Effective Literacy Learning

The assumption that every student at a certain grade level can learn from the same textbook is completely false, and any teacher would know that. Every class is made up of an array of literacy levels, and it is the teacher's job to provide many means of instruction to create an environment suitable for all students to learn. Creating said environment is not easy, but I feel that through Allington's six Ts of effective elementary literacy instruction and literacy centers, every child will have the potential to improve in literacy.

In a study performed by Richard Allington, results showed that there are six things that are essential for effective literacy instruction: time, texts, teach, talk, tasks, and test. In effective literacy classrooms, teachers delegate at least 50% of the school day to reading and writing. Children need practice often in reading and writing to become proficient. This practice comes in many forms, such as reading and writing in many subjects, guided reading, and independent reading and writing. The types and amount of texts students read  are also an important factor in literacy instruction. Every student should not be reading the same text all the time; rather, students should be reading texts based on their reading levels. In order for a child to learn, he or she needs to be reading books in which they are proficient and fluent 90% of the time. This means, they should not miss more than 2-3 words out of 100. These "easy" texts lead to higher self-confidence in reading, which motivates students to read and learn more. In an effective literacy classroom, teachers use the "let me demonstrate" structure instead of "assign and assess." The former structure allows teachers to model effective strategies for good reading and writing. Through modeling, children are able to put what they see into practice. In the "assign and assess" model, only students who have grasped the concept of a particular strategy are able to complete and learn something from the assignment. Teachers in effective literacy classrooms encourage conversational talk, whether it be between student and teacher or student and student. This talk normally stems from open-ended questions, which have more than one correct response and lead to more questions. This form of talk encourages all children to speak in class because there are no wrong answers; children will not feel embarrassed like they sometimes do when they answer a question incorrectly. Additionally, children learn communication skills and how to talk in front of people. The types of assignments teachers rely on directly influence whether literacy instruction is beneficial for all learners or not. Research shows that effective literacy teachers assign longer assignments that last several days rather than multiple, short assignments that make up one school day. Students also have a say in what kind of work they will be doing, which makes them more engaged in their work and more likely to claim ownership of their work. Lastly, effective literacy teachers evaluate their students based on effort and improvement rather than achievement. In this way, every student, even the typical low-achievement student, has the potential to get good grades. These teachers are more concerned about the process rather than the end result.

In addition to incorporating Allington's six Ts to effective elementary literacy instruction, effective literacy teachers devote a good amount of each week to literacy centers. These literacy centers should focus on six things: comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary/word study, and writing. During the time allocated for literacy centers, the teacher is able to work with students who need extra help (or any group of students) while the other students are participating in literacy centers. Each of the centers should be simple and easy, so all students understand what to do without any teacher intervention. In addition, they should be directly linked to what the teacher is teaching at that current time, so the students are able to make connections and practice the skills and strategies they are learning. However, in order to ensure that literacy centers are effective, teachers need to outline the routine and expectations of the students.

Creating a literacy classroom in which all learners can thrive is no easy task. It will take much time, preparation, and practice, but the end result will be completely rewarding if all of the steps outlined above are followed.

My Perfect Classroom

The way a classroom is set up is vital in whether or not students succeed. The layout of the room can either positively or negatively affect the learning outcomes of the students, so a great amount of thought should go into the design. Additionally, this room is like a second home for both the teacher and the students, and, after all, most young children believe that their teachers live at school! The environment should be warm and inviting; a place where children want to be for 7+ hours a day.

My perfect classroom would be rectangular in shape. Desks would be arranged in groups of four. That way, students would be able to easily converse with one another when given the opportunity, such as in writing workshop. Also, the six or so clusters of four desks would make it easy to create stations for centers. The students' desks would be arranged in a horseshoe shape. The teacher desk used for homogeneous group work and individual work with the teacher would be located at the open end of the horseshoe. (The open end of the horseshoe faces the back of the classroom.) This desk will be kidney-shaped, so the teacher can see the whole class while working with individuals or groups of students.

The whiteboard/smart board will be located at the closed end of the horseshoe. On one side of the whiteboard/smart board will be writing utensils such as pencils, pens, markers, etc. On the other side will be all sorts of paper, scissors, wet glue, glue sticks, etc. I chose to put these next to the whiteboard/smart board because they are things necessary for writing and drawing, and the main purpose of the whiteboard/smart board is for writing and drawing. Also on either side of the whiteboard/smart board will be the word wall. Half of the letters would be on the left side, and half on the right. The location of this next to the whiteboard is crucial; all students would be able to see it if they needed help with a word while reading or writing.

