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Literacy Philosophy Statement

Literacy is an important part of life from birth until death, allowing people to communicate and engage with the world through reading, writing, and technology. Literacy develops over time beginning with oral language and is best supported through a balanced approach in the classroom incorporating reading, writing, and word study, while ensuring students understand the real-world purpose and application of literacy. Teachers must build a community where all students feel included through read-alouds and culturally appropriate instruction that acknowledges students' varied backgrounds and needs in order to help students grow as literate citizens.

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96 views3 pages

Literacy Philosophy Statement

Literacy is an important part of life from birth until death, allowing people to communicate and engage with the world through reading, writing, and technology. Literacy develops over time beginning with oral language and is best supported through a balanced approach in the classroom incorporating reading, writing, and word study, while ensuring students understand the real-world purpose and application of literacy. Teachers must build a community where all students feel included through read-alouds and culturally appropriate instruction that acknowledges students' varied backgrounds and needs in order to help students grow as literate citizens.

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Sierra Paasch

Read 650
Literacy Philosophy Statement
Literacy is powerful. Literacy surrounds us from the moment we are born until our last

breath. We have meaningful conversations with our family and friends; we are immersed in the

technological culture of our day; we write our thoughts and ideas into sophisticated works.

Literacy is beyond us. It creates balance in our life combining many components that allow us to

be individuals. While literacy does start from a young age with oral language, school aged

students can grow and flourish with the right instruction in place.

Reading, writing, and word study are all important pieces of a balanced literacy approach

in the classroom, but students need to see the purpose and application of literacy to keep

engagement and motivation high (Bear, 2015). Reading aloud to model what knowledge and

experience can be gained from it is so important for the classroom. It is a point in the day where

everyone in the room is absorbed in the same thing. “…it is the single most important classroom

structure there is, and so I demonstrate it wherever I go. The read aloud as a predictable,

ritualized classroom structure does so much work in a classroom community, and it nurtures our

individual and shared identities as readers and writers in so many complex and interesting ways”

(Ray, 1999, p. 65). These moments allow us to build as a community because not every student

has the same background.

Knowing where the students came from is important in order to make sure the instruction

and lessons are culturally appropriate. Some students lack access to literacy at home through

reading or communicating, while some students do not have the ability to hear at all causing

them to miss out on a huge piece of literacy acquisition: oral language. No matter where the
students came from, what they have been through, or what their instructional level may be

coming into the classroom, we, as teachers, need to set strong expectations to grow students

literacy mind to better prepare them as citizens outside of the four walls of the classroom.
References
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2015). Words their way: Word study for

phonics, spelling and vocabulary instruction (6th Ed.), Boston, MA: Prentice

Hall/Pearson.

Ray, K. W. (1999). Wondrous Words Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom. Place of

publication not identified: Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse.

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