Module 3 Summary

After viewing the videos, presentations, articles, and research presented in Module 3, it is very evident to me that as a teacher you must use all means possible to connect children with literature in all content areas. This includes using technology, as presented in the video featuring the Smart Table, which is an extraordinary piece of technology I wish we had access to, in depth development of literacy strategies that allow students to access literature in the ways that best suit them, and accessing a wide variety of texts in the content areas, non-fiction as well as narrative texts.

Because meeting the needs of my students means that we work in shortened segments throughout the day and combining different kinds of instructional formats, I often present different types of texts and media related to the content, and then forget to tie them all together to assist the students to think critically about the information and how it is presented. I should be spending more time previewing the materials to note the focus and point of view from each resource to aid development of critical thinking. This is something I noted when watching the video Integrating Science and Literacy in Early Childhood; it emphasized the importance of the foundations of reading and writing being listening, speaking, and viewing. This concept is something that I experience in my classroom where the students have significant language delays. This video further explained just how deeply language and speech development affected literacy and if not developed at the normal rate, is considered an area of weakness (which is how it is addressed in the current functioning portion of the IEP). This is indicative of the deficit model which does not help us to use their strengths to stimulate growth.

This learning module further stressed the importance of accessing expository text as well as narrative and explained that although using non-fiction texts affects student progress in a positive way, it is used less frequently and with fewer strategies featured, than fiction texts. Ultimately, students need to know how to use a text, where to locate the information they need, and how to think critically about its content. This begins with accessing both types of text, examining the source, and being familiar with the format. This is why we model, practice, and repeat different strategies for each type of text; the students need to be able to implement them independently when they get to the upper grades.