The Extent to Which Teachers Help Their EC Students in Regular Classroom Settings

Throughout this article, Gioia discusses that literacy is declining with people from “ages 18-24.” This is found mostly with younger adults in america. Dana includes that with the decline of literacy “It signifies deep transformations in contemporary life.” This evidence gives us the idea that without reading, the lives of many will take a turn for the worst. It persuades his

In today’s society reading is essential to function. Everywhere people turn they are required to read directions, labels, books, what’s going on in the news, or mandatory rules they need to follow. Just think about if a majority of the world couldn’t read how chaotic society would be.

“Oral language is a skill that is acquired naturally by the young. The importance of its development in early childhood cannot be overemphasised. It underpins the whole scope of learning and is employed to question, to seek information and to proffer ideas. A child who has a well – grounded ability in oral language will usually be nicely poised to cope with reading and writing. Anyone who lacks this will be at a disadvantage.” (J.Fellowes & G.Oakley, 2010, pp4) It is a vital component of every human beings life as it is a means of communication and interaction with their family, friends and

Literacy has the power to transform us. By reading we learn new things and we are more likely to express ourselves to others. We can understand another’s language, other cultures, and know the way others way of thought.

The level of a child’s communication skills can have an effect on most areas of development. If a child is struggling with communication and language they

Communication and Intellectual developments are closely linked together as a child requires the language in order to think and learn. If they have limited

In society today, people are judged by their level of education. Education is the key in society today. According to begintoread.com, today in the United States 1 out of 4 children grow up without learning how to read. Also at early stage of life the brain start developing and adjusting to the environment that they were raised in. In addition, books and education helps develop the brain especially in early age. According to the National Center for Education, Statistics shows that the majority of people who don’t complete high school have basic or below-basic literacy skills. 26% of prison inmates nationwide had parents who had not completed high school, and 37% of inmates had not completed high school themselves. Literacy is powerful in times of development because it leads to success in life and helps with solving a problem.

Children develop communication skills from birth. They rely on speech, language and communication to be able to learn at school and play with their friends. They need these skills to reach their full potential. Children begin to understand words before they can say them. They then learn how to say these words and how to put them together to make sentences. Some develop quickly,

Alvin Toffler, American futurist and writer, redefines illiteracy, while simultaneously redefining literacy. Toffler states that “The illiterate of the 21s century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who can learn, relearn and unlearn.” He redefines illiteracy because the context has changed. A couple centuries ago, only the upper class had the luxury of being educated, while the lower class didn’t have the free time or funds to go to school. Now, with the widespread of public education, reading and writing are one of the most basic skills. Due to the commonness of literacy, being illiterate is a disability and it cripples the ability to express. Since widespread illiteracy is a thing of the past and literacy is a bare minimum,

Since literacy evolves with changes in cultural communicative practices and technological developments, so too do definitions of what literacy is. There is some agreement on what literacy involves, and most definitions include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and sometimes viewing or visual literacy. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF] (DEEWR, 2009, p.38) defines literacy as “a students’ capacity to access, manage, interpret and reflect on written texts in order to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”. But why is literacy so important? Research shows that people with good literacy skills are more likely to have greater self-esteem, improved health, better jobs and higher wages than those with poor literacy skills. They are more able to take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer them. In order to acquire and share an important text, teachers need to consider a number of variables relating to students’, as according to Larson and Marsh in Making Literacy Real (2014) “literacy is grounded in social, cultural, historical and political practices”. In addition to appropriate literature, the NRP (National Reading Panel, 2000) noted that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are crucial for effective reading instruction. The recommendations were that all students be explicitly and systematically taught these five key components.

Literacy affects both the economic and social well-being of individuals. The lack of literacy skills is linked to an individual’s ability to obtain and retain employment which in turn hurts Canada’s opportunity for innovation and productivity. Inadequate literacy skills in the workplace may endanger public health and safety. People with low literacy have been found to be in poorer health and more socially isolated (OECD, 2013). Four out of ten adult Canadians, age 16 to 65 or about nine million struggle with low literacy at the middle school level or lower (Laubach, 2016). Even more alarming is the prediction that the number of low-literacy adults will increase to 25% by 2031 (CBC, 2010). Therefore, in order to stem these literacy-related issues, it is crucial that quality programs for literacy providers be available so that they, in turn, can provide relevant literacy training and support lifelong learning for low literacy learners.

Children rely heavily on the input of their surrounding environments to develop these skills further (Eileen Allen & Marotz, 2003). The communication strategy used by children over the first year of life is predominately non-verbal before development progresses to include verbal communication (Rodnick & Wood, 1973). McDevitt and Ormrod (2010) suggest social emotional, physical and cognitive development is facilitated by the experiences children have in their “family, school and community” (p. 5). This raises the idea that the level of communicative development may differ greatly between children depending on experiential exposure. Rodnick and Wood (1973) expand on this further suggesting children will actually develop a level of grammatical and language understanding which is essential to communication, long before they commence schooling. In research conducted by Rodnick and Wood (1973) it was noted in their findings that the children subject to their research demonstrated a lower level of communication than expected at around the age of seven and suggest it may be due to environmental factors. This then draws some attention to the educator and their ability to teach a developing child not only the importance of communication, but also the skills of appropriate and effective communication.

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations-something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.” - Katherine Patterson. Literacy is a right. It is implicit in the right to education. It is recognized as a right, explicitly for both children and adults, in certain international conventions. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and also refers to having enough reading and writing ability to function in society. People who cannot read and write are called illiterate. People are called functionally illiterate if they cannot read or write well enough to do activities that are common in social settings they encounter. Such activities may include employment, schoolwork, voting, or worship. The power of literacy is something that can change the world. How far has literacy come since the beginning and what is its history; what are the causes of a lower literacy rate; what effects can lower literacy rates have; what about higher rates; what are some ways to improve the literacy rates and; what are some of the benefits to a higher literacy rate?

Literacy is the cornerstone to all learning; it is imperative to future academic success. (Tracey and Morrow, 2012). Due to the significance of literacy instruction, there are a myriad of ways to teach literacy. Literacy is a complex subject, honing in on balancing reading, writing, speaking, and listening. As a result of the complexity of literacy instruction, we arrive at the age-old debate of what is the best literacy instruction. My philosophy of literacy instruction centralizes around the Whole Language Theory and Balanced Literacy; however, I also blend in additional theories/approaches to teach effective literacy.

In 2015, UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported that there are 774 million illiterate adults and 123 million illiterate children in the world today. Two-thirds of all illiterate adults and children are female. Why is this an issue? As the world’s technologies and innovations have advanced, the ability to read and write has become a means of survival. Today, 135 countries around the world provide a non-discriminating education for all. In the developing world, literacy is now recognized as a human right. When a person is denied that right, injustice is manifested. The millions of illiterate adults and children living in our world today are not only being denied educational opportunities, they are being denied the basic human right of literacy. Nine out of the top ten illiterate countries in the world are in Africa. Burkina Faso, in West Sub-Sahara, is the single most illiterate country in the world. Unfortunately, little to no changes in literacy rates have occurred for the past several decades in Burkina Faso, or in the many African countries with high illiteracy rates. Without the ability to read and write, people become trapped in a cycle of poverty, inequality and unstable and poorly paid jobs. Without the ability to read and write, women and children lose their voice in a male dominated, corrupt government, conservative culture. Without the ability to read and right, a greater division is made between developing and under-developing countries. Without the ability to