CIEP 206 Final Reflection
CIEP 206 Final Reflection: The Role of Literacy in Learning
Amparo Vélez Echavarría
Loyola University Chicago
Looking back onto my life, I always think about the time that I spent in elementary school. I remember feeling my heart clench as I watched everyone reading with ease while I would hide in the play area. I did not think that I was not good at school after I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. Every recess my classmates excluded me when I asked to play with them. I heard them laugh at me while they walked away screaming “what a dumb weirdo!” I learned to find refuge in the loneliness of the swings on the outskirts of the playground facing a slum. Every recess, I would go there and my eyes would be opened …show more content…
CIEP 206 revealed to me a new way to emerge others into a deeper understanding and appreciation of diversity other than through volunteer work and research papers. I realized that by providing students with literature that challenges their knowledge, they could experience mirrors of their own lives as well as windows into other perspectives and ways of living. By giving children literature new worlds can be opened, interest in reading will increase, and it allows students to adventure into new subjects and topics that otherwise they would not have experienced. The literature exposure that students experience shapes their personal views of others, as well as the society that surrounds them. As I shared above, my experience with books was not a positive one when I was young. This was partly due to the absence of diversity in my classroom readings. Both my classmates and I were affected by this factor, as we lacked tools that could fuel a deeper understanding and appreciation for anything other than our "personal bubbles." It was hard for my classmates to understand that my learning difference did not make me what they called “a dumb weirdo”. The lack of diversity in classroom literature also made it a challenge for me to understand that I could be successful in reading, as I had no motivation or role models that could fuel my interest in
Amparo Vélez Echavarría
Loyola University Chicago
Looking back onto my life, I always think about the time that I spent in elementary school. I remember feeling my heart clench as I watched everyone reading with ease while I would hide in the play area. I did not think that I was not good at school after I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. Every recess my classmates excluded me when I asked to play with them. I heard them laugh at me while they walked away screaming “what a dumb weirdo!” I learned to find refuge in the loneliness of the swings on the outskirts of the playground facing a slum. Every recess, I would go there and my eyes would be opened …show more content…
CIEP 206 revealed to me a new way to emerge others into a deeper understanding and appreciation of diversity other than through volunteer work and research papers. I realized that by providing students with literature that challenges their knowledge, they could experience mirrors of their own lives as well as windows into other perspectives and ways of living. By giving children literature new worlds can be opened, interest in reading will increase, and it allows students to adventure into new subjects and topics that otherwise they would not have experienced. The literature exposure that students experience shapes their personal views of others, as well as the society that surrounds them. As I shared above, my experience with books was not a positive one when I was young. This was partly due to the absence of diversity in my classroom readings. Both my classmates and I were affected by this factor, as we lacked tools that could fuel a deeper understanding and appreciation for anything other than our "personal bubbles." It was hard for my classmates to understand that my learning difference did not make me what they called “a dumb weirdo”. The lack of diversity in classroom literature also made it a challenge for me to understand that I could be successful in reading, as I had no motivation or role models that could fuel my interest in