CONTENT: Unit 2: TEACHING STRATEGIES for the DEVELOPMENT of LITERACY SKILLS and

TEACHING RESOURCES
TIME ALLOTMENT: Week 5-8
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of the unit, the pre-service teachers can:
a. demonstrate teaching strategies that promote literacy;
b. show skills in the selection, development and use of age-appropriate instructional
resources that will develop literacy, and high-order and creative thinking skills; and
c. design activities appropriate for the development of literacy skills.

A. Teaching Strategies for the Development of Emergent Literacy Skills and Teaching Resources
1. Pictures and Objects
Teaching with pictures and objects creates a direct, sensory connection between
learners and their subjects that results in new levels of interest and attention. It also
creates students with higher levels of visual literacy.
a. Pictures have several functions in the teaching and learning process.
 Pictures can translate abstract ideas into more realistic forms.
 Pictures are easily obtained – from schoolbooks, newspapers and magazines.
 Pictures are usable in different kinds of academic levels.
 They can save the teacher’s time and energy.
b. Advantages of using Pictures
 They can bring students closed to the very point of visual context with reality
itself.
 They enable us to travel to an inaccessible place to study in detail, and to
accomplish a great many other learning that would be impossible otherwise.
 They can show concrete visual description of the ideas they bring. They can
make readers understand the ideas or information even more clearly than
written or oral works.
 They may improve the students’ visual literacy by helping them comprehend
various abstractions.
2. Letters and Words
a. Letters Recognition
At the earliest stages of reading, the essential concept to master is alphabet
recognition and recall. Children who can quickly recognize and recall the letters of
the alphabet have an easier time learning their letter sounds. Letters and their
sounds absolutely must be memorized to prepare them for reading.
 Fun ways to teach letter recognition
- Teach letter names before their sounds. Students need to know the names of
the letters being expected to master their sounds.
- It is okay to practice recognition of letters and their sounds together within a
single lesson or learning activity. However, be sure that each student knows
each of the letters by name.
- Practice locating letters in different contexts. Get kids to circle letters they
find in your morning messages. Once the letter name mastery is apparent,
you can move on to teaching each letters’ sound.
 Letter recognition requires practicing the alphabet. Give students plenty of
opportunities to practice the letters of the alphabet.
- This practice can be done in activities as a whole class, in small groups or
individually.
- Practice should occur at least daily. Repetitive practice will reinforce the
letter names and their sounds while making the memorization process fast
and easy.
- The alphabet must be memorized as this is the most important early step.
 Resources and activities for letter recognition.
- Each day, have children practice the correct hand writing of letters. Before
beginning to write the letters with a pencil, have them trace large letters with
their fingers. Practice the proper formation of letters using do-a-dot markers
to form letters.
 - When beginning tracing exercises in pencil, crayon or marker, start with
unlined paper first, then use letter tracing pages, and then freehand on lined
paper.
- Alphabet games increase letter recognition skills.
Hold up signs of different objects, and ask children what beginning, medial
or ending they see.
b. Word Recognition
Word recognition or the ability to read words accurately is a complex, multifaceted
process that teachers must understand in order to provide effective instruction.
Educators have used various approaches to help students develop concept of
words. These activities include:
 Environmental Print
Students practice “reading” various logos or signs with which they are familiar.
They readily learn environmental print because of the visual and contextual cues
that are embedded and associated with the logos.
 Picture-word Matching
In this approach, students begin by learning meaningful words, such as names
of important people or objects in their environment. As students learn to match
words and pictures, the words may be gradually introduced into a simple text
format.
For example, after the student learns the words of four favorite foods (cookies,
pizza, cake, popcorn) through this matching, the words are then used in a
repetitive, predictable text format, such as “I like cookies, I like pizza, I like cake, I
like popcorn.”
 Repeated reading of predictable and leveled tests
Predictable text contains language that is supported by pictures so easy that is
relatively easy to predict what the text says. As a result, predictable test allows
the student to use multiple cues (memory, picture, context and language cues,
repetition of language) to “read” the text. Students are directed to point to each
word as they read and in this way concept of word is developed and reinforced.
Sentence structure in their early texts should be simple and repetitive and text
language should be natural. Picture should be directly related to the text, so that
the students can use the pictures to “predict” what the print says. Texts should
be short and of high interests to the students. Predictable texts are available
