The quality of the interactions between teachers and students and between parents and children is an often overlooked but critical ingredient in the complicated mix of elements needed to improve student learning. This ingredient is largely missing in the educational reform and restructuring literature and in current staff development programs. Perhaps educational reformers assume that if teachers are masters of subject matter they are good communicators. Perhaps some consider interactive skills outmoded or superfluous as teachers push to raise academic standards, boost student performance, and push children to cram for the ever-elusive average or higher test score. For whatever reasons, we see little attention being given to equity and to the kind and quality of interaction between adults (teachers and parents) and children—the quality of interaction which helps all children meet their basic needs, and in so doing creates positive and effective growth and learning climates in schools, classrooms, and homes.
Literacy 21 assumes that teachers will teach in a system that has adopted a research based and balanced language development approach to literacy instruction, will have mastery of the subject matter they teach, and will base instruction on thorough knowledge of literacy acquisition. But this may not be enough to reach the goals of literacy for all students.
Both research and practice have demonstrated that supportive and caring teacher/pupil and parent/child interactions are critically important to the development and maintenance of a positive growth and learning climate. When teachers, who are thoroughly in command of their subject matter, practice these interactions equitably, consistently, and genuinely, they will enhance the learning process regardless of the instructional approach selected. We, therefore, see no need to define or advance another best approach to teach reading and writing. No curriculum area has been more defined through research and practice. We assume that schools—administrators, boards, and staff together—will select balanced, research based teaching and learning models. Our focus is on teachers and parents and how they communicate and interact with children to motivate them intrinsically and engage them in balanced, research based instructional programs so that they will become competent readers and writers.
What about teaching style? Is this approach in conflict with the way teachers (and parents) manage classrooms and children? We don’t see a conflict. We are for those techniques that contribute to effective instruction and students’ enjoyment of and zeal for learning. Both research and experience indicate that the extremes are counterproductive—domination and authoritarianism at one pole and permissiveness and laissez faire at the other. Rather than debating the effectiveness of either of these, we suggest that there is a middle ground which incorporates the strengths of both extremes into one dynamic process—strength and firmness with compassion and empathy. When language arts teachers master this process and communicate in their classrooms equitably with all students through open, accepting, and co creative forms of interaction, there is considerable evidence that students’ performance will show significant improvement.
The acquisition of language—literacy—develops and is maximized as we acquire a balanced proficiency in all the communication skills—the encoding skills of speaking and writing and the decoding skills of listening and reading. The process is impeded, and sometimes blocked, for those children who do not receive equitable treatment in classrooms.
The communication skills of listening and speaking initially precede those of reading and writing as children grow and develop. Very soon, however, as children’s learning progresses in an equitable environment, all the communication skills develop interdependently. They reinforce each other. Children who do not learn to listen and speak do not learn to read and write. Parents and teachers are the significant models in this process. Literacy develops through engagement in the communication network of home and school.
