A Conceptual Framework for Understanding How Early Career Literacy Teachers Curate a Lesson Plan in a Digital Age

Abstract

Lesson planning is often identified as a challenge for early career teachers. Planning small group reading is particularly challenging for early career literacy teachers in the primary grades. They feel additional pressure to eradicate chronic reading failure and often struggle with knowing how to meet the diverse needs of their developing readers. Due to their lack of experience, they seek support from their social environment, including online sources, in today's digital age. This chapter aligns with Sawyer et al.'s (2020) critical curation theory, supporting the idea that ECLTs need support in determining quality when curating lessons from various sources. A conceptual framework is proposed to enhance knowledge of the curation process for ECLTs. Specifically, this conceptual framework will highlight possible sources ECLTs in the primary grades utilize in planning small guided reading group instruction. This chapter further highlights how ECLTs select sources from the Internet and use a research-based literacy framework to discern quality in their selection.