V.
Reflective Essays
Foundational Knowledge
Literacy is a pathway to success because it enables an individual to obtain
knowledge, to broaden personal perspective, to interpret ideas, to express and
process ideas, and to communicate effectively. Research surrounding literacy and
literacy instruction is rooted in the historical, contextual, social, and ideological
spheres from which is has evolved and developed, and those same historical,
contextual, social, and ideological spheres have also influenced my own ideas and
beliefs about literacy instruction and therefore my practice.
As Tompkins states in Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach
(2014), “understanding how students learn influences how teachers teach”. Because
a more teacher-centered learning theory has been the dominant view of learning
until recent history, its applications are common in many classrooms today. Because
behaviorist theory views the teacher’s role as providing information and
supervising practice, describes learning as the result of stimulus- response actions,
and uses incentives and rewards for motivation, this learning theory sees the
teacher as the provider of knowledge and the students as the receivers, and the
learning process is more uniform than diversified. Since the 1960’s, however, three
other influential learning theories have emerged- constructivism, sociolinguistics,
and information processing. While different, these theories are more studentcentered and “advocate children’s active engagement in authentic literacy
activities.” (Tompkins, 2014). Constructivist theory describes learning as the active
construction of knowledge, recognizes the importance of background knowledge,
and advocates collaboration. Sociolinguistic theory emphasizes the importance of
language and social interaction on learning, views reading and writing as social and
cultural activities, advocates culturally responsive teaching, and describes the
teacher’s role as scaffolding student learning. Information processing views reading
and writing primarily as meaning-making processes, recommends integration, and
describes students as strategic readers and writers (Tompkins, 2014).
All four learning theories have implications on teaching practices found in
classrooms today. For example, the use of direction instruction, basal readers, minilessons, repeated readings, and worksheets is rooted in behaviorism. Literature
focus units, K-W-L charts, thematic units, learning logs, and word sorts are rooted in
constructivism. Literature circles, shared reading, reading and writing workshop,
and author’s chair are rooted in sociolinguistics theory, and guided reading
activities, graphic organizers, grand conversations, interactive writing, and reading
logs are rooted in information processing theory (Tompkins, 2014). While every
educator may subscribe to and be influenced by one learning theory more than
others, the quality of literacy instruction is improved when a range of theories are
incorporated into literacy instruction. Certain areas of literacy instruction and
certain students might respond better to activities influenced by any one of these
theories, and it is important to have balanced instruction that incorporates both
teacher and student-centered instruction and application activities.
Teaching and learning are combinations of the skills and strategies students
use to further his/her learning and the information and knowledge they are
obtaining. A balanced approach to literacy instruction should include phonemic
awareness, word identification and phonics, vocabulary and background knowledge,
fluency, comprehension strategies, and motivation as major components. While the
ultimate goal of reading is comprehension, these components do not exist in
isolation, but rather in integral processes of fluent reading, writing, speaking, and
listening. Readers construct meaning as they interpret text and use their
background knowledge and knowledge of written language to process text. Reading
is interactive, “a constructive process of creating meaning that involves the reader,
the text, and the purpose within social and cultural contexts” (Tompkins, 2014).
Effective reading instruction requires educators to be aware of the complex process
that constitutes reading and that includes phonemic awareness and phonics, word
identification, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and motivation. Using a reading
process that includes activities surrounding pre-reading, reading, responding,
exploring, and applying helps ensure that students are supported through this
process, and provides the means to do so. Pre-reading activates background
knowledge, sets a purpose, introduces key vocabulary and previews the text.
Reading, whether it be guided, independent, partner, shared, or reading aloud to
students, allows students to apply and develop reading strategies and skills to take
in knowledge. Responding makes space for students to negotiate meaning and
reflects a transactional theory of learning (Tompkins, 2014). Exploring encourages
students to examine and analyze a text in more depth; to deepen understanding and
develop skills, strategies, conceptual understandings, and perspectives. Finally, the
applying stage of the reading process creates a space for students to “extend their
comprehension, reflect on their understanding, and value the reading experience”
(Tompkins, 2014). Similarly, the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing, and publishing) encourages students to think about, refine, and reflect on
what they do when they write and to get feedback- to consider background and
language knowledge, to set a purpose, to get thoughts onto paper, to revise and
refine writing, to make writing accessible to readers, and to share it with an
audience.
