By: Shivanie Bholanath

Walden University

Instructor – Dr. Martha Moore

EDUC6706 G-1The Beginning Reader, Pre K-3

Getting to Know Literacy Learners

Selecting Texts

Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective

Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives

Getting To

Know

Literacy Learners

Cognitive Assessments

Non-Cognitive Assessments

The more information teachers have on their students the

better they can connect them with text that will have an

impact in a deep and powerful way (Laureate Education, n.da).

• I worked with three scholars, two are

emergent readers and writers and the

other scholar is an advanced reader

and writer.

• Their abilities were assessed using a

variety of cognitive and non-cognitive

assessments.

Examples of Cognitive Assessments

Cognitive assessments

help teachers determine

the literacy level, skills,

and thinking strategies a

student has (Tompkins,

2010). Cognitive

assessments will inform

teachers of their students’

abilities and guide them

as they plan future

instruction.

Story Telling's

Running Records

Think Aloud’s

Examples of Non-Cognitive Assessments

Non-cognitive

assessments will help

teachers learn more

about their student’s

interests, motivations,

self-concept, and

attribution (Afflerbach,

2012). What makes the

student excited about

reading?

Elementary Reading Attitude Survey

(Tompkins, 2010)

Observations

Conferences

The data from the cognitive and non-cognitive assessments

brought insight for my future instruction.

I learned that my emergent scholars are slowly decoding

words and blending them together as they read.

They have excellent reading comprehension skills, but can use

extra support in the areas of critical thinking.

I learned that my advanced scholar is excelling in reading and

has excellent critical thinking abilities.

The advanced scholar is ready to be challenged to the next

level by engaging in a variety of text not one genre and

reading with a purpose.

It is very important to select text that are based on the needs of the scholars. When selecting text whether it is informational, narrative, or an online text, using the Literacy Matrix (shown to the left) will help determine the level of each text on the continuum (Laureate Education, n.db).

Selecting text from different levels in all four areas of the matrix will expose students to multiple perspectives.

The size of print, visual support, and length of text are crucial in the selecting of text.

Linguistic

Semiotic

Narrative Informational

Teachers should consider the following when they are

selecting a text for their students:

o Readability

o Text Length

o Text Structure

o Size of Print

o Visual Support (Laureate Education, n.db)

The Literacy Matrix brought insight to the needs of the

emergent scholars. They will benefit from narrative, or

informational semiotic books with minimum writing. They are

now beginning to blend and decode words and books with

visual support would be highly beneficial to them.

Text that have large font print and short in length will be

appealing to the emergent scholars.

The size of print, visual support, and length of text are crucial

in the selection of text.

The Literacy Matrix brought insight to the needs of the advanced

scholars.

Because the advanced scholar is fluently reading, I believe they will

benefit from linguistic books however, in my future text selection I

will choose books that also have visual representations that depict

the story.

Implementing books that are in the middle of linguistic and semiotic

are ideal for my advanced scholar (Laureate Education, n.db).

Selecting a text with the right text length is crucial for the advanced

scholar because he is easily bored and choosing a text that

challenges him, excites him, and is of interest will meet his literacy

needs (Laureate Education, n.db).

Reading and

writing accurately,

fluently, and with

comprehension in

addition to being

strategic and

metacognitive

readers and writers

(Walden, 2015)

Interactive

Perspective:

Strategic

Processing

Phonics

Phonemic

Awareness

Fluency

Comprehension

Vocabulary

The interactive perspective helped me create a literate

environment with my scholars when I facilitated a lesson on

decoding and creating new words in word family /an/.

The interactive perspective taught scholars how to

independently decode and process words and text they are in

contact with (Laureate Education, n.dc).

The scholars learned through modeling as I taught decoding

strategies and fluency while reading words in the /an/ family.

Teaching scholars to take a risk and trying their best when

they are reading, decoding, and apply metacognitive strategies

will only help them become strategic readers and writers.

The Critical Perspective is judging, evaluating, and thinking critically about a text whereas the Response Perspective is how the students connect to the text in a purposeful way (Walden, 2015).

The Critical Perspective gives students an opportunity to think about the underlying meaning behind the story and identify the authors purpose.

Asking higher order thinking questions will engage students in critical thinking.

The Response Perspective gives students opportunities to make text to self-connections by applying the text to real life situations.

I was able to create a literate environment by selecting a text that fostered critical thinking opportunities and was relatable to the scholars in my group.

During a read-aloud, students were exposed to critical perspectives as they answered critical thinking questions, before, during, and after the story. They were asked to collaborate and discuss the authors intent. They thought deeply of the message the author is sending to the reader.

I successfully implemented the response perspective with my scholars when I asked them to make a text to self-connection of the problem in the story to themselves

This was an interest to the students because they brought their knowledge and experiences to the classroom.

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–

12 (2nd ed). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.da.). Getting to know your students. The Beginning

Reader, Pre-K-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.db). Analyzing and selecting text. The Beginning Reader,

Pre-K-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.dc.). Interactive perspective: Strategic processing. The

Beginning Reader, Pre-K-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu.

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

Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Walden University (2015). Framework For Literacy Instruction. The Beginning Reader,

Pre-K-3. Retrieved from http://academicanswers.waldenu.edu/a.php?qid=386082.