Miles Cowles

Literacy Philosophy Paper

Part of the educational reform depends on its restructure of literacy in the classroom, and that

restructuring depends on my perspective on literacy and its use in the classroom. There are common

philosophies/strategies which are used throughout all content areas, and these strategies will be the

tools to implement literacy in my classroom. One tool which students need to develop is their

awareness of connections made, suggest by Schema theory. A student will also need structure and

modeling when starting a new process, but will eventually need to develop their own structure for

continued learning. Lastly, students need to explore their own thought process to develop a sense of

self-reflection, and self-assessment. Using these common strategies to implement literacy into the

classroom, there can be only success. I believe that students need to make connections, self-monitor

and self-assess, with the appropriate amount of scaffolding to develop into lifelong learners through the

mastery of literacy.

Schema Theory

When learning anything new, it is important to make connections with previous material for a

better understanding, and this is called schema activation. The term Schema “is a psychological term

widely used in interpreting people’s understanding of the world” ( B i n g , X u - y a n , a n d Y u 1 3 - 1 7 ) .

Everyone has different internal representations or perspective, and this is based on ones schema. As a

result, our schema affects how we interpret new information, based on the organization of concepts and

actions already part of the schema. This can be beneficial when making connections, but can also

provide obstacles when incorrect information is already part of the schema.

 I understand that we are not “filling empty buckets” when it comes to education, and for this

reason schema activation is important. Schema activation “plays a role in preparation before

interpretation, which includes enhancing the interpreter’s linguistic competence, and enlarging his

storage of background information; schema influences performance during interpretation in terms of

comprehension and note-taking” ( B i n g , X u - y a n , a n d Y u 1 3 - 1 7 ) . Linguistic competence is

dependent on the student’s ability to arrange morphemes, words, and sentences to make sense. These

rules of language are part of the student’s schema, and these can be broken down to sub schema, such

as vocabulary, sentence structure, etc. If a student doesn’t have the background information on any of

these sub categories, the student will have a hard time to make connections, and interpret new

information. On the other hand we need to take the time to assess what connections are being made.

We can see the application of Schema Theory everyday in the classroom. Every day the class

begins with a “warm-up” which is essentially schema activation for the day’s lesson. By starting the

lesson on previous knowledge students can add new material to a solid foundation of ideas. Each time a

new idea is introduced we need to make as many connections as possible. This can include students

drawing upon previous information, real-world connections, etc.. and sharing these with the rest of the

class. When students need to take notes in class they need to draw on previous information to write

abbreviations, symbolic interpretation, diagrams, etc, with these relationships between meaning and

interpretation, students greatly increase their retention of information.

Gradual Release

When introducing new material, it is expected to model the procedure, or thought process, and

then for students to perform it on their own. We start by demonstrating the process for the students, to

show them what we want from them. In time we start working with the students, letting them practice

with the ideas. The goal of Gradual Release or Zone of Proximal Development is to eventually let the
students do the work on their own. “In Vygotsky’s terms, the [xone of proximal development] is the gap

between what people already know and what they achieve with the help of guidance from, or

collaboration with, a more capable colleague” ( W e n n e r g r e n , a n d R ö n n e r m a n 5 4 7 - 5 6 8 )

Essentially, the teacher will provide verbal support, and content scaffolding, and then this scaffolding is

gradually reduced until the student no longer needs the support to perform the task, giving students the

responsibility over their education.

We need to use Gradual Release for literacy in the classroom. This strategy can be used for text

book comprehension, showing student work, or a developing thought processes. We hope the use of

gradual release teaches students to learn, listen, and communicate on their own and in groups. This

strategy pushes for lifelong learners, giving students the chance to really take away something from the

class, which doesn’t require modeling. Since Mathematics text are so complicated, there is a need for

modeling how to just decode the text. My goal is for students to read a text, make connections, and ask

the right type of question on their own.

In the classroom we spend a lot of time modeling. We introduce the new concept, and

demonstrate how to do the problem. For the most part, supportive or connected topics are “spoon

feed” leaving the student to always depend on the teacher. With gradual release, and the help of some

reading strategies I hope to educate students on how to read the text. For mathematics, reading is

different than most other reading which students are familiar with. I would start helping students, by

demonstrating my thought process when reading, and what questions I would have. This would then

turn to guided practice, where I could prompt questions based on the discussion from the students.

Eventually, students would be able to read the text, come together and summarize their understanding,

and pose questions to each other.

Metacognition
 The term meta-cognition refers to the “knowledge, possessed by an individual, of his/her own

cognitive processes and products, and all that is connected with it” (K r a s i e j k o 1 2 0 - 1 2 8 ). In the

education world, the term meta-cognition refers to the students’ knowledge of his or her thought

processes. The goal of meta-cognition is to develop a regulation and control of the cognitive behavior.

When students can reflect on their knowledge or strategy, and can self-assess they are practicing meta-

cognition.

For literary, meta-cognition is a must. This process develops a chance for students decode their

own though process, and communicate with other students about their thoughts. Depending on the

application of meta-cognition, the process helps students develop every facet of their literacy, including,

writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and representations, by reflecting on what they take away from

each. Meta-cognition helps to build the characteristics of advanced readers, and research finds, “that

older and better readers exhibited higher levels of meta-cognitive knowledge about reading, and were

more skilled at monitoring and regulating their own comprehension processes, than younger and less

able readers.” ( P a r r i s , M o r r o w , a n d B l o c k 6 5 - 7 5 ) . N o t o n l y w i l l t h i s p r o c e s s h e l p t o

d e v e l o p m o r e l i t e r a c y a d v a n c e d s t u d e n t s , b u t also help to “develop the urge to learn in

students, to help them in their self-development and self-realization” and “introduce independent

seeking of knowledge and self-education to students” (K r a s i e j k o 1 2 0 - 1 2 8 ) .

In the classroom meta-cognition would be a part of each class period. However, this is a new

process and would take time to implement. Using premade worksheets, such as two column handouts,

with one side for the problem, and one side for the student’s thinking are structured for meta-cognition.

Not only will students write down their thought process, but it will become part of a daily dialogue when

discussing problems as a group or a class. I hope to move students away from the decoding process of

reading a math text book, and transition to a higher understanding, giving meaning to the text.
 In conclusion, these three strategies or philosophies of literacy are not disconnected, and could

be viewed as the basic principles behind learning for any content. As students focus on their thinking

and practice meta-cognition, they can develop skills of self monitoring and regulation. As students

reflect on their thinking about a problem, they are drawing upon their previous connection, and

strategies learned previously, depending on their schema. I understand that these are the

characteristics of advanced readers, and these processes will take time to develop, pushing our focus to

the use of gradual release to start the inertia of lifelong learners.

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