Right to Literacy

Chapter 1 The Right to Literacy

Three teachers began writing Apprenticeship in Literacy: Transitions Across Reading and Writing to share their story of teaching reading and writing to K-3 students with other teachers. The major emphasis would be on identifying and articulating the transitions that occur as children become more competent readers and writers. The teachers found that for struggling readers they needed to do something else besides immerse them in a literacy rich environment. The teachers needed to be knowledgeable about the literacy process and to provided them with constructive reading and writing opportunities that guarantee their right to literacy. In our school which is in restructuring we have heard from our consultants from observation that teachers do not have the skills and knowledge to explicitly teach reading. Dorn, French & Jones (1998) have suggestions to promote higher-level literacy development in young children: carefully observe children in the process of learning, design instructional interactions that involves personal knowledge as a foundation for constructing new knowledge, monitor progress in new situations and be prepared to make adjustments to support continued learning and use observations of children’s learning to evaluate and plan new instructional interactions to validate old knowledge and activate new learning. These suggestions are in line with scaffolding and use of prior knowledge as well as providing Discourse to keep moving forward.

The authors also distinguish between Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the Zone of Actual Development (ZAD) where behavior development occurs on levels. ZAD is the child’s independent level of performance, what the child knows and can do alone while the ZPD is the maximum level of development the child can reach with assistance (p. 4). Higher levels of understanding take place with assistance in the ZPD and the child moves forward as that knowledge becomes independent maybe even the next day. Teachers need to provide verbal cues and facilitate reflection to evaluate as well as justify with reason the importance of the activity or skill. This apprenticeship allows modifications to occur to support the child’s feedback. Interaction between teacher and students supports the new learning. I think most teachers use this theory in classrooms the key is actual knowledge of where students are at.

Developing self-regulated learners means a child is able to use his knowledge to advance his own learning. The definition given in the book is “the child’s capacity to plan, guide, and monitor his or her behavior from within and flexibly according to changing circumstances” (p. 10). This phenomenon has characteristics such as guiding, planning, linking, monitoring, confirming, generating, reflecting, rejecting, discovering and checking that occur while children engage in reading and /or reading activities. No action exists in isolation but work in a network to help student make sense of incoming information. Meta-cognitive process, meta-knowledge and reflective learning can only occur in classrooms where Discourse is encouraged and expected. Respect and active listening is also key for success.

Teaching for transfer requires the teacher to know what a child knows and be able to design instructional interactions to provide the learner with opportunities to transfer existing skills, strategies and knowledge to new problem solving activities. Teachers teach for strategies to allow the child to use processing based on existing knowledge and ability to apply problem solving strategies to tackle unknown information. When a child applies processing behavior he taps his background knowledge, sees relationships and applies problem solving strategies to construct meaning. A self regulated learner applies his current skills, strategies and knowledge at a new level of cognitive activity in various situations. Teaching for transfer requires the teacher to be observant of child’s existing knowledge and know how to present opportunities that enable the child to transfer this knowledge to different situations with the appropriate types of materials to apply existing skills in flexible ways. This is transferring our learning to increase our learning.

Accuracy versus mistakes - teachers who emphasize accuracy deprive students to learn to generalize problem-solving and validate strategies in new situations. Students must make mistakes to “sort out” mistakes that lead to meaningful learning that can be scaffold to increase reading skills. Reading is successful when students can make sense of the reading to understand the author’s intended message and purpose. In the apprenticeship approach, teachers guide the child to apply checking and confirming strategies to promote meaningful interactions with text.

Teachers cannot teach reading if they are not observant and knowledgeable about students ZAD to move them toward ZPD where learning takes place. Teaching students to become self-regulated learners is key to successful reading. The cycle of transfer is needed to promote understanding and making sense of text to move beyond the process of reading to meaningful interactions with text and prior knowledge. Within an apprenticeship approach students could be proficient readers by 3^rd grade and they will have access to literacy.