commercially and may be purchased.
 Language Experience Stories
This capitalizes on the students’ experiences, and their language, social and
cultural, and cognitive knowledge and abilities.
In the language experience approach, students share an activity with the
teacher and classmates. This may be a fieldtrip, an activity as part of a unit of
study, a visitor to the classroom, or even a shared book. Students discuss the
activity. The teacher writes down the ideas presented in sentence format. The
teacher encourages the students to use their own language, keeping editing of
the students’ language to a minimum periodically reread to help students focus
on what they have already written. When the story is completed, it is read aloud
to the students with the teacher pointing to each word as it is read. The group
reads the story many times chorally.
The story reading is repeated until the students are able to point to each word
as it is read.
 Scaffolding Writing
This is helpful in developing student awareness of words. In scaffolded writing
students dictate a sentence that they would like to write. The teacher draws a
line to represent each of the words that are to be written. Then the student uses
the drawn lines to write each word of the sentence. For example, the students
may dictate the sentence, “We had pizza” The teacher draws a line for each of
these words. “___ ___ ___”. After the lines are drawn, the teacher and student
point to each line and say aloud each word while tapping the respective lines.
This is done until the student remembers the words that each line represents.
 The focus is not on correct spelling but on having the student represent each
separate word in some way.
3. Sounds
Awareness of sounds in words (phonological awareness) is a key component of
emergent literacy. Phonological awareness is linked to the acquisition and development
of literacy at school. Children with greater phonological awareness at kindergarten or at
school entry tend to be better readers.
Words and syllable awareness develop early on, while more advanced awareness of
rimes and phonemes develop later. Rime awareness includes the ability to distinguish
between words that rhyme, and words that do not rhyme, and the more complex
manipulation task of providing rhyming words. Based on the assumption that
phonological awareness is a simple unified ability, it is expected that rime awareness
would contribute to the development of phoneme awareness, thus by teaching children
rime awareness it may contribute to the development of literacy, mediated by phoneme
awareness.
Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the sounds in
words work. They must understand that words are made up of individual speech sounds
or phonemes.
4. Read aloud
Reading aloud is the foundation for literacy development. It is the single most
important activity for reading success. It provides children with a demonstration of
phased, fluent reading. It reveals the rewards of reading and develops the listener’s
interest in books and desire to be a reader. Listening to others read develops key
understanding and skills, such as appreciation for how a story is written and familiarity
with book conventions, such as “once upon a time” and “happily ever after”. Reading
aloud demonstrates the relationship between the printed word and meaning – children
understand that print tells a story or conveys information – and invites the listener into
a conversation with the author.
Reading aloud makes complex ideas more accessible and exposes children to
vocabulary and language patterns that are not part of everyday speech. It exposes less
able readers to the rich and engaging books that fluent readers read on their own, and
entices them to become better readers.
a. Benefits of Reading aloud
 Sharpened focus
Little ones who struggle to stay still and focus may find it easier to do so
when they are reading aloud. Because reading aloud requires concentration
to comprehend and pronounce the words on the page, it is easier to ignore
distractions, whether it be in the classroom or at home.
 Improved vocabulary
Often when we are reading in our head, we tend to skip words we aren’t
familiar with or end up pronouncing and misinterpreting them. Reading
aloud forces children to tackle new words by sounding them out and
analyzing them in the context of their reading material. Students are able to
use each other’s collective knowledge to identify these words and correct
mispronunciations or incorrect meanings. This can improve and expand early
reader’s vocabulary and even help them with advancing reading levels.
 Increased comprehension
Reading comprehension is a difficult skill to teach, but it is one of the most
important for young students to learn. While every child has his own
preferred method of learning, reading aloud may provide him a better
chance of internalizing the words and understanding. For many children,
reading aloud may feel more “active” than reading alone in their heads.
 Strengthened listening skills
Another benefit of reading aloud is the improvement of listening skills. This
requires both the reader and the listener to be more aware and attentive,
which can help them identify proper sentence structure grammar, word
choice, etc.
 Intrigued young minds
 Children who don’t enjoy reading may also benefit from reading aloud.
Sometimes, implementing partner or making reading aloud a class – wide
activity can help encourage reluctant readers to participate more actively.
Reading aloud adds emotion and tone that can “liven” up the story.

