Literacy Beliefs
Pamela Z. Spillane
RD651
Socio-psycholinguistics and Critical Literacy
THE LEARNER AND LEARNING

Readers and writers construct knowledge through social,
affective, and cognitive processes during encounters with
text, teachers, peers, and others. Readers construct
meaning using their knowledge they bring to the text, the
text information, and the interactions with teachers and
peers in the classroom. Writing, as reading, is an
interactive process using intellect, feeling, motivation, and
the environment (Goodman, 1994; Harste, Burke, &
Woodward, 1994; Hayes, 2000; Rosenblatt, 1994; Ruddell
& Unrau, 1994; Schickedanz, 2000).

Readers draw upon linguistic and world knowledge that
mediate their understanding and meaning. Meaning is
constructed when the reader’s prior knowledge interacts
with information in the text to create new knowledge. The
readers’ past experiences impact their success or failure
with literacy (Goodman, 1994; Kintch, 1994; Rosenblatt,
1994; Sletter, 1996).

Culture, social class, and family dynamics influence
literacy acquisition. Through interactions with others,
learners develop a rich oral language base that provides a
foundation for literacy. Learners need rich oral language
activities, wide reading, active discussions, and strategies
to become effective communicators (Dyson, 2000;
Halliday, 1994; Harste, Burke, & Woodward, 1994;
Hodges, 2000; Ruddell & Ruddell; Sletter, 1996,
Schickedanz, 2000)

Students need to learn reading and writing strategies and
know how, when, and why to use them. Learners need to
be immersed in authentic literacy activities within an
environment that promotes the use of good reading and
writing strategies. Learners must work with teachers or
others who model the selection and use of good strategies
and who provide the necessary scaffolding as learners
develop ownership of those strategies, such as how to
hypothesize, to question, and to self-monitor during
literacy activities (Bransford, 1994; Brown, Palincsar, &
Armbruster, 1994; Goodman, 1994; Paris, Lipson, &
Wixson, 1994; Schickedanz, 2000;Yopp & Singer, 1994).

Learners construct knowledge and meaning in
developmental stages. Learners move through these stages
as they develop strategies as readers and writers. Learners
are immersed in authentic, developmentally appropriate
experiences generated by and compatible with their current
stance as emerging readers and writers (Applebee, 2000;
Forman & Cazden, 1994; Harste, Burke & Woodward,
1994; Hodges, 2000; Rosenblatt, 1994; Schickedanz, 2000;
Yopp & Singer, 1994).
TEACHER ROLES

Teachers make decisions supported by research,
knowledge of learners and literacy practices as they design
instruction. Teachers’ life experiences, belief systems, and
cultural values impact the decision-making process.
Reflective practice allows teachers to become aware of
their own belief systems and cultural values and those of
their students and to modify their classroom practice based
on their evolving understanding of themselves and their
students (Dyson, 2000; Goodman, 1994; Ruddell & Unrau,
1994; Sletter, 1996).

Teachers are mindful of literacy developmental stages
when planning instruction. Teachers must consistently
plan and implement scaffolding experiences in order to
bring readers and writers to the next level of development.
Teachers gradually release responsibility to the learner so
that reading and writing strategies become part of a
repertoire for success (Brown, Palincsar, & Armbruster,
1994; Dyson, 2000; Harste, Burke, & Woodward, 1994;
Hodges, 2000; Ruddell & Unrau, 1994; Schickedanz,
2000; Yopp & Singer, 1994).

Teachers must create a print-rich environment in which all
students become active participants in a community of
learning.Teachers provide activities that give meaning to
students’ lives and provide real life experiences with
literacy. Effective teachers create classroom environments
that support developing readers and writers by scaffolding
instruction, facilitating classroom discourse, and changing
instruction based on students’ needs. The teacher’s role
becomes that of facilitator, coach, and creator of
meaningful learning opportunities. These opportunities
include rich oral language activities, daily wide reading,
direct instruction with words, and engagement with
writing, discussion, and collaboration (Applebee, 2000;
Halliday, 1994; Johnson, 2000).

Teachers must know and understand their students’ cultural
background, various learning styles, developmental stages,
and prior knowledge. Teachers need access to appropriate
technologies and instructional and community resources to
meet the diverse needs of students. By activating students’
schemata, teachers promote meaningful literacy events
(Anderson, 1994; Dyson, 2000; Freire, 1985; Moll, 1994;
Sletter, 1996).

