Reflection on Ch. 4

Chapter 4: Oracy and Literacy for English-Language Development


To develop proficiency in the English language, students must be able to read and write at levels that will support advanced academic success. They also must use their skills of listening and speaking to gain knowledge as well as demonstrate it. They also must be able to think critically and creatively. As a teacher, we must take all of these facets into consideration and do our best to incorporate the learning of all these into our students.

I realize from reading this chapter that there innumerable ways and activities to aid students in their literacy learning. I would personally start by looking at the Standards for Development to get an idea of the overall goals that are necessary to get accomplished. There are so many aspects of language to teach, that it is easier to build off of the language that they do know in order to understand the new language. Ex: rhyming. They may be able to recognize rhyming in songs from their own language that they know, and then it is easier to understand and identify in english. I think visual aids are extremely important as well.

In these situations, I would try to use the LEA in the classroom as well as gain some insight from the DR-TA strategy. Both strategies seem like they could be very helpful for students! CALL also sounds effective, since we have arrived at a digital age (i'm writing a blog).

Last, but not least, I've mentioned it on other posts too. Fluency over accuracy! Don't correct all errors or distract your students from what they are trying to say. Let them say it, and learn as they go to correct themselves. Just like with writing, we write rough drafts first. It's more important to get the ideas across than to make sure it is spelled right, or, grammatically correct/pronounced correctly.