Reading And Literacy Development

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,

These theories, methods, assessments along with the evidence of success in reading at home make it clear that it is extremely important we try our hardest to support literacy in every child. All students can learn. It’s just a matter of making materials interesting and relevant to them, challenging them (but not to hard), and supporting them along the way.

K-12 education is a growing topic of debate for public schools in the United States. Students are becoming—in a sense— depositories that are filled with information to be memorized and reiterated on command at someone else’s convenience (Freire, 136). This observation supports the idea that promotes a lack of critical thinking in students via the banking approach to education. This is a domination that is fueled by an “illusion of acting” that secures submission in its stead (Ferire 139). Students become the figurative ideology of the walking textbook, either knowingly or unknowingly, and conformity is allowed to persevere.

Literacy has a strong impact on ones life’s in many reasons such as it can open doors for an individual to become successful in the world. Literacy is never easy to develop but once it is developed it is something that can never be forgotten. Achieving the quality of literacy can determine your efficiency in life. An individual environment throughout early childhood has an impact on the quality of literacy they develop.

From a baby to a grade schooler, I had an extremely short attention span; therefore, the only time I enjoyed having books read to me was before bedtime. Because I was energetic, my mother was forced to lock the door while she was reading so I would not scurry out of the room. Despite my concentration issues, I enjoyed reading books with my mother. One of my favorite books was The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh because I was intrigued by the characters, especially Eeyore. When I moved on from my obsession with Winnie the Pooh, I transitioned into an obsession with frogs. My mother started reading Froggy books to me, such as Froggy Learns to Swim and Froggy Goes to School. Along with Froggy books, I took pleasure in reading Curious George and The Rainbow Fish because I was an inquisitive child who was entertained by the iridescent colors of the rainbow fish.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. DEPARTMENT of Education, only 53 percent of the children ages three to five years old, were read to daily by a family member in 1999 (Davies 1). That means that 47 percent of the children ages three to five years old were not being read to daily by a family member. Thereby depriving these children of the beneficial parental support that other kids were receiving. This lack of beneficial parental support that other kids were receiving leads to kids to suffer in their attempt to become literate. If you can read, you can teach yourself innovative things and by neglecting family literacy, society is preventing people in the community from acquiring

What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy is a book written by James Paul Gee, who is focused on how video games can be used as learning principles in schools and at home. Gee takes a positive view on video games and what they have to offer in the educational aspect of learning. He found 36 different learning principles that are related to education and other means of learning. Gee (2012) describes video games as different sorts of activities requiring different values, tools, and ways of acting and thinking; they are different domains with different goals and different win states. Although video games do not typically teach students how to read and write, they still teach literacy in a different form. School is important for students when it comes to learning and provides important learning tools that are required for success. However, video games can teach students the social aspect of literacy. Gee’s goal is to open up the possibilities of video games having an impact on the learning process for students that can provide an aide to learning. Video games are fit with

The decline of student motivation and engagement in literacy classrooms is an ongoing, prevalent educational issue in high schools across public school districts. Consequently, low student motivation and engagement may stem from a multitude of problems, occurring from a lack of ability or from a lack of interest, the latter the likely of the two reasons. Current research in the field of literacy instruction has identified additional existing factors that most likely leads to the overall decline of student motivation and effort to produce satisfactory academic performance including: difficult or boring school work, high demands from teachers, or preference of extracurricular activities (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000). In order to sustain students’ motivation in literacy instruction, educators need to utilize instructional tools that incorporate palpable experiences that are present in learners' out-of-school reality. Students need opportunities for sensory instruction (e.g., seeing, hearing, touching) to be motivated to learn in the classroom. Effective literacy instruction requires that educators provide students with real-world experiences which correspond to learning objectives and student choices because it evokes intrinsic motivation (Guthrie & Cox, 2001). Without the application of real-world experiences and sensory-infused lessons, students will remain unmotivated and unengaged. Unfortunately, today’s traditional literacy instruction, such as lecturing, has diminished the authenticity and meaningfulness of student learning, thus, causing a reduction in students’ academic motivation and engagement and increasing unwillingness to collaborate with peers; however, newer Web 2.0 digital learning tools, such as Glogster EDU, offer edu...

The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.

John Steinbeck stated that “Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain, and if you don 't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.” (142). The first time a child really understands the concept of reading it becomes an introduction to a whole new world. When one thinks of literacy the first thing one thinks of is the ability to be able to read and write. But literacy is much more than that, to me literacy is the key to all forms of knowledge as being literate opens up the doors to all forms of learning and continued learning. Building confidence as a reader, writer, listener and speaker is transformational in a person 's life. These core abilities are used every minute of every day to live in the world. Even in society a large degree of importance is placed on literacy. The in-class text by Sylvia Scribner states “I want to depict that is, the tendency in many societies to endow the literate person with special virtues”. (16) Throughout my life literacy has played a very important role, and has evolved and manifested itself in different styles, from my introduction as a small child

Finally, parents are encouraged to read with their children at home which not only promotes literacy development with the children getting the adequate encouragement and support they need to read and learn from their parents, but also help in the children’s social and emotional development and achieve “more resilience to stress, greater life satisfaction, greater self-direction and self-control, greater social adjustment, greater mental health, more supportive relationships, greater social competence, more positive peer relations, more tolerance, more successful marriages, and fewer delinquent behaviors” (Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003).

The purpose of this assignment is to understand the importance of literacies, and why it should be a priority within the teaching context. This paper will compare and contrast the didactic pedagogy with critical pedagogy and will deeply look at the pros and cons of both literacies.

While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.