Hannah Tolbert

Literacy Action Plan

Philosophy:

As a future teacher, I believe that helping students develop literacy is the single most

important job for an elementary educator. Literacy is very important component for every grade,

because without literacy students cannot communicate ideas, opinions, facts or any other

information pertaining to any other subject taught in school. I also believe that effective

instruction “begins with thoughtful, artful organization and planning” (F&P Ch 1, 13). With this

action plan, I hope to effectively plan a literacy program that fosters a love for reading and

writing for my 1st grade students.

Goals for teaching:

First graders will have the goal of being early readers and writers. Skills will be taught,

but it is equally important to set the goal of teaching students to love to read and write. We can

set large, end of the school year goals like writing and illustrating a small first book and reading

goals such as a Lexie level much higher than entry into 1st grade. Each student will have different

reading and writing goals, but improvement is the key. Students will also show improvement in

vocabulary and speaking. By the end of the year, students should be able to orally respond to

questions about text read aloud and should be able to engage in a collaborative conversations

acknowledging opinions and feelings. Students will leave the first grade with a larger speaking,

writing, listening and reading vocabulary as well as having the tools to decode unknown words.

All in all, all students will leave first grade owning their identity as early readers and writers!

Classroom Community:

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 In order to build the most welcoming classroom community I will create areas

specifically for interacting with peers and text. I will do this by creating a specified reading

corner by the classroom library. I will have a library with designated genres and reading levels to

suit all of my student’s interests. The students will be able to check out the books formally by

signing them out on a clipboard in the reading corner. I will also encourage my students to leave

as sticky note in the books they check out with a small book review. Students can then check out

what their peers think of the book before reading it.

Students will also learn to read together, articulate ideas and collaborate on writing

pieces. There will also be literacy assignments, such as “about me” writing pieces in the

beginning of the year to get to know each other. We will also learn how to effectively peer edit to

help each other’s success in writing.

Writing:

First grade writers are becoming early writers and are eager to begin writing using

invented spelling. At this stage I will encourage as much writing as possible, with little

corrections made. This is the phase of writing we should encourage them to “sound out the

words” using what they know about letter sound correspondence. Writings on topics should be

kept short and relevant/meaningful to their lives, beginning with only a few sentences in the

beginning of the school year, because many students are coming into first grade as emergent

writers. I will encourage my students to write using punctuation, correct finger spacing and

illustrations to add to their meaning.

While writing is kept short and should by no means critiqued for correctness, I would

encourage student to reread their writing as part of an introduction to what revising and editing

will be one day with more complex writing assignments (F&P Ch 1, 7).

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Reading:

For reading in first grade emergent readers are becoming early readers. Most first graders

know their alphabet and letter sound relationships, so they can read simple text fluently. Skills I

hope to teach are reading without pointing, reading orally and beginning to read silently, read

with correct pausing and using pictures for context (F&P Ch 1, 8). Students will receive direct

instruction to use the pictures to understand the test, they are capable of “establishing important

concepts about how authors and illustrators construct meaning” (F&P Ch1, 10). I will choose

texts with high frequency words, but with several lines of text.

Teaching will be done through read alouds and guided reading. Read alouds will be done

primarily by me, but I will encourage guest readers such as parents and school visitors. It is

important for students to hear read alouds from multiple different voices. Often read alouds will

be interactive encouraging small discussion among students. I will also conduct many guided

reading groups that are tiered by reading level. These reading groups will always be rotating.

Read alouds and guided reading will be done with all different genres, both fiction and

nonfiction.

Students will be encouraged to read independently as well as with a partner. When they

read independently they will be encouraged to begin reading in their heads. This can be a hard

concept for early readers. It also allows the teacher to chose the most appropriate level text for

that individual student and set goals of harder leveled texts when appropriate for that reader’s

speed. Another benefit of encouraging independent reading assignments is that allows for more

individualized attention from the teacher. When other are reading independently teachers can do

assessments such as an oral reading assessment.

Speaking:

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 Although writing and reading are very important, speaking comes hand in hand. First

grade is the time to assess students speaking abilities, and put them to the test. Students will not

only read orally, but use oral language in general to encourage educational conversation. During

conversation students need to be taught how to listen actively, take turns speaking and to stay on

topic (F&P Ch 2, 21).

