Literacy And Learning Across The Curriculum: Chapter Analysis

In Chapter 8 in The Best Practices in literacy Instruction, Gambrell expresses the role of Phonemic awareness, syllabic decoding, and developing strategies. Although there is not a best way to teach decoding to students, there’s a need to develop and strength their ability to decode and to teach phonics. She provides excellent examples of ways to teach rhyming (page 174) and phonic awareness (page 175). Phonics plays a vital role in the academic success of all students.

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.

I will be analyzing the Journeys reading curriculum by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to see what curriculum ideology it follows regarding knowledge, learning, children, teaching, and student evaluation. I am choosing this curriculum because the Journeys reading curriculum claims that it is Common Core aligned and provides scaffolding and differentiation to meet the needs of all students. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2014) stated “The unique close reading routine builds better readers while also providing intervention for struggling students.” This claim should make Journeys fall under the Social Efficiency

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).

Why do pre-reading strategies that activate prior knowledge and raise interest in the subject prepare students to approach text reading in a critical frame of mind?

Graves, M. F., Juel, C., & Graves, B. B. (2011). Teaching Reading in the 21st Century. Motivating All Learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Currently in Dr. Jeewek’s course, I learned the twelve Teaching Strategies for Activating and Developing Prior Knowledge from the Literacy Helping Students Construct Meaning by J. David Cooper, Michael D. Robinson, Jill Ann Slansky, and Nancy D. Kiger (2015). The twelve steps: discussion, brainstorming, quick writing, picture walk/text walk, semantic mapping, prequestioning and purpose setting, anticipation guides, structured previews, reading aloud to students, role playing, projects, and concrete materials and real experiences helps students before, during, and after reading the text. The steps help teachers help student to think and view critically before reading a text by connecting prior knowledge to reading. Ms. Parello asked the students questions such as: “What would you do?”, “What do you know by looking at the title of the chapter?”, and “What do you remember from last time?” Ms. Parello uses these teaching strategies to help activate and stimulate prior knowledge and it increases the amount of time the students are willing to engage in the classroom. If students engage in the classroom, the likely of completing classroom assignments increase, which will affect how much information students retain in their working and retrieval memory She uses steps the discussion, brainstorming, and

In Chapter 3, “Focusing the Reader” of Deeper Reading, Kelly Gallagher provides pre-service teachers with a greater understanding of the importance of frontloading students with background knowledge of readings. She explains through an anecdote that prior knowledge leads students to be “better prepared to read more, to comprehend more, and to learn more” (26). Without prior knowledge, students are unable to understand and retain information as well because, as Gallagher explains, it “helps you attach meaning when reading the passage” (27). Teachers should gauge students’ prior knowledge to the text before beginning with a unit to understand how to teach their students in a more meaningful manner. There are two key elements that Gallagher points out, through the reading of David Sousa, in how to frame information for students: “…be certain that today’s curriculum contains connections to their past experiences, not just [the teacher’s]… [And] how a person feels about a learning situation determines the amount of attention devoted to it” (28-29). These two points mean that: a teacher must connect students to personal experiences in order to bring to light universal issues in a text that they may not necessarily connect with on their own, and a teacher must be able to show purpose in the text that is “valid and worthwhile” (29) for the

Chapters six in Do I Really have to Teach Reading details strategies that aid students in focusing their thinking while reading, as well as remembering and reusing information in order to become an active reader. This chapter outlines the importance of assisting students in making connections and becoming active, independent readers, by utilizing a variety of tools and methods to hold thinking during reading. Highlighting, sticky notes, double-entry journals, and questioning are some of the devices also presented throughout the text to catch students thinking and assist in comprehension of different materials. As I read through chapter six, I evaluated what I was reading, and implemented some of the strategies Tovani discussed in the section.

Since I was a child in elementary school I was always interested in the sciences. To me it never seemed to matter what type; it could be space science, biology, or even chemistry that I would awe over. Without reading and writing I would never be able to accomplish the understanding that I have today about science; without it I would be in complete ignorance of how evolution and biology worked, or why baking is just palatable chemical reaction, I would have never been able to expand my knowledge outside of what the classroom taught me. I remember when I was still in elementary school all I wanted to learn about was the ocean, but there were no topics of discussion that even narrowly correlated to that subject; I was left

My philosophy is that I want to provide children with the best education possible. Every student has the ability to read and write, but all students are going to have different ways of learning. Some strategies will work better for some than others. It is my responsibility to find creative and fun ways to spark their want to learn. I believe to be effective in literacy instruction and assessment I have to develop strategies that balance vocabulary, reading and writing. I think with these three components including a positive learning environment that my instructions will be effective. I believe by providing students with instructions, modeling, guided practices, and independent practices; that

All of my observation hours were spent observing morning routines, ELA workshop, and math lesson. After having students copying homework as part of the morning routines, either of the teachers would call on students by the designated row to come and sit on the carpet for the reading workshop. The teachers would use anticipation guide strategy while leading the activity. They would begin the lesson by introducing the text to the students. Before reading a selection, the students were provided with a worksheet to read few statements related to the reading material and were asked if they agree or disagree with each of them. Both the teachers would read aloud taking turns and in between ask question about the theme, plot, characters, vocabulary, and asking how do they think the reading corresponds to each of the statements. The students were also given an opportunity to discuss with a partner as they complete the worksheet. According to Ortlieb (2013), the goal of anticipation guide strategy is to enhance the probability of learning through alerting students about what they need to pay particular attention to within the upcoming reading. Once the students have an idea what to expect within a text prior to reading they begin the brainstorming process of expecting outcomes; later, they can check their original thinking against what actually emerged in the text. This technique of engaging students in thinking around the text confirms critical connections that might not otherwise

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)

As an educator, I will concentrate on strategies that promote collaboration, cooperation, and communication. I will concentrate on reading strategies that help students comprehend what they read. Reading strategies such as, the before, during, and after reading strategy can be used for reading comprehension. I can use this reading strategy the first time a new story is read. Before reading the story, I can preview the story by discussing the topic, using key vocabulary words, activating the student’s prior knowledge, and setting the purpose for reading. During the reading passage, I will stop and use context clues to help students

Explicit instruction is important in connecting to prior knowledge and skills when beginning a learning sequence (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority, 2016). It helps to lay the foundational areas of reading and literacy as a whole in the early years of schooling. Effective reading instruction builds on what children already know, how students learn and on what degree of support they need to become successful in reading/learn and apply new information (Archer, 2011, p.18). Here the idea of scaffolding is evident where “the support provided by the teacher (or another student)…bridge(s) the gap between their current abilities and the intended goal” (Rupley, Blair and Nichols, 2009, p.129). It is important for students who are learning something new, to have the opportunity to have it explained, the opportunity to apply that information guided by their teachers and the opportunity to apply it independently (Archer, 2011). Through an explicit approach the responsibility for learning shifts from teacher to student as they gain confidence and competence with reading. Reading is not an automatic process and must be taught, “explicitly, systematically, early and well” (National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy, 2005, as cited in Hempenstall, 2016,p.5). Building on this, it is not enough for explicit instruction to be effective; it must also be efficient so that students can meet outcomes as soon as possible and are given the opportunity to apply it. This highlights