| One can not discuss Four Block
Literacy without mentioning the name Patricia Cunningham.
Cunningham is a professor in the Education Department at Wake Forest
University, where she advises all elementary education majors. Her major
interest is in promoting the best possible literacy instruction for all
children, and particularly for children who find learning to read difficult.
Cunningham, Dottie Hall, a curriculum coordinator at Clemmons Elementary
School, and many primary teachers developed a multimethod, multilevel framework
they call the Four Blocks. Cunningham and Hall both travel across the country
giving workshops on the Four Blocks.
The Four Blocks framework was developed by teachers who believed that
to be successful in teaching ALL children to read and write, they were
going to have to do it ALL! |
|
| Doing it all means incorporating on a daily basis the different
approaches to beginning reading. The four blocks -- Guided Reading, Self
Selected Reading, Writing and Words -- represent four different approaches
to teaching children to read. Daily instruction in all four blocks provides
numerous and varied opportunities for all children to learn to read and
write. Doing all four blocks acknowledges that children do not all learn
in the same way and provides substantial instruction to support whatever
learning personality a child displays or presents. The other big difference
between children, their different literacy levels, is accomplished by using
a variety of formats to make each block as multilevel as possible, providing
both additional support for children who struggle and additional challenges
for children who catch on quickly. |
