Helping Students Improve English Reading & Writing: A Literacy Plan - Essay Sample

Introduction

Teachers have various ways that they can practise to improve the reading and writing abilities of students. Many students have challenges with the English language. Therefore, teachers have focused on literacy planning to enhance the performance of students. The following literacy plan involves a year old student who has challenges with reading and writing in English.

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What the Student Can Do as a Reader and Writer

There are various ways that the student can practise to improve his ability to read and write in English. The first way that this student can do is to engage in reading more books. Consequently, the plan will entail giving the student various storybooks, whereby the student will be encouraged to read one story per day. Moreover, promoting awareness of how reading and writing are useful helps students to read more. Thus, the plan will entail encouraging and motivating the student to read the storybooks as a way of improving his skills. Furthermore, the student will be required to answer several questions about the stories. These questions will be used to evaluate the understanding of the student. Reading is also essential since it helps the reader to learn new vocabulary (Harper & Rennie, 2009). In this case, the reader will gain new vocabularies after reading these stories. Choosing the right books is also essential in literacy planning. Thus, the books that will be used are storybooks that have a simple grammar that can be understood by the student. Besides, the books will entail short stories that can be memorized with ease. Moreover, choosing the right text is also essential since learners have different weaknesses, and various documents can be used to improve the performance of the learners. Choosing the right book will also entail focusing on what the child wants. From the data provided, one can learn that the child needs a book that has few vocabularies and with stories that an eleven-year-old child can enjoy. Additionally, having interesting stories will motivate the child to read more.

Writing will also be encouraged in the literacy plan, whereby the student will be given several topics to write about. For instance, the student will be encouraged to write simple compositions twice a week. Simple topics will be essential since they will help the student have broader concepts. For instance, a piece about his best friend and his family has more things that the student can think about and write. The more students write, the more they improve their writing skills. Thus, the student will be encouraged to write more compositions to enhance his skills. From the data provided, one can learn that the child has challenges with his spellings. Consequently, the student will eventually learn the spelling of different words after writing several compositions. Besides, reading more stories will help the student to learn about spellings. If anyone wants to inspire the class to write, he or she needs to participate in writing (Harper & Rennie, 2009). Therefore, some stories will be crafted by the instructor to ensure that the child is motivated. Punctuation and grammatical errors were also present in the data provided. Thus, writing exercise will help the child to limit some of these grammatical and punctuation issues.

Getting the children talking is also encouraged in the literacy plan. In this case, the child will be encouraged to speak in English as it will help him to learn more words. Moreover, encouraging the student to converse in English will help in improving fluency. Motivating the child to talk is also essential since it will help him to gain confidence, which can improve his writing and reading skills. Teachers have also encouraged children to narrate stories as a way of improving their communication skills. Interacting with the child can also help the teacher to learn about the challenges that the child is experiencing. Therefore, the plan will involve encouraging the child to talk about what could be challenging him during the learning process.

Focusing on future literacy learning goals is also essential in literacy planning. In this case, the future goals will entail improving the writing and reading skills of the child. Hence, writing exercises will ensure that the child becomes a good writer. These goals will also be essential since they will encourage the child to work harder and ensure that he gains these skills. Communication skills can also help an individual to interact well with others (Schwartz, 2005). Another goal of the plan will involve improving the communication skills of the child. The various stories that the child will be narrating will help the child to have excellent communication skills. Besides, the child can become a good speaker since he will have gained the confidence to speak English. Another goal will involve ensuring the child learns to express himself in English. Creativity is also essential in English; thus, the plan will ensure that the child is creative. Creativity will be achieved since the child will be writing various compositions that require a student to be creative. Moreover, the storybooks will also be vital as they can help in achieving the goal of creativity in this literacy plan.

