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Struggling Emerging Literacy Learners: The Importance of Text Selection and Supportive Book Introduction
Get PDFFor the majority of young learners, learning how to read comes relatively easily. However, some young children experience difficulty and require particularly specific thought and planning by the teacher. When early literacy behaviors are not securely evident in the struggling literacy learner, the teacher can support the development of those behaviors through selection of novel text and a book introduction that is tailored specifically to the needs of the learner experiencing problems. Specific attention needs to be paid to the types of information in the text that the young student is either utilizing or neglecting. The teacher needs to know the student well, including an awareness of specific high-frequency words that the student knows in either reading or writing. The teacher then can make decisions based on the knowledge base specific to the struggling emerging literacy learner. This article details how teaching decisions resulting from knowing a child’s specific reading behaviors support the struggling emerging literacy learner
Transforming the Literacy Lives of Postsecondary Students: A Preliminary Study of Writing Workshops at the University Level
Get PDFThis study aimed to address the growing need for postsecondary students to become better writers. The researchers implemented a writing workshop, which is typically designed for many elementary classrooms, in a university. Twenty-one postsecondary students participated in the writing workshops that provided students with opportunities to learn about academic writing through the use of mini-lessons. Students were also able to conference with their peers and the facilitators. Overall, the writing workshops provided a positive effect on students’ perceptions about their writing. In addition, the students felt that the writing workshops had a positive effect on their overall learning of a specific academic writing skill
You Mean that Really Happened?!: Using Nonfiction to Engage Struggling Readers
Get PDFNonfiction texts used in a middle school classroom encouraged struggling readers to explore other nonfiction texts and to write about the world around them. Rosenblatt’s (1978) transactional theory of reader response posits that an interaction takes place among reader, author, and text during reading. The nonfiction texts Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books (Paulsen, 2001) and Night (Wiesel, 2006) sparked students’ interest in real-life stories of survival and prompted struggling readers to read other nonfiction stories and to reflect upon and share text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections through discussion and writing
Using Authentic Literature to Enrich Young Children\u27s Literacy Experiences
Get PDFThis article focuses on the five components (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) needed to effectively teach children to read. Early childhood educators can teach these five skills through the use of authentic literature. To be classified as authentic literature, books and texts need to utilize “real life” writing that is written to engage the reader. Authentic narrative texts generally appeal to the reader and offers a theme and a moral to the story. The article explains the five components needed to teach children to read and offers some authentic texts, synopses, and lesson ideas specifically for each of the components. Although children may not be able to read the texts, the texts selected are at the child’s listen-ing comprehension level. In addition, the selected texts will aid early childhood educators and parents in infusing these skills for engaging implementation
