Week One #1

After speaking to a colleague about his philosophies around literacy, I felt very enlightened. He mentioned that he believes that literacy learning should begin in infancy. He quoted, " Like a child's first steps, learning literacy is exciting, fulfilling, and an overall rewarding experience." He believed that teachers should be aware that children come to school with different learning styles and learning types, and that teaching reading and writing should differ from one child to the next. Diversity in cultural and language backgrounds must be acknowledged and addressed when teaching literacy. He mentioned that although a child is capable of being able to teach themselves to read, it is necessary for teachers and parents to create conditions that encourage the reading process. Learning literacy helps children to acquire life long skills, and it is during their literacy experiences that children interact with one another across social contexts. "Without these skills children can not truly succeed to their potential in social environments, and survive in the world that we live in."
Like most teachers, I feel that there is an ultimate need to teach literacy in our classrooms. I believe that we need to focus on research based strategies that support literacy development to ensure student success, and work towards developing high, yet achievable expectations around literacy development for all students.