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Literacy Statement

Literacy is critical for students in the 21st century; in fact, a student’s ability to score well

on standardized tests across the curriculum is directly related to their reading abilities and

comprehension (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007). Students must read to succeed. Research has

supported the effectiveness of reading on improving test scores regardless of the students’ grade

level, socioeconomic status, learning abilities or bilingual status (Daniels & Steineke, 2004).

Since many believe that reading is about letter sounds and word recognition (Brand &

Dalton, 2012), and the standardized commercial core reading programs provide almost no

suggestions for discussion (Allington, 2014), the focus of teaching can often become to ensure

that students can read the words with speed and accuracy. We cannot overlook the importance of

comprehension. Comprehension is not something that happens after a child decodes a set of

words or a story; rather, it is making reflections, and connections to the material (Koechlin &

Zwaan, 2014); it’s constructing meaning without effort (Weaver, 2009); it is a complex making

of meanings with the text that emerges along with other literacy and life skills (Brand & Dalton,

2012).

Learning is fundamentally social (Johnston, 2012); students need to participate in

activities, discussions, ask for assistance, engage with one another and form individual

narratives. In talking about a subject the students take control of it in a process called

transformation (Cambourne,1995). At the same time, while strategies like think, pair and share

are great to ensure all students get to discuss their understanding with someone, teachers need to

rely on dialogic conversations more often in order to promote comprehension (Allington, 2014).

One of the techniques I use to foster comprehension is to engage the students with open-ended

questions that support discussion; curiosity and questioning are associated with higher-order
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thinking skills, and teaching for understanding (Koechlin & Zwaan, 2014). For example, in this

lesson about the Alaskan myth of the Raven and the Sun, the students produce their own

questions that reflect on the actions of the characters and cultural differences while engaging in

critical thinking and discussion with one another. The students also familiarize themselves with

new, meaningful vocabulary in context and become more familiar with sight words as they re-

read the passages with a partner, or in a group. Children learn best by reading from interesting

texts written in simple, natural language, and attending to meaning; then progressing from whole

sentences to looking at words, and their parts, to build phonemic awareness (Weaver, 2009). I

often use a small-group strategy called shared reading (Weaver, 2009), which is a guided reading

activity where the children read the words they know, and the rest is filled in by the chorus of

other students. This helps support the phonemic awareness of emergent readers (Gratz, 2014).

I encourage my students to read easy texts; this has been shown to foster fluency,

understanding, and a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment (Strickland, Ganske, & Monroe,

2002). If learners are not intimidated by the book in front of them, or burdened by cumbersome

vocabulary, they are much more likely to keep reading and be able to comprehend more of the

material, fostering their sense of confidence. Good readers also make connections between the

texts they read and their own lives (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007). This means providing my

students with literature that captivates them and is relatable to their experiences and knowledge.

One specific way I model making connections to the reading is through a daily read-aloud think-

aloud (Strickland, Ganske & Monroe, 2001), where I say aloud the thoughts in my head which

occur during the reading. Students can see what the thoughts of a skilled reader and writer look

like; this modeling allows them to organize their thinking strategies.

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My classroom is a place to have fun and play while we learn; we act out scenes from our

reading, write our own comic books, listen to read-alouds, and do reader’s theatre. “When

children's limbic, or emotional, systems are activated through emotionally meaningful activities,

they are better prepared to tackle the more abstract tasks of successful emergent literacy” (Brand

& Dalton, 2012). A little happiness in the classroom goes a long way towards learning.

References

Allington, R. (2014). Reading Moves: What Not To Do. Educational Leadership, 72(2), 16.

Brand, S., & Dalton, E., (2012) Universal Design for Learning: Cognitive Theory into Practice

for Facilitating Comprehension in Early Literacy. The Forum on Public Policy.

Resourced at http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ979433.pdf

Cambourne, B. (1995). Toward an Educationally Relevant Theory of Literacy Learning: Twenty

Years of Inquiry. The Reading Teacher, 49(3), 182-190.

Daniels, H., Steineke, N. (2004). Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann.

Gratz C. A. (2014). Reading Workshop in the Montessori Classroom. Montessori

Life, 26(3), 36-43.

Harvey, S., Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for

Understanding and Engagement.(2nd ed.) Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Johnston, P. (2012). Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. Portland, ME: Stenhouse

Koechlin, C., Zwaan, S. (2014). Q Tasks: How to empower Students to Ask Questions and Care
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About the Answers. (2 nd ed.) Markham, Ontario, Canada: Pembroke.

Strickland, D., Ganske, K., Monroe, J. K. (2001). Supporting struggling readers and writers:

Strategies for classroom intervention 3 – 6. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Weaver, C. (2009). Reading process: Brief edition of reading process and practice (3rd ed.).

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.