ENGL 382: Grammar: Theory and Practice
Enhancing ENGL 382 was honestly one of the best experiences for me in college thus far. The class itself was already fairly difficult. However, the enhancement definitely made things challenging. Regardless, I felt a challenge was only necessary to enhance a class, and it was for sure a worthwhile experience. For our project, we researched participial phrases and adapted a lesson plan series that could cater to students with autism. Our goal was to create lessons that increased elaboration in students’ writing but was accessible for teacher with students with autism. The article included an introduction with research, our revised lesson plans, and a conclusion with takeaways. Our article was submitted to The Virginia English Journal and Journal of the Assembly for Teaching English Grammar. We met weekly and at times, biweekly with Dr. Smith in person and then virtually during our time away from Longwood.
Coming into this project, I had a short-term goal of following a strict schedule to achieve certain deadlines during the project. My long-term goal was to develop more experience within the professional research area of writing. Completing this enhancement for sure taught me how to adhere to a strict plan. Especially when Longwood courses went virtual, my partner and I created a very strict schedule that allowed us to be as productive as possible. This made my skills regarding time management increase immensely. Additionally, Dr. Smith is very knowledgeable about research and professionalism in writing, so I learned a lot about this area and felt that mt skills increased. Overall, this was a great class to enhance, and I am looking forward to more projects like this one.
(“Autism Speaks: Extending Grammar in the Classroom to Students with Autism”, Bailey Nixon, April 2020)
EDUC 310: Foundations of Literacy Instruction
In Spring of 2021, I was involved in an honors split section of EDUC 310. Overall, this was an incredible experience, like many of my other honors courses. Since this class was not a full honors course, Dr. Suskind was willing to incorporate an additional assignment that aligned with our class topics but required outside in-depth work. For the additional assignment, we were asked to create 3 lesson plans centered around print or illustration features in a text. Essentially, we had to create 3 mini-lessons that would help teach students how to use these features in their own writing. As a whole class, we had done a similar assignment, but this honors project went more in-depth and required more work and reflection to create the lesson plans.
Overall, completing this assignment helped me extensively with my lesson planning skills. While the artifact I provided only includes one full lesson plan, I completed the same steps with two more topics. By the end of this project, I felt very comfortable finding the proper resources, using the correct techniques in my planning, and being able to reflect on what I had created. Towards the end, I felt myself getting into a smooth pattern, which I know I will easily be able to apply to other lesson plans in the future. Additionally, I also felt that coming up with creative ideas for the lessons became easier as I created them. The opportunity to create these plans demonstrated the importance of incorporating these print topics for students, and how it is also important to have a clear idea of the lesson prior to teaching it.
Now that I have completed this split section course and the additional assignment, there are several goals that I have going forward. For a long term goal, I want to continue immersing myself in children’s literature to keep gaining ideas for the future. Dr. Suskind did a phenomenal job with exposing our class to a variety of authors, genres, and styles, and I wish to do the same for my future students. I want to make it a priority to have an enriching and diverse library for my student. Also, for a short term goal, I would like to continue to improve my lesson planning skills as I approach my senior year. I want to ensure that I have strong objectives and interactive activities for students.
(Attached is a sample of the project completed, “Using Size and Color to Convey Meaning”, Bailey Nixon, April 2021)