Journal Entry: Analysis Reflection
Throughout this course I have learned a lot about myself and my thoughts on literacy at my campus. When I first started this class I had no real concept of literacy at my campus because we weren’t included as a physical education staff. I wasn’t a part of the professional development and I haven’t been pushed to help with the development of literacy. My self-knowledge was lacking to say the least on the concept of literacy and how to develop it until taking this class. When I performed the survey after reading through it I knew the one area that my school lacked and that was the ongoing, “formal, extensive” professional development in literacy is built into the school schedule and provided for all staff. I knew this was an issue on my campus because not everyone on campus receives the same professional development. I wanted to discuss and talk about how my position makes an impact on literacy if we received the same training. I think as a physical educator we never get asked to be a part of the literacy development but we do get encouraged and pushed to help with math development. “The literacy teachers should enlist assistance from other teachers and should include the physical education teacher/coach to encourage his/her students to read.” (Richardson, 2011 p. 47) I think this quote correlates into the point I’m trying to make that we could make a positive impact on literacy development if we are included in literacy development. My self-knowledge is lacking with information on literacy because we have never been trained in my district and I’m hoping that can change and provide equity. Equity is important because I think every teacher should be involved in training that can help bene...
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... Also, literacy development is a crucial part of the state standardized test and that ties into the school getting funds from the state and the federal government based on their performance. Ultimately it’s important that the leader of your school to have the skills to assess school-wide literacy so you know how you are performing and how you need to map your instruction so you can help improve your students individual scores and grade level goals. We must always be thinking of how we can help students achieve at their highest level so knowing how to develop their literacy and test their knowledge will be a key part of what an administrator must be able to do.
Works Cited
Richardson, M., Richardson, J., & Sacks, M. (2011). Literacy teachers how the physical education teachers/coaches can help you encourage students to read. Reading Improvement, 48(2), 47-54.
For this assignment, I completed a survey to assess my school’s literacy program by using a survey that was adapted from by Patty, Maschoff, & Ransom (1996) to analyze the instructional program and the school’s infrastructure. To be able to answer my survey, I needed to go colleagues of mine in the English Department and to my administration to help with these questions. Being a math teacher, we hardly ever discuss the literacy and the students’ acquisition of it in our department meeting during staff development days. Since I am not truly current with literacy acquisition in education, I am hoping to understand more from this process so I can help all my students. I want them to be able to read texts related to math and find information that will be useful to them during the year.
Gunning, Thomas G. "Chapters 1 & 2." Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students: International Edition. Boston, Mas.: Pearson, 2013. N. pag. Print.
A mere generation ago, literacy was generally focused around solely reading physical materials. Susan Metros emphasizes that most of the teachers employed in schools are from a generation that was largely based around the written word (106). Literacy was a rather simple concept. As Reardon states, “At its simplest, [literacy] is a combination of word reading skills and knowledge-based literacy competencies” (18). To put it simply, if a person could read and understand what he or she was reading, he or she could be considered literate. A wide expanse of knowledge was not required for literacy. The amount and variety of books that a person had read did not dictate that person’s level of literacy. The requirement for literacy was solely that an individual be able to read written texts. At one time, being able to interpret the words on a page was enough. Catlin Tucker asserts that, "Growing up...I knew that people who were literate could read and write, and people who were illiterate could not...Now, as an educator and parent I find myself revisiting this question of what it means to be literate. The definition of literacy is changing. Literacy means something different today than it did 10, 20, or 30 years ago"
The need for basic literacy skills is vital in order for our nation to continue to operate successfully. With approximately 5 million students, graduating below the National Standard for Literacy and unable to read, we must take a look at the curriculum and teaching techniques to assess whether the current systems need to be revised to better assure ALL students are successful. (Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Research Belief p. 1) The issue begins first with the definition of “Literacy”, and the fact that there are several aspects of literacy which are not currently included in the curriculum. Another issue is the “old” standards which are in place do not support the level of diversity which is now seen in many school systems. Then comes the issue of funding for schools and many schools in better neighborhoods obtain the highest level of private, and public funding and therefore are able to provide the higher level of education. However, in “The Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (LEARN) Act”, Senator Patty Murray states, “Research also shows that low income children are less likely to have access to high quality, literacy rich environments. These same children perform 40% lower on assessments of literacy achievement even before they start kindergarten.” (Murray) So, whose responsibility is it to ensure the success of the upcoming generations? Will the Federal Government step in to create a better system for the generations to come? There are quite a few solutions which have been used by Teachers, but with such an “old” system in place the issues of diversity, financial demand, inflexibility of the curriculum to assist individual students, classroom sizes increasing on a yearly basis, pressure to achieve sp...
