I don't think my literacy beliefs have changed drastically this semester. If anything, with each class I learn more and more about reading and literacy. What I learn usually strengthens beliefs I have held for several years now. Back when I first started teaching, I hadn't given thought to what my literacy beliefs were. Over time, they came to be very much along the lines of Millers. However, I'm not sure what she means by the "gradual release of responsibility instructional model" from the fourth bullet in her list on page 17. To me it sounds like scaffolding. If that is what Miller means, then I agree with that point, too.
I have to admit that I sometimes find my beliefs and practices battle with each other. This was happening less and less throughout my teaching career, but seemed to come back this year. When I began the year teaching Read 180, I found it conflicted with my belief (like that of Miller's) that "Learning is maximized when the lessons I design are purposeful, interactive, and engaging, with real world applications." Read 180, while not scripted, is very structured and allowed very little room for me to design any lesson. The reading selections were interesting, but hard for me to tie to real world applications unless I was lucky enough to have the reading selections match real world happenings. Now that I'm teaching math, I find a little more freedom with lesson planning even if the lessons are not literature lessons.
With only about a month to go, I think I'll get a notebook ready for the upcoming school year and go through Miller's suggested reflections. As I stated, I don't think my beliefs have changed much over the years. That makes me wonder if I might be getting stagnant in my thinking or getting complacent. I don't want that to happen because in the end, it's the students who will lose out.
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