Essay on Wk7Assgn7NixL

“The more you read, the more things you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This is how Dr. Seuss thought of reading, and I think of it in much the same way. Literacy is everywhere and influences us every day, therefore, it plays a major part in each of our lives. I believe that reading is an interactive activity in which learning happens, or as Clay (2001) defines it, “…a message-getting, problem-solving activity” (p. 1). Reading is the process through which one reads information and from doing so, constructs meaning about the material. The more exposure and practice one has with reading, the more knowledge one gains. In this paper, I will begin by discussing my own personal educational philosophy, then continue by stating and explaining four of my beliefs about the reading process and the research that is found to support each of them before sharing the remaining questions I have about literacy. I am an existentialist, and a strong supporter of a balanced literacy approach. My beliefs about literacy come from these foundations and perspectives that I embrace. For students to be successful in their literacy development, I believe that identity acceptance in the classroom is crucial, instruction for all students must be differentiated, direct and explicit instruction is at times necessary, and vocabulary is a significant component in the ‘Big Five’ of children’s literacy development.

Literacy Collaborative is high quality program oriented around rigorous instruction and purposeful teacher-student interactions. It is a framework based on authentic, global, and holistic language acquisition, which include both reading and writing workshops. Within this framework teachers differentiate instruction through flexible grouping such as whole-class, small group and/or individualized instruction. Additionally, teachers create opportunities for students to engage in targeted activites throught the utilization of interactive and shared reading experiences as well as tailored vocabulary and phonologica awareness lessons designed to met individual needs. The Literacy Collaborative framework strives to ehance student learning through engagement, purpose, systematic routines, data based instruction, and targeted interventions. Students are encourage to beome an active participant in their learning experience through student choice, open-ended question, and targeted

“Candidates create and engage their students in literacy practices that develop awareness, understanding, respect, and a valuing of differences in our society.” (International Literacy Association, 2016).

Research indicates that among students, poor readers evolve into poor thinkers, devoid of strategies to structure the writing assignments that contribute to academic success (Alfassi, 2004, p.1), and teachers who fail to model effective literacy strategies to their students, simply compound the problem. For educators attempting to meet the diverse range of learning needs, the ever increasing number of students with learning difficulties is overwhelming. The decisions regarding the types of interventions and the limited research on numerous strategies currently available are both misleading and confusing. However Walker, (2004) warn that reliance on untested methods and dependence on strategies that have limited evidence have resulted in unrealistic and unreasonable expectations for students. Significantly whilst there has been an exponential increase in research evidence collected around many popular interventions, there is very little

Literacy coach will provide additional resources to teachers if needed. Literacy night will be held in the school’s cafeteria and media center. Parents will be guided to the cafeteria to obtained information about grade levels breakout sessions. In the breakout sessions, the grade levels will introduce the five pillars of reading. The educators will also present resources, strategies, and materials that can be incorporated for student growth in reading comprehension. Educators will read a story to the parents and students and conduct a mini lesson that will include activities. The goal of the breakout sessions will be to provide knowledge and utilization of reading strategies in all subjects. Literacy night will connect our sunshine community in coming together to increase authentic engagement and student achievement. Let’s all work together in assembling a brighter future for our

Graves, M. F., Juel, C., & Graves, B. B. (2011). Teaching Reading in the 21st Century. Motivating All Learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

The Literacy Collaborative program strives to utilize purposeful, explicit, and guided instruction designed to ensure learner independence. The program provides opportunities for students to engage in authentic, collaborative, and holistic language acquisition through the use of high quality rigorous cross circular instruction. The program is structured within a framework that allows educators to create a dynamic learning environment that allows for flexible grouping, collaboration, and actively involving students in the learning process. Moreover, “teachers engage students in a selection of specified activities, including interactive read-aloud, shared-reading experiences, targeted vocabulary and phonics lessons, guided reading and writing

The fourth element of my philosophy of literacy education is the importance of teaching literacy through bringing relevance, to establish a deep link between the students and the content. My student population is comprised of an array of diverse backgrounds, all coming together in my classroom. Literacy achievement of students of diverse backgrounds can be strengthened by moving from a mainstream orientation to a more diverse orientation, giving greater consideration to issues of ethnicity, primary language, and social class (Au, 1998). Themes in constructivist work encourage creating relevant learning experiences for students as a central part of literacy acquisition, including

