“What I believe about literacy learning and teaching, and how I came to believe it.”

I remember enjoying reading as I entered school. My mother read to us a lot. One

of my favorite memories is a picture taken of me on night at about the age of 6, sitting in

my fathers chair, reading folk and fairy tales from Childcraft Books. I was so enthralled

in the stories that I didn’t even know a picture had been taken. Later, in Elementary

School I was allowed and encouraged to purchase books from the class Scholastic book

sales. I anxiously waited for these books to arrive, then I read every one. So it seems I

have always enjoyed reading. I love reading to my children and grandchildren, and I’m

addicted to children’s books.

When I came back into the teaching profession after starting all my children in

school, my interest in reading began growing in a new direction. I was convinced by a

colleague to give reading remediation a try. I found it intensely rewarding because

these third, fourth, and fifth grade children truly wanted to learn to read. In fact their

desire to read was so great that behavior problems within a classroom were not behavior

problems at all in my small groups. And so, when I was approached about taking “this

wonderful reading class” coming to Winston from ASU, I agreed. After the first course I

became hooked, because almost every night, I walked out of class with a new idea I

thought might reach a particular child I had (and most of them did). It was so intensely

rewarding that after the second course, I found myself doing something I never pictured

myself doing at this stage in my life, applying for Graduate School. A new enthusiasm

was born within me, along with a new zest for learning. I hungered to learn more

methods and strategies that might click with more of my students, strengthen their

reading skills, and assist them in becoming better readers.

. Thus, most of what I have learned about literacy and teaching children to read and

write, has come from my reading masters classes at ASU. I feel I have been fortunate to

study and train under some of the most knowledgeable educators on the subject. Through

them, I have learned the infrastructure and building blocks of reading, along with

strategies I have found to be successful for assisting students in working through and

acquiring the reading process. My acquisition of techniques has also expanded through

workshops such as 4 Blocks, Write From the Beginning, and Thinking Maps, as well as

through staff development and personal research by internet on the latest brain research

findings. This research I find both intriguing and exciting.

I believe the process of literacy and learning to read begins with a child’s

development of language as they hear it, learn to speak it, and are read and spoken to.

Phonemic awareness as well as the word to print concept begins to develop as children

are read books and introduced to the alphabet. This is strengthened through the writing

process allowing children to at first experience the concept of writing words by

experiencing putting pencil to paper. The next developmental stage comes in allowing the

writing of words by the way they sound instead of how they are actually spelled. This

stage of writing serves to strengthen phonological development and word recognition.

For this reason I believe the writing component is vital in assisting children in learning to

read. For children having greater difficulty, phonological awareness can also be

strengthened through word studies of families and patterns, sound segmentation and

blending, and the make-a-word process. These studies will also increase and strengthen

sight word recognition and reading. Reading at the child’s independent level is a crucial

component that assists in strengthening reading rate and accuracy. It helps tremendously

if the child is interested in what he is reading. This interest usually comes from some

background knowledge, which creates a necessary connection for the child that enhances

comprehension. Teacher assisted reading at a student’s instructional level is a necessity

for the expansion of reading skills at maximum potential. Re-readings are another

component that strongly assists in the increase and mastery of reading skills. Teacher read-

PTO’s, guided readings at student’s instructional level, teacher modeling and “think

alouds”, DRTA’s, KWL’s and other mapping strategies, as well as higher order thinking

and open-ended questioning, should scaffold to assist students in strong comprehension

skills. These allow students to connect to and internalize what they have learned, thus

strengthening comprehension. I also believe vocabulary is a key component in

comprehension and that the methods of teaching vocabulary found in Text Talk

successfully assist many students in acquiring extended vocabulary. We also must

recognize and not forget to allow for student individual learning styles. Allowing children

to work within their style provides maximum growth. For many of my students I have

found that hands on tactile experiences create powerful learning tools. I believe in the

Above-mentioned processes of learning because in using them I have seen children build

confidence and become successful beyond where they (and sometimes even teachers)

ever felt they would. I in turn am excited to have been given methods and tools that allow

these students to succeed at a more rapid pace, when methods I had been using were

creating slow and minimal accomplishments. The old saying, “seeing is believing” came

true for me.

Research I have done both for class and just out of curiosity, has

reinforced what I have been taught, expanded my knowledge and driven me to inquire

even farther. My interest in brain research has added to this, and sparks more questions

and ideas. If a new understanding, strategy, or method is discovered that can help the

struggling reader become a stronger reader with less frustration and more dignity, then I

want to know about and use it. And, I must not forget to mention that invaluable

knowledge gained from hands on experience, observation and discovery, account for

another major part of what I believe. My knowledge has expanded greatly in ways to help

these students, but I am still and will always continue to learn. I feel that in some way

each and every student is a unique learner and only if we look at it from this perspective

can we assist and guide all students to achieve to their maximum ability. I believe all

children can learn, but that they may learn in different ways and at various rates. The

trick is to be able to tap into their learning style(s) and harness how their brain works, so

as to help them learn to the maximum of their ability.