The Delicacy of Teaching Literacy

   I have always believed that the quality of life for someone who does not know how to read is significantly reduced. My heart goes out to the people who do not enjoy reading and I can only imagine what it would be like to struggle with reading and writing on a daily basis. It is widely agreed that reading and writing are two of the most important skills a person can learn. I believe that there is a natural inclination towards reading and writing in children. At a very young age they quickly absorb information about letters. When you see a three year old pick up a memorized book and pretend to read you know that the desire to read is strong. There are many factors that influence early reading levels, such as exposure to reading materials, and parents reading to their children.  Because children all experience different levels of reading exposure and they have different learning dispositions, within one classroom there are generally many different reading levels. As a teacher with a classroom full of children at varied reading and writing levels, it can be a challenge to give every student the best lessons for them. According to Lyon and Moore in Sound Systems, "knowing the concepts in the curriculum to teach, knowing whom to teach them to, having a plan to methodically teach concepts, and keeping records of learning and teaching in phonics" is what is involved in systematically teaching phonics. 
   I am feeling optimistic about phonics education in our classrooms. On Wednesday we, as a class visited a school for the morning and saw them implementing a program designed to systematically identify and teach individualized phonics lessons to each student in the school. I see this focus more and more in schools, identifying and targeting the needs of the students. I believe that any situation, where teachers are getting extra support, is more likely to be a successful learning environment.