Literate Environment

Analysis

By: Rachel Attaway

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” 

Mortimer J. Adler

Creating a literate classroom atmosphere is essential to constructing a classroom of thriving

readers and writers.Research:Generating engaging lessons that support students’motivation and achievement are essential (LaureateEducation, Inc., 2010)

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010).Changes in literacy education. [Webcast]. The beginningreader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.

Getting to Know Literacy LearnersThe first step in creating a literate environment is getting

to know the learner. Through formal and informalevaluations, I have been able to create an environmentconducive to meeting the diverse needs of the students

within my classroom.

Some suggested activities for getting to know your literacy learners:

Student literacy autobiographyMotivation to read profile

Elementary Reading Attitude SurveyConversation with studentsConversation with parents

Getting to Know Literacy Learners (cont.)

Afflerbach, P. (2007). Understanding and using readingassessment, K-12. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Research: “Understanding how students learn, and particularly how they learn to read and write, influences the instructional approaches teachers use” (Tompkins, 2010, p.5). Teachers who make use of reading inventories are given an assortment of information about their students’ literacy likes and dislikes, as well as reading performance and growth (Afflerback, 2007).

Selecting TextsChoosing appropriate text for students is fundamental so asto make certain that an effective literacy lesson is beingcreated. Selecting proper text is beneficial to the students’capability to grasp the text he/she is reading. There aremultiple types of text to choose from. I utilize a variety oftexts within my classroom, therefore enhancing my students’learning through the multiplicity of different texts. The use ofthe literacy matrix is very beneficial when selectingappropriate text.

Linguistic

Semiotic

Narrative InformationalLiteracy Matrix

Selecting Texts (cont.)

Research: I realize the importance of considering multipleaspects when selecting appropriate texts for my students.Some things to consider when choosing text is readabilitylevel, length of the text, as well as the text structure(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). As educators, we arecontinuously searching for engaging, as well as acceptabletexts for our students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010).Analyzing and selecting text. [Webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.

Informational Text

Narrative Text

Online Text

Literacy Lesson: Interactive PerspectiveStudents are encouraged to interact with and think about information in

a text. I continuously encourage students to implement the readingstrategies we use daily in our reading lessons. As students becomeproficient at using these strategies, they will better understand andcomprehend stories they are reading. Students are encouraged to beindependent learners. One way that I encouraged independent learning during the implementation of this lesson was by using a Venn diagram to compare/contrast two version of the same story. This research based strategy has aided me in using more of a variety ofstrategies to help when enhancing the my students’ reading abilities.

Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective (cont.)

Research:Strategies are known as text factors and when implemented have thecapability of increasing student motivation (Tompkins, 2010). Accordingto Tompkins (2010), we need to be using many strategies within our classrooms. During the lesson I taught students were interactive in avariety of ways. First, they identified strategies that good readers usewhen reading. Then students used a graphic organizer (Venn Diagram)to compare/contrast two stories. As stated by Stahl (2004), instructionalpractices used by teacher aid in the triumph of a comprehension strategyput into place for students.

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Stahl, K. (2004. Proof, practice and promise: comprehension strategyInstruction in the primary grades. Reading Teacher, 57(7), 598-609.

Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives

Critical and Response perspectives are research basedstrategies that have aided me in fostering a literateclassroom environment. They are conceivably the mostsignificant when considering the literacy framework. I nowlook at my lessons in a different manner when preparingthem for my students. I strive to present my students withlessons that support these two perspectives, thereforeencouraging my students to apply their higher order thinking skills.

Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives (cont.)

Research:The critical perspective involves our students assessing a text as theyare reading (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). The responseperspective permits our students to connect to the text, in addition toexperiencing the text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). Throughoutthis lesson my students remained engaged demonstrated outwardsigns of using their critical thinking skills. The skills used in this lessonencourage students to become metacognitive thinkers. One activityimplemented in this lesson required student to critically analyze themain character in the story. Students participated in a characterportrayal activity. Tompkins (2010), tells us that this type activity willhelp develop students’ comprehension. In the area of responseperspectives, I posed a question to my students and they had to write ajournal entry stating their viewpoint to the question ask of them. Again,this prompted them to use their higher level thinking skills. (cont.)

Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives (cont.)

Students were then given the opportunity to share their views during “Author’s Chair”. Planning and implementing lessons which include the critical andresponse perspective takes much time, but the benefits are tremendous.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a).Critical Perspective. [Webcast]. The beginningreader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b).Response Perspective. [Webcast]. The beginningreader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Our charge as educators is to increase

developing literacy by constructing literate

classroom environments. Regardless of

where children are in their perception of literacy, teachers have the capability of promoting

additional development by putting into place a classroom beneficial to the learning of reading,

writing, listening, and speaking (Gunning, 2005).

Gunning, T.J. (2005). Creating literacy: Instruction for all students. Boston, MA:Pearson Education, Inc.