Literacy is the ability to be able to be aware and cognizant of the task you are doing or the situation you are in. Being literate is the ability to critically analyze texts and interpret them to have meaning.

he ability to reflect upon and analyzelanguage as an entity itself.

Students with access to a computer and the Internet are able to find the answers to not only simple questions, but also incredibly complex problems.

Construction also brings in the role of groups of learners in the process of learning and as a result includes elements of social and cognitive constructivism. Learners are encouraged to be creative as they build and revise content.

Internet Reciprocal Teaching Promotes the Five CsCreativity: Students use divergent-thinking skills to generate their own questions and keywords for online searches. Their final projects require them to creatively express their own point of view. Communication: Students share what they learn as they work in small groups and with the whole class. They communicate with a wider audience by posting on a class blog. Collaboration: Students create collaborative knowledge through Internet inquiry and social interactions. They comment on one another's work using technologies such as VoiceThread and support one another through instant messaging. Critical Thinking: When using the Internet, students build the text they read, choosing which links to follow and which to ignore. The nonlinear nature of online reading helps support critical thinking. Students also learn to question the perspective and bias of online sources. Comprehension: Students learn important online reading skills, such as how to distinguish news articles from blog posts and editorials. They carefully read texts they encounter online to understand and evaluate different perspectives.

Phase 2 is a collaborative phase during which both teachers and students conduct think-aloud demonstrations and minilessons. Teacher modeling in the beginning of the phase gives way to student modeling in the latter half. Students take responsibility for teaching their peers a variety of online reading comprehension strategies. Instruction also begins to move from search skills to critical evaluation and synthesis skills. (See a complete checklist of skills.)

Reciprocal teaching revolves around four global comprehension strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. The teacher explains these strategies to small groups using a shared text, first modeling their use, and then asking students to lead the groups.

Reciprocal teaching revolves around four global comprehension strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. The teacher explains these strategies to small groups using a shared text, first modeling their use, and then asking students to lead the groups. Internet reciprocal teaching builds on the same principles; however, the teacher first instructs students in a whole-class setting with each person constructing his or her own text while building the online reading comprehension strategies of questioning, locating, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating.

hese Cs include such skills as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and comprehension

Her science book, for example, was divided into chapters, each chapter was broken into sections, and she could answer the first question at the end of each section by looking for the first bold word. The structure of the textbook was a map that Sarah could easily follow.

Good online readers know the tools and strategies that can be used to search for and locate people, resources, and information. They then know how to judge the credibility of these sources.

Reading on the web is a critical skill for engaging content online. They can be viewed as “exploring,” or “navigating the web.” Just as traditional reading requires knowledge of the text and concepts of print, reading online requires a basic understanding of web mechanics. Good online readers know the tools and strategies that can be used to search for and locate people, resources, and information. They then know how to judge the credibility of these sources.1 The web literacy skills and competencies identified under reading on the web are as follows.

In a blog post, or in the comments below, please use the following prompts to guide your response: In no more than three sentences, please define digital literacy.Make a list of the skills that are a part of digital literacy.What is the difference/relationship between digital literacy some of these other perspectives (e.g., information literacy, media literacy, etc).What do you think of the definitions/statements provided above? What do you like? What is missing?What are some perspectives that we left out above…but should include?What are some ways you teach digital literacy?What are some ways that students can best learn digital literacy skills?What do you believe the most effective way to teach digital literacy?How digital literate are you? In what ways are you “digitally literate”?

udents acquire word knowledge through implicit learning that takes place as theyread and write, and through explicit instruction orchestrated by the teacher. However, itis impossible to know exactly what to teach and when to teach it until we have a livingchild before us. An informed, developmental interpretation of students’ efforts as theyread and write shows us

phabet Pattern MeaningEmergentPre-K to middle of 1Chapter 4Emergent StageLetter Name–AlphabeticK to middle of 2Chapter 5Beginning StageWithin Word PatternGrade 1 to middle of 4Chapter 6Transitional StageSyllables and AffixesGrades 3 to 8Chapter 7Intermed

obecome fully literate, however, we also need specific knowledge about individ-ual words. Knowledge about the English spelling system provides us the tools to do thejob correctly. The word rain,for example, might be spelled RANE, RAIN, or RAYNE—all are orthographically and phonetically plausible. However, only specific knowledgewill allow us to remember the correct spelling. Likewise, only specific knowledge of thespelling of whichand witchmakes it possible to know which witch is which! The rela-tionship between specific knowledge and knowledge of the system is reciproc

Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen, and use numeracy and technology

90 + Lhapl<lr :1 FIGURE3.5 Build on First Language Competencies 1. Acknowledge the student's first language or dialect as a valid form of communication. 2. Learn about the student's home language or dialect. 3. Acknowledge the student's need to develop receptive knowledge of Standard English before using English expressively. 4. Provide many opportunities for students to engage in conversation/discussion. 5. Allow students to respond in their home language first, and then to focus on translating their responses into English. 6. Provide second language learners with cues, letting them know when to anticipate being called on or when their turn will be. 7. Provide content·area books that have clear illustrations ol the main concepts presented in the text. 8. Provide opportunities for students to work together with other ESL students and with English·fluent students. 9. Use songs, nursery rhymes, and finger plays to emphasize the sound-symbol system and phonemic awareness. 10. Provide opportunities to learn through hands-on, exploratory, experiential activities

Ono of tho major ways that you cnn focilitalo lhe dovolopment of linguistic diver-sily is hy creating a classroom onvironmenl that acknowledges, vnluos, and crnhancos lhat divorsily.

