Strategies for Literacy Education

Preface PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK Teachers understand the issues of accountability and want to advance and develop professionally. They have a perpetual need for strategies to assist them in planning curricular objectives, yet great demands on their time make it difficult for them to plan such strategies. Commercially prepared materials may offer excellent suggestions but may not allow teachers to meet the specific demands of the classroom such as dealing with individual differences. Teachers want alternative strategies and ideas to ensure their objectives are met for all students. This book was written to provide a resource for teachers and to give them a selection of interesting and stimulating strategies that will assist them in developing lessons helpful for students' advancement in reading. These strategies are designed to motivate and encourage reading and should prove useful to both preservice and inservice teachers in improving the teaching-learning process and planning for appropriate instruction. They should help teachers evaluate the literacy needs of students and plan lessons accordingly. By working through the strategies in this book, teachers can help children achieve goals. The text is not theoretical, nor does it attempt to justify a particular reading theory. The assumption is that one has developed a theoretical framework about literacy before using these strategies. The strategies, however, are based on sound research and were selected because they can be used with any reading program. They are manageable, of high interest, easy to implement, and adaptable. WHO SHOULD USE THIS BOOK? Both preservice and inservice teachers will find the strategies in the text useful. The text is ideal to use with classes that contain a practicum component. Student teachers can use the text as a general guide. Preservice teachers can use the strategies to develop lessons and apply them to concepts presented in a theoretical text. If preservice teachers are engaged in tutoring students, they can design lessons for different ability groups or try to incorporate several of the strategies in each of the five major areas of the text. Inservice teachers can use this book as an alternative to commercialized instruction and workbook pages. The strategies will enable them to incorporate variety into their classrooms and help motivate students by keeping them active and attentive. Teachers can sharpen their expertise in what is effective with different groups of students, as well as design and implement lessons that would best suit the students' needs. Finally, they can use this book to develop both alternative and reinforcement activities for the wide range of students within their classrooms. CONTENT OF THIS BOOK The text is divided into five major sections: word identification, meaning vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and study skills. Word Identification. This section is devoted to providing strategies for those students who need more experience with the printed word because they have an inadequate sight vocabulary, problems with decoding, or problems with structural analysis. Meaning Vocabulary.This section consists mainly of strategies that allow teachers to develop lessons for students who lack the ability to understand underlying concepts. These strategies help teachers plan lessons in which students interpret concepts necessary for understanding connected text. They incorporate dialogue, explanations, descriptions, and experiences into the lessons. Comprehension.These strategies enable students who have difficulty constructing messages from the printed text. They have an interactive approach and focus on the process of metacognition, consequently helping students learn how to learn. Writing.The strategies in this section emphasize the writing process. With these strategies, students can learn frWiesendanger, Katherine is the author of 'Strategies for Literacy Education', published 2000 under ISBN 9780130221483 and ISBN 0130221481.