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Moreover, reading aloud to teenagers can stimulate their imagination and emotions, enrich their vocabulary and understanding of sophisticated language patterns, make difficult text understandable, and encourage a lifelong enjoyment of reading (Anderson, 2007)
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Introducing the 2018 MO-STAR List
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"Our [preservice teachers] are placed in local classrooms with limited attention to how well classroom teaching practices exemplify best practices in literacy instruction, and supervision is provided by persons who may or may not have expertise as literacy educators. I’m not sure the loop is closed so that the literacy theory and best practices for instruction “sticks.” Instead, I’m afraid [preservice teachers] learn “this is how we do it around here.”
Discussion
PreK-12 teachers must have robust understandings about learner development and learning differences and know how to use these understandings to design engaging and impactful literacy learning experiences. Our findings in the current study revealed four current preparation practices that literacy teacher educators use to develop preservice teachers’ understandings about literate classroom environments. We were pleased to see that respondents described several preparation practices that occurred during university-based coursework. By sharing media, literacy teacher educators offer quick, illustrative examples of desired teaching practices. Through class discussions, literacy teacher educators encourage the co-construction of knowledge about literate classroom environments. With course-based assignments, literacy teacher educators provide opportunities for preservice teachers to apply learned concepts, gain deeper understandings, and receive feedback on their progress.
We were also pleased that respondents described preparation practices they used within authentic PK-12 school contexts. By incorporating field experiences, literacy teacher educators give preservice teachers opportunities to observe and practice aspects of literate classroom environments with real students. Field experiences are a significant component of teacher training that augments learning gained in university-based coursework. However, our findings revealed challenges associated with field experiences that have suggested a need for specialized attention to this aspect of teacher training.
Recommendations
We offer the following recommendations to assist literacy teacher educators with the design and implementation of field experiences that develop preservice teachers’ understandings about literate classroom environments. First, literacy teacher educators should identify ways to pair coursework with field experiences. Preservice teachers are poised to develop deeper understandings about literate classroom environments when they engage in learning experiences that connect concepts addressed during coursework with structured field experiences (Lipp & Helfrich, 2016). With these pairings in mind, literacy teacher educators must also foster productive collaboration among PreK-12 school personnel. Exposing preservice teachers to a wide range of literacy classroom environments on multiple school campuses necessitates an enormous amount of communication and coordination between literacy teacher educators, teachers, and school administrators (DeGraff, Schmidt, & Waddell, 2015). Through ongoing collaborations with school personnel, literacy teacher educators may also ensure a high level of congruence between what preservice teachers learn in the university classroom about literate classroom environments and what they see in school practices (Harlin, 1999).
Conclusion
Building a literate environment is critical in fostering academic success among students. Teacher candidates must observe literate environments with rich and authentic examples which can be replicated in their own classrooms. When teacher candidates can apply the theoretical understandings to pedagogical practices during their field experiences, a greater understanding of these practices is mastered. The authenticity of their learning experiences in their teacher education program will impact their instructional practices. Teacher educators and mentor teachers have the potential to influence teacher candidates through strong collaborative experiences.
References
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