Entry #1 Philosophies about teaching literacy

I recently discussed my philosophy of teaching literacy with a veteran teacher at my school.  She is currently teaching kindergarten, but has taught at every elementary level and is trained in Reading Recovery methods.  While we have similar views about how students learn to read and write, we have very different methods for teaching literacy.

We both agree that children need a strong foundation in the "Big 5:" phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary (Put Reading First, National Reading Panel).  We acknowledge the importance of teacher readiness and planning ahead for each lesson.  With that, we recognize the importance of daily rituals and routines that provide structure, guidance, and expectations for our learners.  We also both believe that it is our soul responsibility to assure an education for our students and scaffolding is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this goal.  We hold each student to the standards for our grade level, and hold ourselves accountable to teach to the standards.  In essence, we trust that every child in our room can succeed and become a reader and writer through the implementation of a research-based curriculum, the utilization of best practices, and a great deal of heart.
While, the underlying principles are the same, our methods vary.  Through observations and our conversation, I know that my colleague is very structured and her students follow a well defined, guided path towards becoming literate.  The students’ literacy work is accomplished through constant supervision by a teacher or paraprofessional.  If they are independently engaged in center work, it is usually without a well defined literacy goal.  I, on the other hand, want my students to have and take control of their literacy experience.  I explicitly teach during whole group and small group, but I also sit back and observe while students engage in independent and partner literacy experiences.  While she has a quiet classroom, I have a “talking” classroom.  My students are encouraged to discuss and question throughout the literacy experience.  This type of busy classroom environment is often difficult for teachers to handle, but I truly believe the benefits are worth it.  In fact, I can not see any other way to incorporate the much needed practice of a new skill without allowing the students to engage in literacy in this way.  In Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners by Jane Hill and Kathleen Flynn, it states that students do not become competent in a task until they have practiced it at least 24 times (Hill & Flynn, p.10, 2006).   I do not see how the students can accomplish this goal if they only experience literacy while the teacher is directly present.
Overall, I understand the differences in our approaches in executing the same idea about literacy.  Several attributes factor in when analyzing teachers’ philosophies and methods; such as age, experience, personalities, educational backgrounds and interests.  The lesson here is to understand the differences and learn and grow to best help our students.