I am lucky enough to get to work right alongside an amazing literacy specialist whose passion and philosophy has inspired me in my journey as a reading teacher. Her philosophy has developed and grown over the years from the experience she has working with children and through current educators and researchers such as Katie Wood Ray, Ralph Fletcher, Lucy Calkins, Richard Allington, and Linda Dorn (just to name a few). She strongly believes in the reciprocity between reading and writing and that literacy lays the foundation for a child's future. She believes that children need to be actively involved in literacy activities. If you walked into her classroom you would see children engaged in mentor texts, literacy centers, literature discussion groups, guided reading groups, independent reading, and authentic and engaging literacy activities with the teacher serving as a model. She strongly believes that kids need to be immersed in literature and deep conversations in order to develop the life-long skills they need to be readers and writers. One of her favorite quotes is that effective literacy instruction needs to be "insistent, consistent, and persistent." I couldn't agree with her more!
As mentioned above, Linda Dorn's Comprehensive Literacy Model has had a great influence on literacy instruction at our school. Here is a link to ULAR's Center for Literacy website if you are interested in more information. Specifically, be sure to check out the teacher resource section!
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