Analysis of a Literate Environment

Heather MyersWalden University

Dr. Denise LoveEDUC 6706 R-4

December 16, 2011

Creating a Literate Environment

A literate environment is one that encourages readers and writers to use the cognitive skills and strategies they have

acquired to critically evaluate and personally respond to text.

How Do I Create a Literate Environment?

The environment in my classroom encourages students’ literacy in a variety of ways. I have a classroom collection of books that students have unlimited access to. Each student has his or her own private reading and writing spot in the classroom where they spend time daily. Students also participate in Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop daily. Both Workshops typically begin with a mini-lesson that addresses a specific skill or strategy. During Reading Workshop students are then involved in literacy activities that include Silent Reading, Word Work, Response Journals, and Small Group Reading Time. Writer’s Workshop provides students time to draft, write, edit, rewrite, and publish their own stories. Since conferencing is such an important element in Language Arts instruction, I take time every day to meet with individual students so that they can share with me about their reading and writing.

How Do I Create A Literate Environment (continued)

In the video Perspectives On Early Literacy, Dr. Dorothy Strickland points out that students must be active participants in their literacy learning experience, and their development is fed by responsive adults (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). The environment in my classroom, partnered with daily Reading and Writing Workshop, allows me to spend time discussing and sharing with students as they are active participants in their literacy development.

Getting to Know Your Literacy Learners

Highly effective teachers differentiate literacy instruction using research based strategies that meet the needs of individual students in the classroom. For students to be successful in their literacy development, teachers must know the stage of development at which the child is performing academically. It is equally important that the teacher know about the student’s personal interests and understand what motivates that student to want to learn. In the video Getting to Know Your Students, Dr. Janice Almasi reminds us that children need to feel valued. For this to happen, teachers must get to know each student in terms of their interests, motivation, and background knowledge. Knowing the types of things that uniquely represent each student allows us to cater our instruction to the individual (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

How Do I Get To Know Literacy Learners?

There are many ways to get to know students. In addition to spending time talking and sharing with students, I use a variety of reading inventories and motivation assessments to deepen my understanding of each student and guide my instruction. The assessments used for the students I worked with during this course are the following:

* The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey ( McKenna & Kear, 1990)* The Motivation to Read Profile (Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, and Mazzoni,

1996)* Rigby PM Benchmark Kit: A Reading Assessment Resource for Grades K-5 (Nelley & Smith, 2000)

.

How Do I Get To Know Literacy Learners? (continued)

By using these particular assessments, I am able to learn more about how students view themselves as readers and writers. I also gain insight into what motivates and interests these students so that I am able to make their learning experiences engaging.

Selecting Texts

Selecting texts that match individual students’ ability levels and personal interests is an important component of effective literacy instruction. Teachers must provide students with a variety of texts, both in print and digital form, so that the children are exposed to the different ways text can be accessed, chosen, and utilized. Skills and strategies for how to read, use, and comprehend different texts should also be included in one’s literacy instruction. It is important that teachers select interesting texts that are aligned with where a student is performing and show that student the various ways a particular text can enhance their literacy development.

Selecting Texts (continued)

In the video Analyzing and Selecting Texts , Dr. Douglas Hartman introduces a Literacy Matrix that allows teachers to monitor the types of texts they are choosing. The Literacy Matrix works off of continuums that address informational and narrative text as well as whether a book is more semiotic or linguistic in nature. Finally, the Literacy Matrix considers the difficulty level of a text in comparison to the students’ reading ability. These elements of the Literacy Matrix are designed to ensure that students are being exposed to a good balance of texts (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). In order to choose texts that will be engaging and meaningful for a student, teachers should use what they know about the student and choose texts with the Literacy Matrix in mind.

How Do I Select Texts?

Selecting the appropriate texts for individual students is important. The texts that I chose for the students I worked with during this course matched their ability levels and personal interests as determined by the Rigby Assessment and the Motivational Assessments given . Each of the boys in the group had previously expressed an interest in penguins, so I chose one informational text, one narrative text, and one website that all had to do with penguins. Each of these texts was also within the readability range of each of the boys in the group. The informational text chosen was Penguins: Nature’s Coolest Birds by F. Stout. This text had interesting information about penguins as well as wonderful pictures that accompanied the information. The narrative text I chose for the students was A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by S. Kellogg. In this story, the children join the family of Pinkerton the dog as he longs for a penguin of his own to raise. As the author tells the story, he infuses it with a good deal of factual information about penguins. The book also appealed to the boys as there was a sports element and a good deal of humor throughout the story.

