Alejandra Perez

LBS 400
Instructor Teri Abbott
November 12, 2014
ELA Reflection
As an effective ELA teacher, one must be an excellent writer, meaning that spelling,
grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure is impeccable. Without having the basic english
literature tools, teachers cannot correct student work or make effective pedagogies for students to
learn from. I believe that students need a teachers who has had adequate English courses passed
with a grade of B or higher to prepare future generations. It may sound harsh, yet I know that
proper English skills are no longer expected of students because of new technology that enables
students to become lazy spellers, with a lack of motivation for reading. As an English minor, I
value the importance of an English education, because without proper writing skills, students
will find it difficult to progress and succeed throughout high school and college. I feel that it is
an obligation for teachers to begin preparing students at a young age to express themselves
through writing.
In my English 487, Professor Wenzell presented us a chapter in our class called Adding
English by Coelho (141-150). This chapter made me realize that interactionism has to deal with
children interacting with others and their innat (instincit) to want to communicate with others in
their environmnet. What is msot unique about interactionism is that children use the interactions
they have experienced and use those experiences as tools to accomplish some other goal.
Interactionism is a key element that teachers can use to their advantage to help ELL students
aquire the English language. By implementing group work in motivational activities, or
classwork, teachers can facilitate the English language to any student.

I feel most adequate to teach English and Lnguage Arts because I have submerged myself
in almost every English course that CSUDH has to offer. I puposely took several other English
classes that were not required for my subject field so that I can gain new information and become
well rounded in the classroom. For instance, my English poetry class made me view poets and
their works in new light by studying their methadologies and educational background.
A unique activity that I enjoyed in Professor Wenzells class was making a childrens
book that educated any reader based on our meaninful output language learning skill. Meaningful
output refers to the idea that children not only need to listen and observe. Children need to be
able to participate and orally interact with others. Meaningful output also requires positive
feedback to leraners. This can encourage learners to watch out for mistakes made and give them
time to reflect on how to fix their mistakes. making this book allows students to relfect on their
mistakes without feeling embarassed or ashamed, they can take their time to explore possible
solutions in their own time. My grammar book called In My Tree, a book about prepositions that
deals with an owl observing the forest environment. I would like to incorporate this book as an
artifact in my portfolio because I am very proud of my accomplishment, and it demostrates my
ability to teach basic English vocabulary and give proper examples of each term.