Literate Environment Analysis

Lorraine Knifley

Walden University

Dr. Phyllis P. McCully

EDUC 6706: The Beginning Reader, PreK-3

Creating a Literate Environment

Getting to Know Literacy Learners, P-3 Non-Cognitive Assessments

Cognitive Assessments

Selecting Texts

Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective

Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives

Getting to Know Literacy Learners, P-3

The Framework for Literacy Instruction outlines that teachers need to consider the learners, texts, and instructional practices when planning and creating literacy lessons. I begin each school year getting to know my students personally and academically by “using a variety of informal and formal assessments to determine areas of strength and need in literacy development” (Framework for Literacy Instruction, 2013).

Non-Cognitive Assessments: Motivation to Read Profile

Share mouse bags After reading Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes on the first day of

school the students made a mouse bag and filled it with 3-5 items from home to share with the class so we could all get to know each other.

The personal information that I gather in the first few weeks of school will help me in selecting texts that my students are interested in.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners, P-3

Cognitive Assessments: Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Stage 1 kit - to determine guided

reading level

Reading and writing of 100 High Frequency Words (HFW) for 1st grade and 100 (HFW) for 2nd grade

Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA)

DIBLES Next

ELA writing assessment

BOCES Regional Test for ELA and math.

Running Records

The data that I receive from the cognitive assessments will help me drive my literacy instruction throughout the school year.

Instructional Level Expectations for Reading

Selecting TextsLiteracy Matrix

Dr. Hartman suggest that teachers plot the text they are using on the Literacy Matrix to ensure that we are providing a balance of texts to meet the student

needs and the goal of the unit (Laureate, 2010).

The Common Core Learning Standards want teachers to have a balanced selection(50/50) of fiction and non-fiction text. The literacy matrix a useful tool to help me make the best text selection to meet my students needs.

Linguistic

Narrative Informational

Semiotic

Analyzing and Selecting Text

When choosing texts Dr. Almasi states that there are difficulty considerations to keep in mind:

Readability/difficulty

Concept density/text length

Text structure

Poetic/rhyme

Font size

Visual supports (Laureate, 2010)

These considerations are helpful for me when I am selecting interactive read alouds for a lesson.

Literacy Lesson:Interactive Perspective

Interactive Processing:

Students need to learn about schema and how to activate it. Schema is using what you already know to help you make sense of a text (Laureate, 2010c) and it can help students be strategic processors.

During guided reading instruction I tell students ”When you come across words that you don’t know when you are reading you need to use the strategies that your reading teachers and I have taught you. One of the first things that you all know is that every vowel makes two sounds. They make a long and a short sound. Try both vowel sounds to help you make sense of the word.”

I am seeing a shift in my students responses towards higher level thinking. They are using the term schema correctly and making connections to prior learning.

Interactive Perspective

Literacy Lesson:Critical Perspective

A close reading engages students in critically thinking about the text and what the authors’ purpose was for writing the text, and why the author chose the words and the characters they used in the story (Laureate, 2010a).

(RL.2.4) Students will be able to describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliterations, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in the story, poem or song.

Literacy Lesson:Critical Perspective cont…

We need to teach the students how to be detectives and go back into the text to find evidence about the objective we are teaching to.

I read When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant and projected onto the Smart Board. I thought that I helped my students become more metacognitive with how I introduced the lesson linking the title of the book back to the communities unit the students learned about earlier in the year and activating their schema (Laureate, 2010c) about other places where they see or hear repeated phrases being used.

Literacy Lesson:Response Perspective

I want my students to understand how important the response perspective is. By giving the students time to think about this statement (Describe how words and phrases in When I was Young in the Mountains supply meaning in a story.) I was trying to stress to the students that I want their thoughts to have meaning and I really wanted them to think about why the author used the words and phrases that she did.

Student Responses: Tim – “The author might want us to remember it.”

Alyssa – “It was nice being in the mountains.”

Robyn – “It was important to her!”

Presentation Feedback

What insights did you gain about literacy and literacy instruction from viewing this presentation?

How might the information presented change your literacy practice 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 Fountas, L & Pinnell, G. (2012) Instructional level expectations for reading,

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Framework for Literacy Instruction. (2013, November 2). Retrieved from Walden University website:https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?t

ab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexe cute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4065554_1%2 6url%3D

Gambrell, Linda B., And Others. (1995). Assessing motivation to read. instructional resource no.14. National Reading Research Center, Athens GA

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Analyzing and selecting text. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_ group_id=_2_1&url=% 2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3470143_1%26url%3D

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Critical perspective. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=% 2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3470143_1%26url%3D

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Virtual field experience: strategic processing. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=% 2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3470143_1%26url%3D