The Importance Of Literacy In Education

As a future teacher of a fast-changing generation that searches restlessly for new interests, I believe that old and new must meet to keep the basic values of a balanced literacy. Focusing on prior knowledge, collaborating with colleagues, peers, families, and community, creating connections with our surrounding, and empowering students’ learning style throughout the process of gaining knowledge of reading and writing. Foremost, my personal philosophy of teaching literacy is based on constructivism and sociolinguistic, where hands on experience and guidance are priority in an informational world. To facilitate a child’s acquisition of literacy skills , as I plan for literacy instruction for my future classroom, I will take into consideration

Since early development, we have been taught that learning reading and writing strategies are essential for our own language and literacy development. We’ve used language to express our feelings and communicate with each other and literacy to become better-educated individuals and familiarize ourselves with problem-solving and decision-making skills. Specifically, in modern society, we apply these skills in texting, emailing, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with one another. Similarly, we use news articles, blogs, and e-Books as a source of reading material for academic or personal purposes. Some people may argue that they don’t read and write because they don’t have time and it’s “too hard”. Nevertheless, these factors equally contribute to the importance of literacy skills in academic success as it will be examined in my personal experience as a reader and writer.

Rayen enjoys listening and participating in literacy activities. He often makes personal connections to shared experiences and takes risks by sharing them in the large group. Rayen writes in a small group that focuses on sounding out words and recording ideas in ways that make sense. He has demonstrated growth this term in being able spell some high frequency words and uses them in his writing. Rayen is able to communicate his ideas and experiences through illustrations and oral discussions. He uses sentence starters to organize his ideas and produces simple sentences with support. Also with support, he is able to create a story with a beginning, middle and end. Rayen continues to work on consistently using finger spaces in his writing for

Throughout my first year as a middle school Language Arts teacher, I have developed a theoretical understanding of what I believe are the necessary components to providing a meaningful and generative environment in which students develop and expand literacy skills. The teaching of literacy needs to include a balance of reading, writing, speaking and listening activities, and needs to be a social endeavor that provides a variety of instructional strategies to meet the needs of all diverse learners. My teaching strategies, beliefs and personality that I bring to my classroom can be characterized as a blend of two types of philosophical theories: social constructivism and relational teaching and

While reading "Literacy Matters" it came to my attention a teachers role in the class should include teaching students different forms of skills whether they might be conceptual, literacy skills, or strategies that can be enforced in every subject. Being literate in today's world is important in order to enhance the students communication skills, knowledge and comprehension of our lesson. Effective teaching is when a teacher knows his/her content, can explain the process, follows the Common Core State Standards and differentiates their instruction with the content being introduced in a lassroom setting. Effective teachers must challenge the students in their class by letting them engage and explore with the content that way the students can

Everybody has a moment that puts their life into perspective; a moment where everything just clicks, but sometimes that moment can open up more questions than answers. A person’s life can depend a lot on their surroundings, but regardless of the circumstances they’re in, it is up to them to decide how it will affect them. One event could affect each person differently in such a way that there is an indeterminate amount of possibilities in one person’s life, and they will have to be the ones to take it upon themselves to decide. My moment made me decide to learn new languages, to learn about cultures, to communicate. I wanted to live in a world where there would be no hassle in traveling, no language barriers, and no discrimination.

The Literacy course will help you improve your reading and writing skills, as well as, help you to better understand different forms of text. Which will help you succeed through many areas of your life. Your communication skills within the community will improve, better job opportunities will be available to you, and your relationship with your family will also benefit from you having a higher level of literacy. I believe literacy is a very important part of a happy and successful life.

Educators are charged with not only teaching the content of their subject, but also responsible for creating a learning environments that fosters communication, engagement, and reflection so that the students will be prepared for their future careers and learning. Creating a classroom that fosters reading and writing is one way to engage students while promoting that they reflect on the material and communicate their understanding or misconceptions of the content. In order to form a literacy-rich classroom educators need to increase the amount of time students interact with all forms of print and literacy and the classroom environment is an essential key to setting the precedent and model behaviors that will make students more successful and capable of high level learning. (Tyson, 2013)

Creating a literacy-rich environment is one of the key elements of supporting children’s literacy development. Literacy-rich classrooms tend to look quite different than the traditional classroom, covered in pre-made posters and arranged with individual desks in rows, and instead, allow for teachers to design their classrooms with their students’ needs in mind. According to an article on the Sadlier School’s blog, all elements in a classroom must be meaningful, intentional, purposeful, and engaging when creating a literacy-rich classroom. This means that classroom design is created in a way that it provides frequent opportunities to be exposed to text via environmental print, instruction, and hands-on learning as well as encouraging communication and collaboration (Sadlier School, 2017).

Literacy pedagogies have a developing and complex history in education, intertwined with social and cultural change and evolution. Each change has paved a new path for more significant approaches and strategies, which cater to diverse learners allowing them to create meaning and communicate more effectively. These literacy pedagogies brought out by the changes in education have both strengths and weaknesses. As such, educators need to explore and understand the four knowledge processes portrayed by Kalantzis, Cope, Chan and Dalley-Trim; didactic, authentic, functional, and critical literacy approach (2016), to be able to consider how they can influence teaching and learning so they are able to make informed decisions with regards to their students’ literacy learning. Teaching is becoming increasingly complex; this is particularly evident in the area of literacy. This paper will explore the four literacy pedagogies, their limitations and their strengths, and how they have impacted literacy learning within the Australian educational context.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (Mahatma Gandhi). Learning is essential to grow as an individual and expand your knowledge. Literacy is key for broadening our mentality and a person will only benefit from it. For me, especially, literacy has been essential for my growth and the challenges I have taken on. Everything in my life has depended on my knowledge and skills that I have acquired, and I am continuously developing new techniques.

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.

Literacy has changed the way that people live since the beginning of time. From cavemen communicating with drawings and hand signals to the earliest form of Latin. At that time reading was a skill that very few had. It was believed to be that only the wealthy and the noble class were taught this skill. Peasants did not need it in their everyday life. Reading was considered a privilege and was also used to suppress the lower class. Knowledge is power. For me, this knowledge has molded the way that I live and communicate.

Reading develops a person’s creativity. Unlike movies where everything is determined by the producer, writer and director, books allow students to create in their minds how a particular character looks like or imagine how a scene plays out.

Children can learn about the world through reading material, whether that instruction is intended or not by the author, and whether the instruction is overt or relatively hidden. From cautionary, moral tales of old to modern “problem novels” and books for children about life issues, authors show and explain the world to the next generation. Matilda grew up in a family, where they did not value education or learning. While her parents went to work, she stayed home and was expected to watch TV or do nothing. Instead, she walked to the library and read books everyday. She learned many things from reading and begged her father if she could attend school like other kids her age. She read about history, law and many other educational topics that she could be learning if she was in school. Children are sponges for information around them. Children gather this information from a variety of sources, such as family, peers, and experience. In Matilda’s case, she learned the most from literature and Miss Honey. Her parents did not encourage learning and her headmaster was cruel to all the students, “…children can develop understanding of themselves and others through books” (Feeney & Moravcik, 2005, p. 20). Her parents failed to help Matilda or her brother excel in school or the learning process. Luckily, Matilda continued to learn through reading.