Foreign Languages in the Elementary School programs range from 50 minutes of direct language instruction each day to 20 minutes of instruction three times per week (Piper, 1993). These programs have met with varying degrees of success in facilitating children's acquisition of a sec-ond language. Programs with an emphasis on rote, pattern drills, and grammatical lessons have had less success than programs emphasizing cultural awareness and oral communication.

Two-way immersion programs, also known as dual language programs, are instructional programs designed to develop linguistic competency in more than one language (Genesee & Gandara, 1999).

Transitional bilingual education/I'BE has as its goal the gradual transition from tho student's first language to English. This approach is used in self-contained classrooms where children are taught by a teacher who is fluent in both languages.

Language acquisition refers to unconscious learning of language in 11aturalistic sol· lings with a focus on meaning: in contrast. Janguagc learning refers to conscious rule learning in formal instructional sctlings with an emphasis on tho form of languago

FIGURE 3.1 Factors Influencing Second Language Acquisition LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS Age Cognitive ~bilities Personality Motivation Self-confidence L 1 language competencies LINGUISTIC INPUT Amount and quality of target language (comprehensible input) SOCIAL SETTING L2 learner's role in setting Presence of concrete referents Source of L2 language model

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Codeswitching is thought to be influenced by social or psychological factors, such as a desire lo add emphasis or to show ethnic unity

nstances in which chjldren appear to be mixing the two languages (also known as code mixing

Children who are attempting to learn a language from a different language family will find it more difficult than if they were attempting to learn another language from the same language family. As the second language is learned, children build on their knowledge of language by making connections and comparisons between the home language and the target language. Target languages that are distinctly different from the home language will require more effort to learn.

Children who are more linguistically flexible and can use more than one dialect will be able lo communicate effectively in a wide variety of settings and interactions.

Examples of Discourse Modes in Black English

Slandard American English (SAE) is often referred lo as the "most correct" form of language used in I he Unilecl Stales and is the form of l,mguage considered appropriate in corporate, business. government, and formal educalional settings.

idgin languages have a small vocabulary, simple grammatical struc-ture, and a narrower range of functions than the languages from which the pidgin was developed. Pidgin language use decreases and may even disappear when one group learns the language of the other or if the original reason for communicating, such as trading or selling goods, has ceased.

A pidgin is a language that developed in response to the interaction of two groups of people who did not initially share a language

As an early childhood teacher. your role is lo continue to enhance children's language development and to encourage children lo dovolop linguistic flexibilily so they can communicate effectively in a wide vari-ety of sol tings. While you may think that your emphasis should be only on helping children develop lnngungo competencies that will contribute to thoir success in aca-demic sellings, ii is also important for you lo acknowledge the value of their other language compotoncies that will contribute lo their effective communication in fam-ily and community settings (Delpit, 2002; Stubbs, 2002).

. Language diversity. This is the variation and number of nouns and modifiers used by the parents. 2. Feedback tone. This is the positive feedback given to children's participation in an interaction. 3. Symbolic emphasis. This is the emphasis placed on focusing on names and associated relations of the concepts and the recall of those symbols. 4. Guidance style. This is parental interaction that uses asking rather than demanding in eliciting specific behavior from the child. 5. Responsiveness. This is parental responsiveness to requests or questions initiated by children.

Ethnographic studies have contributed significantly lo our understanding of linguistic diversity. Ethnography uses participant observation in real-life settings and focuses on individuals within their social and cultural contexts.

sociolinguistics studies the "relationship between linguistic behav-ior and social situations, roles, and functions"

Home and school contexts may represent different cultures, subcultures, or both, and may influence language development in noticeable ways. Nonverbal cues (e.g., facial expression) and contextual cues (e.g., shared experience) have different communicative roles in different cultures

power of language to rollect rnltmo and inlluonco thinking was firsl pro-posocl by an American linguist and anthropologist, Edward Sapir (1084-19:19). and his stuclont, Aonjamin Wharf (11l97-l!l41). Tho Sapir-Whorf hypothesis staled that lho way wn think and viow tho world is dotorminnd by our languago (Anderson & Lightfoot. 2002; Crystal. HlD7; flayes, Omstnin, & Gago, HlB7)

no interest in acquiring one. It struck me as narrow-minded to privilege historical events, simply because things happened to have worked out that way.

I was also uninterested by what I knew of literary theory and history. It was a received idea in those days that "theory" was bad for writers, infecting them with a hostility toward language and making them turn out postmodern; and what did it have to offer, anyway, besides the reduction of a novel to a set of unpleasant facts about power structures, or the superficial thrill of juxtaposing Pride and Prejudice with the uncertainty principle? As for history, it struck me as pedantic, unambitious.

In the inleractionist perspec-tive, the role of adults in the communication process is crucial in supporting chil-dren's language development (Bruner, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978; \i\lertsch, "1991). Because the child is a novice communicator, an adult in the conversational dyad serves as lhe expert who often creates conditions that make for effective communication. The difference between what a child can accomplish alone and whal she can accomplish with an adult's (or more capable peer's) mediation or assistance is termed Lhe zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). What a child accomplishes independently is her developmental level.

The development of lileracy skills requires that children be able to use symbols to represent the sounds of their language in writing and lo decode the symbols when reading.

newer and digital and have some inherent properties that make applying them in straightforward ways difficult.