A World of Words

Books; they are the gateway to new worlds, new learning, and new opportunities. Words are the vehicle that take books to these new realms and places. Our imaginations take it beyond reality. This is especially true for children, as well as for the adults who are lucky enough to find the time to delve into a world outside of their own. The more that I have been involved in Kindergarten, the more I have been inspired and empowered with the power and importance of literacy learning. Here I have outlined my personal philosophy of literacy instruction.

I believe Language Arts opens the door to a multitude of experiences, knowledge, and growth. It is through literacy that we learn from others, their expertise, their life experiences and inspire others as we document our own. I want my Language Arts program to reflect the importance of all literacy skills as it expands our understanding of the world around us, it allows us to grow in compassion, knowledge, strategies, relationships, communication, and so much more. It is through the power of literacy that we learn, challenge and encourage. It is through stories, told in a variety of ways, that we gain in understanding of the world around us, one another, what is, what could be and what is to come. Due to the wide variety of children who come into our classrooms, teaching literacy can feel like a bit of a jigsaw. It all has to click in different, yet specific ways to come together to have impact. Literacy teaching compiles a lot of components that come together to develop a beautiful and necessary skill. Including reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and representing there are many pieces that come together in order for the puzzle of literacy learning to be complete. Each part of the puzzle plays an integral role, each piece building upon one another to reach the final picture. Every child’s pieces are put together differently, developing varying final products that all fall under the same category of ‘puzzles’. It is my role as the teacher to develop meaningful and memorable lessons and activities that make them want to find that next piece and put it in their puzzle. I as the teacher do not have a ‘how-to’ guide found in each box, instead I have to look at all of the parts that make up the whole, get to know the parts, see how they fit together and cater my teaching in ways that make it possible for the students to put their pieces together. Puzzles are not made to be easy, learning literacy isn’t easy either. I recognize that skill within all 6 areas of literacy there is challenge, often accompanied by fear and sometimes shame. I want to eliminate such emotions from my classroom as a whole, but especially from my literacy program. If students believe they cannot read, if they believe they are bad writers, if they think they cannot grasp concepts from pictures, or cannot decipher letter sounds then they will never progress. If this is the root of their reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and representing then they will never find the joy that these skills can provide. They may never experience that ‘click’ of the pieces being put together to make a beautiful picture. So, I want to inspire my students with literature, so they long to challenge themselves to complete the puzzle without me, despite its difficulty. I will meet students at their literacy level, helping them take their own steps forward. I will do this through ability-based instruction, individualization of activities, books, and lessons, as well as mentorship of older students to inspire the younger ones to see where they can be in the future with their language arts capabilities. I believe literacy teaching is a combination of passion, excitement, inclusion, encouragement, perseverance, and creativity. I hope to implement the importance of literacy skills as a foundation to their future. Literacy learning is a daily task, intentional one-on-one and small group time such as guided reading is an effective way to progress in literacy that challenges them personally to keep working at it. I can never read too much to my students, and they can never practice creative and engaging reading and writing too much. I want to incorporate read-alouds in my classroom every day. I want to encourage my students to write, to learn to love writing, and then write some more. I want to endorse creativity and imagination. I want to develop literacy learners that look for opportunities to learn; learn from the stories they read, learn from one another, learn how to improve, adjust and grow in their literacy skills. I want to weave literacy skills and learning into every subject, recognizing that it is the crux of all genuine, in-depth learning. I hope, above all to foster students who long to work at their personal language arts puzzles and develop a life long love for literacy learning, to dive into the world of words, and story, to recognize the power of literature as they learn, of themselves, others, the real and make believe worlds around them, and to love every moment along the way.