Target Literacy Skill

I completed my literacy field experience at Isanti Intermediate School/School for all Seasons in Isanti, MN. I was able to complete my 20 hour observation in a 1st grade classroom (primary), a 3rd grade classroom (intermediate), and conducted fluency tests in a 5th grade classroom. Each class had approximately 22 to 25 students. Also during this literacy class, I was also able to spend a few days observing a 3rd/4th grade classroom and a kindergarten classroom through a couple of sub jobs I completed. I need to note that my understanding was that 3rd grade was part of the intermediate program so I completed half my observation and assessment time with a 3rd grade classroom and completed a 3rd grader assessment. I am happy to say

All students need direct instruction of vocabulary, but it is especially imperative for ELLs. They need much more exposure to new vocabulary than their native-English-speaking classmates. ELLs need to learn cognates, prefixes, suffixes, and root words to enhance their ability to make sense of new lexicon. Beginning ELLs and more advanced ELL students should actively engage in holistic activities to practice new vocabulary because learning words out of context is difficult for these students. If they memorize the meanings of the words on a list, they will not be able to use the words in their own writing or verbal production until they really understand the meanings. When vocabulary instruction includes explicit, implicit, and strategy instruction, students are repeatedly exposed to the target vocabulary in a variety of contexts which increases their individual vocabulary development and the other resources that help in doing so is the Semantic Mapping primary focus on visual relationships, which is helpful to students from all backgrounds.

[The essential literacy strategy that I am using in the learning segment is identifying problem(s) and solution(s) of a story. This is evident through the Common Core State Standard RL. 2.3, which states “Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.”This standard is evident in my lesson plans when learners are identifying problem(s) and solution(s) in leveled text and their own individual books. They will be filling in a graphic organizer or creating an anchor chart with their findings this literacy is provided in my learning objective, when it states, “Learners will be able to identify a problem or problems by doing a picture walk of their short stories and flagging them with sticky notes.” Another learning objective

Another example I would use, would be a picture of 'Peter Rabbit' running, which could be an illustration of the vocabulary words 'wandered' or 'scampered'. During the reading of the story 'Peter Rabbit', I will point to the vocabulary word in the pocket chart and ask my students, 'what is this word'? and we will say it together; example: 'Trembling'. I would then ask the students a comprehension question like; 'What was Peter Rabbit doing'? A students response could be; 'Peter Rabbit was trembling with fright'.

Regarding the literacy program at my high school, we have very few strengths. We do not perform with an outstanding rating in any of the characteristics on the Literacy Program Analysis Survey. The characteristics we rated adequately in include direct instruction, teacher modeling of processes, differentiation, and opportunities to write. We are most successful with direct instruction; our language arts department directly ties direct instruction to modeling. As one of the two language arts instructors, I can say with certainty that our department’s approach to writing instruction relies on the teacher modeling thinking processes. My senior class, for example, just finished their first critical analysis paragraphs as an entire class. We used our SmartBoard to compose compelling topic sentences, to identify the best possible pieces of support, and to develop our skills in elaboration. Students wrote their paragraphs down as we worked collaboratively, and they kept these to use as models for their own responses to a new article. As part of our daily instructional processes, all teachers are required to begin their classes with brief questions about the day’s objective to which students reply in written form. In this way, students are given opportunities every day to learn how to organize and elaborate on their own ideas

Within the field of education, a continuous debate about the most effective manner in which to provide reading instruction has been on-going since the Johnson Administration’s War on Poverty Report of the 1960s. The primary focus of that debate is whether a skills-based approach or a meaning – based approach was most effective for teaching beginning reading skills (phonemic and phonological awareness), comprehension, and enrichment. (Frey, et.al, 2005) The silks-based or direct instruction approach to reading instruction focuses on explicit and systematic instruction of letter-sound correspondence, phonological and phonemic awareness, and their relationship to reading and comprehension. The meaning- based or balanced

Including new vocabulary terms in the context of the lesson’s text give students an opportunity to figure out the meaning of words using context clues. Fisher and Frey recommend context clues to

Young children imitate what they see adults do in society. On such thing is reading. Children will take up any form of literature and pretend that they are reading. To enhance and cater for this behaviour parents and teachers can:

Junior year High School English was a major moment in developing my literacy competencies. It was the year that Mrs. Beulah Harper assigned the semester long research paper on an American author, complete with a grammar rubric that would make almost any editor cry. On the first day of my junior year, upon receipt of that piece of paper, I decided to use one of my limited elective choices and signed up to take a Grammar class. It was the best decision I ever made in high school.

One third of schools in the United States are located within rural areas. Rural areas are known to be small towns where people are known for a southern way of life. These areas are also known for high poverty and geographic seclusion. With these characteristics for an environment, it is difficult to maintain an upright school atmosphere. Most schools in rural areas are lacking high qualified teachers and the school itself is failing to develop strategies to help struggling readers in early elementary school.

Using the bottom-up approach to disseminate the information for teachers and students affected by the Leveled Literacy Intervention program (LLI). Chen (2015) explains that if a “real world program is found practical, an effective evaluation provides systematic and evidence of the of the intervention’s effectiveness long-term and in the real world” (p. 400). Accelerating the dissemination of effective interventions and practices are indispensable to LLI and the improvement in reading achievement (Ng & Bartlett, 2017). The bottom-up reading model ensures sustainability of effective intervention or training and developed by stakeholders and researchers (Ng & Bartlett, 2017; Chen, 2017). Notably, it is the process of getting teachers to collaborate

At Brockton High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, the school put forth an initiative to integrate literacy-related instructional strategies across all content areas. This school-wide instructional goal has attributed to the overall boost to student achievement. The leadership team at Brockton High School recognized that changing the school culture would require the adults on campus to re-evaluate curriculum and instructional strategies.`Moreover, changing the mindset of school requires an examination of data to determine the area of need. The leadership at Brockton recognized that the greatest gaps in student achievement stem from the lack of literacy skills. With the use of content-specific information, literacy skills such as reading, writing,

The data collected from the students’ assessment showed they had a high level of comprehension in using the essential literacy strategy which has been the focus of the learning segment. The assessment is directly related to what the students have been learning throughout the learning segment. The students d had multiple opportunities to practice the essential literacy strategy throughout the learning segment. The first section of the assessment which was the matching of the text features with their purposes was directly related to the learning task they had to perform in the lesson one relating to the learning target “I can match text features to their purposes.” The written response section was directly related to the related skill the students’

My response from my checklist for an effective literacy program revealed that I am a very animated teacher. I encourage my students to laugh with me building a positive relationship. I found that my students enjoy my lessons when I bring in prior experiences. Modeling the lesson with humor capture the student’s attention and they are eager to participate and collaborate with the peers and teachers. My strength demonstrates that I model all my lessons and make them student friendly. I plan and model my lessons by incorporated and adapted the skills to students’ individual needs. I also teach cross curriculum allowing students to build from each core subject.

Although vocabulary is the sub-skill of a language, it plays a very important role in language learning and teaching. In fact, vocabulary is central to language and is of paramount importance to language learners. On the other hand, words are the building blocks of a language that are used to label objects, actions, and ideas. In other words, people cannot convey the intended meaning without knowing vocabulary. It is widely accepted that vocabulary is a very important part in English language learning because no one can communicate in any meaningful way without vocabulary. As McCarthy (1990) stated, the single, biggest component of any language course is vocabulary. Nation (1990) also affirms that vocabulary can be considered as the most important element in language learning because Learners think that many of their