After speaking with a coworker about her philosophy of teaching literacy, I found many areas where our thoughts were the same.  Both of us felt that in order to teach literacy successfully teachers must have use an approach that includes each component of reading as well as incorporating writing.  There must be differentiated and explicit instruction.  Therefore the literacy program used must take into consideration the teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  In second grade we hope that the students already have a solid base with phonemic awareness and we hope to make sure that they can then use their phonics skills to increase their fluency to become readers who no longer learn to read but can read to learn. 

• She stated that she believes that small group and whole group instruction is needed to successfully differentiate for every student in the class.  I agree and feel that in order for students to get the targeted instruction they need, especially at a young age where their knowledge of phonics can vary greatly, teachers must be able to instruct to small groups some of the time.  
• We both feel that students need to have the opportunity to have choice and use authentic reasons to read and write in order to be engaged in their learning.
• Assessment needs to be used in order to drive instruction and measure learning
• Students need to be able to get exposure to different genres of reading and writing and must have an opportunity to choose what to read and write 

I agree with many of the aspects that my coworker felt were necessary in order to successfully teach literacy in today's classroom.  The conversation made me reflect on the difficult task of teaching literacy and how important it is for teachers to stay current on best practices.  I believe that it is important for me as a teacher to show my students that I continue to learn as I grow older so that they know it is something that never stops and that we can always grow.  I also want them to enjoy reading and writing and see the magic in words and language.  I need to take the components necessary to teach a balanced, differentiated literacy program and figure out how to incorporate the love and passion for learning into it as well.  This is something that I will continue to try to achieve for each of my students.