Literacy in the English Classroom

As part of a class assignment, I had to craft a personal literacy philosophy for my future high school English/Language Arts classroom. In considering what my philosophy should be, I was somewhat surprised to learn that many students who enter my future English/Language Arts classroom will not be reading at grade level. This presents an obvious problem when so much of the course will be focused on reading works of literature and other writings.

My personal literacy philosophy began with the following paragraph:

"Literacy is a crucial component of all content areas, but not other content area relies more on literacy than English/Language Arts. Therefore, the important of literacy in my classroom cannot be overstated. The primary purpose of high school English/Language Arts classes includes reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about various forms and genres of literature. In order to meet established state standards, students must have proficient literacy skills."

Throughout the next several months, I will be posting about the important of literacy in the classroom, especially the English/Language Arts classroom, as well as other topics related to teaching English at the middle and high school levels.