An outline of core beliefs about the components of a solid literacy program for elementary school.

1. Literacy Instruction
Literate
Learners
Sparking

2. Lighting the Way
The Big Ideas

3. Literacy instruction is an interconnected
matrix between speaking, writing, and
reading; listening, watching, analysing,
critiquing and creating.
Literacy instruction is about sparking
curiosity and engaging students with
stories, ideas, messages, perspectives,
concepts, words, letters, and sounds.

4. Literacy instruction is about communication: It is
about giving students a voice by providing them
with the confidence and the tools they need to
share their ideas with the world.
Literacy instruction is about constructing and
deconstructing meaning (a forest fire is a
destructive force that does yield to new growth and
new possibilities).
Language is not just about communicating ideas but
about is a tool for forming new ways of thinking and
knowing (Vygotsky).

5. Literacy instruction is about celebrating
imagination and suspending disbelief
while at the same time fostering a healthy
mistrust of texts and authors.
A good literacy program empowers
students to be critical about the texts they
encounter: to question the source of ideas
and to think about whose voices are heard
and whose are not. When students learn to
be critical, they learn to think about the
author’s message, purpose and bias.
(McLaughlin 2012)

6. Striking Flint against Steel
The Application

7. Best Practise in
Literacy Instruction
is possible when:

8. There is a balance between Modeled,
Shared, Guided and Independent:
Reading, Writing, Speaking and Creating.
The classroom is a place where speaking
is valued and where oral communication
is recognised as a gateway to reading and
writing.

9. The classroom is a place where, with teacher
support, students participate actively in co-
creating meaning by facilitating discussions,
asking questions, judging each other's
answers, clarifying ideas, and connecting
ideas across contexts (Resnitskaya 2013).
There is interplay between accountable talk,
comprehension strategies, vocabulary
development, phonological and phonemic
awareness, metacognition, critical analysis
and learning skills.

10. The classroom is a place where instruction is
designed around the strengths, needs, and
interests of students.
There is a community of co-learners where
the teacher does not always position themself
as "the expert" but instead models curiosity,
risk-taking, flexibility and learning from
mistakes. In this community the teacher plays the
role of coach and facilitator, prompting and guiding
students, and tries, wherever possible to share power
and ownership over the learning process.

11. The classroom is a place where diverse
texts, interconnected curriculums, rich
questions, meaningful activities and real
world connections make learning engaging
for all learners.
The classroom is a place where thinking is
made visible and where big ideas, learning
goals and success criteria are co-created
and accessible to teachers, students,
parents and other members of the school
community.

12. The classroom is a place where assessment via
conversation, reading conferences, writing samples
and observations, drives instruction and where the
teacher provides timely, meaningful and specific
feedback that helps students move along the learning
continuum.
The classroom is a place where students develop self-
efficacy, where they expect to be challenged, to meet
the challenges, to set goals and work towards
achieving these goals (Afflerbach Et al. 441)