How Do I Select Texts? (continued)

The final text I chose to use with the boys was a Penguin Fact Index that came from a website called Kidzone. On this site, the boys were able to read about penguins, see pictures and video footage of penguins, and do some games and activities related to penguins. Using this site showed the boys how the internet can be used to gain information about a particular topic. The texts I chose for the group I worked with were chosen intentionally and carefully. As I chose what texts to use, I referred to the Literacy Matrix to make sure that I was using a balance of texts for the lessons I taught. I also wanted to make sure that I chose texts that the students would find informational as well as engaging. In the video Analyzing and Selecting Texts, Dr. Douglas Hartman reminds us that by using what we know about students, as well as the Literacy Matrix, one is able to choose texts that match the individual learner, their needs, and the goals you set for them to achieve (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Interactive Perspective

The Interactive Perspective is designed to help students learn how to read, comprehend, and write about a variety of texts fluidly and with understanding. This perspective highlights strategic processing skills that cover phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary, also known as the Five Pillars of Literacy Instruction as reviewed in the video The Beginning Reader (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Features of writing are also an integral part of this perspective. This perspective teaches students metacognitive skills that lead them to think about the strategies they need to use to read and comprehend text.

Interactive Perspective(continued)

Instructional methods used in the Interactive Perspective should “address the cognitive and affective needs of students and the demands of the particular text” as explained in the Framework for Literacy Instruction featured in the video Changes in Literacy Education (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). As Dr. Sue Bredekamp points out in the video Developing Language and Literacy, as students advance in their literacy development there are times when skills and strategies need to be taught directly, as well as times that students must initiate the course their learning and understanding will take (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Interactive Perspective(continued)

The Interactive Perspective uses a variety of approaches. Some examples of such approaches are shared reading, guided reading, read aloud, and word study. In the video Interactive Perspective: Strategic Processing the goal of the Interactive Perspective is stated as being to show students how to use the literacy skills and strategies they have acquired to maneuver through text independently (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010)

How Did I Use The Interactive Perspective?

The small group I worked with during this course participated in a learning experience that used the Interactive Perspective. The children in the group are all currently working at the same level of ability, so the lessons were designed having taken that level of ability into consideration. This learning activity spanned over the course of four days. On Day One, we engaged in a type of Guided Reading activity using the narrative text A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by S. Kellogg where we explored the various phonological features of words we encountered in the text. I used observational data, that I collected as the students worked, to assess their fluency, decoding skills, and use of metacognitive strategies as they predicted, read, and commented on the text.

How Did I Use The Interactive Perspective? (continued)

On Day Two, the group used the informational text Penguins: Nature’s Coolest Birds by F. Stout to examine how to use the features of informational text to read and comprehend. We also looked at specific vocabulary associated with penguins. Students were assessed on their ability to gather information about penguins from the text and share facts that they learned from their reading. Day Three found the group using the Kidzone website to gather information about penguins and compare and contrast it to information we already knew about penguins. As students worked, I observed students’ ability to navigate through the website to gather information and made notes on their ability to do so.

How Did I Use The Interactive Perspective (continued)

Day Four, the final day of the learning experience, had students writing an informational paragraph about penguins using the information gathered in Days One through Three. A rubric was used to assess the students’ paragraphs. The rubric specifically looked at the structure of the paragraph and the validity of the facts included in the paragraph. There were a few different goals for this learning experience. One goal was for the students to use cognitive skills and strategies they have in place to decode words they are unfamiliar with. Another goal was for students to broaden their knowledge of effective ways to use text features to gather and comprehend information.

How Did I Use The Interactive Perspective (continued)

A final goal of this learning experience using the Interactive Perspective was for students to write a well composed paragraph that exhibited their comprehension of a particular topic. In the video Interactive Perspective: Read Aloud, we are reminded that the Interactive Perspective provides teachers with opportunities to use a variety of research based strategies within their instruction (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). The variety of instructional methods used during these lessons were intended to help these students advance in their literacy development.

Critical Perspective

The Critical Perspective examines the viewpoint that the reader has toward a particular text. According to the Framework for Literacy Instruction, the Critical Perspective allows students to “judge, evaluate, and think critically about text”. Kellie Molden summarizes the Critical Perspective in the article Critical Literacy, The Right Answer For The Reading Classroom: Strategies To Move Beyond Comprehension For Reading Improvement when she points out that the Critical Perspective encourages the reader to reflect on the text and allow themselves to be changed as a result of that text. Molden also challenges readers to use that reflection of the text to act and react within the world around us (2007).

How Did I Use The Critical Perspective?

