Teaching literacy is a complex task, which requires purposeful planning and the understanding of best practices. I believe that the purpose of literacy education is to introduce students to the purposes of reading and writing. To help them build on the knowledge they have and to expand on that knowledge to help them grow and develop into proficient readers and writers who begin their journey of becoming life-long learners. What is literacy? Literacy is learning that each letter has a sound, and when sounds come together, they make words. Words can be put together to make a sentence and when sentences come together, they give us knowledge or tell us a story. Literacy is learning how to write words and learning what words mean. It is …show more content…
My role as a teacher is to instruct students using a balanced-literacy approach; to model and guide my students as needed to help them develop the necessary skills to be successful and prepare them to be the best they can be. I believe that a balanced literacy approach is the best way to reach and differentiate for all the students in my class. This approach to literacy is comprised of whole group, small group, and paired and independent tasks. In my classroom, we begin our day with a morning meeting. During this time, we greet each other and welcome each other to school. This creates a welcoming classroom community. I feel that this is so important, because it lets each student know that they are welcomed, safe, and heard. This type of environment gives students the confidence they need to take risks and to try new things. We share about our nights or weekends, play games, and get to know about those with whom we share our day. From here, we begin our literacy block. I usually begin with a whole group lesson, which includes phonemic awareness, sight words, and usually a new topic (grammar, writing, or a shared story). They we begin our small groups, paired and independent tasks. I use …show more content…
Students need to have such opportunities to practice what they are learning and to apply their new knowledge in a safe, comfortable environment. It is here, that I make myself available for support and guidance if needed. This is the ultimate goal of balanced literacy instruction in my opinion - students independently using these new skills and feeling successful in doing so even across content