Action Plan for Students Literacy Development

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 literacy development. 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 school’s 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 school’s 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 effective manner.

Strengthening Literacy

As part of efforts to strengthen literacy development at the school, the application assignments provide insights about collaboration and clarification of ideas about literacy. The application assignments have shown that it is important for all stakeholders including parents to work together in promoting students’ literacy development. The incorporation and implementation of ideas regarding literacy involved collaboration between stakeholders. The collaboration and clarification of ideas about literacy also involved examining existing literature to identify evidence-based strategies for literacy development. Assessment of evidence-based literature helped to identify suitable strategies that can be applied to the school environment to help promote literacy development. As shown in the assignments, collaboration and clarification of ideas on literacy require the identification and use of evidence-based strategies for student literacy development.

I will use knowledge obtained from the application assignments will be used to strengthen literacy at my school in different aspects including a heightened awareness of cultural responsiveness, recognition of the impact of certain disorders on reading acquisition, and the use of technology and digital tools. A heightened awareness of cultural responsiveness will involve the selection of curriculum and designing lessons based on cultural factors and influences. In this regard, cultural factors will be considered when selecting curriculum and designing lessons. This plays a critical role in literacy development since cultural factors shape students’ learning abilities. The recognition of the impact of dyslexia and other disorders on reading acquisition will involve the design and use of different teaching strategies based on students’ learning needs, styles, and abilities. Reading acquisition activities adopted in the classroom will incorporate diversity in order to meet the learning needs of all students. Technology and digital tools will be utilized for tutoring and sharing information between different stakeholders in order to enhance literacy development (Merkley et al., 2006).