A Literate Environment Analysis

By Claudine Fuentes

EDUC 6706 Beginning Reader PreK-3

Walden University

June 22, 2014

• Getting to know your learners• Selecting appropriate texts• Engaging students in an interactive, critical, and responsive

classroom

This presentation gives you an overview of these components that makes and creates an effective literate environment

Literate Environment Analysis

What makes an effective literate environment?

GETTING TO KNOW LEARNERS

Getting to Know Literacy LearnersOne of the essential components of an effective classroom is getting to know your students cognitively and non-cognitively. The students in our classroom possess a wide range of abilities and skills.

In understanding students cognitively, reading inventories is a necessary tool to successfully achieve this goal. Reading inventories provide information of the five target areas, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Afflerbach, 2012).

To get to know my students cognitively, I used Fountas and Pinnell Reading Running Record system to identify students’ reading level and essential information relating to the five target areas in order to provide each student with an individualized education.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners

Along with the cognitive aspect is the non-cognitive aspect. Improvements in students’ reading skills are driven by motivation, self-concepts, interest, and attitudes (Afflerbach, 2012).

Four different instruments can be used: Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, Motivation to Read Profile, Reading Self-Concept Scale, and a reading interest survey (Afflerbach, 2012).

I used the Motivation to Read Profile and the Reading Self-Concept Scale. These two instruments gave valuable information into how students feel about reading and their experiences with reading. I found that when students are comfortable and feel safe, the conversational piece in the reading profile is more authentic and honest.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners

Research

“People will attempt to attain goals they value and perceive as achievable” (Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, Mazzoni, 1996, p.519).

According to Dr. Almasi, if we have student interest at heart, we must get to know our students as human beings, their background knowledge, culture, and their identity as readers and writers (Laureate Education, 2010a).

SELECTING TEXT

Selecting textsAnother component in creating a literate classroom is the texts that are chosen for instruction. In selecting texts, students need a wide variety to become a well round reader. Texts should not only be limited to books but also information provided on the World Wide Web. The reading surveys and inventory helped to select texts based on students’ interest and reading levels.

Dr. Hartman’s explained how text can be analyzed using a literacy matrix. Books are placed in quadrants depending on whether they are informational, narrative, linguistic driven (word oriented), or semiotic (communicated through pictures than words) (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b)

Selecting textsI developed a reading unit on the topic of sea life for emergent, beginning, and developing readers. The texts that I chose were a mixture of informational and fiction. Based on the information I learned from Dr. Douglas Hartman (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b), I was keenly aware of the books and sites that students would be engaged. I made sure that they were accessible to students’ cognitive and non-cognitive levels which include readability, length, size, and structure of text.

LITERACY LESSON: INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE

Interactive Perspective

A third component of an effective literate environment is using the interactive perspective in our lessons.

The goal of the interactive perspective, according to Dr. Almasi, is for students to become strategic processor in all five pillars (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c). In addition, teachers need to teach students to be metacognitive and know when reading or writing does not make sense, then choose an appropriate strategy to rectify the situation (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c).

Interactive Perspective

Engaging students in the interactive perspective can be done through read aloud, shared reading, and guided reading.

During my reading lessons, students are making predictions, answering QAR prompts, and end creating products. One of the engaging activities for the emergent readers was making words using magnetic letters. Students were involved in a more meaningful learning.

LITERACY LESSON: CRITICAL AND RESPONSE

PERSPECTIVE

Critical and Response perspectiveThe fourth component is the critical and response perspective. The critical perspective can be viewed as a transaction between the reader and the text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d). The critical perspective compels students to think about their own schema and background and how the text impacts their own perspective.

The critical perspective teaches students how to examine a text critically, think critically, and make judgments (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d). When students are involved in the critical perspective, they are required to think about who wrote the text and reasoning behind the text.

Critical and Response Perspective

Not only is reading a transaction but readers should also be transformed by the text they read. To be transformed is to have the text impact the students in a life changing way (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d).

Incorporation of the response perspective into our literacy lessons is imperative. It gives students the opportunity to connect to the text(s) they read (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010e).

Some activities that I incorporated and plan on incorporating into my lessons are:

-journaling

-K-W-L

-Word walls

-Grand conversations

Feedback• What insights did you gain about literacy and literacy

instruction from viewing this presentation?• How might the information presented change your literacy

practices and/ or your literacy interactions with students?• In what ways can I support you in the literacy

development of your students or children? How might you support me in my work with students or your children?

• What questions do you have?

References• Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K-12

(2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.• Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996).

Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49(7), 518-533.• Laureate Education, Inc., (Executive Producer). (2010a). Getting to know

your students. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author

• Laureate Education, Inc., (Executive Producer). (2010b). Analyzing and selecting text. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author

• Laureate Education, Inc., (Executive Producer). (2010c). Interactive Perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author

• Laureate Education, Inc., (Executive Producer). (2010d). Critical Perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author

• Laureate Education, Inc., (Executive Producer). (2010e). Response Perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author