2
Literacy and Me
Introduction
My name is Lakesha McInnis and I’ve known that I wanted to be an Elementary School
Teacher for at least the past 15 years. I believe that I have a calling from God to become an
educator. When I first went to college in my twenties my major was Early Childhood Education.
Somehow I changed it and decided that I wanted to be in the medical field or at least that’s what
I thought until I graduated with my associates degree in health and applied science and work in
the field for about a year. It was then that I knew that I had ran from my calling and decided that
I would make it a goal to go back to college to finish my degree in teaching.
I want to be an educator because I want to help mold and guide the minds of young
students and prepare them for a successful future. It is an honor and privilege to help students
learn to have a passion and love for learning. I believe that literacy means to possess the ability
to read and write. Literacy is important because it is necessary to be able to successfully do
almost anything in life. Especially when you need to read an important document or write a
letter. Reading enhances your vocabulary, gives you knowledge and comprehension skills, and
also helps you acquire thinking skills.
Personal Experiences with Literacy
Literacy means not only possessing the ability to read and write but also comprehending,
grammar, punctuation and several other components that tie it all together. Literacy is more than
just being able to pick up a book and read it. Growing up I always had a love for learning and
reading. Reading came naturally for me, although at times I struggled with comprehension and
had to reread things several times to understand it. Even though I had challenges with
comprehension it never stopped me from wanting to read. I have memories from my childhood
3
of being a student in Kindergarten and learning phonics, identifying letters and letter sounds of
the alphabet. I also remember being excited to learn them. Literacy became more difficult for me
towards my middle and high school years because vocabulary became difficult and we had to
learn how to write essays using the writing process. As always I kept going and never gave up no
matter how much harder it became. As I got older I didn’t love reading as much as I did when I
was younger because I thought that it was just too much to do.
Today my attitude towards reading has changed and is much different. Now I look at
reading as a tool that you need to keep in your Life’s Toolbox. It is a necessity that you need to
be able to navigate through life. It’s essential for writing or reading important papers,
comprehending documents, reading instructions and signs, prescriptions and almost just about
anything school or work related. Literacy is also important because as a believer you have to
study and understand the scriptures of the bible to be able to comprehend the word of God.
According to 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed
not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (“2 Timothy 2:15 CSB - - Bible Gateway”)
This scripture shows that God is pleased with us as we study and educate ourselves by learning.
Goals for Literacy Instruction
Teachers have the primary role in developing readers. Children, just like adults are
creatures of habit. As teachers we must help students by “teaching them phonetics at the initial
stage to help them pronounce sounds of letters and word” (TEACHERS’ ROLE in FOSTERING
READING SKILL: EFFECTIVE and SUCCESSFUL READING). Teachers are the primary
source to help students cultivate their habits for reading. When I envision teaching literacy in my
classroom I think of selecting books with different genres and cultural origins. As mentioned in
(Galda et al.) “Books can play a significant role in the life of youth, but to the extent to which
4
they will do so depends on the adults surrounding them”. This is where the teacher contributes
by providing the tools that a student needs to be successful. As a teacher I would provide
targeted reading interventions or small groups for students who are struggling by focusing on
their areas of deficit and making it a goal for them to achieve” (Vernon-Feagans et al.). For
students who are more advanced readers I would expose them to more genres, provide them with
more choices, and give them a variety of tasks and questions.
Literacy impacts the word I different ways especially from a biblical standpoint. It does
so by assisting people with understanding the gospel of the God and helps them to learn the truth
about the creator and the purpose of human existence.
Conclusion
I believe that my personal experiences both positive and negative with learning literacy
has helped shape my goals for teaching literacy to students because I have been in their shoes
and know how challenging it can be to learn how to read and write correctly. As a future
educator it is my job to help students learn literacy skills but in a fun and creative way. Learning
the fundamentals of literacy is necessary for the growth and development of students because it
broadens their vocabulary, helps the accumulate knowledge and understanding, and also helps
them to become critical thinkers.
Word Count: 914
5
References
“2 Timothy 2:15 CSB - - Bible Gateway.” Www.biblegateway.com,
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+2%3A15&version=CSB.
Galda, Lee, et al. Literature and the Child. 9th ed., Boston, Ma, Cengage Learning, 2017.
TEACHERS’ ROLE in FOSTERING READING SKILL: EFFECTIVE and SUCCESSFUL
READING.
Vernon-Feagans, Lynne, et al. “Targeted Reading Intervention: A Coaching Model to Help
Classroom Teachers with Struggling Readers.” Learning Disability Quarterly, vol. 35,
no. 2, 2012, pp. 102–114, www.jstor.org/stable/41702360?
saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiIwNDMwMTdmNC00MGIwLTQ2MjgtOTcyNy1lN
WY1ODkxMjkwNTkiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbklkcyI6WyJjNGZjMjNmMC01MDQzLTRi
OWMtYjgzNS0wZTBkZDBhMDA2MjMiXX0&seq=1. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
