A Brief Note On Freebody And Luke's Four Resources Model

Classrooms are different today from those of previous generations, they have become communities of learners where students assume more responsibility for learning. As opposed to a place where the teacher is in charge the modern class room there is often a hum of students, talking about books they are reading and working together in small groups using digital as well as print text. The students are more culturally and linguistically diverse, many have English as a second language (ESL). This Critical- reflective essay will explore using the four resource model developed by Luke and Freebody, focusing on; how young children learn to read, the four roles within the resources model are Code breaker, text user, text participant and text analyst. This essay will also articulate the understanding of the three phases of reading and writing development. Phase one, experimental reading and writing. Phase two, early reading and writing and phase three, transitional reading and writing. This understanding will then be applied to an early years setting including and application of strategies for cultural differences.

“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.

Content area teachers can implement strategies and scaffold learning when planning and designing instruction so that students will actively engage in literacy. According to Dobbs, content area reading instruction includes: the information present in the text, and the instructional plan teachers use to help students understand the content (2003, p.3). Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz explain that in order to plan instruction effectively, teachers must be aware of the explicit and functional dimensions of content literacy. The explicit aspect of content literacy involves the development of skills and strategies that enable students to comprehend what they are reading. Functional instruction focuses more on the application of strategies needed to derive knowledge from a variety of sources of information.” (2014, p. 134). Forget defined literacy as “listening, thinking, reading, and speaking in such a way that information and ideas are processed and communicated to the benefit of self and society” (2003, p. 5). Content area teachers need to plan and design lessons so that students will actively engage in literacy. Forget goes on to discuss that poor performance in schools can be do to a lack of basic literacy skills. Therefore, teachers need to implement the skills and strategies found to be successful in literacy to ensure

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 Collaborative is high quality program oriented around rigorous instruction and purposeful teacher-student interactions. It is a framework based on authentic, global, and holistic language acquisition, which include both reading and writing workshops. Within this framework teachers differentiate instruction through flexible grouping such as whole-class, small group and/or individualized instruction. Additionally, teachers create opportunities for students to engage in targeted activites throught the utilization of interactive and shared reading experiences as well as tailored vocabulary and phonologica awareness lessons designed to met individual needs. The Literacy Collaborative framework strives to ehance student learning through engagement, purpose, systematic routines, data based instruction, and targeted interventions. Students are encourage to beome an active participant in their learning experience through student choice, open-ended question, and targeted

In every school across America, effective practices of reading instruction are being discussed. Calkins (2012) suggests that over 85% of students being tested on grade level literacy standards are non-proficient. Research suggests that students, who are unable to read proficiently by third grade, are not predicted to ever learn to read or have successful lives when they reach adulthood (Martinez, 2008). For these reasons, it is important that districts implement literacy models and instructional reforms that have been well researched and shown to be successful. The instructional reform method of Balanced Literacy is being used throughout the country to meet the challenging standards of the Common Core. Teachers will need

1. Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of informational, literary, and persuasive texts and they demonstrate their knowledge by using strategies to make meaning of various types of literary genres.

or genre of the text and purpose (Hill, 2012, p. 87) this would help John in the role of text

Reading is the beginning of every child’s learning. The basis of education begins with learning to read. Short (2010) explained that literature acts as “an inquiry to life” and a “way of knowing” (p. 50). However, in order to support children’s learning, it is essential to show children that learning is interesting from a young age. When Short first began teaching using worksheets and a basal reading program, she wrote, “I often felt that children were learning to read in spite of me” (p. 49). The students were not learning to think critically. However, when she began introducing literature circles to her students, she saw them “critically exploring their understandings with each other” (p. 49).

It is important to teach children about gender roles since it is something that society holds in regards, but most of the time in literature it is done unequally. The portrayal of gender in literature is based off of the expectations of society and places bias on gender. Boys are portrayed as strong, adventurous, independent and capable and often play the roles of fighters, adventurers and rescuers. Girls are portrayed as sweet, naïve, dependent, sensitive and emotional and play roles such as caretakers, princesses and mothers. The roles of gender portrayed in literature are often a reflection of the views of society and do not offer objective insight. Even though it is important to teach children about gender roles, the fashion in which it is done in does not allow children to see beyond those expectations. If a young girl is constantly read stories about a woman’s role as a housewife, homemaker and mother, she will assume that’s what is expected of her and will not know society will allow her to be anything she wants to be.

Teaching literacy is certainly not an easy task; hence, educators must have significant background knowledge and experience in the literacy area in order to provide the best learning experience to students. Educators must constantly promote literacy in their classrooms, especially when the students are young readers. For that reason, it is extremely important that educators make a great effort to get to know their students’ and their reading abilities, their strengths and weakness in the reading area and most importantly, to have an extended knowledge of how to teach literacy. Reading is the foundation of learning; every concept and subject taught requires some form of reading, therefore, building a strong reading foundation will enable individuals to become successful not only academically, but also socially.

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

All students are unique. Individual students learn differently, acquiring different vocabulary and comprehension skills. Literacy incorporates many forms such as fictional and informational texts. Literacy requires students to use unique reading, vocabulary, grammatical rules, and sentence structure skills to achieve the goal of comprehension within content literacy. The “teachers. . . must help students acquire the unique skills required to read [these different forms of literacy]” (McPherson, 2007, p. 65). Students who struggle within grade-level vocabulary and comprehension will most likely have a hard time grasping the content within content literacy itself. Students’ vocabulary and six major knowledge structures – description, classification,

Reading and learning to read plays a very important role in education. Reading is a complex and challenging process. You cannot just pick up a book and begin to read. Learning to read takes time and patience and begins with hearing someone read to you. This is where parents should lay the foundation, but not all parents lay this foundation before sending their child or children to school. After a child has listened to someone read to him/her for a while, then he/she can begin to pick up on different vocabulary words and recognize the word if he/she has seen the word while being read to. Learning to read is a long process, but a process that is worth it for every child.

Literacy is not only the ability to read and write, but a form of expression that can be used when the spoken word is not enough. Throughout my life, I have always had a passion for literacy, and reading and writing has always been a large part of who I am as a person. When I was younger, you wouldn’t be able to go a day without seeing a book in my hand of some sort. Literacy has always been a sort of escape for me. Any time that I was having issues I knew I could always turn to a book to take me somewhere else, or turn to writing and create new worlds of my own.