Literacy Week 8

I've been working closely with primary students and helping them towards their goals of becoming independent readers and writers. Over the last three months I've been a resource for spelling and the person who encourages imagination and creative writing. I've watched K, 1st, and 2nd graders devour book after book even if they aren't yet reading. To see a student eager and excited to read is just the first step. I consider my job as a student teacher to extend this interest and to promote and encourage their willingess to keep practicing.

As we've been talking about this past quarter, literacy is a multi level subject. We've been throughly disccusing and researching the methods behind teaching and assessing which really makes me thinks how I will incorporate and continue this experience and class into my own classroom.

As Au mentioned in the article titled, An Expanded Definition of Literacy, "Today instruction should center on students' efforts to make meaning from text, whether in reading or in writing, and skills should be taught in the context of this meaning-making" (p. 30) As we've also been learning, comprehension as means for making sense of our reading allows us to make connections and understand the meaning behind what is being read. I strongly believe that Au's statement is crucial in our understanding of how we teach and learn literacy. We can read and write but we can't do either well if we do not have a background of knowledge that supports our understanding and initial interpretations. Where I draw meaning from this quote is from my own personal reading and writing history.

I often found myself struggling to become engaged in the books handed to me as a child. I had difficulty imagining a fictional story in my mind. I was also less interested in cartoons than in television shows that depicted real life characters. I was a strong concrete learner who was successful at making meaning and connections as long as it met within my own life. I see how this may be also the case for some of my present students. They are less interested in reading than they are in writing about their own lives.

Routman's chapter 7 and 8 successfully illustrates how we can integrate reading and writing skills. I believe that by reading and writing relflections we can make meaning of what we learn. In primary grades I've seen many great examples of teachers instructing students to write about their own lives and to make connections in the books they are reading. Genius!