SCED 4200 has been my favorite secondary education class. I have learned the most from the interactive activities and assignments in the class. I had not thought much about reading and writing in agriculture, and not only do I know it is possible, I know that it is very important. I have already included many of the activities in the lesson plans I have made for student teaching. In a lesson plan about livestock diseases and parasites, I have included an activity called "Poisoning Balderdash", which has the students guess the definition to poisoning terms like Alfatoxin Poisoing or Pine Needle Abortion. In another lesson plan, I have included a digital literacy activity about careers in the livestock industry that has students look up and watch videos on livestock careers after I show them an example of one. They will then teach the information from the videos to their classmates. Also in the diseases and parasites lesson plan, I will have them create a fact sheet on a parasite. I will provide before, during, and after writing instruction through showing them an example of a fact sheet, having them creating a word web of their ideas that they have learned about that parasite and having them use a rubric to grade their own fact sheet.
Additionally, I have learned how to make writing, reading, critical and digital literacy are essential to student learning. I plan to use critical literacy to teach my students about issues like global warming, factory farms, vegetarians and vegans, animal care, and other controversial issues. I plan to use digital literacy to have them learn about agricultural advocacy online and how to find out more about agriculture topics through online applications and using powerpoint, excel spreadsheets, and other digital media. I want my students to read and write more than they have in their previous agricultural experience.
I am excited to go out and use these strategies as I student teach and teach in my own classroom!