As educators, it is essential to be aware of student’s specific areas of
strengths and weakness and tailor interventions and activities to support student’s
individual needs. Supporting students’ use of phonological, syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic cueing systems make communication through reading, writing, speaking,
and listening possible. These systems should be employed to varying degrees of
priority based on the developmental stage of the learner. Beginning readers and
writers, for example, may require more phonological cues as they apply phonics
skills to decode and spell words than more developed readers and writers, and
students who speak a language other than English as their primary language may
require more semantic cues to further their learning and broaden their
understandings of the meanings of words and how they can be used.
Language development and reading acquisition also relate to culture and
linguistic diversity. For educators to be effective, they must incorporate a
knowledge of their learners, knowledge about literacy, and an understanding of the
role equity, fairness, and diversity play in instruction and instructional decisionmaking (Tompkins, 2014). Culturally responsive teaching is an integral part of any
kind of instruction, and educators must be willing to broaden their own
perspectives to meet students in middle areas and to encourage students to do the
same. Educators must create a safe, collaborative, and respectful learning
environment for all students to learn effectively. Furthermore, we must scaffold
students’ reading and writing in different ways. What’s the point of literacy
instruction if it is not accessible to the student? Multiple levels of scaffolding,
including modeled, shared, interactive, guided, and independent reading and writing
instruction and practice support students to varying degrees and gradually releases
the responsibility of learning to the student. Scaffolds help differentiate instruction
to meet students in their zones of proximal development and to help ensure that
each student is getting support they can use from an accessible approach.
While working with three fifth grade students in a small-group reading
intervention, I have found that students who maybe placed in the same
developmental stage of reading and writing have different areas of need and
different areas of strength. These students might all need more explicit vocabulary
instruction, but the reasons why are varied. This is a reminder that instruction is
informed by analysis. Understanding the root of why a student struggles in a given
academic area is the path to understanding what kind of instruction, practice, or
intervention will support them as they develop their learning. While it is vital
educators identify a student’s area of struggle, understand current research about
literacy instruction, apply it to their own teaching, and scaffold instruction in a
developmentally-appropriate way, it is equally important to understand the
contributing factors that affect a student’s literacy development. Without knowledge
of students, instructional decisions may be misinformed and instruction ineffective.
Understanding the foundations of literacy instruction helps educators make
informed instructional decisions concerning how best to teach students to read and
write. They must have a foundational understanding of how to teach literacy know
how to balance different practices and approaches to instruction rooted in different
learning theories. They must take the cultural and linguistic diversity of their
students into account and use that information to respond effectively to the needs of
their students, including those who struggle with specific areas of literacy, those
who are learning English as a second language, those who are advanced readers and
writers, and those who require academic or socio-behavioral accommodation.
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are complex processes and students will be
situated on different and complex spectrums of development in all modes and areas
of literacy. They will require different things and scaffolds will look different for
different students. It is vital to remember that students’ achievement in literacy
requires accessible modes of input, differentiation, and a learning environment that
supports learners in a safe, respectful, and responsive way. A balanced approach to
literacy instruction that includes reading, phonemic awareness and phonics, literacy
strategies and skills, vocabulary, comprehension, literature, content-area study, oral
language, writing, and spelling is essential to the development of all students as
lifelong readers and writers. Employing a variety of activities, influenced by a
variety of learning theories further helps ensure that students are getting accessible
instruction that support student learning from a multifaceted approach.
Instructional Strategies and Curriculum Materials
How and when to group students is an incredibly important decision that
educators must make again and again. Groups are flexible, require continual
progress monitoring, and should be reviewed and adjusted as necessary at least
every 6 to 8 weeks. Being clear about purpose and understanding the justifications
for instructional grouping is therefore essential. Educators use assessment data,
anecdotal evidence, and reading and writing inventories/portfolios, among other
things, to make informed decisions that match instruction to student need.
Instructional grouping options include whole class, small group, partner, and
individual, and groups are organized in a multitude of ways- by interest, by ability,
by instructional strategy, by reading level, etc. Some instructional activities lend
themselves better to whole, small, or individual group work, and most curriculum
should be taught by employing a combination of many different grouping strategies.
