How Do I Teach Literacy?

Why is it important to know how to teach literacy? If you found this blog post by doing a search on the Internet, why do you want to learn how to teach literacy? Maybe you know someone--a family member, a neighbor, an associate--who needs some help with reading. Maybe you have a child or grandchild who is an emerging reader and you want to learn some tricks to jump start their reading. Maybe you know someone who is a good reader but a poor speller. Maybe you have a neighbor down the street who struggles with reading and writing and you want to help them increase their literacy skills. Maybe you have a close friend or family member who you feel compelled to help. Maybe you are tutoring a non-native English speaker who is learning English. Maybe you are going abroad to teach English and you want to know some strategies to teach. Learning how to teach literacy promotes life-long learning--not only for the person who is being taught to read and write, but also for the person teaching literacy skills as well since there are numerous opportunities to teach reading and writing.

So the question is, "What resources are out there to learn how to teach people how to read?" A great resource is www.phonicstraining.com which teaches the nuts and bolts of how to teach decoding and spelling strategies. It's free for 30 days, which is plenty of time to go through the training. I have shared this resource with several family members and friends who have expressed interest in learning literacy strategies to teach and have received favorable feedback. In fact, I shared this link with a sister who was tutoring a man who was illiterate in Las Vegas. I've shared this link with another sister who has children who are learning to read, one of whom is a good reader, but a poor speller. I've shared this link with two aunts who have both independently expressed interest in getting involved in literacy training. I've shared this link with a friend who tutors refugees, another friend who conducts speech therapy, a friend who writes educational children's books, and another friend who is training students to go teach English abroad.

Literacy affects all of us in one way or another. It's empowering to have knowledge of literacy strategies that we can teach which in turn empowers others.