Teaching Students With Literacy And Lifelong Learning

in the first language, and it is the language that children begin to construct their knowledge and form meaningful communicative relationships” (p. 1). According to Karen Ford (2017), “Parents are also instrumental in supporting early language development” (p. 3) in the ELL student. With that being said, successful early childhood programs build upon the knowledge the young learners bring from home. Children come to literacy learning with varying knowledge; henceforth, the pathway to literacy is developmental. It’s the educator’s responsibility to assess and start where that child is developmentally and build on `prior experiences and knowledge. Educators must know their students as individuals, including their interest, their attitudes about reading, and their school and home experiences to provide robust classroom instruction with learning opportunity to meet individual needs.

Misty Adoniou, associate professor in Language and Literacy, tutor’s schoolteachers on how to appropriately educate children when it comes to literacy and using distinctive languages. Adoniou’s reading “Improving kids’ literacy - a little knowledge can go a long way” is about informing teachers on how to accurately demonstrate the parts of learning and developing all the right reading and writing skills to be intellectual and socially capable, as language is used to communicate.

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

“Literacy is defined as a social practice, meaning a form of activity through which we use text in culturally appropriate ways for specific purposes” [Kern, 2000]. On the other hand, Neilson (2014) argues that “the power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write, but rather in a person’s capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect, interpret and discern the intricacies of the world in which they live” [Delvene, 2014, para. 1]. Significantly, when these two perspectives are analyzed, literacy can be seen as a skill and a tool. Whereby, students, can possess the learned skills and still be unable to utilize these skills in an informative way.

As educators, we must be aware that our knowledge of literacy and how we convey it to our children is an essential and ongoing process that is constantly adapting. The importance of applying the student’s knowledge of language to literacy is crucial as it plays a crucial part in a child’s education, development and life skills. If a child cannot apply their language skills to literacy they will find it

Literacy is fundamental for student’s education in school. Reading has part of education for many centuries and teachers need to remind students how much reading helps them increase their language skills which they will use in school and throughout their lives. Reading aloud can improve reading fluency, increase vocabulary, and foster comprehension skills. If certain students read aloud in the classroom, teachers in most cases don’t look for alternatives to encourage the rest. Some teachers don’t model reading aloud to students, even though it can be a factor in promoting and increasing the motivation of students in fostering their reading skills. The main goal for teachers should be to create independent readers; students that can be autodidact throughout their lives.

Social Constructism also supports children in collaborating, sharing and working alongside peers to reach their full learning potential. By using language, real

Literacy is a student’s ability to read, write, speak, think, and problem solve with the purpose to communicate properly with others. A vital goal as teachers is to equip our students with the literacy skills necessary to successfully read and understand text regardless if they are reading to learn or reading for enjoyment. Teachers’ desire students to learn and understand the content they are teaching, however teachers must provide the skills necessary to interpret, understand, and apply the knowledge students are acquiring through reading a variety of texts. Students need to learn literacy strategies to become effective speakers, listeners, readers, and writers. In addition to teachers’, desire students’ desire to understand the purpose of their learning. Students wonder why they are learning what teachers are teaching in the classroom. When students have a purpose, it gives them a sense of ownership in their learning. Purpose of learning gives students a road map to their learning and enables them to visualize the results of their learning. A purpose statement also helps determine the teachers’ lesson for the day, differentiation, and assessment. In addition, the content standards initiate the purpose statement of a lesson, which the curriculum map outlines.

One of the first things children learn in school is how to read and write. These are integral literacy skills that students will build their whole lives. The question is, how do we properly teach these necessary skills to our students? As a teacher, we must understand all the learning theories to better address the literacy development of our students. Students need to have interesting, engaging, proper-leveled books to learn how to read. Writing made fun by teaching lessons such as writer’s workshops, creating their own books, and writing to pen pals, keeps students interest in developing their skills. When student learn the basic foundations of literacy they can develop their skills further and reach a high level of thinking. Literacy

Discussed under the section titled “What We Know About Literacy Development” Watts-Taffe and Truscott discuss what research shows about how children become literate. It seems that some of the most powerful lessons addressed such as language learning proceeds best when children use language for meaningful purposes (Au, 1998) and what constitutes meaningful language use is influenced by an individuals prior experience, culture, motivation, and goals (Delpit, 1995) are all beneficial in literacy development to both native English speakers and students learning English as a second language (Carrasquillo & Rodriguez, 1996; Donato, 1994; Fitzgerald & Noblit, 1999; Perez, 1998a). This research shows that if a teacher integrates different strategies into the curriculum, it will not only

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once described literacy as the key to lifelong learning. The concept of becoming literate has become a key trait that needs to be developed worldwide. Teachers are now looked upon as teachers of literacy, no longer teachers of reading. The strong need for literacy awareness has influenced the International Reading Association to officially change their title to the International Literacy Association. Furthermore, the International Literacy Association brought attention to the need for literacy instruction through their new cause statement, “transforming lives through literacy.” It is important for teachers to have a firm grasp of what literacy means and how to implement high-quality literacy instruction in their classroom to ensure success for all students.

As a child, I never had books read to me. It was not really part of the middle-class lifestyle in Punjab, where I was born and lived for 5 years. In Punjab, I completed two years of early education known as LKG (lower kindergarten) and UKG (upper kindergarten). The school I went to, although a high SES school, did not have a library where we would go to read picture books. Moreover, the books we did have for ‘English’ were a compilation of poems and stories, with very few pictures. Poems or story was read by the teacher, and then told the ‘moral’ of the story. Nothing more. Neither was there any extrapolation nor exploration of character or plots. Although, it was taught in school it was still a second language for me.

The last forty years have brought sweeping changes in literacy education with constant new information available on how children learn language and become literate (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). But the grounding for all progression, as asserted by Browne (2001) is that ‘learning to read and write are founded upon children’s oral language…pupils learning depends on growing competence in language modes (read and write) which grow out of their ability to speak and listen’. This is also advocated by Fricke et al (2013:280) stating that the promotion of oral language skills are a secure foundation to build on for literacy. The quality of the child’s language is determined by the stimuli of experiences and interests, from both outside and inside the school, which can be used by the teacher to support the child’s involvement with literacy by providing those interests with meaning and purpose, and by explicitly linking them ‘between spoken and written language in order to effect the bridge that is so powerful for literacy development’ (Reid, 1993 cited Riley, 1996).

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).

Prior to critically evaluating literacy learning and teaching approaches, it is important to develop an understanding of the term literacy and whether this understanding is relevant to current teaching practices. Unfortunately the term