Literacy – how does it fit in?
April 10, 2007
We were having one of those before school discussions in our Teacher Workroom the other morning, about how we fit the literacy programme to Learning Pathways.
Great to hear the discussion! This is a really important issue for us.
Previously, schools would have a plan showing which genre (don’t you hate that word?) should be covered in which weeks of each term, and off we’d go. Literacy in it’s block, and Social Studies, or Science and Technology in ITs block, and never the twain should meet.
My view is that the teaching of literacy should be a really close fit with what is happening in the Inquiry Process. This means, that the literacy teaching will change throughout the term, matching what is happening with the class, with groups and with individuals.
During the Immersion phase, I would focus on teaching a genre which is a close fit with a topic the question might relate to. For example – if the topic lends itself to a lot of debate, then these might be the skills you focus on, both orally, and in written form. Thus the children may learn the skills of debating, and of writing arguments. This of course will vary across the school according to the age of the students.
Later, as the students are investigating and finding answers to their questions, you may note that they need to improve the quality of their note-taking, and focus on this.
At the same time, you may be working with small groups in reading, working on skills of reading informational texts, and how to get information from text. The texts may well support the student in finding answers to their questions. This is a way of supporting students who are less able to do this task independently as well. In this way, the LP programme finds its way into the Literacy programme.
LP doesn’t just have to happen in one or two blocks a week, but can happen across the Literacy programme. If students are needing to write a report, or plan a story-board for a movie, this can happen in the writing part of the programme, and the teacher can work with groups according to their needs for this. How this happens in the classroom may vary according to the age level.
To me, the important aspect about Literacy and Learning Pathways, is that it needs to be a close fit, with the Literacy programme reflecting and supporting the students in their Inquiry process.
I agree with your commments that literacy and learning pathways can in many cases compliment and enhance one another. This is such a wonderful way to give children a multi faceted approach to the topic under investigation. Information Literacy is a skill that needs to be developed right from the earliest readers. I do think that when children are first learning to read that we should be using the very best resources available in order to teach each progressive skill, and that may often not fit into the LP framework. The teaching of reading has value in its own right and doesn’t always need to walk alongside the LP focus.
Thanks for your comment, Linda! Our Junior teachers do such an awesome job of teaching reading, don’t they? I agree, we need to use the material that is best suited to the students stage of learning, and which allows the progression of skills and confidence. There are so many aspects to a reading programme, and I believe it is possible to do both! What you do may vary at different stages of the Inquiry, but it may be part of the the Teacher Daily Reading, where the children participate in dicussions to do with the topic, or share information they heard, or discuss an illustration, or it may be a Shared Book with the class or a group, where a specific IL skill is taught or practised. So many IL skills are skills that are basic reading skills! This is why Literacy is an important basis for IL skills. Children have to be able to read, in order to gain information from texts. I am sure that when teachers use Non-Fiction texts with their students whether in a Shared or Guided context, they already introduce them to the Contents, Glossary and Index, and this is an important part of IL as well.
Bringing appropriate informational texts into the reading programme is such a great support for those students who are unable to locate appropriate texts and gather information from them. I’m sure you can quickly identify the students in your class who will want to photocopy pictures and text and present them as their work! Putting this step into your reading programme will support them, and help them develop these skills, and allow them to feel confident and successful at the IL tasks.