So Hyung Park Dr. Zisselsberger RE 219.01s 6 October 2015 Balanced Literacy Literacy simply means reading, writing, speaking, and listening. There are some purposes of literacy: learn, gain knowledge, communicate, form own opinion, understanding surroundings, experience, and pleasure etc. Balanced literacy seems complicated, but if you break down into each section, it is easier to define it. Before I took this class, I thought balanced literacy is just to learn reading and writing evenly. As “balance” means equal and even, I thought it is learning equally not focusing on one thing too much. My definition of balanced literacy has been changed and added few things. My current definition of balanced literacy is to have equal amount of reading …show more content…
According to Temple et. Al, there are components for reading. “Reading is the act of getting meaning from a written text.” (Temple & Ogle & Crawford & Freppon, 2005, p.7) There are steps to learn to read; first step is “word recognition.” This activity is that readers recognize letters and words. Next step is “phonemes” which is the smallest sounds in language. Readers who in “phonemic awareness” are able to know how to make sounds with letters. In “comprehension” step, readers are able to understand what they are reading. They can improve reading ability by expanding knowledge of vocabulary. If they can understand words faster than previous time and accurately, they are on “reading fluency” step. The last step, which is “interpretation” or also known as “critical reading”, is a time when they are able to understand author’s thought and mind by reading their words and arguments. National Reading Panel categorized literacy by areas of alphabetic, fluency, comprehension, teacher education and reading instruction, computer technology, and reading instruction. Alphabetic includes …show more content…
In these days, the world would become more and more cultural. Since phonics is important step for readers, teachers should focus more on it. This is a way to lead them to success on reading. Teachers are able to know how to improve students’ literacy skill; they should dedicate time to each reading and writing. They cannot focus on only one thing. Every part should be balanced for balanced literacy. They should equally practice for each section. It is very important step to be balanced. They have to incorporate reading, writing, listening, and speaking into activities. They should know how to make students to be active to learn new things. They get easily get bored by doing same activity again and again. It also affects for the adults too. It is important to try new and creative activities to improve their skills. Once they incorporate them into activities, they must make students to be actively involved into the lessons to improve their skills. Teacher’s role is important to the students because their skills can be enhanced or dropped depend on teachers’ role. It is hard job for them, but they should lead the students. There are some complexes for balanced literacy, but teachers are able to handle these problems. There are many things to make even. Students do not learn everything at the same time even we do not learn at the same time. Different kinds and different parts
Balanced Literacy is an approach for teaching literacy that is widely used in classrooms across the country. It involves several methods of teaching and learning reading and writing, whole class instruction directed by the teacher with independent work in reading, writing, and oral language. By integrating a variety of approaches, a balance is achieved in which students learning to understand text (from a whole language approach) as well as how to read text (from a phonics approach). Effective phonics instruction focuses children's attention on noticing the letter/sound patterns in initial consonants and consonant clusters and in rimes.
Life is like a tree, it grows and develops branches and leaves that come and go as we progress. The environments we live in determine which branches wither and fade and which prosper. Every branch holds some form of learned literacy from the end of the roots to the trunk and highest branch. Literacy encompasses many aspects of life.
Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach. (5th ed., pp. 12-286). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.
Being such a pragmatic individual (If I may be so bold to say), I often take definitions at face value. As such literacy for me is simply the act of being coherent in a field be it reading, writing, painting, finance and others. I view Literacy in the context of the English language as absolutely necessary: Humans are social creatures and we thrive on the interactions we have with others on a daily basis. Writing and language as a whole is an essential tool in the toolbox of life. While I would not consider myself a ‘bookworm’ or an avid reader, I do enjoy a good book from time to time. Much of my fondness towards reading is a direct result of the active role my parents took in my English education from youth. Had they not weaned me onto books that were both denser and more elaborate as the years went by, I probably would have a strong aversion to reading literature. Writing literature however is a different affair. My relationship with writing is fragile at best. I enjoy the concept of writing, especially of stories. In fact, one of my most enjoyable pastimes is creating names of books and imagining the plot never to
Literacy is the ability to perceive, interpret, internalize, react to language in a fluent and automatic way. It encompasses all facets of language including speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Whereas someone might be verbally literate with a language, full literacy requires a level of fluency across the spectrum. As Cushing & Weigele point out there is a big difference between speaking and listening. And while neither presupposes nor is more important than the other, they are both necessary for full literacy. Furthermore, literacy spans the content language that at least the specific participant is required to be a part of. For native speakers literacy develops first in the home with spoken word as a baby and then is slowly but surely honed to include the reading and writing components of literacy throughout one’s schooling. Conversely, English literacy for an L2 learner does not happen so organically. In fact literacy for an L2 learner can happen eventually, despite the many challenges of language acquisition including their literacy in their L1.
