GROUP 1 UNIT 2

Teaching Strategies for the Development of Literary Skills & Teaching

Resources

Introduction
Some students learn to read easily, while others need more support—even as they
grow older and face harder texts. If teachers only give repetitive drills, students
may lose interest and learn less. That’s why teachers need to choose the right
reading strategies that help everyone in class while giving extra support to those
who struggle. Reading is very important because it is the key to learning in
school, at work, and in life.

A. Strategies for the development of emergent literacy skills and teaching

resources:
Emergent Literacy
• Originally conceived by Marie Clay as a way to convey the process of
development. The term is directly connected to a number of academic studies into
how children progress through the early years.
• Amongst experts, the general consensus that children in the introductory stages
of education system can perform any better if they were exposed to books
appropriate to their skill level and understanding early on.

1. PICTURES AND OBJECTS

Pictures and objects are tools that help children understand concepts by
connecting words to visuals. They break down language barriers and make
learning concrete.
Example: Showing a picture of an apple while saying the word “apple” helps
learners associate the object with the word.
2. LETTERS AND WORDS
Introducing letters and words develops children’s familiarity with the alphabet,
sight words, and environmental print. It builds early recognition of written
language.

Example: Using alphabet charts or labeling classroom objects (e.g., “door,”

“table”) helps learners connect print to their environment.

3. SOUNDS
4. Sounds are used to develop phonological and phonemic awareness, which
are essential for decoding words. Learners begin to recognize rhymes,
initial sounds, and sound patterns.
 Example: Singing nursery rhymes or clapping syllables in words like “ba-na-
na” helps children identify sound units.
5. READ ALOUD EXPERIENCES
Reading aloud is the foundation for literacy development and is considered the
most important activity for reading success. It develops listening, comprehension,
and vocabulary skills while modeling fluent reading.
Example: A teacher reading a storybook such as The Three Little Pigs allows
children to hear story patterns and phrases like “Once upon a time” and “Happily
ever after.”
B. Beginning reading skills and teaching resources
Beginning readers are building their fluency. This means they’re working to make
several skills, like matching a letter to a sound and decoding, more smooth,
accurate and automatic. Without fluency, each word must be decoded, and that
takes time and energy. This means that other reading behaviors like reading with
expression and comprehension have less of a focus.

The benefits of teaching early reading are:

• Increased kindergarten readiness
• Improved memory
• Better listening skills
• Stronger sense of curiosity
• Higher academic gains
1. Phonemic awareness
• The ability to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of words, including
rhymes, syllables, and phonemes.
• Manipulating the sounds in words includes blending, stretching, or otherwise
changing words.
Children can demonstrate phonemic awareness in several ways, including:
a. Recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (“Bell,
bike, and boy all have /b/ at the beginning.”)
b. Isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word (“The beginning sound of
dog is /d/.” “The ending sound of sit is /t/.”)
c. Combining blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word (“/m/, /a/,
/p/ - тар.”)
d. Breaking or segmenting a word into its separate sounds (“up-/u/, /p/.”)

2. Phonics instruction
• Help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes)
to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns.
• Help them learn how to apply this knowledge in their reading.
Different types of phonics instructional approaches that vary according to
the unit of analysis:
a. Analogy phonics: Teaching students unfamiliar words by analogy to known
words (e.g., recognizing that the rime segment of an unfamiliar word is identical
to that of a familiar word, and then blending the known rime with the new word
onset, such as reading brick by recognizing that -ick is contained in the word kick,
or reading stump by analogy )
b. Analytic phonics: Teaching students to analyze letter-sound relations in
previously learned words to avoid pronouncing sounds in isolation.
c. Embedded phonics: Teaching students phonics skills by embedding phonics
instruction in text reading, a more implicit approach that relies to some extent on
incidental learning.
d. Phonics through spelling: Teaching students to segment words into phonemes
and to select letters for those phonemes (i.e., teaching students to spell words
phonemically).
e. Synthetic phonics: Teaching students explicitly to convert letters into sounds
(phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form recognizable words.

3. Fluency instruction
• Skill-based Fluency instruction making meaningful connections between
fluency
and reading skills.
• Fluent readers are able to read orally with speed, accuracy, and proper
expression.
Fluency is one of several critical factors necessary for reading comprehension.
Two instructional approaches:
a. Guided oral reading b. Independent silent reading
- an instructional strategy that can - Encourages students to read silently
help students improve a variety of on their own, inside and outside the
reading skills, including fluency. classroom, with minimal guidance or
- Reading procedures that included feedback
guidance from teachers, peers, or
parents had a significant and positive
impact on word recognition, fluency,
and comprehension across a range of
grade levels.

