As a teacher of literacy I hold several beliefs. I believe that students need to have time to work independently by themselves.

. This is why I think that both the reading and the writing framework should include time for independent reading and writing every day. During this time students are able to incorporate the skills they have acquired and develop them at their own pace. I believe that students need to work in small groups of similar ability to develop skills at their own pace in order to reach a higher ability level. This is why I think that both the reading and writing framework should make time for students to work in guided reading and writing groups, several days a week. During this time, students reinforce skills by having the teacher teach or re-teach skills and strategies. These homogeneous groups will allow for students to reach a higher ability and performance level. I believe that students need to work in a heterogeneous environment for the majority of the school day. This is why I think that whole class mini-lessons and interactive read alouds need to be incorporated into each block of the literacy framework. This will allow students to understand the text in a more developed and diverse way than they can on their own. I believe that teachers need to have constant communication with students to check their status and progress. This is why the status of the class is very important for both reading and writing. Teachers must make sure that students are working independently when they say they are. Teachers must also conference one on one with students to build a good relationship and communication with each student. Conferencing will also verify each students progression in their reading and writing. I believe that students need to be constantly assessed on a day to day basis. Teachers must know which areas each student is individually strong or weak in. I believe teachers should check for student comprehension and understanding as the lesson is happening. In order to do this, a teacher must do walk-throughs of the classroom; the teacher must listen in on partner sharing, or group work, have whole class discussions, and give assignments or activities at the end of lessons or mini-lessons, followed by a closure. The teacher also must give summative assessments. This can happen in a variety of ways which include: tests, exams, projects, presentations, and papers. I believe it is the teachers job to help students demonstrate their knowledge using these different types of formative and summative assessments. I believe that instruction needs to be differentiated. Not all students learn the same way and therefore, teachers must present information in a variety of ways. Teachers should use read alouds, charts, diagrams, discussion and guiding questions, predictions, and experiments to help conduct a learning environment. Teachers also need to show differentiation in the difficulty of assignments based on each individual students capabilities.

I believe that students need to be exposed to a variety of text. Reading different genres, formats, and authors craft will allow for students to become better active readers. Students will learn to make predictions, connections, and observations. The broader the range of text, the more skills the students will have to develop in order to comprehend fully the purpose and meaning of text. I believe that students need to be given the chance to interact with one another to help develop deeper meaning of text. The best way to incorporate this is literature study. I believe that the reading block of the literacy framework needs to have time for literature study several times a week. Literature study allows students to discuss literary elements and multiple dimensions of a text in order to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for reading.