Behind the desk that the teacher uses for homogenous groups and individual work, I would place a giant rug that would be used for morning meeting, whole class reading, etc. The teacher would sit in the chair that she normally sits in for homogeneous group work and individual work, except she would be facing away from the table now. There would be an easel next to her, where the morning message would be written. The morning message will contain mistakes based on what the students are currently learning. On one side of the rug will be the library. Books will be arranged by numbers, with the easiest books being a 1 and the hardest a 20. Every two weeks, students will be assigned numbers ranging from 1 to 20, which will determine what books they are allowed to read for partner reading, independent reading, etc. The children's cubbies will be located on the other side of the rug. These will be numbered from 1 to however many kids are in the class. The children will be required to memorize their numbers. In these cubbies, students will store their backpacks, lunchboxes, and textbooks/reading books.

Next to the cubbies in the back left corner of the classroom will be where the teacher's desk will be located. A stapler, hole punch, and tissues could all be found here. Adjacent to the teacher's desk will be four computers. Every once in a while, students should use the computers for centers and other activities, such as learning how to type and compose their papers. Lastly, student's work would be displayed all around the room and outside the room for everyone to see and admire.

While this set up may not be the perfect classroom for every teacher, I think that it would be the perfect classroom for me. I tried to make sure that things that related to each other were located near the same area to make it easy for students to remember where things are. With this design, I would feel confident that my students could achieve success and have fun while doing so.

Here is the design that I just explained in picture format:

My Memory of Language Arts

 Until recently, I have really struggled with loving language arts as a whole. Certain aspects like grammar and writing always came naturally to me, so I enjoyed activities pertaining to those areas. Reading, on the other hand, was a completely different story. I know I went through a span of many years throughout my grade school career where I absolutely dreaded reading. I wasn't as good at it as I wanted to be, and although, being the competitive person I am, I pushed myself, I couldn't get myself to enjoy it, mostly due to the ways in which I was being taught it.

Beginning in kindergarten, I was given the opportunity to choose what I wanted to write about. Every Friday, the teachers sent home a broad topic every student had to write about, but the student could write about anything within that topic. There was structure, but also room for creativity. As I continued through elementary school, I remember that most writing assignments followed the structure that began in kindergarten. This method of teaching writing even continued in middle and high school. For instance, in middle school, every sixth, seventh, and eighth grader was required to participate in the oratorical contest. Again, a specific topic was provided and students could be creative within that topic. The fact that I had a say in what I wanted to write about is really what made me fall in love with writing. It's interesting how the opportunity to be creative can make a huge difference in terms of a person's feelings towards a certain subject or subject area.

By the end of first grade, my younger brother (who would start kindergarten the next August) taught himself how to read. He was taking Accelerated Reader (AR) tests, which are basically quizzes online, on books that were either just below or at my grade level. Being the older sister, there was no way I would let my brother surpass me in reading! Therefore, my brother's early success with reading motivated me to read more and more. I found myself wanting to read all the time because I couldn't let my brother become better and more fluent than me. Once I reached second grade, however, my love for reading started to dwindle away. We hardly, if ever, were allowed to read books of our choice. I can vividly remember that every Monday morning began with the whole class reading the same story together. Then, throughout the week, we would have workbook pages about that story, which were meant to teach reading comprehension. Finally, every Friday, we would have a 10 question quiz about the story that we read as a class on Monday, and our report card grades for reading were calculated from those quiz scores. This method of teaching reading and reading comprehension continued through fifth grade.

By middle school, I finally had some say in what I was reading. Of course, there were texts that the whole class was required to read, but we also were able to pick one book of choice each quarter to read and take an AR test on. As I found myself starting to love reading again, high school came. I had absolutely no say in what I was reading, and I was required to annotate every book I read. While I understand that annotating is a useful tool in gaining a deeper understanding of a book, I definitely did not want to put any effort into it if I had been assigned the book. Additionally, being a competitive gymnast and training 20 hours a week during high school, I had no free time to pick up a book of my choice and read it. Not soon enough, the summer before college approached, and I finally didn't have to worry about required summer reading books. I could read what I wanted to! This is when I really got into The Hunger Games series. I also started to reread books that I had read in high school, such as The Great Gatsby, because I wanted to be able to enjoy them for once instead of worrying if my annotations were good enough for an A+ grade. As of right now, I particularly like science fiction and romance novels, but honestly, I would pick up a book from any genre and read it because I can finally exercise my right to choose.

From my experiences in elementary school, I would apply the same structure/creativity model that I was provided with in elementary, middle, and high school. When students are given choice, they are more likely to be engaged, do good work, and learn something from their work. In terms of reading, I know for a fact I will not make my students read the same story together as a class, complete workbook pages on the story, and take a quiz about the story. For one, this method of teaching doesn't take into consideration that students in the same grade are at different reading levels. The struggling readers continue to struggle because they are reading books that are too difficult for them. Therefore, I will make sure I divide my future students into reading groups based on their reading levels, so that every student can learn and progress. Additionally, I will give my future students many opportunities to read books of their choice so that they learn to love reading at a very early age. I don't want my future students to have to experience the same kind of reading instruction that I did.