I designed a learning experience that used the Critical Perspective for the group I was working with during this course. In this lesson we used the narrative text A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by S. Kellogg. The group is very familiar with this text which means that we did not have to focus on skills covered under the Five Pillars of Literacy Instruction as reviewed in the video The Beginning Reader (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Instead, we will be able to focus solely on how to think critically about a text. In the lesson, the students and I began with a type of Grand Conversation as described in Gail Tompkins book Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (2010). During this time we shared our opinions about various features of this particular text. We then moved into a form of Question-Answer- Relationship (Tompkins, 2010) activity where I asked the children specific questions about the text and they each shared their thoughts and judgments about what I was asking.

How Did I Use The Critical Perspective? (continued)

After the students shared and debated their critical

evaluations of this text, we closed the lesson reviewing the importance of using the Critical Perspective when they read. I assessed the students’ ability to think critically about a text based on observational notes that I made. In the video Critical Perspective, Dr. Janice Almasi explains the importance of teaching children to use the Critical Perspective as they read. Dr. Almasi tells us that teaching students to think this way is a key component of their literacy development. The critical examination of text causes the reader to consider, in depth, the meaning of the text and how it affects them and the world around them (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

Response Perspective

The Response Perspective allows students to personally respond to text. Within this perspective, students are looking for ways that they connected to the text on a personal level. The connections may have to do with other texts they have read, things that are going on in the world around them, or things that have happened to them personally that allow them to identify closely with a particular text. In the video Response Perspective Dr. Janice Almasi stresses the importance of giving students opportunities to make personal connections with texts and the characters or subject matter within them. These connections made within the Response Perspective can make life changing impressions on a reader (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

How Did I Use The Response Perspective?

The final lesson that I did with the group I had been working with during this course involved the Response Perspective. Responding to text is something that we do in class often. Part of the students’ Reader’s Workshop deals with reader response activities, so the Response Perspective is one that this group is very familiar with. In this response lesson, the group was asked to recall the book A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by S. Kellogg and think specifically about Pinkerton and his thoughts and feelings throughout the book. Together we went through the text page by page and the children shared their ideas about what Pinkerton was thinking and feeling. I then asked the students if they could identify with any of Pinkerton’s thoughts and emotions. The children were given time to share personal connections they were making to Pinkerton and the different emotions he felt as they story was told.

How Did I Use The Response Perspective? (continued)

At the close of the lesson, I told the students that they were going to write their personal responses to the text. Since this group of students sometimes has difficulty getting started with their writing, I gave them a list of response prompts to choose from. Once each child chose a prompt, a personal response to the text was written. I assessed the children’s ability to make personal connections to a given text based on observational notes made throughout our discussion and based on the personal responses that were written.

Promoting Literacy Development

Highly effective teachers create environments where students are surrounded by literacy opportunities. These teachers use instructional methods that employ the Interactive, Critical, and Response Perspectives to enhance student learning. It is important that teachers take time to get to know their students both academically and personally as this knowledge will play a major role in the texts that are selected for each child’s learning experiences. In the video Perspectives on Literacy Learning teachers are reminded that our main goals should be to teach children how to read, how to think while they are reading, and how to respond to the text in ways that represent what the text means to them and who they are (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

How Do I Promote Literacy? In my classroom, I promote literacy in many different ways.

Through my instructional practices, I use research based approaches to create learning experiences that are engaging and meaningful in terms of students’ literacy development. The time that we spend in Reading and Writing Workshop provides independent and shared literacy experiences for the students. Also, being able to conference with students one on one allows me to not only assess their growth academically; but, it gives me insight into their interests and the things that motivate them to want to learn. As Dr. Dorothy Strickland reminds us in the video Perspectives on Early Literacy (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010), a large part of a child’s literacy development is building a sense of who they are and how they fit in the world. I can think of no greater gift than to know that I contributed to a child’s realization that they are valued and important.

ReferencesGambrell, L.B., Palmer, B.M., Codling, R.M., & Mazzoni, S.A. (1996). Assessing

motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49(7), 518-533.Kellog, S. (2001). A penguin pup for Pinkerton. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young

Readers.Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Analyzing and selecting

texts {Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Changes in literacy

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{Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Developing language and

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Strategic processing Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Perspectives on early literacy {Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

References (continued)

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Perspectives on literacy learning {Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Response perspective {Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). The beginning reader {Webcast}. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.

McKenna, M.C. & Kear, D.J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43 (9), 626-639.

Nelley, E., Smith, A. (2000). Rigby PM benchmark kit: A reading assessment resource for grades K-5. Melbourne, Australia: Nelson.

Penguin Fact Index. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kidzone.ws/animals/penguins/facts.htm.

Stout, F. (2009). Penguins: Nature’s coolest birds. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group.

Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.