In addition to oral reading and conversation, presentations can be introduced in first

grade. Although formal presentations might not be appropriate, sharing of work or even show

and tell lessons allow students to practice language. Small 1 or 2 minute presentations should be

incorporated into ELA lessons weekly/biweekly.

Word Study:

Word study will be incorporated into our ELA schedule weekly. This can include the

“spelling of a specific word, sophisticated phonics principles or the development of vocabulary”;

the goal is for the students to gain a greater understanding of “how words work” (P&P Ch 2, 4).

It is important to group words by types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading and writing

(Put Reading First, 29). It is also important to teach words specifically and direct, but also to

integrate word study in all lessons naturally.

Students should also be taught word-learning strategies in first grade. When presented

with a new word in text, they should have the tools they need to figure out the word meaning.

Word learning strategies that should be taught are using “word parts to figure out meanings of

words in text” and using context clues such as pictures and surrounding words to decode a

word’s meaning (Put Reading First, 32).

Assessments:

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 Summative assessments will be weekly and will rotate between reading, writing, word

study etc. Formative assessments will be done throughout the week through running records

during independent reading, questioning during read alouds and guided reading and many other

means of representing what students have learned. Almost every piece of reading will be used to

formatively assess a skill after multiple readings and every piece of writing will be read and

given feedback, even when not graded.

Home-School Connection:

Parents will receive a brief description of skills being taught during ELA in the weekly

newsletter sent home, so they can talk to their child about what they are learning. Parents will

also be encouraged to always read to their kids and have their kids read to them. Books can be

brought home from the classroom and school library, so that text is always readily available not

only in the classroom, but at home. Parents will also be invited to come in and read books to the

class as a guest read aloud.

Conclusion:

It is important to remember that integration of ELA will be throughout all subjects, even

though the weekly ELA schedule is a time allotted for specific instruction, throughout the day

students will be reading, writing and speaking. Everyday there will be time for all elements of

ELA, even when not during the ELA block of the day. It will also be very important for this

action plan to encourage all students to see themselves as writers and readers. Too often, when a

child matures they loose a love for reading and writing, but by encouraging the love for ELA

young hopefully we can combat those feelings.

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Citations:

Armbruster, Bonnie, et al. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching

Children to Read, Kindergarten through Grade 3. National Institute for Literacy.

Fountas, Irene, and Gay Pinnel. “Becoming Lifelong Readers and Writers: The Goal of the

Intermediate Literacy Program.” pp. 2–12.

Fountas, Irene, and Gay Pinnel. “Achieving Literacy with a Three-Block Framework: Language

& Word Study, Reading, and Writing.” pp. 13-25.

Classroom layout ideas drawn from former PDS: Amanda Woozley

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Monday
Centers- On Mondays there will be center
rotations. Centers will focus on skills
being taught that week. For example, in
the beginning of the 1st grade, and the
beginning of this literacy plan will be

90min
teaching skills such as distinguishing
between long and short vowels and short
fluency lessons.
During this time the teacher can do guided
reading groups with different level of
readers.

Tuesday
Reading
On these days read alouds will be done as
well as whole class reading instruction.
Students will practice skills such as
fluency and basic comprehension

90min
strategies.
It is also on these days that students will
have the opportunity to look at the
classroom library and check out any
books for that week.

Wednesday
Word Study/Vocab
These days are dedicated to direct
vocabulary and word study. Students will
be taught skills about word patterns (ex
CVC) and common or useful word

90min
meanings. Word sorts will be a common
tool used as well as reading chosen
meaningful text with useful vocabulary.

Thursday
Writing
Writing will be beginning with prompts
requiring only a few sentences and a
picture. Throughout the year the prompts
will get longer and expectations will rise.

90min
Students will be expected to show
knowledge of what they learned all week,
such as using the new vocabulary in their
writings or including correct grammatical
details such as spelling and punctuation
taught during centers.

Friday
Speaking/Testing Day
Fridays will typically be testing day. This
is a day for summative assessments for
reading, writing, vocabulary and
mechanics. Because testing should not

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 90min
take the whole ELA time slot, Fridays will
also be used to teach speaking skills,
whether it is a time to practice oral
reading or conversational skills, speaking
will be emphasized on Fridays.

Teacher’s
seat

Teachers desk
with Elmo
projector on it
Carpet
Resource
table

Student Table Student Table

Teacher’s
U-shaped table

Reading corner with bookshelves Student Table Student Table

Book bags and Cubbies