LITERATE ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

MICHELE MORGAN

WALDEN UNIVERSITY

DR. CASEY STOLL

EDUC - 6706R - 7

A LITERATE ENVIRONMENT:

“Literacy is a process that begins in infancy and

continues into adulthood, if not throughout life”

(Tompkins, 2010, p.111)

Literacy is “to carry out the complex tasks using

reading and writing related to the world or work

and to life outside the school”.(International

Reading Association and the National Council

of Teachers of English, 1989, p.36).

Effective teacher need to understand how

students learn and support their learning styles

by creating a community of learners and adopt

a balanced approach.

ESSENTIALS OF A LITERATE ENVIRONMENT:

• Getting to Know Literacy Learners

• Selecting Texts

• Literacy Instruction

• Interactive Perspective

Critical Perspective

Response Perspective

GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS:

The more you know about your

students, the better you will be

able to connect to them and

have a profound impact upon

them (Laureate Education,

2010b).

GETTING TO KNOWLITERACY LEARNERS (CONTINUED)

• Non-cognitive assessments

help teachers learn about a

student’s motivations, self

concept, interest, and

attitudes (Afflerbach, 2007).

Non-Cognitive Assessments Include:

• Interest Surveys: Elementary Reading

Attitudes (McKenna & Kear 1990).

• Student interviews

• Teacher observations

• Attributions (Afflerbach, 2007).

GETTING TO KNOWLITERACY LEARNERS (CONTINUED)

• Cognitive assessments focus on

skills and strategies used by a

student as they develop and

grow as a reader (Afflerbach,

2007).

Cognitive Assessments Include:

• Reading Inventories

• Developmental Reading

Assessments (DRA)

• Running Record

GETTING TO KNOW LITERACYLEARNERS (CONTINUED)

Literacy is not just a process

involving word recognition,

comprehension, fluency, and

motivation.

Reading is making meaning from

print. In order to do so, we must

identify the words through

recognition and construct a way

to understand them through

comprehension.

SELECTING TEXT:

• Narrative- Fictional and

nonfictional stories/read a louds

• Linguistic- Word oriented

• Informational- Nonfiction texts

with it’s own features and

format

• Semiotic-Text communicates

messages without/less words

(Laureate Education, Inc,. 2010a)

SELECTING TEXT CONTINUED:

The Literacy Matrix is used to make sure

that teachers have a balance of text in their

classroom. (Laureate Education, 2010c).

By Utilizing the Matrix I was able to select

texts my students could read and enjoy at

and above their independent level.

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle

“Butterflies and Moths” by Nic Bishop

“The Monarch Butterflies Beautiful But

Poisonous” by Kelly Hashway

LITERACY LESSON: INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Interactive perspective teaches students how to read and be

strategic processors and thinkers (Laureate Education Inc.,

2010e)

• Interactive Perspective:

• Phonemic awareness

• Phonics

• Vocabulary

• Fluency

• Comprehension

INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE CONTINUED:

“The word metacognition is often defined as “thinking about your own

thinking,” but more accurately, it refers to a sophisticated level of

thinking that students use to actively control their thinking (Tompkins,

2010 p. 12).

Throughout this lesson, I have been able to promote my students' strategic processing

and metacognition by allowing them to monitor and direct their own progress, asking

questions such as

“What might happen next?,”

“Is this what I thought would occur?,”

“What else could happen?”

INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE CONTINUED:

• The effectiveness of the lesson based

on specific data collected showed that

the students have utilized their prior

knowledge of the lesson to help expand

their learning.

• The KWL Chart shows their overall

learning through multiple stages. Word

recognition and comprehension were

assessed through both projects and

discussions.

• Metacognition encompasses the act of

thinking about thinking, the inner voice

that helps one solve problems,

strategize, and self-evaluate

performance this can be seen through

the great classroom discussion and

beautifully crafted butterflies and

stories.

CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES:

• Response Perspective

• Discuss

• Interpret

• Connect

• Critical Perspective

• Examine

• Evaluate

• Judge

LITERACY LESSON: CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES CONTINUED: • Dr. Almasi discussed how it is important to

factor in the author’s perspective when

reading it. (Laureate Education, 2010a).

