Success Guaranteed Literacy Programs?

In the Article, Success Guaranteed Literacy Programs I Don’t Buy It! Lynn Astarita Gatto explains how she refuses to teach to the test, she refuses to use companies’ literacy programs, and she refuses to use textbooks that have been provided for the school year.  Gatto has demonstrated her love for teaching through her successful career and her admirable awards.  She has “received a number of local and state awards, including The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching from the White House and the 2004 New York State Teacher of the Year” (Gatto 74).  After receiving all of this glory and respect as a teacher the state and school districts have told her that she needs to change her teaching methods because “We have become a district dominated by exam-oriented teaching (Street, 1995) in order to follow No Child Left Behind requirements and to keep our funding” (Gatto 75).  Even though she is faced with the dilemma of todays’ education system, of teaching to the test, she stays undefeated and follows her heart as a teacher to provide a suited education for her students. 

I agree with Gatto’s methods of teaching and would love to follow her footsteps in the world of education.  Gatto clarifies what literacy means to her and what teaching methods best work for her students by stating, “I define literacy as “shorthand for the social practices of reading and writing” (Street, 1995, p. 2).  My approach is to provide experiences and problems that engage students in expanding their existing literacy practices in order to construct and use new ones.  Within a community of learner’s framework (Rogoff, 1994; 2003), I make sure the children in my class have multiple opportunities for literacy events (heath, 1982) and practices within social contexts” (Gatto 75).  Her methodology opposes the ideologies behind the “banking education” concept (Freire 53) which consists of viewing students as blank slates.  “Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat.  This is the “banking” concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extend only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits” (Freire 53).  Gatto does not view her students as robots nor receptacles she sees them as critical thinkers.  Gatto states, “I do not consider myself the giver of knowledge.  I view my role as constructing an atmosphere where the children see themselves as valuable to the process of learning within the classroom” (Gatto 75).     

Gatto explains how she has used the knowledge she has acquired about her students, by becoming familiar with their academic level and social comfort, to properly educate them.   She takes many literacy strategies into account when thinking about how to effectively teach each child, she describes that “considering the individual students, planning carefully, selecting appropriate materials and activities, and adjusting activities are all important aspects of what I do to establish a successful literacy program” (Gatto 77).  To fight against the ideologies of the banking education we must construct a welcoming environment, in which the students are valued as learners and as teachers.  As teachers we must not forget that we are always learning something new from our students themselves.