Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.
Standard 6 emphasizes the critical role of teachers possessing a comprehensive knowledge base and a profound understanding of the subjects they teach.
Regarding literacy, as a future teacher, I have learned about the significance of phonemic awareness and vocabulary as well as practices involving those elements to develop skilled readers. The foundational elements like phonemic awareness and vocabulary instruction accumulated during students’ encounters with language can profoundly shape their future reading abilities.
Phoneme awareness, the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, enables children to decode words and comprehend their meaning, fostering fluent reading skills. Teaching phonemes to students is not simply teaching how to pronounce sounds. Teachers also need to understand the articulatory gestures of sounds. Mastering vocal gestures can allow students to strengthen their phonemic awareness, correct their pronunciation, and support orthographic mapping later.
Building vocabulary is crucial for language comprehension and skilled reading. Encouraging students to read extensively, hundreds of books and millions of words a year, can significantly enhance their vocabulary. Teachers also need to employ a range of books that can broaden students’ knowledge and support student language development. Moreover, explicit and intentional vocabulary instruction requires teachers to follow specific steps to make new words ingrained in students’ minds. Teachers need to intentionally select words, introduce them with their definition and examples or non-examples, connect these new words with students’ prior knowledge and experiences along with frequent review them with students. This approach is particularly beneficial for English learners, enabling them to enhance their vocabulary and develop into fluent readers.
I believe that building skilled readers starts with developing strong phonemic awareness and vocabulary. By prioritizing these foundational elements, educators can foster proficient readers, setting students on a path to lifelong literacy and success. My approach to literacy is built based on my broad knowledge of literacy instructions that I have gained through my teaching program. It also reminds me that teachers’ commitment to lifelong learning would benefit their profession and their students.
References
Lane, H. [OregonRTIi]. (2022, December 12). Practical Strategies for Decoding and Encoding [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxe-Q7QV7zA&t=3809s
Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to print: language essentials for teachers (Third edition). Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Nahna, E. [The Education Hub]. (2022, October 19). Oral language foundations for literacy [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEN78ZOQASk
