A Reflection on Strengthening Literacy

Strengthening literacy within a school relies on cooperative efforts from teachers and building administrators in order to improve both the instruction and infrastructure of the program. Maintaining a focus on the five main components of reading instruction – phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension – remain requisite for any quality literacy framework (NICHD, 2000). Additionally, effective differentiation is required at ensures that teaching is learner-centered and promotes the likelihood that students will master the foundational skills of learning to read in order to master the life skill of reading to learn. The following is a reflection on my beliefs regarding literacy, how I can contribute to improving my school’s literacy program as well as other reflective insights regarding collaboration, technology and assessment practices.

I believe that literacy, culture and language interlace with each other to create the human experience. The more advance a person’s language and literacy skills, the more likely that person is able to fully enjoy and contribute to his or her culture. That said, a person is unlikely to get very far in life without using complex language (Zwiers, O'Hara, & Pritchard, 2014). This course has modified my self-knowledge surrounding this concept by reinforcing my belief in the need for every child to have access to and engage in a quality education to achieve this ideal of language and literacy acquisition.

The response in the Module 1 analysis correlates with my previous observations about the school’s literacy program because it me that our school’s staff educational practices seem adequate on several fronts, however, the results of the survey also demonstrated that we do not differentiate well, perhaps contributing to the steadfast data showing our school’s poor performance on high-stakes state tests. I am ultimately surprised by the fact that our school struggles so mightily in this realm. My speculation is that proper training and follow up to that training has not been executed. Most teacher know they need to differentiate, however, a large majority of them likely do not know how to differentiate for two languages (we are a dual-language school) for an impoverished population whose majority of students do not speak English in their home.

This self-knowledge influenced to choose differentiation as a target for improving our school’s literacy program because the survey revealed a need that I have witnessed first-hand at my school. While a very small majority do execute differentiation effectively, the overwhelming majority do not. By improving our differentiation practices school-wide, we will likely improve mastery of the targeted literacy objectives for diverse learners. This in turn will subsequently improve our overall test scores.

Effective differentiation requires effective collaboration and collaboration, as I learned from the application assignment. As a special education teacher, I appreciate and remain grateful for the opportunity to collaborate and see input from teachers of all elementary grade levels. This assignment reminded me of the value of peer feedback. I learned that my practice benefits when I seek critique from my colleagues and as a result my pedagogy will constantly improve.

As efforts to improve my practice continue, I will incorporate the concepts that I learned from the applications in this class. The applications taught me that I need to be ever mindful of the importance and distinctions of multiple literacies, just as I am cognizant of the multiple intelligences that exist in my special education classroom (Gardner, 1983). Incorporating my new knowledge of cultural literacy and digital literacy will impact how I expect my students to conduct themselves during instruction, as well as enhance how I expect them to perform for formative and summative assessments. Incorporating more opportunities to use technology tools will be a priority, as these allow students to express themselves using digital literacy. As a result of these modules, I learned that students of this generation may be more comfortable with digital literacy than traditional literacy, especially students with specific learning disabilities or attention deficits.

Ultimately, all of these considerations culminate in appropriate assessments of the mentioned literacies to determine whether or not they are mastered in the students. Assessment drives further instruction, therefore it must be systematic, routine and effective. Instructional leaders must have the knowledge and skills to assess school-wide literacy because assessments serve as measurement of mastery or lack of mastery. Teachers must assure that assessment accurately target the intended learning objective, always understanding that the student is ultimately the end user of all assessment data.

In conclusion, strengthening literacy is a multi-faceted phenomenon that requires a solid framework of instructional practices based on research. Those instructional practices must include a systemic way of teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, while embedding consistent and targeted assessment, to ensure mastery of traditional literacy is achieved. With this foundation, other literacies will develop, leading to a diverse, rich education allowing students to access culture and lead productive lives as contributing citizens. We owe it to our students to provide a literacy education meaningful to them as individuals, so they can engage in the whole of what society and culture has to offer, leading to life-long learning for all.

References

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames ofmind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

NICHD. (2000). Report of the national reading panel: Teaching children to cead: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Washington D.C.: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Zwiers, J., O'Hara, S., & Pritchard, R. (2014). Common core standards in diverse classrooms: Essential practices for developing academic language and disciplinary literacy. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.