At Brockton High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, the school put forth an initiative to integrate literacy-related instructional strategies across all content areas. This school-wide instructional goal has attributed to the overall boost to student achievement. The leadership team at Brockton High School recognized that changing the school culture would require the adults on campus to re-evaluate curriculum and instructional strategies.`Moreover, changing the mindset of school requires an examination of data to determine the area of need. The leadership at Brockton recognized that the greatest gaps in student achievement stem from the lack of literacy skills. With the use of content-specific information, literacy skills such as reading, writing,

This chapter discusses the different ways to integrate literacy across different disciplines. Not only is this beneficial but its crucial to promote learning literacy across many different subjects. Now I would have to say that this chapter is easily one of my favorites yet. It gives explicit detail about how to create a lesson that is interdisciplinary. In order to do this one first must recognize the importance of reading and writing. These two disciplines are taught together because they work synergistically. Teacher can often times find different types of text to accommodate instruction of different subjects such as science and social studies. Texts can come from multiple different origins such as poems, magazines, and videos. On that same page, writing can be used as a path for learning. Writing can be done in class of various subjects using learning logs, quick writing, and graphic organizers. These tools are beneficial to begin a unit of study in the classroom. Then when student have begun their unit of study and have learned new information there are multiple different ways to assess the students knowledge. They can show what they have learned through writing about it. This can include reports, poetry, posters, and alphabet books. Another

Literacy: Brynlee approaches learning situations with a positive attitude and persistence. She is able to use sentence starters to help convey her ideas. Brynlee is also able to use ‘and’ in her writing to connect her ideas. She is encouraged to consistently use finger spaces in her writing to make is easier to read. She has a popsicle stick to use as a physical reminder to help organize her work. She is beginning to expand her writing by adding details. For example, when writing about our lunch she wrote, “I have a hot rod it is red”. She is also encouraged to consistently use lowercase letters inside her sentences. Brynlee has an alphabet visual on her desk as a reminder. She is also in a group for literacy that focuses on sight words and word families, which will support her in further developing her reading and writing. When reading, Brynlee is able to sound out her words and communicate her comprehension skills. She would benefit from using RAZ Kids to further develop her reading abilities. Brynlee is supported in this goal by engaging in a small-guided reading group. We focus on using

Introduction: I am a student at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington studying elementary education. I am currently enrolled in a literacy methods class, in which, this literacy profile was conducted on my tutee, Jajci Johnson, to assess his strengths and needs in reading, writing, and spelling. For this literacy profile, I have administered running records, IRI word test, miscue analysis, Burkes Interview, a retelling with the use of a story map, Burkes reading inventory, spelling analysis, and the use of the writing and reading continuum. These assessments were administered to evaluate my student’s ability in reading, writing, and spelling. These assessments also indicated his reading level, comprehension skills, decoding strategies,

Mrs. Heaten told me her teaching philosophy has evolved, “not every child reads the same”. Mrs. Heaten prefers a balanced literacy approach to reading.

Educators are charged with not only teaching the content of their subject, but also responsible for creating a learning environments that fosters communication, engagement, and reflection so that the students will be prepared for their future careers and learning. Creating a classroom that fosters reading and writing is one way to engage students while promoting that they reflect on the material and communicate their understanding or misconceptions of the content. In order to form a literacy-rich classroom educators need to increase the amount of time students interact with all forms of print and literacy and the classroom environment is an essential key to setting the precedent and model behaviors that will make students more successful and capable of high level learning. (Tyson, 2013)

Creating a literacy-rich environment is one of the key elements of supporting children’s literacy development. Literacy-rich classrooms tend to look quite different than the traditional classroom, covered in pre-made posters and arranged with individual desks in rows, and instead, allow for teachers to design their classrooms with their students’ needs in mind. According to an article on the Sadlier School’s blog, all elements in a classroom must be meaningful, intentional, purposeful, and engaging when creating a literacy-rich classroom. This means that classroom design is created in a way that it provides frequent opportunities to be exposed to text via environmental print, instruction, and hands-on learning as well as encouraging communication and collaboration (Sadlier School, 2017).