Students with similar needs are often grouped together in small groups to
help educators effectively differentiate instruction. Even within small groups,
educators must differentiate instruction. In small groups, students’ learning focuses
on targeted skills and strategies as students participate in guided practice. Small
group instruction can benefit students with specialized needs because it provides an
arena to provide specialized attention and practice.
Teachers can also group students in ways that mix interest, need, ability, or
reading level and thus diversify instruction, curriculum, and voice. Choosing to
group students non-homogeneously encourages cooperative learning. More
advanced learners in certain areas can help less-able learners and model more
complex ideas. This can be reciprocated in kind in other subjects, ways, or practices.
As students support each other’s learning, a collaborative classroom environment is
developed, the language and approaches used to teach content are diversified, and
more voices from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are heard by more
students.
In addition to grouping decisions, educators must regularly make decisions
regarding instructional practice- what materials to use, what activities to engage in,
what skills, standards, and strategies to teach first, and how to teach them
effectively, equitably, and accessibly. Any classroom will have a range of learners at
various stages of their reading or writing development, and from different cultural
and linguistic backgrounds. Furthermore, as you move within K-5 classrooms, the
components of literacy development and the instructional practices that are used to
support them will also be different. As students develop as readers and writers, they
will need different things, but all students can benefit from some of the following
instructional practices.
Explicit instruction addresses some of the important aspects of literacy
development that may not emerge naturally. Explicit instruction, especially in terms
of vocabulary, grammar, and discourse strategies can help students attain greater
proficiency across a wide spectrum of activity (Tompkins, 2014). As teachers model
skills, students are introduced to new ways of thinking. Differentiated instruction
however, emphasizes individual background knowledge, strengths and weaknesses,
and preferences for learning and demonstrating understanding. In this way, ongoing
assessment that monitors progress in a variety of learning activities promotes
respect and calls for variety and flexibility. Not all learners are the same, and they
shouldn’t be treated as such. Accommodations for a wide array of traits, talents, and
needs can be addressed through differentiated instruction and its focus on the
linguistic and cultural differences among students. Making modifications to
instruction allows educators to not only focus on grade-appropriate content area
learning and literacy development, but also to focus on collaborative group work
which provides opportunities for both social and academic development. The more
opportunities there are for communication, the more opportunities there are for
learning. Collaborative learning encourages students to learn from one another, to
value each other’s strengths, to develop social skills and build relationships, to share
background knowledge and perspective, and to practice productive skills.
Negotiating meaning through social interaction broadens students’ background
knowledge and perspective and ensures that students hear from a range of voices
representing different cultural or linguistic backgrounds.
Thematic instruction can also help provide a meaningful and purposeful
framework for literacy instruction. Thematic instruction supports background
knowledge and in this way, students’ varied cultural experiences are incorporated
into the curriculum itself. It integrates oral and written language for learning
purposes, it can be supported through scaffolds, it is collaborative, and finally, it
employs a variety of activities that help keep students interested.
In line with Krashen’s input hypothesis and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal
development, support for scaffolded learning maintains that learners need to be
challenged, but in the right way, with support and assistance that can help them get
to the next level. As teacher direction is gradually released, student independence
grows. Scaffolds are useful in all classrooms because they allow the educator to
model and demonstrate, to allow for practice, and to eventually release learning
directly into the hands of the student. In this way, students gain confidence in their
own abilities, remain challenged, and still get the support they need, in varying
degrees, to help them succeed on their own.
There are also many online and technological resources that can assist in
students’ literacy development. These new literacies provide exposure to language
in a myriad of ways and encourage students to develop reading, writing, speaking,
and listening skills. Online sites and programs can provide opportunities for
differentiation, for additional supports, for explicit instruction, for modeling and
demonstration, for application, for so much. There are thousands of educational
websites that focus on specific skills or can be used in different content areas. Many
sites align activities to common core state standards, and can be used by students in
the classroom or at home, independently or with a group, in many different subject
areas, at many different levels, and in many different ways. They can promote levelappropriate practice, collaboration, literacy development, and critical thinking.