Teachers must model strategies for literacy development,
but just as important, must model their aesthetic and
efferent stance for reading and writing. When teachers
model their feelings of love for reading and writing, they
influence their students’ motivation and purpose for
literacy activities. By modeling, teachers create a
supportive, authentic environment for their students
(Applebee, 2000; Brown, Palincsar, & Armbruster, 1994;
Dyson, 2000; Forman & Cazden, 2000; Harste, Burke, &
Woodward; Hayes, 2000; Hodges, 2000; Rosenblatt, 1994;
Ruddell, 1994).
CURRICULUM

Reading and writing instruction must be taught across the
curriculum. Curriculum needs to include all components of
literacy instruction. The major components are listening,
speaking, reading, writing, and thinking (Applebee, 2000;
Dyson, 2000; Halliday, 1994; Hayes, 2000; Ruddell &
Unrau, 1994).

Curriculum must be developmentally appropriate to meet
the needs of all students. It must assist students in “making
meaning, sharing meaning, extending meaning, evaluating
meaning, savoring meaning, and generating new meaning”
(Harste, 1994 p1221). Curriculum must grow out of the
students’ interests, values, and cultural belief (Applebee,
2000; Freira, 1985; Harste, 1994; Sletter, 1996).

An effective literacy curriculum builds upon strong homeschool-community relations. Parents, families, and
community members are valued as active and contributing
members of the school cultural community. The
experiences and knowledge parents, families, and
community members bring must be valued and
implemented into the curriculum. Effective
communication between home-school-community is
ongoing, with group members’ participating not only in the
development of curriculum, but also in the implementation
of curriculum (Moll, 1994; Ruddell & Ruddell, 1994;
Schickendanz, 2000; Sletter, 1996).

Curriculum needs to include cooperative learning and
social interactions. Curriculum designed around centers
(writing centers, resource centers, listening centers,
viewing centers, conference center, computer center, and
teacher-sharing center) make the classroom an
environment for success with literacy. Sharing experiences
with literacy helps students create meaning (Halliday,
1994; Flood & Lapp, 2000; Hodges, 2000).

Curriculum builds upon learners’ natural understandings of
the world, language, and how language works. The
reader’s schema, or knowledge of the world, provides the
foundation for comprehension of text and enables the
writer to convey meaning by choosing “just the right
word” (Johnson, 2000, p. 183). The writers of curriculum
must recognize and value the learners’ background, and
promote more than one interpretation of text (Anderson,
1994; Bransford, 1994; Freire, 1985; Harste, 1994;
Johnson, 2000; Rosenblatt, 1994).
ASSESSMENT

Assessment is ongoing, embedded, and used to inform
instruction. Teachers use information gathered during
ongoing assessment to make instructional decisions.
Teachers analyze where students are developmentally and
design instruction accordingly. Knowing the learner’s zone
of proximal development enables the teacher to plan and
implement scaffolded instruction that challenges the
learner to reach the next level (Foreman & Carden, 1994;
Hodges, 2000; Moll, 1994; Shickendanz, 2000).

Students and teachers need to work together to develop
some of the assessment tools used in classrooms. For
example, students should participate in creating rubrics for
some assignments, with attention given to writing
techniques as well as effective communication of concepts
or ideas. Students should articulate what they are doing,
why they are doing it, and how they know when it’s done
(or when it’s good enough). Frequent use of selfassessment, along with assessment by peers and teachers,
contributes to learners’ literacy development (Applebee,
2000; Flood & Lapp, 2000; Moll, 1994; Tierney, 1998;
Weaver, 1998).

Teachers should use a variety of different assessment tools.
These tools include observations, product analysis,
anecdotal records, checklists, rubrics, and standardized
tests. Teachers need to use three or more assessment tools
to gather accurate information of the students’ performance
at a given time (Anderson, 1994; Bransford, 1994; Dyson,
2000).

In creating questions for assessment, teachers need to be
mindful of students’ cultural background, various learning
styles, developmental stages, and prior knowledge, so
mismatches do not occur. A mismatch happens when
teachers assume students have proper background
knowledge. Preventing mismatches avoids misdiagnosis
and inappropriate instruction (Anderson, 1994;
Bransford, 1994; Dyson, 2000; Freire, 1985; Heath, 1994;
Moll, 1994; Sletter, 1996).
Assessment must be authentic and meaningful. It must
occur within students’ daily activities and directly relates to
what the students are doing in class. Students must also
understand the real purpose for assessment (Applebee,
2000; Harste, Burke, & Woodward; Tierney, 1998).
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