guiding principles of Literacy instruction
Grouping and naming concepts, theories, and practices related to literacy instruction is no easy task. Everyone seems to have a different way of labeling terminology which only makes it more challenging to make sense of this inherently difficult task of designing literacy instruction. To do so, we must ask:
- How do we define 'literacy?'
- How does literacy happen?
- How do we support readers and writers along their literacy journeys?
Emergent literacy
Literacy development begins long before kiddos enter the classroom, as they encounter and explore texts. In conjunction with oral language development, emergent literacy skills evolve as young children learn about their worlds by making meaning from texts based on read alouds, conversation, and images alone.
The 'core' of beginning reading
Of all the controversies surrounding literacy instruction, identifying the 'core' skills of beginning reading may be the most intense. What are the skills that contribute to beginning reading development? How do they reinforce each other? Is there an order or progression for teaching them? What does it even look like to teach them? How does that change as students progress? How does ALL of this change based on individual students? And most importantly, how is all of this addressed within the larger context of literacy environments that strive to engage children in meaningful acts of reading and writing? Yep. It's a lot to take in.
For our purposes, we will explore the core dimensions of beginning reading as identified by the State of Michigan's standards for Teacher Preparation in Literacy. Each of these standards is drawn from a body of research to inform the 'what' and 'how' of teaching reading. You will also see that this core is representative of the findings from the National Reading Panel (2000) which identifies "The Big 5" as essential areas for beginning reading instruction. We will add one additional area to the representation to explore the following areas: comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and spelling.
For our purposes, we will explore the core dimensions of beginning reading as identified by the State of Michigan's standards for Teacher Preparation in Literacy. Each of these standards is drawn from a body of research to inform the 'what' and 'how' of teaching reading. You will also see that this core is representative of the findings from the National Reading Panel (2000) which identifies "The Big 5" as essential areas for beginning reading instruction. We will add one additional area to the representation to explore the following areas: comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and spelling.
Literacy Environments
*under construction*
Literacy Assessment landscape
*under construction*
Disciplinary literacies
*under construction*
Position statements
*under construction*