EDLI635 Theory and Practice of Literacy Instruction

Graphic organizers are visual representations of information and concepts. Most learners can process information best by organizing it in pictures. Graphic organizers are effective teaching tools because they help students organize content and focus on key information. Because it uses fewer words, it can be very beneficial to a variety of leaners, such as the ELL and students with special needs. Read this article to learn more about the benefits of using graphic organizers. This lesson plan is an example of using graphic organizers for reading instruction.

View my presentation on strategies for teaching the English Language Learner by clicking here .

View my first grade lesson plan on Making Predictions here .

Click here to view my Running Record titled "Eating Like an Athlete". You can view Dovid's Multiple Choice Quick-check response sheet and the retelling form  here. Consequently, I drew up this lesson plan to improve his reading fluency. Here you can view my reflection on my running record.

Word usage is divided into three levels: Tier 1 words are the basic words that get used in everyday reading and conversations. Being that these words are those that everyone is familiar with, they don’t have to be taught explicitly. Tier 2 words are new words that students will come across in text, conversations and TV shows. We want students to know the definitions and proper usage of these words. Examples of these words are ‘freeway’, ‘democracy’, ‘hurricane’. This category of words is the one that is important to focus on during reading and writing instruction. The lesson doesn’t necessarily have to be an add-on vocabulary lesson; it can be incorporated in what they’re learning by finding age-level Tier 2 words in the children’s learning material. Tier 3 words are the highly technical words that are usually unique to a specific topic or subject. It is not necessary to focus on these words, rather teach them when it pertains to the subject matter being taught. When stude...

An integral step toward producing proficient readers is to ensure that children can read fluently- smoothly, correctly and with expression. According to Richard Allington, the reason there are so many children who struggle in this area, is because they don’t have books on hands that they can read accurately and understand. In order to promote fluency, which will eventually improve student’s comprehension, it is important for children to have access to texts that they can easily read. By developing a classroom library that includes books of a wide range of genres and reading levels, all children can read at their personal independent reading level. Students should be taught how to self-assess which books are considered “just right” for them. It is also especially important that the kids should be able to relate to the text- by supplying them with rich material that they already have some background knowledge in, such as key content areas in science and social studies. When children ar...