LITERACY

Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge and write coherently and think critically about the written word. Literacy can also include the ability to understand all forms of communication, be it body language, pictures, video & sound (reading, speaking, listening and viewing). Evolving definitions of literacy often include all the symbol systems relevant to a particular community. Literacy encompasses a complex set of abilities to understand and use the dominant symbol systems of a culture for personal and community development. In a technological society, the concept of literacy is expanding to include the media and electronic text, in addition to alphabetic and number systems.

What is literacy?

Ability to read

silent reading vs. reading out loud

stages of reading

Sound- letter corespondance

Ability to write

teaching spelling

What age is appropriate to start teaching literacy in EFL?

From 3 through 4 years of age, children show rapid growth in literacy. They begin to "read" their favorite books by themselves, focusing mostly on reenacting the story from the pictures

Around age 5, children enter school and begin receiving formal literacy instruction. Most children at the kindergarten level are considered to be emergent readers.

Most children at the first grade level are or will become early readers. They know how to use early reading strategies and can read appropriately selected text independently after a story introduction given by a teacher.

Most children at the second grade level are transitional readers. They are able to read unknown text with more independence than can early readers. Transitional readers use meaning, grammatical, and letter cues more fully

Teaching literacy to students with learning disabilities

Analysis

student's background

student's interests

student's experiences

kinds of learning disabilities

dyslexia

Dyslexia - A type of specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It manifests itself primarily as a difficulty with reading and spelling. It is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from factors such as deficiency with vision or hearing, inadequate reading instruction, poor motivation, social problems or low cognitive abilities. Secondary characteristics may include problems with reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

ADHA/ADD

Intervention Process

intervention methods

GAME approach

scaffolding and right pace

Subtopic

specialists' itervention

How can literacy be taught?

whole langauge

meaningful context

sight words

shared reading

identifying words on pictures

phonics

songs

charts

focus on letter, sounds and rules

Use of technological tools in teaching literacy

videos

powerpoint presenatations

Technology and Reading

Technology and Writing

general teaching tools

tools of word processing and multimadia software

to assist students with a range of difficulties

spelling and grammar

line spacing

sizeable font

incorporation of media to present ideas

tools to organize information

visual thesauruses that help students build important vocabulary and information concepts through building ideas in physical space

tools for creating text

word production

small electronic keyboard

speech recognition software

tools for reviewing text

students can hear the text, read back by an independent and non-evaluate reader.