Literature Review of Best Practice in Literacy Education.

1. Literature Review of Best Practice in Literacy Education. Margaret Pihama 2009

2. Outline of Review • Best Practice in general Education • Best Practice in Deaf Education in various settings • How Best Practice in Literacy is promoted

3. General Education • Literacy Taskforce endorsed principles of best practice for teaching reading and writing in New Zealand schools. • A statement of best practice needs to be quite specific about what comprises appropriate instructional approaches,

4. The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following principles of best practice • a sound understanding of the learning process that underpins all teaching; • the expectation that all children will become successful readers and writers • language programmes that acknowledge the interrelationship and reciprocity of oral, written, and visual language;

5. The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following principles of best practice (contd) • planning for teaching that will build on the child’s existing skills, knowledge, interests, and individual needs and that will acknowledge the role of the child as an active learner; • teaching that takes account of children’s linguistic and cultural backgrounds;

6. The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following principles of best practice (contd) • teaching that uses a range of explicit and implicit instructional strategies appropriate to the learner, including small-group or individual instruction where appropriate; • regular and purposeful monitoring – children’s progress in reading and writing being monitored regularly (using running records, teacher conferencing, observation, and other methods) for clear purpose and for use in subsequent teaching

7. The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following principles of best practice (contd) • the development of positive attitudes to reading and writing, including the willingness to take risks; • the use of a wide range of interesting material, fiction and non-fiction, in a range of media and appropriate to the instructional levels, including repetitive texts, rhymes, poems, and songs, to enhance children’s print and phonological awareness;

8. The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following principles of best practice (contd) • access to a wide range of interesting and stimulating material, fiction and non-fiction in a range of media; • teachers who are readers and writers.

9. Teachers reduce risks for children and take risks • Are aware of the students’ backgrounds • Have high expectations • Tailor instructions to needs • Recognise and value the knowledge and strengths of the students • Are culturally relevant teaching aimed at excellence

10. Learning about Language • Language and literacy development is intertwined. • Language and literacy are communication. • Learning to read and write is the most important language dependent task children face.

11. Communication Components • Communication Act • Mode of the Act – speech/sign • Structure of the Act- grammar • Context or meaning- semantics • Purpose or Pragmatic intent

12. Settings and Perspectives in Deaf Education • Reading • Writing • Whole language • Bi-lingual • Oral • Assessment • Itinerant setting

13. Literacy Best PracticesBrenda Stephenson (University of Tennessee) • Provide and monitor level-appropriate reading materials for independent reading activities as well as time to read • Use technology such as CDs, captioned materials, and interest based Internet sites that are known to be motivating

14. 3. Teach phonemic awareness and phonics either through structured auditory-based programs with appropriate modifications for oral students or through specialised materials and techniques that provide visual support to students who sign or need additional visual support

15. 4. Teach metacognitive skills such as reading strategies prior to, during, and after reading through Guided Reading activities to promote text comprehension.

16. 5. Promote reading development through written language applications such as dialogue journals, research reading and writing, language experience stories, writing to read, or other language based programmes.

17. 6.Use content. area reading materials to promote reading comprehension through scaffolding and other content area techniques 7. Have students collaborate with others on activities that promote literacy development through such activities as shared reading and writing

18. 8. Teach vocabulary meaning though semantic-based activities that enhance knowledge of multiple meanings of words, idiomatic expressions, and concrete and abstract meanings of words.

19. 9. Teach vocabulary meaning through morphographemic based activities that enhance knowledge of word meaning through understanding of root words, prefixes, suffixes, including Latin and Greek derivatives.

20. 10. Incorporate specific activities and strategies to promote either spoken reading fluency in oral students or signed reading fluency in signing students.

21. Promoting Best Practices in Literacy • Professional development • Standards for training, and competency • The Join Together Project: online knowledge bank, Master Teachers and a Manual for support and guidance • Mentoring and peer review • Research

22. Research • Teachers treat it as a source of good ideas • Researchers think teachers should apply its findings (Graham Nuthall University of Canterbury)

23. Now………. Options • Professional development programme • Identify examples of ‘best practice’ in literacy instruction at KDEC. • Manual of examples of best practice in literacy instruction • Mentoring/peer review programmes • Use of the KDEC website as resource, eg. a question/answer format. • Master Teachers Project scenario

24. References • Stephenson, B. (2006). Language Across the Curriculum. www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/Teacher_Excellence_in_General_and_Deaf_Ed.doc • Ministry of Education. (1999). Report of the Literacy Taskforce. www.minedu.govt.nz/educationSectors/Schools/ResearchAndStatistics • www.defed.net