B. Beginning Reading Skills and Teaching Resources

1. Phonemic awareness - is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words and
the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech
sounds. This is essential learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, because letters
represent sounds or phonemes. Without phonemic awareness, phonics makes little
sense.
Phonemic awareness is auditory and does not involve words in print.
 Examples of Phonemes
The word “sun” has three phonemes: s, u, n.
The table below shows different linguistic units from largest (sentence) to
smallest (phoneme)

Sentence - The sun shone brightly

Word - Sun
Syllable - Sun, sun-shine, sun-ny
Onset rime - s-un, s-unshine, s-unny
Phoneme - s-u-n
The word “shut” has three phonemes: sh, u, t
 Examples of phonemic awareness skills
- Blending or combining the separate sounds in a word to say the word.
Ex. m, a, p – map
- Segmentation or breaking a word into its separate sounds.
Ex. map – m, a, p
- Isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word.
Ex. The beginning sound of dog is “d”, and the ending sound of sit is “t”.
- Recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound.
Ex. bell, bike, boy all have “b” at the beginning.
2. Phonics Instruction
This is a way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound
correspondences and their use in reading and spelling.
The primary focus of phonics instruction is to help beginning readers understand how
letters are linked to sounds (phonemes) to form letter-sounds correspondences and
spelling patterns and to help them learn this knowledge in reading.
Phonics is teaching children the sounds made by individual letter or letter groups. For
example, the letter “c” makes a “k” sound, and how to merge separate sounds together
to make it one word. For example, blending the sounds k, a, t makes CAT.
There are two main types of phonics instruction:
 Explicit phonics
This is also referred to as synthetic phonics which builds from part to whole. It
begins with the instruction of the letters (graphemes) with their associated sounds
(phonemes). Next, explicit phonics teaches blending and building, beginning with
blending the sounds into syllables and then into words.
 Implicit phonics
This is also referred to as analytical phonics, moves from the whole to the
smallest part. Phonemes associated with particular graphemes are not
pronounced in isolation. Students analyze words and look for the common
phoneme in a set of words. Through comparison and identification, they deduce
which grapheme to write or which phoneme to read. Blending and building are not
usually taught, and students identify new words by their shape, beginning and
ending letters, and context clues.
3. Fluency Instruction
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When fluent readers read
silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them
 gain meaning for what they read. They read aloud effortlessly and with expression. They
read with speed, accuracy and expression.
Fluency instruction requires the following:
 Text selection
Good reading instruction requires appropriate texts. If kids aren’t reading the
text fluently by the end of the lesson, then the lesson itself is ineffective.
 Purpose setting
Students need to understand the purpose of the lesson. Start with a discussion of
what oral reading should sound like. Explain that you want them to work on that
text until they can read it well.
 Modeling
Teachers need to read the texts to the students before the students do their own
oral reading. It helps if only a short portion of the text is read, like a sentence, and
then immediately have the kids try to read the same sentence. If a student tries to
read something and makes a mess (ex. lots of mistakes, poor phrasing, etc.), read
the sentence aloud and have the child try it again.
 Partners
Lots of people – teachers, parents, volunteers, tutors, computers and classmates
can be effective reading partners. Children should be paired on the basis of ability,
and that can be successful, at least generally. In pairing, the bottom students are
placed with the top ones. The better readers can certainly help with errors. Match
kids with a different student partner.
 Feedback
Partners should be trained to give beneficial feedback. This will give the reader a
chance to fix the mistake. If the reader doesn’t take it on, then the partner should
stop him/her.
 Rereading
If students are reading the text badly, they should be asked to reread those
portions of the text again. And, they should even sometimes do so even a third
time.
By reading and rereading a text the students transform it from one they can’t
read well to one that they have read well.