Whatever instructional practice an educator chooses to engage in, it is vital
to allow students adequate time to think, to practice, and to apply what they are
learning. Learning takes time and repeated exposure and practice. When planning a
unit, a lesson, or a mini-lesson and when implementing instruction, it is so
important to give students the opportunity to interact with what they are learning
and with each other.
Assessment, Diagnosis and Evaluation
Assessments are an invaluable part of instruction because they can be used
to determine what students need, to influence and design interventions, to make
adjustments to instruction, to evaluate curriculum, and to evaluate if students’
needs are being met. Assessments help educators place students along a
developmental continuum and provide starting places for recommended
intervention activities. They can be used to monitor student progress and to make
informed instructional decisions. A teacher can take the information revealed in
multiple assessments to inform, adjust, and modify instruction to meet the needs of
different students. Assessments can be used to inform diagnostic decisions, to
evaluate interventions, and to help make sure that the individual goals of a learner
are being achieved.
To meet students’ needs, an educator must determine what a student’s
strengths and weaknesses are, and analyze those areas to determine how they
contribute to a student’s individual learning goals. While there is a learning
continuum, and students may fall on that continuum in similar ways, this does not
necessarily mean it is for the same reasons. So while a student’s instructional
profile can be used to make informed decisions, it is the beginning and not the end.
Understanding that a student’s spelling inventory places her at an early within word
pattern stage of development, for example, can be used to inform decisions about
what kinds of word study activities would benefit her. It can help the educator meet
the student in her zone of proximal development. What it can’t do is identify the
factors that have contributed to her developmental learning stage. This is not to say
that spelling inventories and aligned word study activities are not useful, it is merely
to point out that interventions that focus on developing the cue systems most
underutilized by a student also contribute to their learning, in a meaningful and
uncompromised way. This information isn’t revealed on CBM ORF assessments, it
can only be learned from the analysis of assessment data. Knowing what cue
systems a student uses and what systems the student doesn’t sheds an invaluable
amount of light on understanding the skills and strategies a student has in place and
those he/she does not. It can tell a lot about the ways students may compensate for
underdeveloped reading strategies and what students do when strategies break
down.
There are many forms of assessments, designed to serve different purposes,
some authentic and some inauthentic. Portfolios, running records, CBM progress
monitoring, spelling inventories, phonemic awareness assessments, placement
assessments, visual discrimination and visual processing assessments all have a
place in an educational setting. The importance of knowing how, when, and why to
employ a given assessment, however, and how to use it to inform one’s instruction,
is at the heart of effective assessment practice. I think that assessments are often
misunderstood as tools used to evaluate a student’s intelligence when they are
better understood as tools used to evaluate instruction, curriculum, student
progress, and development. Educators should be clear about why they are choosing
to administer a particular assessment, and know how to interpret the results to
make appropriate instructional decisions and appropriately evaluate student
learning and progress.
Finally, the results of assessments, especially those used for evaluation
purposes, should be shared so that the information they yield can be interpreted,
understood, and applied by the parties it involves. What’s the point of evaluating a
reading intervention program if the results of the evaluation can’t be used to
develop the program or how educators use it in practice? Similarly, what’s the point
of an assessment of student learning if the student whose learning is being
evaluated is cut out of the process, or if the instructional approaches used by a
teacher can’t be improved, tailored, or modified to make instruction more effective?
Assessments should serve purposes that lead to improvements, development, and
progress. While they can be used for diagnostic or evaluative purposes, their results
should be analyzed and interpreted effectively and appropriately to make gains in
student learning.
An invaluable amount of information can be revealed in authentic and
appropriate assessment. A student who struggles with reading comprehension
questions should practice skills and strategies that support comprehension, but
educators should also prioritize understanding why the student struggles with
comprehension in the first place. Recommended skills, strategies and intervention
activities will look different based on the reasons why students are struggling in a
given area. Strengths and weaknesses in areas of literacy development are affected
by many different factors, and interventions and instruction should be determined
and implemented with those factors in mind.
