The Philosophy Of Literacy

Within my school teaching literacy takes place in everyday classroom. The format of this teaching varies to include different activities for each day. Certain aspects of literacy are taught every week. The teachers are to ensure that the work planned is appropriate for the age stage and ability of the children. They use strategies such as talk partners and small group work to allow children to develop their oral skills and ability to communicate and cooperate with their peers. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of effective oracy skills in the early years and foundation phase. Role play areas are set up in partnership with the children so that they can practice speaking Listening and drama based activities within a meanful context.

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

“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.

Teachers should be continually learning and assessing their teaching practices through reflection and collaboration with other teachers. It is the role of the teacher to use these teaching practices to develop in students the abilities and skills that will remain with them throughout life. Teachers should be role models for their students, to provide encouragement and praise, reassuring their students that they can achieve their dreams and reach their goals. Teaching should not only focus on academics but it should also focus on character education. Students need to be prepared to enter into their community and have the ability to interact with people from different backgrounds, cultures, religious backgrounds, social status, and values. It is important that teachers work with students to help them learn the skills of cooperation, patience, communication, empathy, understanding and teamwork, these skills are extremely important for the successful integration into further education, the workforce, family life and other social interactions. Teachers can achieve this through focusing on and encouraging group work, peer tutoring as well as games and activities that focus on social behaviors.

As I think what literacy means to me, the most important thought that comes to mind is my understanding of it: the ability to read and write, I feel that without the ability to read and write, mankind is unable to properly function because there is no foundation for adequate communication. So literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Everyone has some moment which have the potential to influence the craft of understanding that directly has the undying impression for the lifetime. As for learning process which comprises the reading and writing aspect, there comes events that helps people to grasp the authenticity of learning which turn out to be moments of learning for some people in a very inspiring and motivating manner. In this essay I will talk about my literacy history and how it has been developed throughout portions of my life.

Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.

Literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning from an early age, as it unlocks access to the wider curriculum. Being literate increases opportunities for pupils in all aspects of life and lays the foundations for lifelong learning and work.

One of the most eye opening experiences of my life occurred in the second grade. I would have never thought that doing one simple assignment in elementary school could change my whole perspective on literacy. My understanding of literacy was sparked when I had read my first real book. I remember sitting down on the vividly colorful carpet day dreaming about playing Mario Cart on my Nintendo 64 while everyone was obediently listening to the teacher read a book out loud. It wasn’t that I did not know how to read or listen, I just didn’t care. Reading to me used to be tedious because I did not understand the purpose of it. I did not grow up with the luxury of my parents reading to me because they weren’t literate in English, so I had to figure out for myself why literacy is vital in everyday life. My ongoing learning experience with literacy can be traced back to one simple visit to library.

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

It is my strong belief that each child is entitled to a safe, secure, stimulating and caring learning environment. I always believed that each child is a unique individual with much curiosity and many academic, social and emotional needs. Children need our support in order to mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. As a teacher, one should aim to help students in fulfilling their dreams to become successful and educated individuals. We must provide them with a safe learning environment for their learning to succeed.

Literacy is defined as being literate, that is, being able to read and write in a language. My personal experience with literacy began at an early age, at the age of 4 when I began to sit and read words and letters in the back of my mother’s car. Soon enough, she would bring me a magazine called “Majed” which, in the 90’s, was a popular magazine. With this, I began even more interested in reading and writing and reviewed every word in the magazine associated with each of the short pictured stories. It was the first memory I deeply recall of literacy and it was what laid the foundation for my personal love of reading and writing. The methodology used for this is an interview. There are three interviews which are analyzed and brought together in the form of a narrative. This narrative serves to better explain the emotions and thoughts that the interviewees had about the idea of literacy.

To myself, the definition of literacy is having the ability and means to read and/or write. Although this seems as though it is a stereotypical and common definition, I have found during the course of my life that this definition holds to be true to my personal being. When I was younger, I used to think literacy was simply the literacy book that we read out of during English class. The more that I grew, the more I realized that literacy was having the ability to read the book- not the book itself. While in junior high, my English course was referred to as a literacy course. During this course, we learned on what basis literacy forms. The teacher explained that literacy is not the words on the page; literacy is having the means of reading the words, and having the ability to comprehend what exactly it is that we were reading. Though this seems similar to cultural literacy, it is actually quite different. Cultural literacy is having the ability to comprehend and participate fluently in a particular culture, whereas literacy is just having the ability and means to read and/or write in general.

Parental involvement in education is necessary in order for children to be successful when learning how to read. Children who lack support from their parents and guardians often have difficulty advancing in school, and those who do have parental support and positive home literacy experiences often find academic success at an early age. Children are expected to become fluent readers, and a foundation for reading must be established at an early age with the support of a child’s parents or guardians. Reading activities at home and the influence a parent has on their child is beneficial for young children in so many ways, and at home, parents can reinforce what is being taught at school with their children in order to create a better understanding of learned curriculum and reading skills. Strong parental support in education is an important aspect of a child’s reading development because print rich

We need to speak to parents and ask them what is their need now. Whether it be to find shelter, food, education, and employment, we need to stabilize a method where we can assist tour families in their time of need. Our students come to school hungry, sleepy, and emotional at times, we need to yes ask questions, but we need to allow the students to communicate their struggles though their own process. Working with children that live in poverty conditions to have to have a lot of patience and compassion to their needs and feelings. So, we try and encourage parent engagements in our school centers to show parents, we can assist their interactions with supplies in our schools, shod they not have items at home. For I would like to Currently I have seen a decrease in the parent engagement piece with their students during this physical school year. I thought about incorporating key moments are past the family engagement activities in the children's classroom environment. For example, I would like to encourage a reading program monthly, so that parents can sign up for a day, to come read a book to the students, and gets in a wreck with their parents along their peers so that they can sit together we can choose to children to be interested in literacy. I think by including the parents to read in the classroom, they see the importance of literacy in a child's young mind, which is needed to be prepared for learning to read. When the students get to see their parents in their school

In order for students to be well-rounded, intelligent, and literate individuals, literacy needs to be seen in all content areas. However, there is a debate on whether or not literacy should be emphasized in mathematics classrooms and to what extend. In the article Reading in the Disciplines, the author states that some books are written with reading math tips because authors of these books recognize that reading these math textbooks require strategic knowledge and the tips help struggling students with definitions and applications to real world (Lee 13). I loved these types of textbooks as I grew up because I struggled with reading and these texts were easier to read and understand. Then I entered college and I noticed how unbeneficial that was to me and the disservice it actually did to my future college courses. According to the article from Lee and Spratley, “texts such as Glencoe also provide students with fewer opportunities to engage the decontextualized nature of the mathematics that students are more likely to meet in college mathematics classes…” (Lee 13). Therefore, we need to prepare our students for the writing, reading, and thinking required by advanced disciplinary coursework.