I recently had the privilege of sitting down with another teacher and discussing their philosophies about teaching literacy. The following is our Question and Answer session:
Q. What is your philosophy of teaching literacy?
A. I think literacy is the most important thing we teach. It goes hand in hand with teaching language, which is crucial at our school.
Q. What do you feel is the most important aspect of teaching literacy?
A. Recognizing that Second Language Learners may have more difficulty understanding the text or picking up on specific contextual clues. Supporting their language development and reading will help them understand and pick up on things the author adds into their writing. This is somewhat different than teaching students who speak English as their native language, they tend to pick up on the humor or some of the sayings and phrases more easily.
Q. What do you feel is the most difficult for students to understand?
A. Comprehension. Students have a hard time retaining what they are reading, and understanding what the author is implying. There is so much not stated in text that the reader needs to be able to pull from what they know about language and the background knowledge they have to fully understand the meaning. For example, if someone asks, "Andrew, why didn't you close the door?" they are really saying "you should have closed the door". This is more related to spoken conversations people have, but in speaking the language and understanding how it is spoken, you can better relate to text and infer the meaning behind the words. Tone can change the meaning, the context or situation you are in can have an effect on what you are trying to get across.
I would like to thank Mr. McConnell for giving his time, and allowing me to interview him and share a discussion about the importance of teaching literacy.
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