Teacher’s Role
The teacher plays a way important role. He should supervise these paired
readings. He should coach readers through the partners.
4. Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. 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 words in a sentence. It is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words
and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning
strategies.
Effective vocabulary instruction includes opportunities to motivate, model, master,
magnify and maintain vocabulary knowledge.
 Motivate
Students need to understand the benefits of a rich vocabulary knowledge. Some
students may be naturally curious, while others will need to be coaxed into the
journey. Make word exploration an integral part of classroom culture. Designate a
word with a challenge to use it creatively in that week’s work.
 Model
Teachers should model the skills and understanding required to develop rich
vocabulary knowledge.
- Say the word carefully, use syllabication to assist in articulating each part of
the word.
- Write the word. There is a strong correlation between spelling and
vocabulary.
 - Give a student-friendly definition. Provide a definition that is meaningful for
students.
- Give meaningful examples. Use the word in sentences that are meaningful
to students.
- Ask for students’ examples.
 Master
Provide opportunities for students to master an understanding of new
vocabulary in context through hearing, saying, reading and writing. Using words is
the best way to remember them. You can let them connect the word with an
object in the real world.
 Magnify
Magnify vocabulary understanding through a word rich environment. Provide
continued opportunities to explore words at a deep level. Explore word origins.
Explain where and when the word is or isn’t used, and that affixes may change
most words.
 Maintain
This is learning through repeated practice and revision.
5. Comprehension Instruction
This is an 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 understand what they read. To achieve this goal,
comprehension instruction must begin as soon as students begin to read and it must: be
explicit, intensive, and persistent; help students to become aware of text organization;
and motivate students to read widely.
 Explicit, intensive, persistent instruction
In explicit comprehension strategy instruction, the teacher chooses strategies
that are closely aligned with the text students are reading. As students read, the
teacher provides feedback and engages them in discussion.
Students are encouraged to plan before reading so that reading has a clear goal
or purpose to continually monitor their understanding during reading and to apply
repair strategies when breakdowns in understanding occur.
One of the most important features of explicit instruction is the teacher’s gradual
release to students of responsibility for strategy use, with the goal that students
apply strategies independently.
 Awareness of text organization
Text organization refers to the physical patterns and literary conventions of a
particular text structure, or genre. The two major text structures, narrative and
expository place different demands on readers’ comprehension.
 Narrative text
This tells a story in the form of short stories, folktales, myths, fables, legends,
fantasies, science fiction, news stories, biographies and autobiographies.
Instructional practices that facilitate students’ understanding of narrative text
include:
- focusing discussions on story elements and encouraging students to relate
story events and characters to their own experiences,
- encouraging them to compare the structure of one story to that of other
stories they have read.
 Expository text
This is factual whose primary purpose is to inform, explain or persuade. Examples
are textbooks, biographies, autobiographies, diaries, journals, magazines, etc.
Unlike a narrative, an expository text has no familiar story line to guide students’
reading. To read expository texts successfully, students must learn that authors
may use a variety of structure to organize their ideas, including cause and effect,
time-and-order sequences and problem-solution patterns. The teacher can help
students chunk information by grouping related ideas and concepts, and apply
information in a text to real-world situations.
 Motivate students to read widely
 Motivation plays an important part both in helping students learn to read and in
promoting higher levels of literacy. Wide reading experiences enhance students’
abilities to comprehend an increasingly wider array of text types and tests of
increasing difficulty to read widely include:
- Providing daily opportunities to read both self-selected and teacher-peer
recommended texts;
- Providing opportunities for both student-and-teacher led discussions of
what students are reading;
- Involving students actively in reading – related activities;
- Encouragement for students to read independently.

C. Developing functional literacy

Functional literacy is the ability to manage daily living and employment tasks that
require skills beyond a basic level. It requires practice skills needed to live a normal life.
To improve functional literacy, we need to select activities that practice real world skills.
The ideal method is the “Participatory Approach”.
1. Participatory Approach
It means that the person in-charge of solving a problem or designing an
innovation involves people who are directly concerned by the result of his work.
The main goal of the approach is to have every student, as well as the teacher
actively participating in the activities. Instead of giving instructions and then
stepping back to allow students to work, the teacher works together with students.
The teacher must use realistic materials because he is training students for
realistic situations. For large classes it is impossible to give each students’ individual
attention, let students work in pairs or small groups. Activities must include extra
textual components such as pictures, objects or logos to reflect the realistic nature
of the activities.
The students must practice communicating their problems as well as possible
solutions to problems which is priceless “realistic skill”. Finally, students practice
understanding things as a whole instead of focusing on the meanings of individual
words or images. Students practice connections between text and things and
images.

