Literacy Life Map Project
My Journey as a Reader & Writer
Course Assignment for EDRS659
Liberty University
By: Ieshia N. Davis
INTRODUCTION
For as long as I can remember, Reading and Writing have been a
way for me to both escape my reality and express myself. In
school, they are the two activities/subjects that clicked for me
almost instantly. Even as an educator, I feel most confident in
teaching and providing intervention in these areas. For the
purpose of this assignment, I take you through my literacy
journey and share experiences that shed light on the kind of
literacy teacher I have become.
FIRST
MEMORIES
To hear my mother tell this story, I was
walking and talking by the time I turned
one. Prior to starting school, my mother
was actively involved in ensuring that I
knew my letters, numbers, and even
some sounds. She often practiced with
me through song and taking me to story
times at the library. Additionally, I had an
older brother who would read to me for
his own reading homework practice.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
As I started school, I was quite advanced for
Pre-K. I went in knowing much of what they
teach aside from social skills. My pre-k
teacher’s husband was also a regular
volunteer who I remember reading with
often. I was already reading and writing my
name and some sight words going into
Kindergarten. As I progressed throughout K-
2, my love for reading grew and so did my
skills. I remember much of the instruction
being heavily rooted in phonics.
ELEMENTARY
As I entered 3rd grade, my
parents continued to support my
reading by purchasing a Leap
Frog reading nook for me, they
would often take me to public
libraries, and I would always
participate in the school book
fairs. Additionally, I remember
much of the instruction being
rooted in comprehension. At this
time, we also did more writing
with daily writing prompts or
crafts that required a writing
response.
MIDDLE/HIGH
By the time I entered middle school, I
began an accelerated path where I
was in 6th grade, but learning 7th and
8th grade content. This is when I
actually felt challenged in school, and
in order to maintain high
achievement, I actually had to put
forth an extreme amount of effort. I
found that at this point in my
educational career, reading required
me to think critically beyond the text.
A skill that had not been nurtured
prior.
MIDDLE/HIGH
In high school, I was placed in Honors/AP
ELA & History classes. These courses
brought about lots of reading and writing
about reading. At this point, my taste in
reading matured where I found myself
LOVING poetry and theater. I was mostly
influenced by Maya Angelou, Alice Walker,
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston,
and of course William Shakespeare. I
realized that I became obsessed in not
what authors were saying, but how they
were saying it. I even found myself writing
short poems and monologues in my free
time. Even became a Thespian with my
high school’s theater troupe.
COLLEGE/TEACHER
EDUCATION
In college, I had wonderful professors in
my teacher preparation program that
taught me so much about how to
provide effective reading instruction.
Meeting students where they are and
growing them as readers and writers.
The best materials to do this work was
Fountas & Pinnell’s Literacy Continuum,
Leveled Books for Readers Grades 3-6,
and Guided Reading textbooks.
ADULT/CAREER
Since beginning my career, I have
consistently continued this learning
and implementation of best practices
to continue growing readers and
writers. I am currently working to
obtain my reading endorsement, and I
am currently a co-chair for my school’s
Reading and Behavior Committees
leading our efforts in improving
literacy and behavior throughout our
building. The reading materials leading
that work at that of Jennifer Serravallo
and Allison Edwards.
K Belief
#1
T must create
where
have access to
choice from a wide-
of texts to
both reading
writing instruction.
Benefits of a
Variety of Texts
Access to books is a strong factor in
school success.
Students need to see themselves, their
families, and communities in books.
Variety of texts helps build confidence
and identity as strong, good readers.
Increases probability of escaping
poverty.
Increases exposure to different
perspectives, supporting diversity,
critical thinking, and student
engagement.
