When discussing the underlying philosophies of teaching literacy I would bet that most educators will state that a balanced approach that is rooted in the five essential reading components is best. This is certainly what I found when chatting with fellow educators regarding their personal philosophies.
The educators that I spoke with agreed that a comprehensive literacy program must be balanced in order to be successful. A literacy program should offer students time to learn reading and writing skills through teacher instruction and modeling and an opportunity to use these learned skills with an appropriate amount of teacher scaffolding until students are able to be successful independently. I feel that teachers should use authentic texts to not only teach and model reading and writing skills but to foster a deep love of literature, reading and writing in students. When students love the books and stories you are using to teach, learning to read and write becomes a pleasure instead of a struggle. According to Cooper and Kiger (2009), “The goal of all literacy instruction is for students to read authentic literature”. I would agree however, there are many steps that need to be taken and things that teachers need to consider before students are able to reach that ultimate goal of independently reading and understanding authentic literature.
As Dr. Donald Langenberg, a physicist in the business of rocket science said after studying how children learn to read, “teaching reading is really much harder than rocket science.” (Hearing on the Importance of Literacy, 2000). However, thanks to extensive scientific research in reading, we have deep insight on the five essential components required for literacy programs and instruction to be considered comprehensive. These five components are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension. The ‘Big 5’ must be included in all balanced literacy programs and should be the basis for literacy learning from the very beginning. Teachers need to gauge their students abilities within the five essential components and meet them where they are. Instruction is based on what students know and what they need to know in order to become successful readers and writers. By identifying the missing pieces and the strengths of each student, you are able to then differentiate your instruction to meet the instructional needs of each student. Furthermore, this information will help you to set both short-term and long-term goals for students.
In today's educational environment, assessment certainly has its place in conversations about philosophies. I feel that assessment is an important element of a balanced literacy program and should be viewed as ongoing. Assessment and teacher evaluation should be used as tools that drive instruction. Assessments allow us to gather information about our students learning and use that information to plan our instruction. If you don't know what your students have learned and how well they have learned it, how can you effectively plan what to teach next if there are gaps in what students know?
Even though philosophies are personal and are based on ones own educational experiences, trainings and time spent teaching children, I found in my discussions that the foundation of most philosophies is basically the same. Teachers want to educate children using the most effective practices so that they become successful lifelong learners.
If you are not familiar with the National Reading Panel's findings, follow the link below for information on the five essential components of reading instruction.
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.cfm
Here is a link to the Put Reading First Document published by The Partnership for Reading, a
collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education.
http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf
Here is a link to the Put Reading First Parent Guide to share with your families.
http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbrochure.pdf
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