4. Vocabulary instruction
• Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. As Steven Stahl
(2005) puts it, “Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not
only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world.”
• Vocabulary knowledge is not something that can ever be fully mastered; it is
something that expands and deepens over the course of a lifetime.
• Instruction in vocabulary involves far more than looking up words in a
dictionary and using the words in a sentence.

Five Things Every Teacher Should Know about Vocabulary Instruction

1. Focus on rich meanings, not just dictionary definitions.
2. Emphasize the connections among words.
3. Promote usage of the words.
4. Review is important.
5. Involve students in identifying some of the words to be studied

5. Comprehension instruction
• Effective comprehension instruction is instruction that helps students to become
independent, strategic, and metacognitive readers who are able to develop,
control, and use a variety of comprehension strategies to ensure that they
understand what they read.

Improve reading comprehension in students:

a. Teach decoding skills – before they can read the words, they have to be aware
of the letters and the sounds represented by letters so that sounding out and
blending of sounds can occur to pronounce words
b. Teach vocabulary – comprehension improved as a function of vocabulary
instruction
c. Word knowledge – encourage students to build world knowledge through
reading and to relate what they know to what they read (e.g., by asking “Why?”
questions about factual knowledge in text).
d. Active comprehension strategies – teach students to use a repertoire of active
comprehension strategies, including prediction, analyzing stories with respect to
story grammar elements, question asking, image construction, and summarizing.
e. Monitoring – encourage students to monitor their comprehension, noting
explicitly whether decoded words make sense and whether the text itself makes
sense. When problems are detected, students should know that they need to
reprocess (e.g., by attempting to sound out problematic words again or
rereading).

C. Developing functional literacy

FUNCTION LITERACY
• refers to the practical skill set needed to read, write, and do math for real-life
purposes, so people can function effectively in their community.
• person who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for
effective function of his or her group and community and also for enabling him or
her to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his or her own and the
community's development.

1. PARTICIPATORY APPROACH
a. A good participatory approach...
• Improves motivation
• Increases learning and feelings of ownership
• Enables community empowerment

b. The participatory approach involves:

• Sharing of knowledge and experience.
• Recognizing and encompassing different perspectives.
• Working in teams on practical tasks.
• The use of visualization and analytical tools, imagination and drama.
• An open-ended creative learning process.
• The development of shared understanding and jointly owned plans or other
products.
• The capacity for reflection and self-assessment.

c. Strengthened Capacities of Local Institutions

• Participatory approaches demonstrate that communities do not have to wait for
external agencies to come to their assistance.
• Organizing village information into a systematic plan focuses community
attention and mobilizes community groups.
• Local groups taking initiatives on, for example, water or forestry, have
consistently attracted attention of external NGO's, international agencies, or
government officers to provide a portion of the needed resources.

d. The forms and functions of participation

• Nominal participation is often used by more powerful actors to give legitimacy
to development plans. Less powerful people become involved in it through a
desire for inclusion. But it is little more than a display, and does not result in
change.

• Instrumental participation sees community participation being used as a

means towards a stated end - often the efficient use of the skills and knowledge of
community members in project implementation.
• Representative participation involves giving community members a voice in
the decision-making and implementation process of projects or policies that effect
them. For the more powerful, representative participation increases the chances of
their intervention being sustainable; for the less powerful, it may offer a chance
for leverage.
• Transformative participation results in the empowerment of those involved,
and as a result alters the structures and institutions that lead to marginalization
and exclusion.

e. Participatory Approach in Education

Participatory approach, also known as Freirean Approach, is a teaching strategy
that incorporates themes or content area that are of interest to the learners.
The themes derive from real issues that affect students' daily lives where language
learning is used as a vehicle to solve social problems.

D. 21st Century literacy skills and teaching resources

1. STUDENT-LED LEARNING (COOPERATIVE LEARNING)

• Student-led learning is where students themselves facilitate their learning, done
often by students in group activities to discuss materials with their peers and
solve problems.

• This helps them to think through what they have previously been taught and
encourages collaborative learning.

2. Inquiry-based classroom environment

A broad range of empirically validated teaching methods which emphasize:
(a) deeply engaging students and
(b) providing students with opportunities to authentically learn by collaborating
with their peers.

Five strategies to help you build an inquiry-based classroom

a. Don't always answer student questions.
b. Spend more time on projects and less time on lecturing.
c. Accept that no two classes will be the same.
d. Include time for reflection at the end of every lesson.
e. Learn alongside your students activities.

3. Collaborative activities
How collaborative activities work?
• Consider the grouping of learners carefully.
• Establish the type of behavior that will be expected from learners for them to
benefit most from these types of activities and ensure that everyone is clear what
their role.
• Bear in mind that group discussions can take place in the learners' first
language. Think about what you want them to get from the discussion and decide
which language or languages you want them to use.
• Encourage other members of the group to include learners who may need
support to take part in a discussion or activity.

