Literacy Studies: Strategy Instruction Versus Content Knowledge

Starting from the parents, the child must inherit the instinct of wanting to learn to read, developing the curiosity that comes with the increase of knowledge, interaction with others and building positive memories, that motivate the child’s learning to read. An approach that Vygotsky supported promoting scaffolding, a guided process that adults use to teach students how to master a skill, in this case a reading and writing skills. Children begin from the womb recognizing parent’s voices, singing tone for then building connections through prints and letter sounds in an environment that promotes literacy with stories, songs, games, group activities with families, “All about me” share, and “Show and tell”, to display and build a sense of belonging in the class. Nevertheless, incorporating strategies or methods that facilitate learning to read stimulated by own personal learning style. Most young children learn kinesthetically and are visually-sensory prompted to hands on experiences, using appropriate materials in a different setting. Foremost, with an ongoing informal and formal assessment to evaluate students’ pre-knowledge at the beginning of the scholastic year, students’ way of learning, feelings, and connections through the year, and at every lesson, check for understanding, and ways to improve the next step. Ongoing assessment is part of the whole learning process, it will tell you how the students learn, and achieve appropriate reading and writing goals. A good reader promotes a good writer and vice versa, but a firm stepping stone during the developmental stages, in rich literacy environments, attempting to positive interactive experiences, and always monitored, influences the chances of the child sense of wanting to learn to

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

Content area teachers can implement strategies and scaffold learning when planning and designing instruction so that students will actively engage in literacy. According to Dobbs, content area reading instruction includes: the information present in the text, and the instructional plan teachers use to help students understand the content (2003, p.3). Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz explain that in order to plan instruction effectively, teachers must be aware of the explicit and functional dimensions of content literacy. The explicit aspect of content literacy involves the development of skills and strategies that enable students to comprehend what they are reading. Functional instruction focuses more on the application of strategies needed to derive knowledge from a variety of sources of information.” (2014, p. 134). Forget defined literacy as “listening, thinking, reading, and speaking in such a way that information and ideas are processed and communicated to the benefit of self and society” (2003, p. 5). Content area teachers need to plan and design lessons so that students will actively engage in literacy. Forget goes on to discuss that poor performance in schools can be do to a lack of basic literacy skills. Therefore, teachers need to implement the skills and strategies found to be successful in literacy to ensure

Roehrig, Pressley, and Sloup (2001) state that teachers should determine what strategies a student might be using when reading and then assist them in learning

With the emergence of No Child Left Behind, the National Literacy Strategy of 1998, and even more recent the Ohio Third Grade Reading Guarantee test, it is not longer the norm to accept that a child may be unable to read. The Literacy Strategy of 1998 has certainly put primary schools under more pressure to teach reading (and to teach to the tests) and they have been doing so much more intensively since then. The National Literacy Strategy that was introduced in fall 1998 intended to play a major role in increasing the standards in literacy and reduce the lower expectations of the education system. (Wall, 2003)

A growing body of researchers claim that if students are not motivated and engaged in reading, they will not achieve their full literacy potential (Gambrell, 2011; Serravallo 2015; Warner, 2014; Irvin et al., 2007; Parsons et al., 2015). How and why would they read a “broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging” texts if they are not interested? Research now shows that engagement and reading achievement actually have a symbiotic relationship, such that they must exist simultaneously (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000, as cited in Springer, Harris, & Dole, 2017). As students become more engaged in reading, they develop an increased level of competence, which supports their literacy achievement (Irvin et al., 2007; Springer, Harris, & Dole, 2017). As students’ reading abilities increase, they hold a greater desire to continue reading, along

The National Institute of Child and Human Development (2012) was summoned by Congress in 1997 through its Child Development and Behavior Branch and United States Department of Education, to establish the National Reading Panel to evaluate research that exists and evidence of the best teaching practices to teach children to read. The panel consisted of members of various backgrounds, which included school administrators, teachers in their current practice, and scientists that solely engaged in reading research. The 14 panel members completed their report and submitted their final report in the year 2000. Therefore, the panel found and submitted a combination of effective techniques to teach children to read; Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,