D. 21st Century literacy skills and teaching resources

1. Student - led learning (Cooperative learning)

Student or peer-led learning is where students themselves facilitate their learning,
often by students in the year above guiding students or 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.
Example:
Think-Pair-Share
 the instructor poses a question that demands analysis, evaluation, or
synthesis
 students take a few minutes to think through an appropriate response
 students turn to a partner or small group and share their response
 students responses are shared within larger teams or with the entire class
during a follow up discussion.
Student-led learning helps students discover their own potential, encourages
learning through trial and error, develops independent and critical thinking and
problem-solving skills, and increases engagement in the classroom.
2. Inquiry-based classroom environment
This involves a student seeking the answers themselves, as opposed to a teacher
simply providing the information through lecture and direct teaching. It let students
decide what they want to learn about a particular subject and gets them to ask
questions about things they are not familiar with.
 Strategies for creating/building an inquiry-based classroom
- Don’t always answer student questions
 True learning is not about being spoon-fed the answer. Reply to student
questions with questions directed back at them and ask other peers to
participate in the conversation. You can ask students questions they have
and arrive at their own conclusion. It is not always about just finding the
answer to a question, it is about how a student reaches that conclusion.
- Spend more time on projects and less time on lecturing.
While a lecture or direct teacher-led instruction can be effective, it is not
always the best way for students to learn. Project-based learning can be the
best way to help activate the curiosity that lies dormant in the mind of
students.
- Accept that no two classes will be the same.
Different groups of students learn in different ways, and that is totally
fine. You may feel one set of students is getting behind or ahead of another
group with this approach, but if you help track what each class discussed,
you will find you are still able to fill in the learning gaps in upcoming lessons
and allow each group of learners the time they require to develop necessary
learning.
- Include time for reflection after the end of every lesson.
Reflection is an important part of growth for you and your students. Have
your students take time to answer some questions so that they can reflect
on what and how they learned best.
- Learn alongside your students.
In this type of classroom environment, the teacher needs to relinquish a
little control to allow students to shape the learning experience. Encourage
collaboration, communication, and participation. Step back and observe
how students are learning while he maintains a clear set of learning
objectives that he wants his students to meet.
3. Collaborative Activities
These are activities where learners are working cooperatively in pairs or groups.
Example:
 Pair or group discussions
Learners work together in groups of three: as speaker, a questioner and a
note taker.
- The speaker explains the topic or expresses opinion on an issue as directed
by the teacher.
- The questioner listens carefully and asks for clarification or further details.
- The note-taker observes this process and provides feedback to both the
speaker and questioner.
Collaborative activities are great because they encourage speaking,
listening, and particularly exploratory talk which is important for language
development.
Working with a partner or in a small group allows learners to feel more
confident and the language is being used for a meaningful purpose.

4. HOTS Activities (Higher Order Thinking Skills)

HOTS distinguish critical thinking skills from low-order learning outcomes, such as
those attained by rote memorization. They include synthesizing, analyzing,
reasoning, comprehending, application, and evaluation.
HOTS refer to skills that go beyond memorizing information and emphasize the
development of analytical skills. They are thought to be harder to teach and learn
than mere facts, but are extremely more important for developing critical thinking
and analytical faculties.
Those who employ HOTS understand how to analyze and evaluate complex
information, categorize, manipulate, and connect facts, trouble shoot for solutions ,
understand concepts , connections and big picture thinking, problem solve , and
develop insightful reasoning
Here are some few questions to make students think creatively and critically:
- What do you think could have happened next?
- What would you change in the story?
 - What do you see as possible outcomes? Why?
- How would you have handled . . . . . .?
5. Creative Learning
It is the process of acquiring knowledge and abilities using creative processes. In
other words, creating theories, tests, stories, solutions, analysis, and designs as
opposed to simply trying to memorize information.
 The following are common types of creative learning:
- Abductive reasoning - forming theories to explain observation
- Hypothetical questions - questions that contain imaginary scenarios-
- Open-end questions - those that allow for an unconstrained answer
- Abstraction - working with ideas that differ from reality but are nonetheless
useful in explaining it
- Analysis - asking learners to break things down into their component parts
- Improvisation - games and exercises that stimulate imagination and
creativity
- Analogy - explaining things by asking learners to develop an analogy
(comparison between two things)
- Introspection - examining thoughts and emotions
- Debate - asking learners to present an argument of a position
- Storytelling - art of making information interesting.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENTS:

1. Write a reflection paper on the different teaching strategies that promote literacy.
2. When students ask you (as a teacher) some questions during class discussion, will
you always answer them? Why/Why not?
3. Prove that collaborative activities are appropriate for the development of the 21 st
literary skills. Give an example of collaborative activity and explain how it is
conducted.

Prepared by:
BERNARDITA B. MANALO
Instructor