Teaching Approaches

Teaching approaches play a significant role in determining the outcome of the learning activity. Thus, teachers are encouraged to focus on the right teaching approaches based on the needs of students. In this case, the teaching approaches will involve developing reading and writing skills. For instance, the plan will include group reading and storytelling. Storytelling is also essential as children can learn from others. Moreover, storytelling can be used to encourage social interactions, which can help children to improve their writing skills (Kirkby et al., 2014). Group reading also encourages students to improve their reading skills and catch up with the best readers in class. Technology has advanced and can be used in educating students. In this case, the child can be introduced to word processing programs. For instance, word prediction software has been invented and can be used to help the child to learn how to spell words correctly. Games have also been developed that entail spelling and relating images correctly (Castek et al., 2006). Thus, such games will be introduced in the plan to help the child improve his spelling. Besides, these games are enjoyable and can attract the child and improve his skills. Teachers can also record stories in an MP3 player that students can listen at home.

Reading and writing workshops have also been used to enable children to become good writers and readers. The workshop model of literacy learning involves individualized attention and whole group reflection. The workshops are also essential as they enable teachers to plan the teaching activities well. In this case, the workshop will entail practising reading and writing. Moreover, reading and writing will involve things that interest children. Workshops also require sharing what students have learned (Oakley & Fellowes, 2016). In this case, the last five minutes of the class will involve sharing what the children have learned. For instance, after teaching sensory detail in writing, the teacher can ask the children to include sensory details in their essays. The share time also allows students to talk about what they are doing in the reading and writing workshops.

Interactive and guided writing is also an approach that has been used in literacy learning. The plan can, therefore, use the strategy to improve the writing and reading skills of the child. Typically, the interactive and guided writing approach entails teaching children proper writing conventions beyond their approximations. Interactive writing also involves the sharing of a pen between the teacher and the students. The strategy will include a one-on-one private lesson with the child to ensure that he can direct copy the demonstration of the teacher. Guided writing is also essential since it involves focusing on the current needs of students (Kervin, 2008). In this case, the approach will focus on the needs of the child, which entail improving his reading and writing skills. The method also essential since it engages students in a brief and shared experience.

Guided reading is also another approach that will be practiced. The procedure is essential since children can learn from the teachers on how to improve their reading (Oakley & Fellowes, 2016). Moreover, children can learn the correct pronunciation of various words. The approach will also be essential since the child can demonstrate similar reading behaviours with the teacher and read similar levels of text. The multiple steps used in guided reading will also be applied. For instance, children can be invited to discuss the meaning of texts. Also, children are required to read the books individually, whereby the teacher can identify students who have reading difficulties. The approach will be essential since the child will learn to read independently, silently, and fluently. Moreover, the procedure will be of great significance since it will enable the child to have conversations about the texts. Guided reading also encourages students to use their prior knowledge and apply it to the text. Thus, the approach will be used to ensure that the child exercises what he will have learned.

Shared reading is also one of the approaches that have been used by teachers to develop the reading and writing of children. Thus, the procedure will be used to ensure that children share their interpretations of the storybooks. Shared reading is also essential since the teacher supports readers and can improve their skills to ensure that they become proficient readers. Reading with expression also shows that the reader can understand the meaning of many words (Kervin, 2008). Thus, children will be encouraged to express their feelings as they read the texts. The child will also benefit from the approach since he will learn from others and also gain support and guidance from the teacher. Shared reading also helps in active participation in literacy and developing a more significant vocabulary bank. The child will also discover new reading strategies that can help him improve his reading skills.

Performance Indicators

Performance indicators are usually the means to focus on specific expectations of a program. Thus, the plan will involve performance indicators to determine the outcome of the learning activity. Performance indicators also facilitate curriculum delivery strategies and assessment procedures (Villamizar, 2018). Some of the performance indicators that will demonstrate how students have successfully engaged with the learning tasks will include increase writing skills to convey information in simple English. The performance indicators will help the teacher to learn the improvement made by the child when given writing tasks.

Improved communication skills are also another performance indicator that can be used to show the success of engaging students in learning tasks. Having excellent communication skills can be achieved through reading and writing exercises. Therefore, the performance indicator is applicable in this case since the students will be involved in discussions that entail communication and expressing oneself in English. Evaluation of the program can also be exercised by examining the students. For instance, dictation can be applied to ensure that the learning program has improved the writing skills of the students. Similarly, students can be given various paragraphs that they can read independently. Performance indicators will also involve focusing on punctuation and checking the grammar. For instance, students can write compositions that can be used to...