Ten Elementary School Teacher's Voices: How They Build Effective Literacy Learning in the Lives of Their Second Grade Children (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
Recent times have seen an increase in the use of literacy, and in many cases, the substitution of literacy where reading was once the term of choice. A deep curiosity about these shifts by professional organizations, a range of stakeholders, and the program descriptions at institutions of higher learning led to this essay. It is guided by three specific intentions: (a) to explore the varying (and often overlapping) definitions of literacy and reading in order to establish their substantive and subtle differences, (b) to ponder the implications of selecting one term over another or using them in combination, and (c) to spark questions for future research that would further clarify literacy, reading, and their individual and combined importance for the education of our nations’ youth. Improving the reading achievement for all students (and adults) has long been a national (and international) priority. More frequently than in previous times, literacy replaces reading as the label to fr...
This keynote address will discuss the findings and implications stemming from a study of what literacy means for a group of 12 teachers and teacher educators. It will also discuss the factors that have caused the ongoing evolution of these ideas about literacy. Relying on the idea of a "permeable literacy continuum," which uses five major literacy paradigms as its unit of analysis, this study shows that ideas about literacy have moved toward more inclusive frameworks, where more diversity of readings and writing genres, a more fluid connection between literacy and technology, and a permanent process of reflection about what literacy means are salient issues in today's conversations about literacy. This plenary will also engage the author and the audience on a reflexivity process about what literacy means in an ELT context and the challenges that rethinking literacy in ELT in this new millennium entails.
Head, Heart, and the Practice of Literacy Pedagogy
Reading Research Quarterly, 1998
O ur conversation arose from a chance remark about the everyday literacy teaching that we see in our work with teachers in schools. Yes, we see some fine examples of literacy instruction, a friend commented, where children are active, eager, intellectually engaged writers and readers. Regrettably, however, we do not see this often enough, which in the end limits the realization of children's potential as literate persons. As teachers of teachers, our work is at the heart of this matter, for our charge is the provision of resources in the form of knowledge, skill, and dispositions that help teachers teach literacy intelligently and well.
What Can Teachers of Literacy Learn from a Study of Effective Teachers?
2001
A study examined the characteristics of teachers who can be shown to be effective in teaching literacy to primary pupils. Aims of the research were to: (1) identify the key factors in what effective teachers know, understand, and do which enable them to put effective teaching of literacy into practice in the primary phase; (2) identify the strategies which would enable those factors to be more widely applied; and (3) examine aspects of continuing professional development which contribute to the development of effective teachers of literacy. Findings are based on a close study of a sample of teachers (n=228) whose pupils make effective learning gains in literacy and a sample of teachers (n=71) who were less effective in literacy teaching. Results indicated effective teachers: placed great emphasis on children's knowledge of the purposes and functions of reading and writing and of the structures used to enable-these-processes; were more diagnostic in the ways they examined and judged samples of children's reading and writing; translated their beliefs about purpose and meaning into practice by paying systematic attention to both the goals they had identified for reading and writing and to technical processes such as phonic knowledge, spelling, grammar, and punctuation; and were generally more likely to embed their teaching into a wider context and show how specific aspects of reading and writing contributed to communication. Contains 30 references. (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Literacies in early childhood: Foundations for equity and quality
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 2020
In the edited collection, Literacies in Early Childhood: Foundations for Equity and Quality, Annette Woods and Beryl Exley take an eclectic approach to understanding and addressing literacy learning and teaching in the early years (birth-age 8). Rather than viewing literacy as a discrete set of universal skills, the editors define it as a`social, cultural and material practice' (preface) linked to power dynamics (e.g., race, ethnicity, language) which, in turn, shape children's access to a high-quality literacy education. The collection itself consists of 22 chapters across four sections: (1) Understandings of Literacy, (2) Transitions, Quality and Equity, (3) Practical Considerations and Theoretical Conundrums, and (4) The Intellectual and Political Work of Literacy Teaching. As the section headers suggest, part one explores how literacy can be understood in broad yet equitable ways in order to provide educators with a`balanced foundation' (preface). Part two offers examples of how educators use a number of theoretically informed strategies to honor the`funds of knowledge' of students and communities within diverse populations. Part three showcases teachers who put educational theories to work with children engaged in balanced literacy practices. And, part four examines what it may mean to teach and learn literacy within current sociopolitical times. In lieu of a detailed synopsis of the 22 chapters, we have opted to engage in a`re-view,' or`a dynamic process of thinking together with and through the text as an emergent, open, in/determinate process.. . paying attention to the differences and the fine-grained details that matter' (Murris and Bozalek, 2020, as cited in Strom and Mills, forthcoming). In this review , we (an assistant professor of literacy and a doctoral candidate with over 30 years of combined teaching experience in K-12 and post-secondary settings within the US, Greece, and Hong Kong) focus on those aspects of the book that most resonated with usboth individually and collectively-and invite readers to think of the book