1. Literate Environment Analysis
Cynthia K. Newman
Walden University
Dr. Abigayle Barton
The Beginning Reader, PreK-3, EDUC 6706
October 21, 2012

2. Literacy
―Learning to read and write is critical to a child’s
success in school and later in life. One of the best
predictors of whether a child will function
competently in school and go on to contribute
actively in our increasingly literate society is the
level to which the child progresses in reading and
writing.‖
(National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998, p.30)

3. Getting to Know Literacy Learners, P-3
• Teachers need to know their students as individuals.
• Teachers must identify where individual students are along the
reading continuum in regards to both the affective and cognitive
aspects of literacy learning.
• Assessment is mandatory.
 Allows the teacher to understand and appreciate the reading
challenges that students face
 Shows the diverse growth that students experience
 Must assess both the cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of reading
(Afflerbach, 2012)

4. Cognitive Aspects
• Assessment of the cognitive • Cognitive Assessment Tools Include:
 Running records
aspects of literacy affords  Observation
teachers the opportunity to  Anecdotal Records
make instructional decisions.  Informal Reading Inventories
 Checklist
• Teachers:
When asked to assess the cognitive aspects
 determine students’ reading of reading with my small group of students, I
levels chose to utilize Running Records. Running
 monitor student progress Records are effective because they are
authentic. Students were asked to read
 diagnose students’ aloud from a book they were already reading
strengths and weaknesses individually. Taking and then analyzing
running records on my students allowed me
to identify the strategies and skills these
students use to decode words and construct
meaning.

5. Non-cognitive Aspects
• There are 5 basic non-cognitive • Non-cognitive assessments include:
characteristics that contribute to  Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
reading success: (McKenna & Kear, 1990)
 A student’s motivation towards
 Conversational Interview
reading
(Gambrell et al., 1996)
 A reader’s self-concept
 Motivation to Read Profile
 A reader’s attitude
 A reader’s interest  Reading Self-Concept Scale
 A reader’s attributions  Reading Interest Inventory
(Afflerbach, 2007) (Afflerbach, 2007)
• When asked to assess the non-
Successful readers possess
cognitive aspects of reading with my
positive attitudes towards reading;
they see reading as something small group of students, I chose to
worth doing. Students who learn to utilize the Elementary Reading
read but choose not to after they Attitude Survey and the
leave school have failed to realize Conversational Interview. Through
the full value of reading. these two assessments, I was able to
(Afflerbach, 2007)
gain an authentic understanding of
my students’ attitudes toward
reading. I gained an appreciation for
their likes, dislikes, self-concept, and
attitudes toward reading in addition to
their preferences for texts.

6. Motivation is Important
Motivation contributes to increased reading which
in turn contributes to increased reading
achievement!
―Motivated readers are willing to persevere when
reading is challenging, they choose to read in the
face of attractive alternatives, and the positive
motivation sets student readers up to do more
reading.‖
(Afflerbach, 2007, p.177)

7. Selecting Texts
• Text structures, types, genres, and difficulty levels should match
each individual student along with the literacy goals and
objectives.
• Teachers must expose students to a variety of texts and
structures. The Literacy Matrix provides a visual aid to help
teachers determine if they are offering a fair representation of
text. (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a)

8. Selecting Text continued
• Based on the cognitive and non-cognitive assessments given to
my students, I chose to use the following texts:
 True or False Pets by Melvin and Gilda Berger
 Catastrophe by Kenn Nesbitt
 Dolphins on the Sand by Jim Arnosky
• The identified texts will be used to supplement the literacy
program as they:
 are engaging
 meet the literacy goals established for my students
 provide intrinsic motivation for my students
 Offer a fair representation of text within the Literacy Matrix

9. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
• Interactive Perspective:
 Teaching students to read and write accurately, fluently, and with comprehension
 Teaching students to be strategic and metacognitive readers and writers
• Ultimate goal:
 Teach children how to be literate learners who can navigate the textual world
independently
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b)
• Strategic processing
 involves students being metacognitive about strategy use
 students are aware of how they plan to attack a text
 choose the best and most efficient strategy
 setting purposes, making predictions, visualizing, and making sense of text
 being reflective and self-regulating
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b)

10. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective continued
• Help students develop language and literacy by:
 Reading aloud to students
 Providing fiction and non-fiction books
 Extending students’ vocabulary
 Engage in “extended discourse” with students
 Providing a print-rich environment
 Infusing literacy throughout the curriculum
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2011c)
• My goal through my Interactive Perspective literacy lesson was to promote
students’ independent use of reading strategies and skills. Based on the
assessments given, I chose to plan and implement a lesson on the use of
visualization and phonics instruction. By teaching my students how to use
visualization while reading, I have allowed my students to add that strategy to their
list of choices of strategies when deciding on how to attack a text for
comprehension. Through the Making Words activity, students were focused on
phonics instruction and the importance of paying attention to every letter in a word
when decoding. After teaching my students such strategies, they are then able to
use deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify their efforts to decode
text, understand words, and construct meaning of text. (Afflerbach, Pearson & Paris, 2008)

11. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives
• Critical Perspective:
 Teaching students to judge, evaluate, and think critically about text
 Teaching students to examine texts from multiple perspectives, critically evaluate text, and
judge validity of text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011d)
• Critical Literacy:
 Promotes reflection, transformation, and action
 Encourages readers to question and dispute
 Asks the reader to see underneath, behind, and beyond the text
(Molden, 2007)
• Response Perspective:
 Providing opportunities for students to read, react, and respond to text in meaningful ways
 Allowing students to personally and emotionally connect with texts
 Encouraging students to transact with the text allows students to learn to appreciate the
power of literature (Durand, Howell, Schumacher & Sutton, 2008)

12. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response Perspectives continued
• Critical Perspective Strategies:
 Bookmark Strategy
 Story Mapping/ Story Reporting
 Connection Stems
 Juxtapositioning (Molden, 2007)
• Response Perspective Strategies:
 Interactive Read-Alouds
 Subtext Strategy
 Reader Response (Durand et al., 2008; Clyde, 2003)
• My goal through my Critical and Response Perspective literacy lessons was to help students
foster a critical stance by teaching my students how to think critically about a text in addition to
providing opportunities for students to read, react, and formulate a personal response to text. I
utilized the bookmark technique (Molden, 2007) through an Interactive Read-Aloud lesson.
Purpose was established for reading as students were expected to answer the four identified
critical response questions on their bookmarks. Students were able to effectively analyze the
text and think critically during and after the read-aloud. Students were then asked to participate
in the Subtext Strategy (Clyde, 2003). This strategy invited students to feel the feelings of
characters with life experiences different than their own. This strategy was effective in allowing
my students to formulate a personal response to the text. Use of the Subtext Strategy in
conjunction with a variety of texts sets up the possibility that students might become kinder,
more compassionate adults who are able to empathize with and appreciate the perspectives of
others.
(Clyde, 2003)

13. Implications for Instruction
A teacher’s goal is to provide quality literacy instruction so that all students may thrive
and grow as readers and writers. The Framework for Literacy Instruction graphic
organizer can be utilized while designing such literacy lessons for students. It can be
used as a guidance tool to help ensure that teachers are in fact addressing the most
important literacy components within classroom instruction. As teachers face questions
that need answers and instructional problems that need solving, they may refer to the
Framework for guidance. Collaboration among colleagues enhances literacy
instruction for a greater number of students within a single school building.
Collaboration provides the decision-making and problem-solving environment
necessary to support long term change (Chou, 2011). Working together while utilizing
the Framework guarantees teachers the best chance they have to critique their
programs and instruction in order to provide literacy instruction that lasts a lifetime.
(Chou, 2011)

14. Framework for Literacy Instruction
Learners Texts Instructional Practices
Affective and cognitive aspects Text structures, types, genres, Developmentally appropriate
of literacy learning and difficulty levels matched to research-based practices used
literacy learners and literacy with appropriate texts to
goals and objectives facilitate affective and cognitive
aspects of literacy development
in all learners
Interactive Perspective Use a variety of informal and Determine texts of the Use instructional methods that
Reading and writing accurately, formal assessments to appropriate types and levels of address the cognitive and
fluently, and with determine areas of strength and difficulty to meet literacy goals affective needs of students and
comprehension need in literacy development. and objectives for students. the demands of the particular
Being strategic and text.
metacognitive readers and Promote students' independent
writers use of reading strategies and
skills.
Critical Perspective Find out about ideas, issues, Select texts that provide Foster a critical stance by
Judging, evaluating, and and problems that matter to opportunities for students to teaching students how to judge,
thinking critically about text students. judge, evaluate, and think evaluate, and think critically
Understand the learner as a critically. about texts.
unique individual.
Response Perspective Find out about students' Select texts that connect to Provide opportunities for
Reading, reacting, and interests and identities. students' identities and/or students to read, react, and
responding to text in a variety of Understand what matters to interests and that have the formulate a personal response
meaningful ways students and who they are as potential to evoke an emotional to text.
individuals. or personal response.

15. References
Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12 (2nd ed). Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
Afflerbach, P., Pearson, P. D., & Paris, S. G. (2008). Clarifying differences between reading skills and
reading strategies. Reading Teacher, 61(5), 364–373.
Chou, C. (2011). Teachers' professional development: Investigating teachers' learning to do action
research in a professional learning community. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher,
20(3), 421-437.
Durand, C., Howell, R., Schumacher, L. A., & Sutton, J. (2008). Using interactive read-alouds and
reader response to shape students' concept of care. Illinois Reading Council Journal,
36(1), 22–29.
Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing motivation to
read. The Reading Teacher, 49(7), 518--533.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011a). Analyzing and selecting text [Video webcast]. In The
Beginning Reader, Pre K-3. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/
default.learn?CourseID=6289720&Survey= 1&47=9870657&ClientNodeID=
984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011b). Interactive perspective: Strategic
processing [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author.

16. References continued
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011c). Developing language and literacy [Webcast].
The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011d). Critical perspective [Media recording].
Los Angeles: Author.
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626—639.
Molden, K. (2007). Critical literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: Strategies to move
beyond comprehension for reading improvement. Reading Improvement, 44(1), 50– 56.
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read and write:
Developmentally appropriate practices for young children. Washington, DC: Author.