Self Efficacy

When it comes to being an efficient literacy educator, there are several key skills which are important to success. These skills include being able to conduct reading assessments, analysing these assessments, monitoring the progress of the student and finally assessing the outcomes. I found completion of the self assessment useful as it forced me to evaluate my skill set critically. Personally, when it comes to my own skill set I feel that I have a good basis on understanding the subject matter which will be evaluated. However, I feel struggle with being able to come up with methods to help foster critical thinking and problem solving (Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse, 2009). While I know there are resources available, this area comes easy to me, and I feel like I may have some problems coming up with fun and innovative ways to help foster these skills in students.

Three assumptions that non-early childhood educators might make about the early stages of literacy development are first that learning to read is natural for all children. The second assumption is that phonemic awareness is intuitive and does not need to be taught to children. The third assumption is that there is nothing you can do if a child hates reading. As a literacy educator it is important to have an understanding of these and other assumptions. One reason for this, is it will allow me to be able to anticipate problems before they occur. For example, if parents believe that phonemic awareness is intuitive, it is possible that some children may not have had exposure to this concept, and may be lacking skills in this area (Reutzel & Cooter Jr, 2016). Furthermore, students whose second language is English, may not have had exposure to this concept at home (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003). Therefore, I can design lessons and activities designed to help students improve the areas.

References

Lesaux, N. K., & Siegel, L. S. (2003). The development of reading in children who speak English as a second language. Developmental psychology, 39(6), 1005.

Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse. (2009). Self-assessment for elementary literacy coaches. Urbana, IL: Author.

Reutzel, D., & Cooter Jr, R. B. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child succeed. Boston, MA: Pearson.