I am taking a course in language arts. I was asked to reflect on my personal literacy story, or the events and people in my life that have helped me to develop my literacy skills and experiences. This task brought aspects of my experience to mind that I did not even know were so influential to me both in my literacy, and in my teaching practice. This goes to show how powerful reflection can be, and how important it is for teachers. We need to be aware of how much our own experiences affect what we believe about education, and about our students, because these affect the way we teach. Furthermore, they affect our students' literacy stories.
So here is my personal literacy story. I have included a poem that I wrote in this video. There’s a specific reason I chose to write a poem, so listen closely to find out why!
This kind of balance would allow students to work on the things that are challenging for them in literacy (just like reading fluently and quickly was a struggle for me). It would also allow them to use their skills in areas that they thrive in (for me it was writing, and a written assignment was usually my medium of choice to present information, but for others, they might prefer to create a video, or share through public speaking).
This balance also must include different methods of learning. This could be group collaboration, independent work, hands-on learning, verbal, auditory, and visual learning etc. Kids learn in many ways, and a balanced literacy program allows them to try different things, work in the ways they prefer, and grow in the areas they find challenging. This is made possible not only through teaching each area of literacy through the whole year, but by providing opportunities for children to learn them in a variety of ways (i.e. centres could be used to work on various reading skills; reading to self, reading with someone, reading with the aid of the teacher, learning from peers while listening to them read, etc.).
The reason I believe so strongly in a balanced literacy program is that all children are different. Just like I learned through my Personal Literacy Story reflection, all kids have things they thrive in, and things they feel they are barely surviving in. I want my classroom to be a place where children know they have the opportunity to do what they love and feel they are good at. This builds confidence. I also want to foster growth in areas that are challenging, so kids know that my classroom is a safe space to make mistakes, learn from them, conquer fears, and develop skills. I don’t believe in stopping kids from doing what is difficult, because this steals from them a sense of accomplishment and joy in conquering a challenge. What I do believe in is giving them the opportunity to use their strengths to develop their weakness. For me, I was a strong writer, so I used writing as a motivation to read, so that I could in turn become a better writer (as my story displayed). My students will have these opportunities as well, and I will do all I can to help them understand that comparing themselves to others is only okay in a positive light, when we see the differences we have as a way to come together to balance out our classroom and help each other grow!