Page 73 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook
P. 73
The teacher plans and selects suitable activities, integrates learning with everyday activities.
To do this, they need to know which learning activities are expected (as stipulated by national
curricula, which expectations are held by school authorities, what parents and children expect),
how to share work with colleagues and which preparations are required. The teacher’s mode
of activity may increase or decrease the impact of literacy development, firmly controlled and
guided activities, absence of choice and initiative and precisely prescribed activities fail to
make space for creativity, choices and joy from reading.
The teacher performs many important roles:
• designing the mental and physical learning environment
• fostering the children’s initiative, motivation, interest in reading and writing
• pointing out and raising awareness of situations in which literacy is required
• providing examples
• facilitating the children’s linguistic skills
• supporting the children’s meta-language skills (awareness of the language)
• planning integrated and playful learning
• mapping and feeding back regarding the development of literacy
• cooperating with colleagues and parents to support literacy in the making
Photo: Jaana Koger.