The Core Value Of Education: My Philosophy Of Literacy

Introduction

A teacher’s core values are a key component of their teaching practices. My core values of literacy instruction revolve around creating independent, lifelong learners who have the ability to think critically as well as manipulate information as 21st-century citizens. These core values are evidenced in my classroom practices and supported by Engagement Theory, Metacognitive Theory, and Transactional Theory.

My Philosophy of Literacy

Developing independent, lifelong learners is foundational to my philosophy of literacy. I believe the classroom teacher is a facilitator of learning activities not a provider of information. As a facilitator, it is my responsibility is to provide students with meaningful content, collaborative structures, and metacognitive strategies. I believe a good teacher allows students to

The role of the teacher is to help the students become more engaged with the text (Tracey, Morrow, M, Morrow, & EdD, 2012, p.75-76). Researchers have been able to show that highly engaged students from low socioeconomic groups scored better than their peers who were less engaged but from a higher socioeconomic group (Guthrie, Schafer, & Huang, 2001). One example of Engagement Theory from my class is the weekly Book Club Discussions. For these discussions, I allow students to choose from a list of books to read at home for homework. Students then prepare book club notes using text-dependent, high-interest prompts. On Wednesdays students who are reading the same book meet together for their discussion. At this time students share their discussion questions with their fellow readers. I also use Engagement Theory when students use Kagan structures, like reciprocal teaching and jigsaw. These structures encourage ownership of the reading material. When students know they are going to be the experts on a topic they find the reading more meaningful and are more