Reflective Essay On Literacy

Some literacy issues are becoming more and more prevalent in recent times. In the day and age we live in; we have access to the newest data and notions regarding literacy in the current education

Reading is the beginning of every child’s learning. The basis of education begins with learning to read. Short (2010) explained that literature acts as “an inquiry to life” and a “way of knowing” (p. 50). However, in order to support children’s learning, it is essential to show children that learning is interesting from a young age. When Short first began teaching using worksheets and a basal reading program, she wrote, “I often felt that children were learning to read in spite of me” (p. 49). The students were not learning to think critically. However, when she began introducing literature circles to her students, she saw them “critically exploring their understandings with each other” (p. 49).

Throughout my time writing at the City College of New York, I experienced a slow and dramatic transition to my first semester of this college course. During that time, I've learned from several feedback and lessons from certain peers and my professor. Because of the strict comments written in my drafts by my professor, a few helpful suggestions to include in my writing, and a few miserably failures, I was able to see how my writing and habits have changed during the duration of this course. Back in high school, I was always comfortable writing only five paragraph essays (Introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion), but I've never expected to write something more complex. Here, I was encouraged to include as much detail as I can instead of writing something vague

The use of formal and informal reading assessments provide important data that allow educators to identify at risk students (Tompkins, 2010). The data collected from the assessments address any factors that may prohibit the development of students’ reading and writing skills. In addition to the assessments, the more an educator can learn about students’ backgrounds and their past reading, language development, and writing experiences the more instructional strategies can be designed to specifically meet the needs of diverse learners in the classroom.

My placement, at Alexander Goode Elementary School, is in Kindergarten and does not have a Science curriculum. While talking to my cooperating teacher, Ms. Gifford, she informed me they are so focused on getting behavior under control in the beginning of the year. Also, students enter the classroom with little phonemic awareness and prior knowledge to literacy concepts.

Being financially literate is important to me because coming from a first generation immigrant household, I have seen my mother make easily avoidable financial mistakes that would be incapable of doing now that I am an adult and more financially literate and understand the structure of life in the U.S. She bought a house from a predatory private loan firm that charged her extremely high interest rates despite her having good credit and poor financial planning eventually caused her to file for bankruptcy when I was 15 years old. Though my parents came to the U.S. for the American Dream, my mom and my family found ourselves in a nightmare where we were homeless and could barely afford to feed ourselves, which now I know how to prevent. Financial

According to Vocabulary.com, “Opportunists are people who see a chance to gain some advantage from a situation, often at the expense of ethics or morals. An opportunist seizes every opportunity to improve things for himself.” As I start every new chapter of my life, I like to take time to reflect on each page that has been turned by remembering the times when I’ve seized opportunities which have made me better as a person. I consider opportunism and self-motivation to be my identity marker because of how it shaped how I interact with my literacy sponsors.

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:

Writing not only reflects on one’s credibility in literacy, but also how America’s school system has failed students at writing in English courses. As a student, I would describe my writing as “honest, but complex”. For as long as I can remember, writing was always a tool that allowed a person to eloquently express his or her opinions, and analyze writing prompts given by teachers at school. Today, most students in English class solely attempt at getting a good grade rather than thoroughly understanding grammar and writing. Moreover, a solution for this would be allowing more English teachers at school to come together to improve the emphasis on proper language learning as well as the value of writing.

Children’s learning and development is influenced by their interaction with adults and other children, the physical environment and the philosophy and resources in the service, (McLachlan, Nicholson, Fielding-Barnsley, Mercer, & Ohi, 2013). Literacy-rich environments, need to create optimal conditions for children’s personal expressions of meaning: “What do I know? What am I thinking? What am I curious about?”. Children should walk into their learning environment and be enticed to explore the elements of reading, writing, listening and speaking, (McLachlan, Nicholson, Fielding-Barnsley, Mercer, & Ohi, 2013). Children need access to interesting books and materials – both in print and online. When students are provided with well-designed classroom libraries, they interact more with books, spend more time reading (or trying to read), exhibit more positive attitudes toward reading, and exhibit higher levels of reading achievement, (McLachlan, Nicholson, Fielding-Barnsley, Mercer, & Ohi, 2013). If children are not provided with access to interesting books that they want to read and can read with success, they will never reach their full literacy potential (Gambrell, Malloy, & Mazzoni,

One of the biggest milestones as a baby is saying your first word, then that word becomes a sentence, and those sentences become paragraphs, and before you know it those paragraphs become a whole book. Reading and writing are such an essential part of everyday life and they play a large role in shaping who we are as people. Growing up, I have had a sense of determination that has helped me to blossom throughout my literacy journey in order to be where I am today.

Literacy, according to Merriam Dictionary, means the ability to read and write. Everyone has the ABILITY to read and write, but that does not mean we are all good at writing. When I started elementary school in Edmond, Oklahoma, the first thing I learned was reading. My teacher would read to me and I would go to the library and pick out some books. When i got to the third grade, i was learning how to write in cursive and how to improve my pimnimship. This is also when I started to write in complete sentences and get into the “big kid” type of work. For me, I had gotten bigger and bigger assignments throughout middle school and my freshman year of highschool. My first real writing project was not until my sophomore year.

Have you ever played a video game that you strive to beat the highest score, but try after try you fail each time? Well, that’s much like my literacy experience. Paper after paper, I had been unsuccessful yet for some reason I continued turning them in. Growing up, I realized I took advantage of the importance of reading and writing. Eventually, I learned the real challenge of perfecting a paper during my ninth grade year in honors English. When I started the class, I was in the habit of turning in terrible first drafts as my finals. I was in a comfortable state with putting little effort and time into my work, yet still wanting to achieve a high grade. Teachers practically participated in this by passing me without helping me in my struggle

“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.

I wouldn’t say that I am a good writer, and I really don’t like to read books either. Through my years in school I became literate in these two categories. I was and still am not interested in writing, or reading books in my spare time. The only writing I have ever done is for school. Writing just does not interest me, and the only reading I do out of class is reading about sports in magazines, or reading the news, or looking at web pages. I have only read a couple of books on my own, 95% of all the books I have read have been for school. The reason for not writing out of class is probably attributed to the fact that I am a very impatient person, and I have a short attention span. I have no interest in writing and reading so when