An integrated approach to literacy relies on giving context to the reading lessons that you provide to children. Lessons don't exist in isolation merely to teach improved reading or writing skills for their own sake. Instead, each exercise needs to be given a real world context or a context that overlaps with another important area of knowledge that the students are expected to study. Language skills must be seen as practical, rather than abstract by the student.
In the integrated method of teaching literacy, the focus needs to be on the learner, rather than on the teacher. The more the interests, curiosity and passion of a young child guides his own learning, the more likely it is that the information taught to him by the teacher will be of interest and retained. In integrated literacy teaching, the teacher works with the student and facilitates learning rather than simply lecturing.
For integrated literacy development to work, critical language arts skills need to be practiced throughout the day. Children need to be constantly exposed to reading and writing with proper skills being emphasized throughout. For very young children, this includes activities such as reading out loud to the students. However, the reading should be active. Encourage children to talk about the book, ask questions before and after, and have students respond to the readings.
Another view of integrated literacy is that the various components of language arts or English classes must not be separated from each other. Teachers that adhere to this philosophy feel that the key to successful literacy is to help students connect language through all its uses. Therefore, listening, speaking, reading and writing come together as a single language mastery skill instead of fragmented parts.