"Concepts of intersectionality and the voice-of-
color, we argue for the inclusion of community
counter texts as a way of creating a more robust
linguistic environment for examining multiple
perspectives on curriculum topics and the ways
they are constructed with language" (Accurso &
Mizell, 2020)
"Research studies have found significant
benefits to providing students with diverse
texts, offering them opportunities both to see
themselves ("mirrors") and see the lives of others
("windows") through reading" (Smith & Hiebert,
2022).
Key Belief #2
It is beneficial for
students to engage with
the text in real time to
improve comprehension
of the text.
Benefits of
Engaging with Texts
Leads to deeper understanding of text,
improving overall comprehension.
Promotes critical thinking abilities.
Provides students with the opportunity to
analyze text structure and author’s craft to
inform techniques for their own writing.
Fosters positive reading experiences which
improve student engagement and grows an
individual love for reading.
Encourages constructive thinking, speaking,
and listening that gets students to talk
about text; if they can talk about it, they can
write about it.
"Readers experience a text through the melding of
the emotional and intellectual dimensions of reading,
and that readers need to have an engaged
relationship with a text, or a "lived-through"
experience before being able to critically analyze a
text, and this involves emotional and intellectual
aspects of the experience" (Weih, 2014).
A couple of affordances from teachers teaching students
how to interact in text discourse to enhance reading
performances include: student participation and engagement
in their learning increasing, conversations that help build on
multiple perspectives, and lastly the development of
creating a classroom culture that promotes risk-taking when
offering one's thoughts and opinions" (Green, 2022).
Key Belief
#3
Foundational skills are critical
to students’ success in
decoding and comprehending
grade-level and/or complex
texts.
Benefits of
Foundational Skills
Fosters vocabulary development.
Improves fluency.
Increases ability to analyze
information across texts.
Strong foundational skills allows
more brain power/capacity for
smoother decoding of texts, leading
to better overall understanding of
what is being read.
Enables effective communication
both in oral and written forms.
"R comprehension is the product of
distinct yet related skills: decoding,
ability to recognize individual written
, and language comprehension, the
of interpreting words and
discourse" (Snow, Serry, and
H , 2022).
R research results indicates a strong,
correlation between decoding
and reading comprehension (Crawford
al., 2024).
Key Belief
#4
Family and Community
Engagement rooted in literacy
plays a pivotal role in
improving students’
experiences with reading and
writing instruction.
Benefits of Family & Community
Literacy Engagement
“Family engagement is a crucial part of a child’s
development in and out of school” (Hilliker and
Washburn, 2020).
Examples of ideas for family, school, and
community engagement: “Themed project-
based learning activities were designed to
foster engagement between librarians, families,
and teachers where several activities and
events such as a scavenger hunt, supported
reading, and family literacy workshop breakfast
boosted the literacy practices of participants”
(Hilliker and Washburn, 2020).
Increased graduation rates.
Improved grades and school
attendance.
Fostering relationships between
school, home, and community.
Creates improved school
atmosphere that is more conducive
to learning.
Students learn to read at a faster
rate.
Key Belief #5
Education is like a live document,
constantly changing. Teachers
cannot remain stagnant in their
learning and must participate
regularly professional learning
communities to ensure the
implementation of best practices
and progressing students forward.
Benefits of
Professional Learning
Provides a space for collaboration
among colleagues and across content
areas.
Builds sense of community as educators
band together to face challenges,
problem solve, and grow as
professionals.
Drives data driven decision making as it
pertains to student growth and
progression.
Fosters vertical alignment.
Allows for a community of teachers to
share best practices and brainstorm.
"Effective PD opportunities encourage teachers
to engage in critical thinking about the new
content and deliberate efforts to integrate
that content into their teaching practices"
(Konishi, 2025).
"Implementing high-quality professional
development (PD) holds the potential to
increase the quality of the early childhood
profession" (Konishi, 2025).
Key Belief #6
Reading and Writing are
interdependent skills.
Benefits of Integrating Reading &
Writing Instruction
The more students read, the better writers
they become.
Fosters growth and development in writing as
analysis of text structure and author’s
purpose fuels ideas for students’ own writing.
