It's really interesting to take a look at your past instructional practices and realize that everything you have ever thought/said in the classroom (okay - mostly ever thought/said) and everything you ever did in front of students (okay - mostly ever did) was based on natural, evolutionary, "gut-feeling", professional reflection and not drenched in methods or theory coursework from college.
As I think about that statement I just wrote, I am thinking: 1) I hope my students don't read this blog; 2) I hope my professors from college don't read it, either; and 3) I know better than this - because I do teach pre-service teachers and want them to make connections between theory and practice. This is why, if any of the aforementioned DO read this, that I clarify my statement.
Clarification: Teaching is the natural ability to take theory and turn it into practice through job-embedded professional learning experiences which take years to internalize and even more years to understand the depth of those experiences as to master the art - the craft - of teaching.
Now, with that being said - no teacher is perfect! We all make "mistakes". However, the mistakes we make can be lessened if we reflect on what we do and say and think and then look to our research and our practices to improve upon our own techniques to ensure improvement moving forward. If we don't engage in reflective practice, we are bound to become stagnant, stale, and make the same mistake more than once.
All of this leads me to this theme's readings. In the Cummins (2013) text, the selections for this theme appeared to be a playbook of sorts for me as I am instructing my pre-service students. Every area from think-alouds to note-taking; from independent to guided practice; from THIEVES to previewing and predicting played out like a prescription for strategy and implementation. It almost appeared to be a checklist for pre-service (and maybe even some in-service) teachers to take and make into anchor charts for their own personal and professional use. Instead of this being a natural understanding this section seemed scripted and "if...then" based. Obviously, it will be part of what I can use for my students if they have questions about approaches in literacy instruction, yet seemed a bit of a formula instead of authentic teaching practice.