Literature Review of Best Practice in Literacy Education.

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Literature Review of Best Practice in Literacy
Education.

• Margaret Pihama
• 2009

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Outline of Review

• Best Practice in general Education
• Best Practice in Deaf Education in various
  settings
• How Best Practice in Literacy is promoted

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General Education

• Literacy Taskforce endorsed principles of best
  practice for teaching reading and writing in New
  Zealand schools.
• A statement of best practice needs to be quite
  specific about what comprises appropriate
  instructional approaches,

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The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following
principles of best practice

• a sound understanding of the learning process
  that underpins all teaching
• the expectation that all children will become
  successful readers and writers
• language programmes that acknowledge the
  interrelationship and reciprocity of oral,
  written, and visual language

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The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following
principles of best practice (contd)

• planning for teaching that will build on the
  childs existing skills, knowledge, interests,
  and individual needs and that will acknowledge
  the role of the child as an active learner
• teaching that takes account of childrens
  linguistic and cultural backgrounds

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The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following
principles of best practice (contd)

• teaching that uses a range of explicit and
  implicit instructional strategies appropriate to
  the learner, including small-group or individual
  instruction where appropriate
• regular and purposeful monitoring childrens
  progress in reading and writing being monitored
  regularly (using running records, teacher
  conferencing, observation, and other methods) for
  clear purpose and for use in subsequent teaching

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The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following
principles of best practice (contd)

• the development of positive attitudes to reading
  and writing, including the willingness to take
  risks
• the use of a wide range of interesting material,
  fiction and non-fiction, in a range of media and
  appropriate to the instructional levels,
  including repetitive texts, rhymes, poems, and
  songs, to enhance childrens print and
  phonological awareness

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The Literacy Taskforce endorsed the following
principles of best practice (contd)

• access to a wide range of interesting and
  stimulating material, fiction and non-fiction in
  a range of media
• teachers who are readers and writers.

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Teachers reduce risks for children and take risks

• Are aware of the students backgrounds
• Have high expectations
• Tailor instructions to needs
• Recognise and value the knowledge and strengths
  of the students
• Are culturally relevant teaching aimed at
  excellence

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Learning about Language

• Language and literacy development is intertwined.
• Language and literacy are communication.
• Learning to read and write is the most important
  language dependent task children face.

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Communication Components

• Communication Act
• Mode of the Act speech/sign
• Structure of the Act- grammar
• Context or meaning- semantics
• Purpose or Pragmatic intent

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Settings and Perspectives in Deaf Education

• Reading
• Writing
• Whole language
• Bi-lingual
• Oral
• Assessment
• Itinerant setting

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Literacy Best PracticesBrenda Stephenson
(University of Tennessee)

1. Provide and monitor level-appropriate reading
   materials for independent reading activities as
   well as time to read
2. Use technology such as CDs, captioned materials,
   and interest based Internet sites that are known
   to be motivating

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• 3. Teach phonemic awareness and phonics either
  through structured auditory-based programs with
  appropriate modifications for oral students or
  through specialised materials and techniques that
  provide visual support to students who sign or
  need additional visual support

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• 4. Teach metacognitive skills such as reading
  strategies prior to, during, and after reading
  through Guided Reading activities to promote text
  comprehension.

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• 5. Promote reading development through written
  language applications such as dialogue journals,
  research reading and writing, language experience
  stories, writing to read, or other language based
  programmes.

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• 6.Use content. area reading materials to promote
  reading comprehension through scaffolding and
  other content area techniques
• 7. Have students collaborate with others on
  activities that promote literacy development
  through such activities as shared reading and
  writing

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• 8. Teach vocabulary meaning though semantic-based
  activities that enhance knowledge of multiple
  meanings of words, idiomatic expressions, and
  concrete and abstract meanings of words.

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• 9. Teach vocabulary meaning through
  morphographemic based activities that enhance
  knowledge of word meaning through understanding
  of root words, prefixes, suffixes, including
  Latin and Greek derivatives.

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• 10. Incorporate specific activities and
  strategies to promote either spoken reading
  fluency in oral students or signed reading
  fluency in signing students.

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Promoting Best Practices in Literacy

• Professional development
• Standards for training, and competency
• The Join Together Project online knowledge bank,
  Master Teachers and a Manual for support and
  guidance
• Mentoring and peer review
• Research

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Research

• Teachers treat it as a source of good ideas
• Researchers think teachers
• should apply its findings
• (Graham Nuthall
• University of Canterbury)

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Now.

• Options
• Professional development programme
• Identify examples of best practice in literacy
  instruction at KDEC.
• Manual of examples of best practice in literacy
  instruction
• Mentoring/peer review programmes
• Use of the KDEC website as resource,
• eg. a question/answer format.
• Master Teachers Project scenario

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References

• Stephenson, B. (2006). Language Across the
  Curriculum. www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/Teacher_E
  xcellence_in_General_and_Deaf_Ed.doc
• Ministry of Education. (1999). Report of the
  Literacy Taskforce. www.minedu.govt.nz/educationSe
  ctors/Schools/ResearchAndStatistics
• www.defed.net