• Dr. Almasi explains that literature has the

power to transform the reader through the

literacy experience.

• This transformation empowers students

with the ability to read, research and

engage text in life changing ways (Laureate

Education, 2010b).

• Students need to connect with texts in life

changing ways and learning occurs when

students are given opportunities to share

their feelings and emotions about the text

they have read (Laureate Education, Inc.).

CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES CONTINUED:

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is a great choice, after

reading a section the students had to discuss what they read as

well as find evidence to support their thinking.

One of the discussions focused on how long it takes to go from a

hatched egg to a butterfly?

The discussion consisted of how it took more than 3 weeks.

The caterpillar ate for one week, and then “he stayed inside his

cocoon for more than two weeks.”

Another area of critical thinking that was utilized was which

foods gave him a stomach ache and which foods did not?

The students were given two charts labeled accordingly, they

were also given pictures of foods they had to color and place

in the right sections of the appropriate chart.

CONCLUSION: All three perspectives are necessary to produce well rounded readers who can

read effectively, want to read, and are excited to read and think critically (Laureate, 2009).

Literacy learning objectives for these students related to critical thinking about a text and responding to text included literal, inferential meanings, figurative language, metaphors, and idioms.

We also discussed how the organization of the text contributes to the meaning.

The author was able to help us to understand what certain vocabulary words mean.

The students had to go back into the text and show where in the book they could find the specific answers.

We then discussed the author’s purpose including the genre and the point of view the story was told in.

The students had to discuss who told the story and who was not represented in

CONCLUSION CONTINUED:• Monitoring student progress and support was

accomplished by collecting data through

observation and student work.

• Student’s created their own stories by utilizing

what they have learned from the books and

materials.

• Their stories included words such as first, next,

and finally.

• They were also required to provide supporting

details and evidence to back up their ideas and

positions.

• The effectiveness of the lesson showed that the

students have utilized their prior knowledge of the

lesson to help expand their learning.

• The overall lesson was a great success offering

text that both fit and challenged all students as well

as projects and assignments that maintained

everyone’s interest.

• By taking the time to get to know our

students, interests, building a

relationship, and providing a safe

learning environment we are finding

ways to motivate, putting them on a

path to becoming a successful reader

(Afflerbach, 2012).

REFERENCES:• Afflerbach,P. (2007).Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K-12. Newark,DE: InternationalReading

Association,

• Bishop, N. (2009). Butterflies and moths. New York, NY: Scholastic Nonfiction.

• Campbell, Linda and Campbell, Bruce. Mindful Learning: 101 Proven Strategies for Teacher and Student

Success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2008.

• Carle, E. (1979). The very hungry caterpillar. New York : Collins Publishers.

• Costa, Arthur L. The School as a Home for the Mind. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2007.

• Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B., Codling, R., & Mazzoni, S. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. Reading Teacher,

49(7), 518.

• Gambrell, L. B., & Morrow, L. M. (n.d.). Creating motivating contexts for literacy learning. In L. Baker, P.

Afflerbach, & D. Reinking (Eds.), Developing engaged readers in home and school communities. Hillsdale, NJ:

Erlbaum

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Foundations of reading and literacy: Motivation.

Baltimore: Author Dr. Linda Gambrell

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.a). Getting to know your students. [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://class.waldenu.edu

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.b). Literacy autobiographies. [Video file]. Retrieved from

REFERENCES CONTINUED:• Laureate Education, Inc.( 2010). Analyzing and Selecting Text. [Video webcast]. In The

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

• Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Informational Text in the Early Years. [Video webcast]. In The

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

• Laureate Education, Inc. (2012). Perspectives on literacy learning. [Webcast]. In The

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

• http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/reading-comp/3rd-monarch

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer) (2012). Strategic processing [Video webcast]. Retrieved

from http//www.courseurl.com

• Laureate Education Inc. (Producer). (2010). Virtual Field Experience: strategic processing

[Video Webcast]. In The Beginning Reader PreK-3.

• Tanner, K. D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. Cell Biology Education—Life

Sciences Education, 11 (Summer), 113-120.

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

Allyn & Bacon.