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Literacy is access to information through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking.  Literacy is highly based upon prior knowledge and experiences.  Forms of literacy vary as do as individual experiences.

 I hope to create a literacy environment where learners feel excited to interact with a variety of literacy-based activities in a student-driven format.  For example, during whole-group read-alouds I will facilitate an ongoing analysis of the story through class discussion.  During discussions, students will be scaffolded to utilize comprehension techniques such as prediction, making connection to existing schemas, and exemplifying for intrinsic and extrinsic understanding.  Students will be given opportunities to develop their literacy in a variety of formats including keeping their own journals.  I will use students’ journals as the basis for other lessons and activities because their journals will be a strong tool for assessing student attitudes, interests, writing processes, and literacy skills. 

Language Arts time at my current field placement is not reflective of my ideas of literacy enrichment.  The students are often instructed to find a comfy place in the room and “read-to-self.”  Students each have their own bucket filled with books supposedly formulated to fit specific reading levels.  However, almost all of the books are the same simple, repetitive and uninteresting stories in each bucket.  More advanced readers are commonly bored with their designated books and are often being disruptive to other students.  Struggling readers are also not concentrating on reading because they are not receiving any attention or assistance at most times.  The teacher is usually grading assignments during read-to-self and only pops her head up to squawk at the kids to quiet down.  During writing time, students are usually given a topic, told to draw a picture and write about it.  I have never witnessed instruction beyond that.  These activities seem to be a waste of time because the students are not being given the guidance that they need.