Blog #1--Philosophy of Teaching Literacy

In discussing teaching literacy with a first grade in Jeffco Schools this week, we feel the most important aspects of teaching literacy include a comprehensive, balanced, and differentiated program of instruction. This program would include the five critical elements of a comprehensive, research-based literacy curriculum which are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text-comprehension instruction. Furthermore, the curriculum would be balanced between a whole-language and phonics approach to teaching reading in a differentiated instructional atmosphere intended to recognize students from varying backgrounds, readiness levels, language bases, as well as interest areas. The overall intent of this type of approach to teaching literacy is to meet the differentiating needs of each student in order to maximize student growth and individual sucess in the learning process.

The following is a more detailed explanation for the five critical elements of a comprehensive program as mentioned above:

1. Phonemic awareness instruction consists of teaching students to be able to notice, think about, and work with the sounds of the spoken language;
2. Phonics instruction teaches children to associate and relate certain sounds of our spoken language with certain letters in our written language;
3. Fluency instruction teaches children to be able to read a text accurately and quickly;
4. Vocabulary instruction enables students to enlarge both their reading and listening vocabularies while also increasing their fluency;
5. Text-comprehension instruction provides learners with the foundation for understanding what they are reading (Armbruster, et al, 2001).

The above referenced elements are appropriate for whole group, individual, and/or cooperative group teaching.

Next, I would like to address the concept of a balanced and flexible literacy approach. Students should experience a wide variety of learning techniques (i.e. whole group, cooperative, individual, etc.), various models of instructional methods, as well as a wide range of literature and writing genres. Most importantly, students should learn within a flexible and literature rich environment intended for maximum student achievement. Remember, flexible grouping of students within the literacy program needs to be consistently used.

Lastly, in regards to the differentiation of literacy instruction, the following guidelines are helpful in assisting teachers to meet the needs of all students in the comprehensive reading and writing program:

• Clarify the key concepts to ensure that all learners will gain powerful understandings that serve as a foundation for their future learning;
• Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend versus merely measuring instruction;
• Emphasize critical and creative thinking as a goal in your lesson design;
• Make your instruction engaging as this is essential to student learning;
• And, be certain to provide a balance between teacher-assigned and student-selected tasks.

Differentiation is a topic which I feel passionately about and believe is most crucial to enabling every student in the literacy program to be successful. Excellent readers are productive and on their way to becoming life-long learners both in and out of the classroom.

In closing, my personal philosophy of teaching literacy includes a comprehensive, balanced, and differentiated program. I believe every teacher can achieve this goal by continuing his/her own professional development to include today's best literacy teaching practices. These techniques can be used in various ways within every grade level whether kindergarten, middle school, or high school by tailoring components to meet the needs of students of all ages in any subject. Welcome to success!

Armbruster, B. B., et al (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks of Reading Instruction. Retrieved May 6, 2009, from the National Institute of Literacy Web site.