The ability to navigate the internet has been the spotlight of many discussions on the importance of literacy. According to Neilson (2014), “Strong literacy skills are a key tool used when children discern and interpret information, enabling them to utilise the internet to its full potential and making sure that the inevitable ‘digital footprint’ that children will leave, is one that is safe, appropriate, and reflective of their true self.” Even worlds away from Internet, literacy is necessary across cultures, allowing individuals to connect, share ideas, and broadening each individual’s world view and experience in life from simple symbology or iconography to academic literature. The aim of literacy delivery systems is to prepare individuals for higher education and self-sufficiency. The guiding strategy of individual’s literacy instruction is also of significance, as Vacca et al. (2015) explains, “Cognitive studies have provided insights into how people comprehend and learn as they process written symbols” p. 17. The following are strategies used by literacy instructors:
Literature-Based Reading Strategies
The Daily 5™
A refinement of literature-based instruction, The Daily 5™ was created by The 2 Sisters, teachers Gail Boushey and Joan
Moser, based on their classroom teaching experiences, research, and application
of lessons learned from mentors and colleagues (Boushey & Moser,
2013). Boushey and Moser found that over
their 10 years of experience that students learn at different levels and paces,
but still require the district-adopted curriculum to bring their levels of
reading up as a group. Each student is
responsible for following the set of tasks outlined in the Daily 5™ to explore and expand their own
reading capabilities, relieving the teacher of classroom management works with
the group as a whole.
Intended Audience
Bouchey and Moser (2006) explain,
“The introduction to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
describes the characteristics of the students who are college and career ready
and stresses that these individuals become self-directed learners, effectively
seeking out and using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and
print and digital reference materials” p. 7.
The framework of the Daily 5™ structures literature time so
students develop lifelong habits of reading, writing, and working independently
(The Daily CAFE, 2016). These habits or
behaviors of independence transfer to other content areas.
Aspects of Literacy
Targeted
The Daily 5 can be implemented into the daily régime of
any student at any age or level. This
program includes the following tasks: (1) read to self, (2) work on writing,
(3) read to someone, (4) listen to reading, and (5) word work. The
more advanced grades, fifth on through middle school, often do just read to
self, read to someone, and work on writing (Araujo, 2016). CAFÉ: Comprehension, Accuracy,
Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary. This program integrates a targeted approach
while fulfilling the requirements of the whole school. The Daily 5 promotes the development of
comprehension if the student is runs into a wall, followed by accuracy,
fluency, then expansion of vocabulary.
Evaluation
The Daily 5 program of reading instruction fosters
independence in learning, which is a skill I feel every individual should have
in every field of life. The skills
imbibed during compulsory education influence the way one will approach the
challenges in life. I do feel this is an
effective program of literacy instruction, as it seems to incorporate an
interactive learning approach.
Language-Experience Approach
The Language-Experience Approach (LEA), often considered
a beginning learning approach, and is tied closely to interactive and top-down
theory. LEA is a whole language approach
that promotes reading and writing through the use of personal
experiences and oral language
(Taylor, 1992). LEA includes planned and
continuous activities such as individual- and group-directed stories, the
building of word banks of known words, creative writing activities oral reading
of prose and poetry by student and teacher, directed reading-thinking lessons,
the integration of interests using multiple materials, and keeping records of
student progress (Vacca et al., 2014).
Intended Audience and
Area of Reading Target
LEA has been used to
teach at all levels of compulsory education, as well as in the instruction of
English as a Second Language (ESL) (Taylor, 1992), though it has been found
that pre-kindergarten and
kindergarten benefit more greatly. Simulating comprehension,
students share an experience, then
as a group verbally recreate the experience.
The teacher transcribes the interpretation of the experience, then the
written story is discussed and corrected, then read as a group (Professional
Learning Board, 2016). This approach
bridges the gap between spoken and written language, and can be used for any
education level.
Evaluation
According to Jones (2006), “Learning
occurs most effectively in a general to specific direction. In reading,
students must be immersed in a meaningful context of written language for
learning to be most effective.” This
approach connects the student with his or her environment, and nurtures a sense
of community. This approach expands the
students approach to language acquisition, allowing the student a variety of
learning paths.
Basal
Reading
According to Vacca et al. (2014), basal reading programs are named such “because they serve as a base for reading instruction” p. 373. First applied in the late 1600s, basal readers – the first was the New England Primer, followed a bottom-up approach to reading instruction: “The alphabet was taught first; then vowels, consonants, double letters, italics, capitals, syllables, and so on were presented for instruction, in that order” p. 373, specifically designed to teach proven reading skills. At this time, students were introduced to 20-100 words per page. Today’s basal readers cater to the Common Core standards, which focused more on college preparation.
Grade Level Target and Areas of Reading
Target
Basal readers can be used by teachers of students of any
reading or grade level, span grades kindergarten to senior year of high school,
they are created to comply with the reading instruction needs of the individual
and guidelines of Common Core standards (Lee, 2016). Basal readers stressed teaching phonics in
emergent literacy programs. They put attention on “word identification,
vocabulary development, comprehension, reading study skills, and fluency”
(Vacca et al., p. 375). For the higher
grades, basal readers come in the form of anthologies, or textbooks, including
stories that students can read together.
These readers usually approach developing specific skills.
Evaluation
As a
substitute, I have used basal readers with my classes. I’ve found they make it easier to jump from
grade level to grade level, and class to class, as there will usually be some
notice of where the usual instructor left off.
“They are based on a structured sequence of learning objectives that are
consistent from grade to grade and that are increasingly aligned with core
curriculum standards.” Basal readers are
criticized for being boring, or too ridged.