Creating a Literate Environment
Effective literacy instruction relies on student investment. To support
student engagement and responsibility for learning, educators must consider
students and what they need, not only in terms of instruction, but in terms of the
environment in which that instruction is accessed and the materials and routines
that are used to implement that instruction. There are millions of ways to teach
students how to make inferences, for example, but it is an educator’s job to consider
what materials can be used most effectively to teach that skill, and what approaches
students might learn best from. (As you said it Karren, inferences are the pancakes,
and the materials you use to teach that skill is the syrup.) Finding a way to bring
students into the learning process, to encourage their active participation and
genuine interest in learning activities, is an ongoing task but a worthwhile one.
No two classrooms look the same and educators should make an invested
effort to get to know and understand the students and the diverse interests and
cultural and linguistic backgrounds they come from. Additionally, each classroom
will have new and different wealths of knowledge to draw on throughout the year as
students bring their own knowledge into the classroom setting. Caring about and
understanding students and what they can contribute to the community of learning
that is a classroom can help educators make informed decisions about how best to
support student’s investment in their education. Students’ voices, interests, and
backgrounds should be honored and valued in the classroom. As teachers provide
authentic ways for students to participate in their own learning, they become
sources of information and co-teachers themselves. Instead of passive receivers,
they become active members of a broader learning community.
In all my practicum experience, I have found that learning environment and
interpersonal relationships to be perhaps the most influential and underestimated
factors regarding student learning. If students don’t feel safe, valued, respected, and
like their voices matter, the entire learning process is thwarted from the beginning.
Learning is so much more than skills, strategies, and curriculum. It is about personal
development, about self-efficacy, about taking risks and making mistakes, about
discovering things you didn’t know before, about listening to and learning with
others, and about sharing with the people around you. A classroom should not be a
passive setting, it should be a social, collaborative setting. It should be a place where
students develop confidence and feel successful, where students make choices and
participate in activities with integrity and investment, and where they take pride in
their hard work. Finally, it should be a place not only for students, but one that
welcomes family and community members and invites them to engage with
students, with student learning, and with teachers. Mainstream discourses
surrounding teaching and learning how to read and write lead many to believe that
literacy education is a neutral process but it isn’t; it is social, political, and cultural. It
must then, in my opinion, be approached from sociocultural and sociopolitical
points of view. Learning to read isn’t a solitary act and the social context for literacy
development should not be confined to the classroom. In making a space where
students and their families feel included, respected, and invested, educators connect
“school” learning with lifelong learning. To do so, educators can encourage parent
and community contributions, choose culturally relevant materials with purpose,
and implement classroom activities that are student-focused, collaborative, and
inclusive. Most importantly, they can ask for and value student input, and plan for
and engage in authentic literacy activities.
Within the classroom, educators develop a constructive learning
environment as they set up expectations, routines, and guidelines and as they
explain, demonstrate, and model not only literacy procedures, but also social skills
like cooperation, responsibility, active listening, and respectful discourse. If
educators want to create lifelong readers, writers, and learners, they must help
students understand what that means, what it looks like, what it feels like, how it
sounds, why it matters, and how it can be developed. Being consistent, being
specific, and being flexible are all skills that educators need to be able to do this.
I am reminded of the 1,000 black girl books drive started by eleven-year-old
Marley Dias after she got tired of reading about “white boys and their dogs”. The
readings selected by her homeroom teacher, while of interest to him, did not speak
to her the same way. She sought to find more books that she could identify with, that
she could see herself in, and to which she could relate. This responsibility shouldn’t
have been hers alone. It is part of an educator’s job to invite, guide, and include
students on his/her path to literacy development, to ensure that they are getting
what they need, and to support them as they take their own lead.
In a democratic classroom all voices matter, but the teacher must be the
class leader. It is the teacher’s job to set high expectations, articulate them to
students, and to choose instructional activities with purpose that reflect the
interests and backgrounds of the students. The classroom itself should support
collaboration, in both its physical characteristics and its socio-emotional ones. It is
the teacher’s job to create a space where students and their families feel valued and
respected, and where students feel safe to take risks, to share, and to be themselves.
Finally, it is the teacher’s job to explain, demonstrate, and model what a community
of learners looks like. Students should know they are supported as they take
responsibility for lifelong learning. Students matter. They are the ones we are here
for, the most essential element in any educational setting, and instructional
practices, classroom management practices, and the environment where that
instruction takes place should absolutely reflect that.
References
Tompkins, G.E. (2014). Literacy in the 21st century: A balanced approach (6th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.