Literacy is an important aspect of the day for students.

Literacy may also be one of the

hardest areas for students to gain mastery as well. But success in literacy is crucial for them as
they progress throughout the school years. I know that there are some things that students need
to know in order to be successful with literacy. These are things that I will work on as a teacher
and reading specialist to help my students move towards being more successful with literacy if
they are lacking the experience in these areas.
One area that I find very important to literacy, and possibly the place a teacher needs to
start to encourage students to read and write, is motivation. In one regard, every teacher is a
motivator. Teachers empower students to become active with print. Otherwise reading never
happens (Gambrell, 1999). If students are not motivated to read and write, they are not going to
participate in those activities, and will try to avoid them in the classroom. It is well known that
the key to getting better at reading and writing is by practicing reading and writing. But students
need to be motivated to do this. Struggling students especially are lacking the motivation needed
to improve their skills. As a teacher and reading specialist, I will work with my students to
motivate them with materials that are of interest to them in order to show them that they can
enjoy reading and writing. I want my students to be motivated to improve their literacy skills.
Another aspect that I think is important for teachers to incorporate into the classroom is
the active engagement of the students. Students need to be engaged in order to be learning. The
more engaged the students are, the more likely they will be to remember the material later.
Good learners are active. As in all learning situations, a hallmark of good instruction is having
the learners actively attempt to construct their own meanings. (Gambrell, 1999). If students are
actively involved in the learning process, the understandings they reach will be more powerful,
as they were actively involved in reaching it, as well as engaged in the learning process. As a

teacher and reading specialist, I know that keeping my students actively engaged in the learning
process can make the difference between students gaining and understanding or not.
One of the best ways for teachers to keep students actively engaged is by being a
facilitator of knowledge. The teacher facilitates the processThe learner is forced to keep
account of the information discovered and use that informationuntil the end has been arrived
atlearners would internalize fundamental concepts. The method is extremely powerful and
effective especially since it is virtually impossible to formally teach an individual everything
(McDonald, 2011). Teachers should not be seen as the only source of answers. If teachers work
as facilitators of knowledge, students will not only be more engaged, but will also come to
realize that they can figure out the answers as well. In my experience, teaching this way through
the use of a PBL unit was very rewarding. Students were very surprised and excited to create
and learn on their own with just the guidance of my mini lessons and the knowledge they formed
and found on their own. As a teacher and reading specialist, it is my job to help students gain the
confidence in themselves as they use the knowledge I facilitate to create their own
understandings.
One of the final aspects that I believe is very important to incorporate into the classroom
is differentiation. Students are going to come into the classroom and will be working on many
different levels of understanding. As a teacher, it will be my job to assess my students and figure
out what I can do to best meet their developmental needs and get them to the level they need to
be on for their grade level. There is strong evidence to suggest that struggling readers need the
instructional intensity of excellent, differentiated classroom instruction (Gambrell, 1999).
Struggling readers are not the only students who benefit from and need instruction that is
differentiated though. All students benefit from instruction that has been tailored to meet their

specific needs and challenges. As a teacher and reading specialist, keeping my instruction
differentiated for the students is something that I will ensure occurs in all aspects of my
instruction. From my experience, the use of centers is a great way to accomplish this
differentiation. Each center can be organized in ways to adapt to the students working at each
center during each rotation. These centers or groups should be flexible, meet the needs of
students, and involve the best practices of literacy instruction (Gambrell, 1999). This level of
differentiation is a great way to have students working on the instructional level. Differentiation
is key to making sure all students are working on the appropriate level while learning the
material without getting frustrated.
Besides aspects of instruction that I think are important for students as they work on
improving their literacy skills, I also think that as a teacher and a reading specialist, there are
ways in which I should teach literacy to best meet the needs of my students. The most
important characteristic of the good teacherhas been her or his attitude Highly intelligent
and highly educated teachers with a negative attitudemade bad teachers (David, 2011).
Students can pick up on the attitude of their teacher. As a teacher and reading specialist it is very
important to maintain a positive attitude towards learning and the material. If the students see
that the teacher is enjoying the material, they will be more willing to share the enjoyment and be
interested in what the teacher has to say. Literature suggests that attitudes influence actions
are relatively durablebut can also be learned and modifiedIn addition to teachers
instructional practices, their attitudes towardteaching have been identified as factors that
greatly impact students (Kazempour, 2014). As a teacher and reading specialist, a very
important component of my daily job will be to maintain a positive attitude, no matter what I am

teaching, so that I will not negatively influence the perspective through which my students view
the material.

References
David, H. (2011). The importance of teachers' attitude in nurturing and educating gifted children. Gifted
& Talented International, 26(1/2), 71-80.
Gambrell, L., & Mandel Morrow, L. (Eds.). (1999). Best practices in literacy instruction (4th ed.). New
York: Guilford Press.
Kazempour, M. (2014). I Cant Teach Science! A Case Study of an Elementary Pre-Service Teachers
Intersection of Science Experiences, Beliefs, Attitude, and Self-Efficacy. International Journal of
Environmental And Science Education, 9(1), 77-96.
McDonald, B. (2011). Self assessment and discovery learning. Online Submission.
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED521532