Analyse The Importance Of Acquiring Literacy Skills

“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 instruction is a large focus to the curriculum we as educators follow at Remsen Elementary. Remsen strives for excellence in literacy education and provides a variety of instruction literacy plans in order to support student learning. As stated by our district, “Explode the Code”, Wilson’s Fundations (grade K-3), Leveled Literacy Intervention Curriculum, and Literacy Centers are used with fidelity. Along with these primary instructional resources, interventions and supplemental learning opportunities help teachers to monitor student progress closely through a carefully conceived, supported, and sustained Response to Intervention program (elementary level), and the use of purposeful and comprehensive assessment and progress monitoring program (grade PK-12) to measure student growth and achievement. Furthermore, our “Guide to Response to Intervention (RTI) and Instruction” details our full curricula and materials at REMSEN, PK-12” (REFERENCE WEBSITE).

As I arrange this reflective analysis paper on topics that relate to a foundational course and specifically searching for the modules that have given me the most information, taught me something new or expanded my knowledge on a specific topic of reading, I have come to realize how far I have come since I began this adventure. I began these courses after graduating from Marshall with my bachelors. I chose this path because of my love for reading and teaching reading. I have come to realize that these courses have enabled me to become a more effective reading teacher and I now have been given the skills, strategies and techniques that I needed to teach a child to read. I know that I will always need to keep up with classes and new techniques, but feel that I am much more capable of teaching reading than before I started these courses. The course 653 Literacy Acquisition helped me to improve and further develop my educational philosophies and beliefs. So, I chose to speak about the first lesson that was expected of me in this class, Module 1 Literacy Theories, Beliefs and Practices.

“The more you read, the more things you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go” –Dr. Seuss. Dr.Seuss could not be any more right. It is often said that once you find the right book, you could go anywhere. Literacy is one of the most important things that a child could ever learn. In order to succeed in society today, one must be able to read, write, speak and even listen. There has been great debate over the different approaches when it comes to teaching children how to read. This essay will go more in depth on both approaches, how the writer learned how to read, how the writer will teach their students how to read.

I will tell you about the importance of Literary. Literacy is important because it helps us spell words, read and do more in life. I was born in generation iGen. Generation iGen is the generation of people born with technology. With generation iGen our skills are most likely higher in technology skills then in literacy skills.

Literacy skills in high schools are becoming scarce. Students have become more involved in technology and shortcuts rather than learning materials that he or she will need throughout the rest of their lives. Many high school students lack the reading and writing skills that they need in order to further their education and progress into the workforce. “The percent of Denver Public Schools high school students reading at grade level dropped between 2002 and 2005, from 40 percent to 37 percent” (Hubbard and Mitchell par. 4). The statistics shown for just three short years says a lot about our education system and how educators need to do more to help students. Years down the road, there is going to be a greater decline in students’ academic abilities. Response to Intervention (RTI) is an idea that has been floating around for a few years but it has never been in action. The major purposes of RTI are to prevent failure and to diagnose less apparent and/or unnoticed learning disabilities (King, Lemons, and Hill 7). College is becoming a necessity in America; therefore, adequate literacy skills are essential in order to achieve a college education. School administrators should engage in the research and implementation in RTI literacy frameworks and/or literacy programs because secondary students are not getting the literacy skills they need in order to succeed in higher levels of education or in the workforce.

