Today's class was probably one of the classes where I really felt an overwhelming need to reflect and process everything that happened. Of course I do think through every class, but this class in particular left a whole army of emotions and realizations, so much that right now they're actually kind of fighting for attention in my brain. But thankfully, writing has always been my way of organizing my thoughts, so this shouldn't be too hard.

When the four-pronged approach was first introduced to us two weeks ago, and when I found out that it was the same approach my teachers used to teach me reading, English in particular, it was really interesting to see it broken down and explained like that. I think I mentioned that in my last piece too, that if that was the approach my teachers used to teach me English for eleven years, to teach me everything from simple picture books to Shakespeare, and if after those eleven years I eventually chose to major in comparative literature, probably the mother of all reading majors, then something must've gone right.

But there's a striking difference between being reminded of an approach I practically grew up with, an approach that influenced a lot of my major life decisions, and actually experiencing it in the flesh again.

Experiencing that vocabulary-story-activity-grammar lesson-activity setting again was, first and foremost, like being brought back to some really, really great memories of English classes. That was what it felt like in the classroom, but looking back on it now, I'm reminded of our previous lecture on experiential learning, and how important it is.

I think the over-all lesson I took away from today's class, apart from the nitty gritty mechanical stuff about how to teach kids, is that when you're learning something, and especially when you're teaching it, regardless of your age or skill level, it's really important to know why you're studying that particular subject or topic in the first place. To the high school-aged me, what I looked at in the four-pronged approach was the lesson itself -- the words themselves, the texts and activities and what they could teach me. But to me now, what I'm looking at in the approach is the method and how I can apply this come LTS2.