PreK-3rd Grade Literacy Learners

A GUIDE TO THE LITERACY ENRICHED CLASSROOM

BY: NANCY SUMMEROUR

Essential Question

How do I teach learners at the PreK-

3 levels?

Getting to know your learner

Knowing your learner will help guide your instruction. It will help you create an appropriate literacy environment.

How do you get to know your learner? There are 2 ways: Cognitive Assessment and

Noncognitive Assessment

What are Cognitive Assessments?

Cognitive assessments will give you an idea of what skills your student has. It will show a snapshot of what they are able to do.

Examples of Cognitive Assessments: Dibels Pre-Assessments Running Records

What are Non-Cognitive Assessments?

Noncognitive assessments allow you to see a student’s likes and dislikes.

Examples of Noncognitive Assessments: Reading Inventories Reading Questionnaires (Mariotti, n.d.) Student Interviews

What is unique about the Emergent Learner?

Things to focus on with your emergent reader: Concepts of print Content specific

vocabulary Phonics Decoding Retelling/Recalling

When looking for books for your Emergent Reader:

• Each page displays the print in the same place• Sentences are written in a pattern (1-2

sentences repeated)• Illustrations provide support for the text• Contains familiar objects (e.g. dog, letters of

the alphabet ) and experiences (e.g. going to school)

• Contains and repeats high frequency words

(sightwordgames.com, n.d.)

What is unique about the Beginning Reader?

Things to focus on with your Beginning Reader: Vocabulary Higher Order

Thinking Phonemic

Awareness

Activities that could benefit the Beginning Reader:

• Close reading activities• Think-Pair-Share• 4-square writing• Digital Texts

Text Selection

Texts must be active, engaging, and allow students to collaborate (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016).

Informational vs. Narrative Literacy Matrix for analyzing texts (Laureate Education, 2014)

Semiotic (more pictures) or Linguistic (more words) Text Difficulty

Exposing students to both types of books on the same subject allows them to compare and contrast new information that they learn.

Emergent Learner Lesson Plan

Pre-Assessment: Whole Group Discussion During Reading

A lot of hand motions to remember key vocabulary words. Modeling how to read a sentence. Showing a lot of pictures and visuals to help them understand.

After Reading Recalling information read Transitioned to scaffold 4-square writing

Beginning Learner Lesson Plan

Pre-Assessment: Activating their Schema (Laureate Education, 2014e) During Reading

Picking out content specific vocabulary Modeling how to read fluently Visuals to help support understanding

After Reading 4-square writing with little scaffolding Comparing and Contrasting between 2 books

Moving Ahead

All learners need modeling. They learn what they see.

Literacy gets them thinking (Laureate Education, 2014d)

Assessments (Cognitive and Noncognitive) will help steer your instruction

While you may start in small group to help focus on skills, as they grow in their reading ability they can transition to student centered groups.

Practice makes perfect. Find out what fits for your classroom and student needs.

References

All About Early Emergent Readers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://www.sightwordsgame.com/httpwww-sightwordsgame-sundry/all-about-early-emergent-readers/

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014d). Beginning writing, conversations with Ray Reutzel[Audio file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. 

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Analyzing and selecting texts [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Log In. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2016, from https://www.mclasshome.com/mobilelogin/educator_login?login_type=traditional

Mariotti, A. P. (n. d.). Using interest inventories with struggling and unmotivated readers. Retrieved fromhttp://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news-updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf

Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.