson and some time for small group ability instruction.  However, after enrolling in this program, I stopped whole group reading and phonics instruction and increased the amount of time students received individualized instruction.  Now, I assess students' reading and phonics knowledge.  Through using the Word's Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory, I am able to determine where students' need to begin word study.  Now, rather than me teaching students a phonics lesson or rule, students construct their own meaning as they categorize and sort words according to their spelling patterns.  

During this master's program one of the biggest changes in my instruction occurred in my writing instruction.  Prior to RE 5130, RE 5111, and RE RE 5730, I used a Writing Program that my county had adopted several years earlier.  Students would receive a prompt on Monday and the whole week we would draft, rehearse and finally students would create the final product.  I would model one step on the board and then students were to complete that step with their writing.  Needless to say, writing was a drudgery.  However, after reading about and discussing the writer's workshop format in RE 5130, I adopted this model in my classroom.  I planned and implemented several units of study, including shared writing with the use of a wordless picture book, shared non-fiction writing, and a shared and independent research project which resulted in digital non-fiction books and poetry.  Using the writer's workshop model allowed me to seamlessly integrate a diverse selection of genres through children's literature which was used as mentor text.  Allowing choice of topic served as an incredible motivator for students.  Each day, students ask, "Are we going to do writer's workshop now?" in much the same way children ask to go outside to play.  Thank you writer's workshop!

As I reflect upon my current assessment and instruction, I know that I am utilizing best practice in the teaching of reading, writing, and word study.  Not only am I confident in my practices but I know the research behind those best practices to support why I am using them.