Sara+Module+6+Response

wilkiesa@msu.edu

One of the opening slides in the first instructional presentation posted for this week encapsulated my concerns for readers of all ages and levels. "// In an age overwhelmed by information...we should view this as a crisis because the ability to read, comprehend, and write - in other words to organize information into knowledge - can be viewed as tantamount to a survival skill //. (Gregorian, foreward, p.2). I firmly believe that part of our charge as teachers of literacy is to foster the development of skills to support the complex level of literacy readers need in today's information rich society. This is where I was in my thinking when we started the course, and it is the point to which I have returned after many discussions, readings and, more significantly, studying the needs of young readers and writers.

Our reading for this week threads many of the individual elements of our course into a series of strategies for best practices in writing. Chapter 12 in Morrow & Gambrell, for example, weaves student choice, motivation, scaffolding and differentiation together as it highlights elements of Intentional Writing Instruction (p. 303-7).