Part 1 Review this week’s Learning Resources with your own experiences in mind, and consider what five major components create a balanced literacy program and the role oral language plays within this program. Reflect on how balanced your instruction was as a young learner. Think about when you or someone you know was learning to read. What approaches were presented to teach reading? What motivated you or your relatives or friends to read? View the Virtual Field ExperienceTM in this week’s Learning Resources and see what the students in the video experience in learning to read. Think about any similarities or differences between what you observe in the VFE and your own experience (or your relatives’ and friends’ experiences) in learning to read. Post an analysis describing your experience (or your friends’ and relatives’ experiences) with learning to read. Include the following points in your analysis: Identify a specific approach or multiples approaches that you believe teachers used. What recollections do you have of the ways your teachers may have used any of the components of a balanced approach to literacy instruction reviewed this week? Which aspects of these approaches motivated you to read and fostered an enjoyment of reading? In what ways were your experiences similar to those observed in the VFE? What differences did you observe between your experiences and those you observed in the Virtual Field ExperienceTM? In this week’s learning resources you will read about a balanced literacy program. What strategies described in this week’s resources align with your experiences and/or the VFE? Utilizing Walden’s Inclusive Teaching and Learning Model, which of the five research and practice based threads are woven into the virtual field experience? Provide examples of how they are demonstrated in the video. Include citations from the resources that support your analysis in the Day 3 post. Part2 In this Assignment, systematically explore ways to become an effective teacher of literacy. Knowing how to teach literacy is not an intuitive or natural ability for many, but the skills needed to effectively teach literacy can be learned. Effective literacy instruction isn’t identical in every classroom; rather, teachers use their personal experiences and those of the students to create learning opportunities that are differentiated and engaging for all learners Review the Learning Resources for this week. Reflect on the nine principles of an effective teacher discussed in Chapter 1, “Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher,” and a balanced literacy approach reviewed in the Goltche article. Speak with someone with experience in the educational field and inquire about professional responsibilities related to ongoing development and improvement as teachers of literacy in both the physical classroom and online learning environments. Analyze how this approach supports opportunities for the teacher to demonstrate positive dispositions toward reading and to foster enjoyment of reading for all children in a culturally or linguistically diverse classroom. Review the Virtual Field ExperienceTM with a focus on the teacher and her teaching style. Submit a 2- to 3-page Word document that addresses the following points: Explain the concept of a balanced literacy program, including the essential components. Summarize what makes an effective teacher of reading in a balanced literacy program. Incorporate information from the Learning Resources into your analysis by discussing how being aware of this information might influence your role as a teacher. Use APA format and include a title page, in-text citations, and a reference list.