All students are unique. Individual students learn differently, acquiring different vocabulary and comprehension skills. Literacy incorporates many forms such as fictional and informational texts. Literacy requires students to use unique reading, vocabulary, grammatical rules, and sentence structure skills to achieve the goal of comprehension within content literacy. The “teachers. . . must help students acquire the unique skills required to read [these different forms of literacy]” (McPherson, 2007, p. 65). Students who struggle within grade-level vocabulary and comprehension will most likely have a hard time grasping the content within content literacy itself. Students’ vocabulary and six major knowledge structures – description, classification,

Throughout my field experience this semester, I learned a lot about literacy learners and teaching/learning. From my final tutoring session, I learned that literacy instruction that works for one student may not necessarily work for another and that it is important to teach literacy instruction using a variety of techniques and strategies (Serravallo, 2015). First, I learned how important it is to cater literacy instruction to the individual student. I have learned about many great instructional strategies for teaching literacy but not all strategies are going to work for every student. It is important to select strategies that build on student strengths to support the student’s literacy needs (Serravallo, 2014). I also learned that a

Literacy has a huge impact over how students present themselves in an academic environment. The utensils to effectively read, write and critically think are skill that not only help a person in a school setting, but also in today’s society. Through positive experience with academic literacy, people do not only learn to enhance their reading and writing capability, but they will also be able to apply this to their learning development in different subject areas. Creating an exciting environment for student to take part in and become more comfortable with their peers and teachers is an effective way to aid students. Teachers have a huge impact on how students will learn and apply their academic literacy. Literacy also provides students with

Reading this chapter brought back many of the feelings of frustration and overwhelmedness that I have as a high school English teacher. It was fascinating to understand how literacy education has shifted from a “remedial” mindset

Learning to read is an important skill for all people to succeed in life. This skill is learnt from an early age through reading books with parents. Although children from low socio-economic families are not exposed to texts that engage them, therefore they are not becoming fluent readers (Ewing & Maher, 2014). Developing literacy skills is not simply learning the letter sounds and blending them together. When looking into the process further there is more to it including oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. These skills start at a young age and continue to develop throughout the first few years of school. Educators can teach these skills explicitly or systematically, but children need to be

Specifically, handling and reading different text helps students to recognize how different writings are organized, understand the purposes of writings, make connections between written information and real-world situations, and overall, understand different meanings and complexities of texts. Both websites also stress that teachers who work with students to teach literacy need a variety of appropriate reading materials that can be made available to cover the diverse interests of students as well as range in difficulty to cover the different material needs students may have. Teachers must use explicit and close instruction to work with students in an effort to be more effective. In addition, teachers need administrative support and professional development training to bridge the gap between cultural backgrounds and school literacy, make their content an essential way of learning, detect when young people are not connecting with text and step in and provide strategies that help students learn more effectively, start discussions with students that are real and can be related to real life experiences, and provide learning environments that encourage students to engage in critical explorations of texts as they thoroughly examine texts in an effort to discover meaning and

I would read for hours on end and still get frustrated when I reached a word that I could not understand or pronounce. Twelve years later, I am confident in my ability to read and write, and interpret language in a meaningful way that makes sense to not only me, but others. A solid education and the ability to read and write is something that we often take for granted in the United States, but it is important to take time to reflect on how fortunate we are as a society. It is true that a person can use the gift of literacy to make an impact in the world, just as I have tried to do by being a leader within my school and donating my time to charity. Knowing how to read has made me a better person and a better

In order to build a sound foundation for lifelong learning, we need to develop literacy skills so our students will read, write, speak, and view literature and informational text critically, analytically, and comprehensively. Our school goal is to provide differentiated instruction that promotes phonics, fluency, and comprehension skills and strategies to our students to read at or above grade-level to prepare for College and Career. Our student goal is to build a schema of skills and strategies to enhance reading stamina and comprehension that allows all students to learn, problem solve, and interact as age-appropriate members of society.

As my senior year began, I finally began to understand the importance of literacy. Just recently, my school held a presentation for our senior class and talked about applying for college soon so we can have early access to scholarships. During this presentation, I gave my future some thought, and went home to talk to my parents about college. My parents went on to encourage me to begin the process of applying for college and stressed, “College is a whole different level compared to high school.” Senior year of high school is supposed to prepare you for the hardships of college, financially and academically. After high school, I know that the real world will strike me with many duties and challenges for myself to accomplish. My aunt is currently