Improving reading increases students’
interest in writing.
Reading and writing depend upon the same
skills, strategies, and knowledge.
Integrating reading and writing instruction is
both efficient and most effective practice.
“By integrating reading and writing,
students are encouraged to use writing
to enhance reading comprehension and
to incorporate readings in their writing”
(Kuehner & Hurley, 2019).
“Understanding the connections
between reading and writing can
motivate students to read to understand
a topic and read to appreciate writing
strategies” (Kuehner & Hurley, 2019)
Key Belief
#7
Literacy instruction must be
explicit, engaging, multi-
sensory, and systematic.
Benefits of Explicit Instruction
Supporting struggling readers by
breaking down complex skills.
Allows educators to provide
immediate feedback.
Promotes targeted practice with
manageable steps.
Logical sequence of instruction
creates the foundation necessary for
more complex reading tasks.
Fosters targeted support and
scaffolding.
Research supports that
modeling is an essential practice in effective
interventions for struggling readers and
learning-disabled students (Reutzel et al.,
2014).
Explicit instruction also uses direct
explanations and teacher modeling with
think-alouds of what, how, when, and why a
strategy is to be used in processing text and
additionally, scaffolds and guides student
practicing (Reutzel et al., 2014).
Key Belief #8
Biblical Connection
Gradual Release is
critical in student’s
taking ownership of
their learning and
ensures the growth of
individual readers and
writers increasing text
difficulty as students
progress.
Benefits of Gradual Release
Improves student engagement.
Increases student accountability
and independence.
Prepares students for lifelong
learning.
Allows teacher to tend to diverse
learning needs within the
classroom setting.
Increased understanding of
concepts after explicit teaching
Proverbs 16:9 says that “The heart of a man
plans his way, but the Lord establishes his
steps.” (NIV, 2011)
This reminds of the relationship between a
teacher and a student. Students form their own
ideas about how to solve problems based upon
prior knowledge, however explicit teaching
provides educators with the opportunity to
provide students with simplified, steps that are
easy for them to implement and follow in order
to achieve success.
C
B teaching and learning to
and write is quite tedious
requires dedication in order
develop the necessary skills
success. That is why my
are embedded in
and teachers growing a
for activities outside of
instruction.
Reference Page
Accurso K, Mizell JD. Toward an antiracist genre pedagogy: Considerations for a North American context. TESOL J. 2020; 11:e554.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.554
Crawford, M., Raheel, N., Korochkina, M. et al. Inadequate foundational decoding skills constrain global literacy goals for pupils in low- and
middle-income countries. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02028-x
Green, Georgeanne R., "Text Based Discussions: An Approach to Teach Reading Comprehension" (2022). Culminating Experience Projects.
166. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gradprojects/166
Konishi, H. (2025). How professional development and coaching with a project construct framework promotes teacher practices that
support social development. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2025.2451226
Kuehner, A.V., & Hurley, J.A. (2019). How Integrating Reading and Writing Supports Student Success. Journal of Developmental Education,
42, 20.
New International Version. (2011). BibleGateway.com. http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/ New-International-Version-NIV-
Bible/#booklist
Reutzel, D. R., Child, A., Jones, C. D., & Clark, S. K. (2014). Explicit Instruction in Core Reading Programs. The Elementary School Journal,
114(3), 406–430. https://doi.org/10.1086/674420
Smith, K. C., & Hiebert, E. H. (2022). What does research say about the texts we use in elementary school? Phi Delta Kappan, 103(8), 8-13.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00317217221100001
Smith, R., Snow, P., Serry, T., & Hammond, L. (2021). The Role of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review.
Reading Psychology, 42(3), 214–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2021.1888348
Weih, Timothy G., "Student-Described Engagement With Text: Insights Are Discovered From Fourth Graders" (2014). Faculty Publications.
1470. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facpub/1470
