The Literacy Big Picture in Your Classroom

Teachers are always struggling with ways to take new information, ideas, research and make it instantly applicable to the students they teach. They have an idea of the "big picture", but the pieces to get there may be unclear.

I have a suggestions and ideas facing through my mind, in relation to creating a learning experience that students would WANT to be a part of.  I hope it is an experience that all teachers would want to create as a part of their literacy "big picture."

The experience I have in mind makes learning authentic.  A situation where teachers take the curriculum they already teach and make a few adaptations in the structure of their schedule or the framing of their classroom discussions.

The "Literacy big picture" looks like this:

Large group time (30+minutes) with text reading and discussion based on the Four Roles/Resources Model (developed by Luke and Freebody):

• teaching our kids how to approach text based on genre and topic and purpose of text.  
• Students will create connections, build relationships with the text, and learn how to navigate through a variety of texts independently.

Additional large group instruction in word work and language structure (approx.15 minutes) with a program that is consistent and concise throughout the school/system (one example I support and believe in, Fountas and Pinnell):

• structured lessons in a scope and sequence that support the understanding of language structure. 

Small group time (similar to guided reading)  - (15 minutes per group):

• every child, every day is involved in a small group with text that is slighly challenging.  Teacher spends time listening to each reader and differentiating lessons based on children's instructional needs.

  Many classrooms follow this type of structure or schedule.

So WHY am I making such a big deal out of this?

It's time for us to rethink the activities in our classrooms, beyond the amount of minutes we teach or which curriculum we adopt.   Think beyond the large group, small group, individual groupings of kids....

It IS about:

• teaching literacy beyond what the textbook says. Literacy goes way beyond understanding books. There's online literacy, math literacy, science literacy, image literacy, on and on. 
• creating an experience where students feel personally connected to what they are reading or learning about.
• look beyond the surface to really understand what the author's message is about and why it was written.
• students understanding WHY they learn what they learn. 
• taking what we already do good and make it great!

I would love to have a discussion about these topics!  Please email me!

image on flickr by wesley fryer

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