Literacy Committee

We all know that literacy is an area of concern for many of our students. What is also concerning is our ability to teach literacy within our school without any collaboration or coordination. Literacy is often taught by individual teachers with individual strategies and structures to their instruction and curriculum. While some of the primary grades may have some communication, there is not much communication or collaboration school-wide to allow for a structured, school-wide, comprehensive literacy program. Imagine the benefits that would come from having a school-wide literacy program that was structured and allowed all of us to work together to improve the literacy of our students.

My recommendation is that as a school we elect a literacy committee that would be in charge of designing and developing our school-wide literacy program. They would then be in charge of providing the teachers and staff with the training they need to implement the literacy program. The literacy committee would work to ensure that the literacy program was being implemented correctly by all teachers at all grade levels. Finally, the literacy committee would review data and information each year to make necessary adjustments and improvements to the program to continue to allow students to improve their literacy skills.

To select a literacy committee, I would suggest a few things. According to Preddy (2009) the committee should be diverse and “should encompass all grade levels and include the school librarian, reading specialist, administrators, English/Language Arts teachers, content area teachers, and possibly even parents and students” (p. 44). While Hinchman (2009) believes the literacy team, “should include representatives from all constituents, including library media specialists, school psychologists, parents, and students, depending on grade level, as well as the principal” (p. 6). Taken these into account I would suggest for our specific situation that a literacy team should include; one administrator, one or two board members, a recourse specialist, one teacher from K-2, one teacher from 3-5, and the ELA/ELD teacher from 6-8. It would also be beneficial to be able to include parents from various grade levels as well to allow them to have input into the program.

This literacy committee would have expertise in various areas and would represent all different areas within the school. They would be able to collaborate to form a program that would be beneficial for the entire school and would be used school-wide. Some possible goals would include, “Its primary responsibility is to build a school community of readers. The mission is to support and develop the building literacy initiative, implement schoolwide reading promotion projects, increase reading awareness, and promote lifelong literacy habits in students, staff, and parents” (Preddy, 2009, p. 43).

I believe that our students would benefit greatly from having a literacy program that was structured and research-based and designed specifically for their needs. They would be able to build on their skills with similar structures and strategies as they move from one grade to another. We would have all of our students within the same grade level using the same program and gaining the same skills, instead of students from different teachers gaining different skills and heading to the next grade level with varying literacy skills and abilities.

I feel that our staff has several people that have the expertise needed to be able to plan and develop this program and we need to provide them the opportunity to collaborate within a literacy committee to share their knowledge and expertise in the area of literacy. If you have thoughts, ideas, or recommendations please share them to be able to see the possibilities of starting this committee and program. 

The following articles also give some valuable insight into developing a literacy committee and program, and can be valuable resources for our school as we look into the steps of this process. 

Hinchman, K. A. (2009). How school principals can foster effective literacy instruction: A ten-step plan. Issues in Literacy, 19(1), 3-19. 

Jacobson, L. (2017). Building a culture of literacy: Ideas for making literacy the foundation in your school. Literacy Today, 35(1), 20-24.

Preddy, L. B. (2009). Literacy committee: Creating a community of leaders. School Library Monthly. 26(1), 43-47.