“There is no single road to becoming literate; rather it is extremely important to legitimatize the concept of multiple roads to literacy.”  —Yetta Goodman

Despite the rhetoric from corporate literacy program producers, we, Kathy and Logan, the editors of this work, do not believe that there is one best way for all students to become adept at literacy. Rather, we embrace the idea of multiple paths to literacy development. As Simon & Campano (2013) write, we must understand and utilize students’ unique constellations of abilities, strengths, interests, and needs as we consider creating engaging and meaningful literacy environments to help all students thrive in and out of our classrooms.  As we are compiling and editing this handbook, Kathy was reminded of a conversation with a colleague about “rainbow writing,” a literacy activity her colleague’s son (we’ll call him Owen) felt tortured by in his kindergarten classroom due to the repetitive and boring tracing and retracing of high-frequency words. For Owen, building words in shaving cream, in sand, using magnetic letters, or with letter stamps would have been a more engaging and more beneficial way to develop his high-frequency word vocabulary— what Marie Clay (1991) calls “islands of certainty,” essential for emerging readers. However, for Kathy’s own daughter, rainbow writing was a joyful activity; she loved to draw and fine motor tasks came easily to her. Thus, we urge you to consider your own students’ unique constellations— their interests, abilities, strengths, and areas of instructional need— when perusing this online resource.

How was this Book Created?

Many of our graduate students are currently teachers working in elementary or other classrooms. As part of one of their scenario-based projects in their B-6 literacy materials and methods class, we co-created a non-disposable assignment where our students created descriptions and examples of their favorite research-based literacy activities that serve as the basis of this Open Educational Resource (OER) via SUNY Pressbooks. These activities have been lightly edited and we have ensured that they are aligned to the New York State Big Six Skills and Competencies (comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, oral language, phonics, phonological awareness).

We view the  Literacy Big Six Handbook as living document that will continue to undergo changes and improvements and we further develop our collaboration with our graduate students.

Why this OER?

In spring of 2024, NYSED (2024) released a series of literacy briefs to add to the contentious conversation regarding phonics and literacy instruction. These “Science of Reading” briefs expanded what counts as effective literacy instruction and moved beyond merely positioning literacy as focusing solely on the scholarship of cognitive scientists and instead considers all literacy research including research by literacy scholars. While big publishers are available with expensive, canned curriculum, many teachers desire free and innovative resources that will help them both understand effective literacy teaching practices aligned with New York State’s vision as well envision how to apply these strategies to their work with unique learners in classrooms across New York State. As an institution that creates certified teachers, we felt it is our responsibility to create an Open Educational Resource that would meet this need.

References

Clay, M.M. (1991). Becoming literate: The construction of inner control. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishers.

New York State Department of Education. (2024). Literacy initiative. https://www.nysed.gov/standards-instruction/literacy-initiative

Simon, R. & Campano, G. (2013). Activist literacies: Teacher research as resistance to the “normal curve.” Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 9(1), 21-39. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1008171.pdf