Reflection on Literacy

The assignments for this course have provided significant insights regarding school-wide literacy and its impact on overall student performance. As evident in the assignments, a school-wide literacy plan is critical to improving student achievement. However, the plan should incorporate data regarding students literacy needs, performance, and expectations. Additionally, the plan should incorporate measures by the school to support literacy development and current teaching practices. School leaders and administrators use the literacy action plan for decision-making about resource allocation, instruction, and programming (Irvin, Meltzer & Dukes, 2007). Creating an effective school-wide literacy plan is a complex process requiring the involvement of different stakeholders including school leaders, administrators, and teachers.

Self-knowledge

Prior to undertaking this course, I had different attitudes and beliefs regarding language, literacy, and culture. I believed that literacy development was primarily a responsibility of teachers and did not require the involvement of other stakeholders like school leaders. Additionally, I did not know there was a link between culture, language, and literacy development. Learning in this course had modified my self-knowledge regarding the link between literacy, culture, and language. I have learned that culture influences language and...

Cultural factors affect how students are best taught and supported in language and literacy development. As evident in the course, schools need to create effective school-wide literacy plans to enhance student achievement.

Based on insights obtained from the course, the choice of literacy program improvement target was based on a comprehensive survey of the current program in relation to its strengths and weaknesses. Using self-knowledge obtained from the course, the choice on literacy program improvement focused on the incorporation of cultural influences in literacy development. The school-wide literacy development program focused on the improvement of language among all students through promoting free-flowing communication among teachers. In addition, I utilized self-knowledge to promote collaboration between the different stakeholders including parents and teachers. The proposed literacy action plan utilized insights obtained from the course to promote open communication among the stakeholders.

Responses on the Module 1 analysis survey correlate with previous observations about the schools literacy program in terms of the collaboration between different stakeholders in literacy development. As evident in the observations, there is a lack of open communication between parents and teachers in relation to student literacy development. The most surprising aspect of the observations and analysis is the fact that many teachers are unaware of the schools literacy initiatives. This is surprising because teachers have a critical role to play in literacy development initiatives. Therefore, the lack of unawareness makes it difficult for teachers to play their role in literacy development in an…