At least 40 million American adults need stronger literacy skills to take advantage of more lifelong learning opportunities (Knowles 12). Low literacy limits life chances, regardless of how it is defined or measured. According to The Random House Dictionary literacy is defined as “the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.” Another breakdown of the word, from the same source is “possession of education.” Basic skills and literacy abilities are widely viewed as necessities for lifelong learning and the development of success among individuals, families, communities, and even nations. Better knowledge about literacy is an essential condition for improving it. Helping children improve their literacy skills can help them develop the capacity for lifelong learning, keep pace with changing educational expectations and rapid technological change, and achieve their life goals. Today in society there are many adults with poor literacy skills who lack the foundation they need to find and keep decent jobs, to support their children’s education and help them mold a literate future. I have taken one small step towards this problem by tutoring at two schools. The more time people put towards helping the youth of America is the more literate our population can become. Every small action can help, even if it is just tutoring at local middle and junior high schools.
Additionally, literacy does not only refer to reading. Literacy also refers to writing, discussing, and becoming fluent in the specific subject area. The original curriculum for my Hebrew reading classes only covered decoding. Yet, as I personalized my classes more, I began incorporating other aspects of literacy, including comprehension, writing, and discussion, and I noticed a vast improvement in my students’ overall learning. With my math students, too, as I incorporated different aspects of literacy related to my students’ personal learning styles, I noticed further
For my community involvement project, I volunteered at Memminger Elementary School for a program called “Reading Partners.” The program focuses on helping children build strong literacy skills to carry with them into their academic careers. It requires the tutor to read to the student that has been assigned and in turn the student reads to the tutor. The program assists in teaching the students valuable reading skills. Being able to read is critical to a child’s educational success. The program works with more than 100 schools within seven states. The program is geared toward students of low-income families. The statistics for children’s literacy in the United States are astonishing. “In 2011, just thirty-four percent of the nation’s fourth graders in public school could read proficiently” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). The program itself has had exponential success. Principals and teacher have reported that “Reading Partners” has helped increase students’ reading levels. During my time at the program I accumulated twelve volunteer hours.
How well do standardized tests work as tools for obtaining information about children’s literacy strengths and needs? Standardized tests have both positive and negative uses as they pertain to obtaining information and what that information can be used for. The use of portfolios can also be used to guide instruction, and they can be used as informal or summative assessments. The use of both the standardized test as well as a student portfolio will give the teacher information that can be used to assess how well they are instructing as well as what areas they may still need more work in.
An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the Colorado Growth Model to help guide them to determine if students have made adequate yearly progress. Together, they created the plan that included the district goals mentioned above as well as continuing to include new technology skills, information on special education changes with Response to Intervention (RTI), maintaining current staff implementation of literacy goals and a new goal of raising achievement in math.
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.
Teachers have not always believed that they are reading teachers. For example, a social studies teacher or math teacher may only focused on their discipline, not necessarily spending time on teaching reading. The common core standards have all teachers building knowledge through content-rich non-fiction material in all classes. This is not to add or be a distr...
Literacy is the term used when talking about the ability to read and write. It leads to success in K-12 school, post-secondary school, the ability to compete in the job market, and participation in democratic process (Wei, Blackorby, & Schiller, 2011). Teaching young children how to read and write however is a very complex process that requires a teacher to employ a myriad of strategies to help students. When a teacher takes into consideration all the different abilities in a classroom having multiple strategies that help all students become proficient in speaking and listening, reading, and writing, is essential.
Literacy is an on-going skill that teachers and students alike should commonly study and practice in all grades. Problems faced by teachers, especially teachers in higher grades, are not having the skills to be effective teachers of literacy. To effectively teach literacy across content areas, a teacher would need skills such as knowledge of the reading process and the ability to cultivate the knowledge gained in order to make informed decisions within their classrooms (Clary, Oglan, Styslinger,
In class, we have been focusing on the explanation of what Literacy III: Research and Pedagogy in Content Area Literacy actually means. Content Area Literacy is defined by as “the ability to use reading and writing for the acquisition of new content in a given discipline” (McKenna and Robinson 1990). Because of the explanation of the class, I feel as if I am learning about the background and deepening my knowledge and understanding of the class as a whole. Content Area Literacy gives each subject areas a reason to include reading strategies in those lessons. These subject areas include mathematics, science, history, and English (Hodges 2015). When you can include reading strategies in these lessons, you are expanding student’s horizons and giving them multiple exposures. I think that this is extremely beneficial in the all classrooms. As for the negatives on Content Area Literacy, it should be noted that teachers should not only focus on reading during the other subject areas. Teachers need to have a medial balance between the content area and the literacy strategies
As I ponder over my personal professional development experiences as an educator the realization of how one has developed over time is personally satisfying. Educating children especially children with special needs is a challenge within its self. As a teacher it is important that this writer makes a positive influence with students. There are going to be certain ideas that one tries to uphold and other discriminations that one will not allow. Everyone has their own beliefs teachers should do what is necessary not to infringe on others, but show children different way to think so that they have all the information needed to make educated choices. Children are open-minded they have not yet had to deal with or understand the injustices that they will encounter. If children are taught from an early age they will have the ability to succeed especially children with special needs as an educator my main goal is teaching the purpose of public schools, and education reform. It is my purpose to influence children and be positive influence.