Collaborative activities are any activities where learners are working co-
operatively in pairs or groups. For example:
• Pair or group discussions
• Completing shared tasks in a pair or group, e.g. matching, sorting, ranking
• Activities or games with a competitive element, e.g. bingo
• Drama and role play
• Information exchange activities, including barrier games and jigsaw activities

4. HOTS activities
Higher Order Thinking Skills takes thinking to a whole new level. Students using
it are understanding higher levels rather than just memorizing math facts. They
would have to understand the facts, infer them, and connect them to other
concepts.

A few questions to make students think creatively and critically are:

1. What do you think could have happened next?
2. Do you know of another instance where...?
3. What would you change in the story?
4. From the information given, develop a set of instructions about ...?
5. What do you see as possible outcomes? Why?
6. Why did ..... changes occur?
7. What was the turning point? Why?
8. What was the problem with...?
9. How would you have handled...?
10. What are the pros and cons of ...?
11. If you had access to all resources, how would you deal with...?
12. What are the alternatives?

5. Creative learning
• Creative learning ensures every student has the opportunity to:
✓ Understand - through reading and discussion
✓ Reflect and recall - through creating a mind map
✓ Analyze and synthesize - through summarizing
✓ Apply and evaluate - through question framing.

Some Ways Educators Can Foster Creativity in the Classroom

• Embrace creativity as part of learning.
• Use the most effective strategies.
• Think of creativity as a skill.
• Participate in or create a program to develop creative skills.
• Use emotional connections.
• Use a creativity model.
• Consider how classroom assignments use divergent and convergent thinking.
• Creativity flourishes in a "congenial environment"
• Be aware during discussions.
• See creativity in a positive light.
• Be familiar with standards.

Core creative competencies essential to excel in the process of creative

learning are:
• Power in observation
• Concentration
• Memory
• Thinking
• Power of expression and communication
• Imagination, and
• Emotional control.
GROUP 2 UNIT 3
21st Century Skills Categories

What is 21st- Century Skills?

refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that
are believed-by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and
others to be critically important to success in today's world, particularly in
collegiate programs and contemporary careers and workplaces.

21st-Century Skills Categories

1. Learning Skills
2. Literacy Skills
3. Life Skills

A. Learning Skills (4C's)

The 21st century learning skills are often called the 4 C's: critical thinking,
creative thinking, communicating, and collaborating. These skills help students
learn, and so they are vital to success in school and beyond.
The 4C's are the mental processes required to adapt and improve upon a modern
work environment.

[Link] Thinking
"Finding Solutions to Problems"
Critical thinking is focused, careful analysis of something to better understand
it. When people speak of "left brain" activity, they are usually referring to critical
thinking.
• Analyzing is breaking something down into its parts, examining each part,
and noting how the parts fit together.
• Arguing is using a series of statements connected logically together, backed
by evidence, to reach a conclusion.
• Classifying is identifying the types or groups of something, showing how
each category is distinct from the
• Comparing and contrasting is pointing out the similarities and differences
between two or more subjects.
• Defining is explaining the meaning of a term using denotation, connotation,
example, etymology, synonyms, and antonyms.
• Describing is explaining the traits of something, such as size, shape, weight,
color, use, origin, value, condition, location, and so on.
• Evaluating is deciding on the worth of something by comparing it against an
accepted standard of value.
• Explaining is telling what something is or how it works so that others can
understand it.
• Problem solving is analyzing the causes and effects of a problem and finding
a way to stop the causes or the effects.
• Tracking cause and effect is determining why something is happening and
what results from it.

2. Creativity
"Thinking outside the box"
Creative thinking is expansive, open-ended invention and discovery of
possibilities. When people speak of "right brain" activity, they most often mean
creative thinking.

It inlcudes:
• Brainstorming ideas involves asking a question and rapidly listing all
answers, even those that are far- fetched, impractical, or impossible.
• Creating something requires forming it by combining materials, perhaps
according to a plan or perhaps based on the impulse of the moment.
• Designing something means finding the conjunction between form and
function and shaping materials for a specific purpose.
• Entertaining others involves telling stories, making jokes, singing songs,
playing games, acting out parts, and making conversation.
• Imagining ideas involves reaching into the unknown and impossible,
perhaps idly or with great focus, as Einstein did with his thought
experiments. .
• Improvising a solution involves using something in a novel way to solve a
problem.
• Innovating is creating something that hasn't existed before, whether an
object, a procedure, or an idea.
• Overturning something means flipping it to get a new perspective, perhaps
by redefining givens, reversing cause and effect, or looking at something in a
brand new way.
• Problem solving requires using many of the creative abilities listed here to
figure out possible solutions and putting one or more of them into action.
• Questioning actively reaches into what is unknown to make it known,
seeking information or a new way to do something.

