Six-Geese-A-Laying?!

I must say that I was surprised to learn that there are SIX language arts. If I were to guess how many language arts there was without reading the text, I would think of the Fantastic Four: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. But when I dig deeper and think about my first days as a student, Visually Representing and Viewing played a huge role in my education. As a child in elementary school, I would love it when my teacher would show films and allow us to create illustrations to better understand a lesson.

If Visually Representing and Viewing were left out of the language arts mix, then I believe that we would be leaving artistically talented students out. If a child has a stronger Musical or Spacial Intelligence, then reading and writing are not going to be the first thing to appeal to them. I also believe that we should accept the two additional language arts is because technology is what shapes and holds our world together in today's society. Not only do we utilize technology for personal purposes, but we also use it for educational purposes, such as blogs like this one!

In my experiences, I can honestly say that my language arts learning preferences have changed tremendously over the years. When I was in elementary school, I was an artsy bug and I loved to draw and create what I like to call "educational masterpieces". In particular, art helped me to better understand mathematics. The teacher could go on for days about addition and if I was not allowed to visually see it or draw pictures, the concept would continue to be irrelevant to me. Drawing three ants and adding three more helped me to understand that 3+3 was really 6. When I moved on to middle and high school, listening and speaking became my forte. If I was allowed to talk my way through things or listen to solutions to a geometry conflict, my comprehension of that concept was improved. I can remember in eighth grade when my mom hired a geometry tutor for me, my grade improved tremendously. I even received an award for the highest math class average that year. THANK YOU AMY! Now that I am a college student, writing is my favorite language art. When I write, it almost seems that I can never stop. Writing allows me to execute information and express my emotions in ways that I can understand.

As you can see, language arts has always had a special place in my education world. And as I embark on a journey of a lifetime as a teacher, I will try to the best of my ability to make this magical component a part of my students' lives forever...

P.S. "Six-Geese-A-Laying comes from the Nursery Rhyme, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"