Prior to this learning segment students were introduced to the concept of cardinal number words in math class. This allowed students to come into this learning segment with some prior academic knowledge about ordering. Each student had received previous instruction on how to identify key details within a text during previous reading instruction. These two areas of prior academic learning are crucial to build on my students ability to recall events in story and put them in sequential order. The students previously learned about the life cycle of a butterfly in science class, which is why I chose to introduce the essential literacy strategy using this process; it allowed students to pay less attention to each individual event of a butterfly’s life cycle and more attention to exercising the essential literacy strategy of putting the events in the sequential

Implementing practice, vocabulary, and content strategies can enhance and further struggling student’s content achievement. Although struggling readers often have a hard time grasping concepts, comprehension, vocabulary, and meaning, “Struggling readers are especially vulnerable to failure with content text” (). In order to build up struggling readers confidence, comprehension, vocabulary, and content text, “teachers' knowledge of content literacy practices is critical” (). The use of content literacy incorporates both “language arts and content material” (). In doing so, students often implement meaningful usage within content literacy and improve their academic achievement. “In order to provide responsive content literacy instruction for

Issues in Facilitating Literacy Development introduced the reading specialist candidate to various Case Studies allowing the candidate to reflect and design a sequence of reading strategies to meet the specific needs of students. The reading candidate became familiar with the roles and responsibilities of the reading specialist by recognizing a literacy issue within the school, creating a survey for colleagues, and analyzing the data from the survey to provide teachers with meaningful professional development. The Case studies and Survey Design project prompted the reading candidate to learn and apply evidence-based research linked to reading strategies, techniques, observations, surveys, and reflections to improve literacy instruction for students and teachers.

Literacy is one of the uttermost important aspects of children’s development. Literacy can be defined as the ability to read, write, speak and listen (Fleer & Raban, 2018). During the early years, basic literacy skills are generally taught through a child’s

My philosophy of literacy is centered on providing a learning environment rich in authentic literature, instruction that is engaging, fun, and balanced, collaborative, and also involving families in the child’s education. My ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to help children become lifelong readers and writers by providing the skills necessary to comprehend, construct, and make meaning of text, speak, and write. (Torgesen, 2002). According to the National Reading Panel, there are five essential components that must be taught in effective reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (Reading Horizons). According to Konza (2014), reading instruction should be changed to six foundational reading elements, adding oral language and early literacy. I also believe that early literacy should be

By the mid-1980s emergent reading/literacy became accepted among researchers, early educators, and reading teachers. Emergent literacy appeared as an ERIC descriptor and was recognized as a justifiable area of work in the conventions of the National Association for the Education of the Young Children, the National Reading Conference, the International Reading Association, and other professional organizations (Teale, 1995). According to Teale, the emergent literacy model for preschool reading instruction had far-reaching implications. Daily interactions between parents or other caregivers and children in the home environment were emphasized. The shift to an emergent literacy perspective in the preschool and pre-kindergarten environments meant that reading needed to be taught in those settings (Teale, 1995; Roberts, Jurgens, Burchinal, 2005). In other words, adults in those environments must be considered as the child

Teachers are not only responsible for their own literacy but also for developing and promoting their students’ literacy. The National Association for the Education of Young Children and the International Reading Association state that learning to read and write is imperative for success and the critical period for this development occurs from birth to age eight (National Association for the Education of Young Children). Knowing this, a teacher must first assess a child’s ability to read and write and then help the child to progress and develop his/her literacy skills. Since literacy in today’s society includes high reading comprehension and analysis and the demand for interaction via written communication such as e-mails and faxes, students must demonstrate their competent literacy skills (National Association for the Education of Young Children).

In this information–driven age, preparing students to read a variety of texts with complete understanding should likely be one of our educational system’s highest priorities. Understanding is more than just the ability to produce information on demand (knowledge) or the ability to perform learned routines (skills). “Understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one knows.” (Active Learning Practice for Schools, n. d.) A review of the literature in the area of reading comprehension of elementary-age students shows two principle areas of focus. There is a body of literature that examines the development of proficient vs. struggling comprehenders and another body of literature that compares methodologies for teaching