Philosophy Of Literacy Instruction

Literacy Defined

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.

There are many components that make up literacy. In order to effectively teach students these components the teacher must model the concept for the students. As teachers, we can't expect or assume that the student already knows what we expect of them. Modeling gives students a basis of what to go by. Modeling is the first and most important step in order for the students to gain mastery of a concept. A teacher must also undergo guided practice with the students. A teacher should always provide as much guided practice that is needed. Students should never move on to independent practice until it is evident that they are ready. For example, I was teaching a guided reading lesson in my EDU 218 classroom, in which my peers were posing as students. The lesson involved the students to complete a story map on a book that they read. Although I knew that the students would be slightly familiar with a story map I still modeled the use of it for them. I modeled the use of the story map based on a book that I knew the students were familiar with. So when the students set out to complete the story map on their own they could recall and look back to the story map that I had modeled for them. It is also important to note that not all students grasp the material at the same time. One student could be ready for independent practice, as another may still need a vast amount of guided practice. There is no need to caution if students are not at the same level, unless of course if there is a real developmental delay.

Literature is a key component when speaking of literacy. Teachers need to provide students with endless amounts of practice experiences in reading to build their fluency rate. This should be done with different genres of texts and different levels. Reading a wide variety of literature help children develop rich vocabularies.

Phonemic Awareness is very important part of literacy. Phonemic awareness includes sounds of a word, the breakdown of words into sounds. It includes rhyming and alliteration, isolation, counting words in sentences, syllables and phonemes, blending words, segmenting, and manipulating.

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...on my students work so that they know how they are progressing. I will always be sure to hit my instructional focus on the children?s strengths before working on an area of development with the children.

I will teach to the objectives and I will teach to the standards. I will make sure that my lessons are hitting on as many standards as possible.

Working With Children with Special Needs

In my classroom I will make sure that the children with special needs are benefiting from instruction. I will pair this student up with someone who is capable of helping. The student will be getting my instruction as well as help from one of their peers. I will be aware that this student is a learner with special needs and I will teach this student at a level in which he/she is comfortable. I will make sure I am aware of everything that I can about this student?s special needs. I will be in a tight contact with the student and his/her parent/guardian so I can be aware that they are working with him/her at home. If this isn?t the case then I will pair this student up with another student after school, with myself, or with someone else that would be willing to give this student extra time.