What I appreciate about basal readers is their structured bottom-up
approach to teaching literacy, which will become the foundation for the rest of
the readers’ lives.
Technology-based
Reading Strategies
According to Barone and Wright (2008), “As new
literacies that include digital and media technologies evolve, preparing
students to understand and adjust to these literacy demands is critical to
current and future expectations for pleasure and work (International Reading
Association, 2001; Leu, Mallette, Karchmer, & Kara-Soteriou, 2005)” p. 1. The
Internet has become more widely available in schools and students have become
more technologically adept as teachers are using more technology-based literacy
strategies in their classroom. For
example, Dalton and Grisham (2011) describe the eVoc strategy as: “An
eVoc strategy is an electronic or technology-based strategy that teachers can
use to develop students' vocabulary learning and interest in words” p. 1.
Intended Audience, Grade Level Target, and Areas of
Reading Target
According
to Dalton and Grisham (2011) writes, “Teaching words, morphology, and word
origins is an important component in any vocabulary learning program” p.
3. Vocabulary building is the first
thing a young student will take in when entering the school system. It has been found that even students in
kindergarten are exposed to the Internet and media, and can be taught using
eVoc strategies such as visual aids can demonstrate connectivity between words,
broadening comprehension as a whole-school approach to literacy. Technologies such as word translators are
available foe English-language learners, and Text-to-Speech for those who have
trouble reading web-based content.
Evaluation
Technology-based
strategies keep the developing mind in sync with developing technology. These strategies and technologies can be used
with those in the exceptional student population as well as those in the
general education classroom. The use of
technology in the classroom also keeps the teacher up to date with educational
technologies. Personally, I feel the
internet is oversaturated and destroys the natural process of creative
thinking, and would personally keep any media of internet technology away from
a child for as long as possible. I
believe children are sponges, but we have the responsibility of governing the
kind of information and frequency when it comes to exposure.
Integrated
Language Arts Approach
According
to Vacca et al. (2014), an integrated language arts approach extends the
concept of language experience through the grades by immersing students in
reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing activities that connected
through the use of literature, cutting across subject matter (p. 45 & p.
444). Reading is learned through oral and written activities,
whereby integration may involve the development of language while learning
other content areas, such as social studies, science, or math (Wagner,
1985). Vacca et al. (2014) identifies
the integrated curriculum as a student-centered approach to instruction (p.
46). New readers learn all aspects of
language by using language in purposeful situations (Halliday, 1975).
Intended Audience, Grade Level Intended, and
Area of Reading Target
A whole-school approach, an
integrated approach to language arts instruction attempts to join all aspects
of reading and learning into one approach.
This approach can be used from
elementary through high school (Wagner, 1985).
According to Wagner (1985), an integrated language arts approach is a
counterpart in elementary schools for the “language-across-the-curriculum”
movement among high school and college teachers. This approach can
be used from kindergarten through completion of compulsory education,
developing the students’ subskills efficiently within meaningful
interactions with others and with print (Wagner, 1985). Rather than
targeting a specific area of reading, integrated language arts approaches
strengthen comprehension in the student, as she or he maintains intellectual
connectivity of a set idea from subject to subject (Vacca et al., 2014).
Evaluation
My first
instinct is that this a great idea because it gets students to comprehend
literacy as used in various context, creating connections and “aha moments”
that will allow the student’s capacity for interest in the world to expand
knowledgeably. I would start using the
integrated language arts approach with a student as soon as she or he was able
to make constructive connections and comparisons between objects, persons, or
places.
Multisensory
Approach Reading Strategy
Cox (2014) describes
the multisensory approach reading strategy, simply, “The multisensory teaching
approach to reading is based upon the idea that some students learn best when
the material that they are given is presented to them in a variety of
modalities.” According to Kamala (2014),
“When learning takes place through more than one sense, the students’ learning
capacities and the retention of the learnt materials have been improved.” Multisensory approach reading strategies
utilize VAKT activities--visual, auditory,
kinesthetic and tactile, to aid students in integrating meaning to words. The faculty used to attain knowledge of the word may be through seeing,
listening, manipulating or touching objects, like clay or sand.
Intended Audience, Grade Level Intended, and
Reading Target Area
Morin (2015) writes,
“All kids can benefit from multisensory instruction,” while Kamala (2014)
explains, “Learning takes place through the senses.” The physiological outlets every individual
has to experience the world is through the senses. Through the senses, curiosity is inspired to
gain knowledge of the environment.
According to Cox (2014), instructors who use multisensory approaches
will notice in their “students’ learning
attention will increase, and it will make for an optimal learning
environment.” This makes the
multisensory approach ideal for educating those with learning exceptionalities
(Kamala, 2014).
Usually applied as a targeted approach, the multisensory
approach has been suggested for instruction to reading grades K through 3 (Cox,
2016), this approach recognizes that every student will process information
differently, allowing students to confidently navigate information according to
how students best process information. This particular approach seems not to target a specific
area of reading. Rather, it provides the
student with a means to establish his or her specific way of gaining knowledge
of written. The multisensory approach
has been found to particularly support the instruction of the dyslexic (Australian
Dyslexia Association, 2014).
Evaluation
From
further research, I find that Montessori schools use multisensory teaching
strategies. I can comprehend
multisensory teaching strategies as I can identify with the idea of that one
can process information more easily through hearing. I also believe that the new generations have
more evolved needs when it comes to instruction. A multisensory approach structures more
individuality in the student, but may be a better approach for homeschooling or
small group programs.
