Philosophy of Education; The Reading Teacher’s Role

The purpose of education is the transfer and expansion of knowledge and

skills so that people can accomplish tasks, overcome challenges and live meaningful

lives. My goal as a literacy instructor is to develop my students’ reading and writing

skills so that these students have the knowledge, skills and abilities to communicate

clearly and effectively in order to accomplish tasks, overcome challenges and fully

participate in meaningful, connected ways as literate members of society.

My philosophy of education is best expressed within the concept of

“motivation.” Learning occurs and knowledge is retained when students are

motivated by meaningful, purposeful experiences. I believe the reading teacher’s

primary challenge is to identify an individual’s literacy strengths and deficiencies,

and create learning situations and environments so that students need and want to

use specific reading and writing skills to accomplish a task or complete a goal.

The effective literacy teacher has a strong foundation in understanding how

language is learned and developed, as well as thorough knowledge of language

structure, and practical skills of instruction and assessment. An effective reading

teacher has knowledge of and experience with specific instructional strategies to

develop phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

I fully support standards in education and requirements for teachers to meet

competency standards. Effective reading teachers should participate in professional

development to increase their knowledge of and experience with curriculum,

methods and technological advancements that can enhance students’ literacy skills.

Teachers need to keep abreast of the advancements in their content area so that

they can educate their students in a way that is relevant to the students’ lives.

Equally important to solid foundational knowledge of language structure and

the process of reading and writing development is the reading teacher’s ability to

engage students with the language so that students enjoy, play with, and use

language in meaningful ways. I also think the literacy teacher should model

enthusiasm and a curiosity about reading and writing, and continue to make

discoveries with the students.

The literacy teacher should create a text-rich environment by providing easy

access to multi-level texts of interests to the student, modeling fluency through daily

read alouds and using technology enhanced instruction. The students should be

provided opportunities to choose projects and activities of interest to explore the

language. For example, students can check out books of interest, read for enjoyment

during class time, listen to audio books, play games with letters words and sentence,

write and illustrate their own books, etc… all with the purpose of engaging the

students in a meaningful way. The students can then use the literacy skills they

have developed to effectively communicate their ideas and interests with the

teacher and classmates, setting a foundation for a lifetime of meaningful, connected

participation in literate society.