Literacy or Not to be Literacy?-That is the Question

As a teacher in today’s literacy rich society, I am very fearful that I am doing a disservice to the students that cross my path. When it comes to teaching, the area of language/literacy education has always felt as one of my week areas. I attribute this to the fact that there are so many different viewpoints and ideas regarding how and what should be taught and the vastness left open to everyone’s own subjectivity when it comes to “language”.

The idea that really struck me from the articles was the notion of context. O’Neil mentioned that “pushing reading into context-less space is the first phase in the deconstruction of coherence” (p.77), a belief that I agree with entirely. In order to help students learn new concepts, they must be taught within contexts that are meaningful to them. Photo-copy upon photo-copy of worksheets will not create literate students. Instead one tends to think we will create mindless droids capable of only completing single task exercises that require no real thought. Activities that have meaningful context will in contrast encourage the students to delve into what they know and then in turn use that knowledge to try and gain meaning of what is unknown. The procedures involved with writing will then naturally follow once the students have expanded that knowledge.

The notion of needing to teach using meaningful contexts led me to think more about Differentiated Instruction. Differentiated Instruction (DI) involves teachers leading-not as a teacher at the front of the classroom dictating to the students. But rather, the teacher taking on the role of a “coach” and giving the students options as how to go about completing the task-not necessarily meaning in a pen to paper format. By allowing the students to take ownership of how they are going to complete their work, and in which way they will complete it successfully, we allow them to become critical thinkers experiencing success. We all know that at some point of our own education, we often questioned “why” we had to do it this way and how things could be much better if we tried it this way.

DI is a wonderful tool that will enable teachers to keep the students engaged in meaningful (context-filled) activities. The concern I have now however, is how this will help students perform at the appropriate levels on standardized tests. Where do we find the “perfect” balance between DI and standardized tests? Even better, if DI is the tool of the future-allowing students to experience significant gains in their own education, why then are we still administering standardized tests and who do they actually benefit?

Literacy is not only a thing of the past and it is by no means a perfected concept in the world of education. How then do we all stop and take a step back to see what really matters-our students-the future leaders of our world.