3. Collaboration
"Working with Others"
• Working with others respectfully and effectively to create, use and share
knowledge, solutions and innovations.
• Allocating resources and responsibilities ensures that all members of a team
can work optimally.
It includes:
• Brainstorming ideas in a group
• Decision-making
• Delegating
• Evaluating the products, processes, and members
• Goal setting
• Leading a group
• Managing time
• Resolving conflicts
• Team-Building

4. Communication
"Talking to Others"
Communicating effectively in a wide variety of forms and contexts for a wide
range of purposes and using multiple media and technologies.

It includes:
• Analyzing the situation means thinking about the subject, purpose, sender,
receiver, medium, and context of a message.
• Evaluating messages means deciding whether they are correct, complete,
reliable, authoritative, and up-to- date.
• Following conventions means communicating using the expected norms for
the medium chosen.
• Listening actively requires carefully paying attention, taking notes, asking
questions, and otherwise engaging in the ideas being communicated.
• Reading is decoding written words and images in order to understand what
their originator is trying to communicate.
• Speaking involves using spoken words, tone of voice, body language,
gestures, facial expressions, and visual aids in order to convey ideas.
• Turn taking means effectively switching from receiving ideas to providing
ideas, back and forth between those in the communication situation.
• Using technology requires understanding the abilities and limitations of any
technological communication, from phone calls to e-mails to instant
messages.
• Writing involves encoding messages into words, sentences, and paragraphs
for the purpose of communicating to a person who is removed by distance,
time, or both.
B. Literacy Skills
Literacy skill is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create,
communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with
varying contexts.
1. Information Literacy
2. Media Literacy
3. Technology Literacy

1. Information Literacy
"Understanding facts, figures, statistics, and data"
Information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, organize, use, and
communicate information in all its various formats, most notably in situations
requiring decision making, problem solving, or the acquisition of knowledge.

[Link] Literacy
"Understanding the methods and outlets in which information is published"
Media literacy is the practice of identifying publishing methods, outlets, and
sources while distinguishing between the ones that are credible and the ones that
aren't.

3. Technology Literacy
“Understanding the machines that make the Information Age possible"
Technology Literacy is the ability to safely, responsibly, creatively, and
effectively use appropriate technology to:
• communicate;
• access, collect, manage, integrate, and evaluate information;
• endeavor to predict future needs, solve problems and innovatively create
solutions;
• build and share knowledge;
• improve and enhance learning in all subject areas and experiences;
• apply technology and critical thinking to real-world experiences;
• develop the knowledge and skills to adapt to changing technologies; and
• use technology to meet personal needs, interests, and learning styles

C. Life Skills (FLIPS)

Life skills take a look at intangible elements of a student's everyday life. These
intangibles focus on both personal and professional qualities.

Flexibility, Leadership, Initiative, Productivity, Social Skills

1. Flexibility
“Deviating from plans as needed"
Flexibility is the expression of someone's ability to adapt to changing
circumstances.
Flexibility is not spinelessness. In fact, a spine needs to be flexible to allow the
person to move while remaining upright with eyes on the prize.
Students must make constant course corrections as they do the following:
• set goals
• seek answers
• navigate information
• collaborate with others
• create something
• evaluate their work
• improve it
• share it with the world

2. Leadership
“Motivating a team to accomplish a goal"
Leadership is someone's penchant for setting goals, walking a team through the
steps required, and achieving those goals collaboratively.
Leadership is a suite of related skills that combines the other life skills. Good
leaders take initiative, have strong social skills, are flexible, and are productive.

They also do the following:

• Identify goals
• Inspire others to share those goals
• Organize a group so that all members can contribute according to their
abilities
• Resolve conflicts among members
• Encourage the group to reach their goals
• Help group members solve problems and improve performance.
• Give credit where it is due

3. Initiative
"Starting projects, strategies, and plans on one's own"
Initiative often means working on projects outside of regular working hours.
Initiative
Students need to learn how to set goals for themselves, plan how they will reach
their goals, and enact their plans. Once students feel comfortable with charting
their own course, they will readily launch into activity.
Students take the initiative when they
• question
• plan
• research
• create
• improve, and
• present

4. Productivity
“Maintaining efficiency in an age of distractions”
It is the ability to complete work in an appropriate amount of time
-The capacity to manage one's time, efforts, and resources to maximize output
and achieve personal or professional goals.
Examples:
•Time Management
•Problem solving
•Critical Thinking
•Organization
•Prioritization
•Digital Skilss

5. Social Skills
“Meeting and networking with others for mutual benefit"
-The collection of abilities that allow people to communicate with others
effectively, navigate social situations, and build strong relationships.

-When students work together on a project, they have common goals and
interests; they are required to develop social skills such as these:
•cooperation
•compromise
•decision making
•communicating
•using emotional intelligence
•trusting others
•coordinating work