Goals+&+Philosophy

In an endeavor to engage students in meaningful, authentic reading and writing that they will enjoy, our English Department at Maryvale High School has implemented a Literacy Workshop approach to teaching. The philosophy behind literacy workshop is “Choice and Voice.” ** Literacy Workshop is:  ** *An approach to teaching English through an emphasis on skills based learning *A curriculum designed for students to have more ownership of their learning by providing them with choice and interacting with them on various levels *The ability to work one-on-one with students to improve their writing on a holistic level ** Goals of Literacy Workshop include:   ** *Increase students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills *Have students enjoy reading (instead of seeing it as a chore) *Create more student ownership of their work, their time, their behavior, etc. *Enhance students’ literacy of the world itself *Create critical thinkers and creative problem solvers ** Objectives:  ** *Record what they are reading and demonstrate active reading *Compose written reading responses that validate student reading *Create writing assessments that make application to mini-lessons ** Teaching Strategies:  ** *Conferencing (Teacher/Student, Peer) *Direct Instruction *Modeling *Class Discussion *Cooperative Learning *Goal Setting *Evaluation