Teaching Literacy- Chapter 4

I found a lot to appreciate in this chapter especially as I related it to what I have been observing in the ELA classes so far. The value of spending time before tackling or returning to a text, by identifying prior knowledge and building upon it is very practical and useful endeavour. A new term to me "frontloading", describes this tactic. Just as explaining a joke after the fact might help someone understand the joke but will ensure it loses its impact, explaining what a challenging chapter means after the reading will also probably result in a student who might "get it" but with considerably less meaning.  Especially when considering some students are going to have a negative outlook towards any book, it is important to make it relate-able, and something they can truly get, and hopefully a piece that they will actually look forward to returning to. The list of 10 easy ways to ruin reading- while humorous to a point- is also a great guideline for ELA teachers to keep posted. The description of students who prefer "marginalized" reading material and the tangible pleasure they find in it, is a good reminder to us that we want to promote a love of reading- not just our own idea of what constitutes good literature. While part of our role is ensuring the material we teach is relevant and meaningful - achieved in large part through frontloading- another important part of our role involves promoting literacy. This involves  keeping in mind people's varied preferences, enhancing our students love of reading or helping to instil that in students who have negative attitudes. As was mentioned in class, avid reading leads to strong writing skills. I would add that strong oracy (oral literacy) also contributes, emphasizing the importance of discussion, discussion, discussion, something we've been fortunate to see modelled in 379, and which I've been happy to see in the ELA classes so far.