Literate Environment Analysis PresentationBy Diana M. Villanueva

EDUC 6706 The Beginning Reader Pre K-3

Dr. Martha Moore

Getting to know literacy learnersTeachers should conduct activities to get to know the students and use this data to select appropriate text to get students interested in reading (Laureate Education, n.d.).

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Getting to know your students. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Getting to know literacy learners

• Cognitive and non-cognitive assessments should be used to get to know students

• I used Fountas and Pinnell (Fountas and Pinnell, 2008) as a cognitive assessment for my students. This data helped me find my students’ Instructional Reading level.

• As a non-cognitive assessment I used Motivation to Read Profile (Gambrell, Palmer, Codling & Mazzoni, 1996). This assessment allowed me to collect data on my students’ interest.

Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (2008) Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Guide 2: A Guide to Assessment System 2. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Gambrell, L.B., Palmer, B.M., Codling, R.M., & Mazzoni, S.A. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49(7), 518-533. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Getting to know literacy learnersThese assessments helped me get to know my students at a deeper level. It is important to know both the students’ instructional level and what motivates them to read. Then meaningful reading instruction can occur.

Selecting Texts

• It is important to diversify text for instruction.

• Students should be exposed to text along different areas of the Literacy Matrix (Laureate Education, n.d.).

• Not only should the text be varied between narrative and informational, but semiotic and linguistic as well.

• Semiotic text uses a variety of graphic features to help convey meaning, while linguistic text is more word oriented (Laureate Education,n.d.)

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Analyzing and Selecting Text. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Linguistic Narrative

Linguistic Informational

Semiotic Narrative

Semiotic Narrative

Selecting Texts• Lack of exposure to a variety of text, specifically expository (information) text has

led to students experiencing what is called the fourth grade slump.

• The fourth grade slump is when students’ reading abilities begin to decline (Laureate Education, n.d.)

• In fact, research has shown most early education teachers spend a total of 3.2 minutes on expository text all year (Laureate Education, n.d.)

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Informational text in early years. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Selecting Text

• Based on the data I collected, I learned my group if students where interested in animals.

• I chose a variety of texts from various quadrants on the Literacy Matrix (Laureate Education, n.d.).

• This resulted in deep, meaningful instruction.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Analyzing and Selecting Text. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Texts

• Big Talkers

• Stellaluna

• The Girl Who Loved Spiders

Cannon, J., (1993). Stellaluna. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Retrieved from www.storylineonline.net

National Geographic for Kids. (2001) Big Talkers. Retrieved from http://www.randolph.k12.nc.us/schools/franklin/Documents/Talkers.pdf

Schreck, K.H., (2011). The girl who loved spiders. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Ed.) Paths to Discovery (pp. 4-11). Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Interactive PerspectiveThe Interactive Perspective of literacy is about teaching readers to be literate learners (Laureate Education, n.d.). Students need to know multiple reading strategies and when to use them. The strategies are intended to help them process and comprehend text. It is up to the students to know when, and if, they will use a strategy if something is unclear. Children need to metacognitive and independently process text (Laureate Education, n.d.)

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Interactive Perspective and Strategic Processing. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Interactive PerspectiveI used the following strategies to promote the Interactive Perspective

• Word Study

• Students used what they know about words, affixes and root words to break down a word to derive its meaning (Laureate Education, n.d.). Once the words were studied, we read the article and students where not hindered by a large amount of unknown words. Students were reminded of the strategy as they came across other unknown words.

• Think- Alouds

• Think-Alouds allow a student to vocalize and write down their thoughts as they read (Tompkins, 2010). The students used post-it notes to write down any thoughts or questions that popped into their brain as they read. This strategy helps the student make meaningful connections to the text and helps with comprehension.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Developmental Word Knowledge. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

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

Interactive Perspective

Strategies used (cont’d)

• Double entry journals – these journals allow students to choose interesting pieces of text and respond in journal form what they were thinking (Tompkins, 2010). This strategy is similar to Think-Alouds but has the added benefit of students writing to respond to reading. The post-it notes do not have complete sentences.

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

Critical and Response Perspective

• The Critical Perspective of literacy instruction closely examines and analyzes text from multiple perspectives (Laureate Education, n.d.a.). The strategy I used to satisfy this perspective is character response journals. Character response journals require students to respond to pre-determined prompts taking the role of character from the story (Laureate Education, n.d.b.).

• The students responded as Templeton from Charlotte’s Web (White, 1952). This activity produced a large amount of meaningful talk between students. Their responses to the prompts enabled students to see the text through an entirely new pair of eyes. This strategy created meaningful reflection.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.a.). Critical Perspective. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.b.). Response perspective: Reading-writing connection. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

White, E.B. (1952). Charlotte’s Web. N.Y., N.Y.: Harper & Row Publishers

Critical and Response Perspective

• The Response Perspective allows students to respond to the text in a variety of ways (Laureate Education, n.d.)

• The strategies we have been using throughout the lessons all have students responding to text. The responses can be verbal, written or just thinking.

• During instruction, I gave students time to talk about the text and use the Grand Conversation strategy (Tompkins, 2010). The conversations where meaningful and students were comparing the text and characters to their own lives and other texts.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Perspective on Literacy Learning. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

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

Conclusion

• Using everything I have learned throughout the course provided me the necessary tools to create an effective literate environment.

QuestionsWhat impact 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?