2. Getting to Know Your Literacy Learner. Consistent assessment is one of the most vital means of getting to know your literacy learners. Assessment should focus on both the cognitive and non-cognitive areas. Many tools are available to complete this task. Assessments tools can be both commercially and teacher created. Utilizing these allowed me to know my learners and plan for their needs
3. What researchers say? Afflerbach (2007) states that assessment provide us with the means to assess and evaluate many of the diverse aspects of students’ reading performance and growth and provide information related to each of the five targeted areas.
4. Selecting Texts Students should be exposed to a variety of texts-informational, semiotic, narrative and linguistic. As a result of conducting assessments, I learned about my students literacy levels, their attributions, interests and what texts appeal to them. Readability and text structure must be considered in the selection as well.
5. .What researchers say ? Young children need multiple experiences with informational texts. Through quality instruction that focuses on the necessary skills, children can successfully navigate through the difficulties associated with such materials ( Hall & Sabey, 2007).
6. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective Interactive perspective is one of three aspects of the Framework of literacy learning. It focuses mainly on teaching students how to read. This perspective helped to improve my teaching of reading instruction. Some strategies I learned that aided my instruction were read alouds, grand conversations and word walls.
7. The expert’s view Tompkins (2010) noted that because word recognition is so important in beginning reading, teachers should assess children’s developing word recognition regularly. Laureate education, Inc. (2009) shared that it is important to teach children to read to enable them to grow into lifelong learners.
8. Critical and Response Perspectives These two perspectives focuses on how students understand the text, what they learned from it and the response to what they read. Critical perspective- student try to find out the author’s perspective, the story behind the text. Response perspective- how do students feel about the text. Response can take on many forms. For example, artistic creations, dramatic performances, even silence.
9. Researchers view Since response is transformational, we must know what books move students and provide space for students to respond and take risks (Laureate Education, Inc. 2009).
10. References Afflerbach, P. (2007). Understanding and using reading assessment K-12. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Hall,K. & Sabey, B. (December, 2007). Focus on the facts: using informational text effectively in early elementary classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal. 35(3). 261-268. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive producer) (2009b) Perspectives on literacy learning. [Motion picture]. The beginning reader Pre K-3. Baltimore MD: Author Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy in the 21st century. A balanced approach. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
