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Literate Environnent Analysis

By: Elizabeth BrownEDUC-6706 The Beginning Reader PreK-3

Instructor: Donna Bialach

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Getting to Know Literacy Learners (PreK-3)

• This research practice helped me to realize just how important it is for teachers to get to know their students, what interests them, and what motivates them. The better you know your students, the better you can connect them with texts that impact them in profound ways (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).

• All people have experiences that shape how they see each other as literate beings (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). Everyone has a literacy autobiography, whether it is a negative or positive one.

• I now understand the importance of knowing my students literacy autobiographies. It will give me an insight to what is going on in their mind. I will have better understanding of why certain student’s love reading, or why other students do not have much motivation to read.

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• It is also important to get to know the students cultural background and what that particular child is interested in. This way we will be able to help increase a student’s motivation to read. If the book is one about something a student is interested in, it will be a more joyful read for them.

• Through this research practice, I learned different tools that will help me gather data and gain important insights about my students literacy development, both cognitively and non-cognitively.

• I learned about two assessments that I can use in my classroom to gather this vital information about the students. For the cognitive assessment I used an oral reading assessment, and for the non-cognitive assessment I learned about a new assessment called “Me Stew”.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners (PreK-3)

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“Me Stew”1.Give the students a paper bag and let them take it home.2.At home, the students choose a few items that they love and are very important to them.3.These items have to fit inside the paper bag.4.The students bring their bags to school the next day.5.They share their bags and the student and teacher talk about why these items are important to the students .6.The teacher can then take this information and find books that are of interest to that particular child (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).

**I love this activity and will use it for years to come!! Because of this, I now have more tools in my literacy instruction toolkit, and I am able to influence my students' literacy in an even more meaningful way.**

Getting to Know Literacy Learners (PreK-3)

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References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). LiteracyAutobiographies. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011b). Getting to know yourstudents [Webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners (PreK-3)

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Selecting Texts

• Through this practice, I learned ways that I can select appropriate and engaging texts for my students. I now know how to look at a wide range of texts from linguistic to semiotic and from narrative to informational, and then how this will allow a teacher to consider a variety of literacy experiences to best suit their students’ needs and interests. Teachers need to select texts with their students reading levels and interests, and their own educational goals in mind.

• There is a critical period in children’s reading development where they go from learning to read to reading to learn (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Because of this, it is so important that teachers are able to select the very best texts that will be able to meet the needs of their students.

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Selecting Texts

• I now realize that there are many different aspects teachers need to take into consideration before selecting texts for their students. Some of these include readability, the length of the text, the size of the text, and the text structure (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This is very useful in creating a literate environment. I will now be able to select the appropriate texts for my students needs and my teaching goals.

• I also learned about the literacy matrix, and how to use this matrix to determine how a stories narrative is communicated.

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Literacy matrix:

* The literacy matrix is a 2 digital construct for analyzing and selecting texts (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Narrative Informational

Linguistic

Semiotic

Examples: A text with no illustrations at all tells a story that is linguistic and narrative (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). On the other hand, a text that is made up of only pictures is semiotic and narrative (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

**Both of these are narrative texts, yet the way the narrative is communicated differs.

Selecting Texts

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Selecting Texts

Texts I chose: First grade beginning readers

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References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Analyzing and selectingtext. [Webcast]. The beginning reader, preK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Selecting Texts

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Literacy Lesson: “Interactive Perspective”

• Through this practice, I learned many strategies for the interactive perspective that will help me to create a literate classroom. Some of these strategies include read alouds, shared reading, and word studies.

• The interactive perspective teaches students different strategies that they can use while learning how to read such as chunks, decoding words, rhyming, blends, ect.

• The goal of the Interactive Perspective of literacy instruction is not only to teach students how to read, but how to become strategic processors as well (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010)

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Literacy Lesson: “Interactive Perspective”

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Perspectives on LiteracyLearning.[Webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.

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Literacy Lesson: “Critical and Response Perspectives

• This practice has helped me to create a literate environment by opening my eyes to new perspectives that can be used in the classroom, and how to teach them. I realize that all of these perspectives have to be used in order to have a literate environment. I have learned a great deal about both of these perspectives.

• The critical perspective teaches students how to examine a text, think critically about it, and judge that text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). The ability to think critically about text is essential (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). The students will be involved in examining who created the text, what perspective the author might have had, what ethnicity, race, gender, or social status the author might have had and how you can tell, etc..

• When we examine a text critically, we begin to think more deeply about a text and that is vitally important (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a).

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Literacy Lesson: “Critical and Response Perspectives

• The response perspective gives students space to experience the text, and to respond to the text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). Teachers need to provide time for the students to experience the text once they are finished reading. This can be done through, journaling, dramatic response, artistic interpretation, quiet time to respond, etc.

• Depending on the student, text, and circumstance, we need to change the perspective to create well rounded readers who are motivated to read (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).

• When teaching students to read we need to teach them how to read, but also what to do with their reading (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).

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Literacy Lesson: “Critical and Response Perspectives

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a).Critical Perspective. [WebCast]. The beginning reader, preK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Perspectives onLiteracy Learning.[Webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.