"Soliday tells us that "the plot of a literacy story tells what happens when we acquire language, either spoken or written." This seems like it should be a natural process but she suggests that when we treat learning as a foreign process, something to be analyzed and deciphered, we can better "explore the profound cultural force language exerts in [our] everyday lives." Based on her article and on your own experience, what do we gain when we consider our literacies as processes worthy of closer examination?"
The five key elements are one, Phonemic Awareness. This is when a teacher helps children to learn how to manipulate sounds in our language and this helps children to learn how to read. Phonemic Awareness can help to improve a student’s reading, and spelling. With this type of training the effects on a child’s reading will last long after training is over. The second key is Phonics. Phonics has many positive benefits for children in elementary schools from kindergarten up to the sixth grade level. Phonics helps children who struggle with learning how to read by teaching them how to spell, comprehend what they are reading, and by showing them how to decode words. The third key is Vocabulary. Vocabulary is important when children are learning how to comprehend what they are reading. Showing children, the same vocabulary words by using repetition will help them to remember the words. The fourth key is comprehension. Comprehension is when a child’s understanding of comprehension is improved when teachers use different techniques such as generating questions, answering questions, and summarizing what they are
My relationship with literacy began when I started elementary school and that was the first starting point of my positive relationship with literacy. I really started to grow as a reader and writer throughout my middle school and high school years. Throughout my years of going to school I had many positive experiences that shaped my view of literacy today. My literacy skills have also enhanced throughout my educational years.
Reading is an important element of a person’s life that is used in our lives on a daily basis for many things whether a person is reading an electric bill or reading a recipe book to help them prepare a meal for dinner. This is why it is necessary to help students learn how to read, as people will need it for many things. There are five building blocks for teaching children to read and they are phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. It is important that the children you are teaching learn these building blocks because this is what helps them to become successful readers.
Literary Essay It was in kindergarten that my mind was first exposed to literacy. I remember walking in waiting for the day that I would learn how to read and write my own name. When I learned my first basic words, my mind exploded with excitement. I suddenly wanted to read everything I could get my hands on. As we got further into the year we were told to cut letters out of newspapers and create a story with them in our journal.
As a teacher, you need to encourage all attempts at reading, writing, speaking, and allowing children to experience the different functions and use of literacy activity (The Access Center, n.d.). Moreover, it is crucial for educators to understand phonological awareness and phonics; know what constitutes good children’s literature and how to use it; know children who need additional assistance with beginning reading and writing (Cunningham et al, 2004 as cited in McLachlan et al, 2013, p. 112). Educators also need to plan effective activities to assist children experience reading aloud, listening to other children read aloud, listening to tape recordings, and videotapes so children have opportunities to integrate and extend their literacy knowledge (The Access Center, n.d.). Morrow (1990 as cited in The Access Center, n.d.) notes that classroom with greater teacher facilitation promote literacy behaviours, so it is educators’ role to provide literacy rich
The world around us is constantly changing and technology has a lot of impact on the rapid changes. This is one of the reasons why it is hard to give a specific definition of the word literacy. Literacy can be broken down into two main subcategories: literate and illiterate. One of the main discussions with this is what qualifications or qualities separate someone who is literate from someone who is illiterate. Historians have been researching literacy for the past five decades and have been trying to come up with a fixed definition of the word. To me, literacy is a very complex word as the definition has evolved over time, but in the end it is how one excels in their discourse(s), which have changed throughout the years and helped create their
How can what we know about the development of readers inform reading comprehension instruction? Reading instruction typically starts in kindergarten with the alphabetic principle, simple word blending, and sight word recognition. Texts read by early readers usually include very little to comprehend. As children develop reading ability, they are able read more complex texts requiring greater comprehension skills. Separate and explicit instruction in reading comprehension is crucial because the ability to comprehend develops in its own right, independent of word recognition. The ability to read words and sentences is clearly important, but as readers develop, these skills are less and less closely correlated with comprehension abilities. (Aarnoutse & van Leeuwe, 2000) While no one would argue that word blending and sight word reading skills be omitted from early reading instruction, vocabulary and listening comprehension may be at least as important in achieving the even...