This document discusses key aspects of early literacy instruction for beginning readers in pre-K through 3rd grade. It addresses the importance of understanding students' motivation and engagement with reading through assessments. Teachers should learn about students' interests and reading abilities in order to select appropriate texts at the right level. The document also discusses interactive, critical, and response perspectives for literacy instruction, emphasizing comprehension strategies, examining texts critically, and personal engagement with reading.

1. Teresa Price
June 13, 2012
EDUC 6706
The Beginning Reader PreK-3

2. Access to high quality early language
and literacy experiences will enhance
young children’s development
(International Reading Association,
2005).
In order for student to develop as a
whole, a positive environment must be
created that foster learning and
appropriate practices that encourages
student development (Laureate
Education Inc., 2010a).

3. I. Getting to Know Literacy Learners
II. Selecting appropriate Texts
III. The Interactive Perspective
IV. The Critical and Response Perspective

4. Through research based practice I am provided with the insight of the importance of
teachers learning their students and their interests. It is important for teachers to
understand the motivation or lack of motivation a student possesses toward reading.
Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS)
 measures two aspects of reading attitude: recreational reading and academic reading.
This would be a useful tool to learn more about these students’ literacy
autobiographies.
Interest Reading Survey
 help a teacher figure out what his or her students are thinking, what they may want or
even need, and how they can best be helped (Duffy, 2003).
Word Recognition Test
 After discovering students’ level of motivation for reading a word recognition test can
be administered to determine the difficulty level of reading passages the students will
be asked to read.
 If more than half of the words in the Word Recognition test are recognizable by
students a Running Record (RR) can be administered.

5. “Students’ motivation and engagement affect their success in
reading and writing, therefore it is important that teachers
learn about their students and work to ensure that they are
motivated and have positive attitudes about literacy”
(Tompkins, 2010 p. 280).
These types of assessments "provides details about student’s
reading abilities in relation to a specific grade level”
(Afflerbach, 2007, p. 47).

6.  After determining students’ cognitive and non-cognitive
aspects of literacy learning, teachers may begin to select the
appropriate texts to accommodate the needs of each student.
 When choosing texts, it is important to determine whether or
not it is applicable for students. Small details significantly
matter when determining students’ ability to comprehend a
book. Some students prefer large print which seems to make
the text easier to read in comparison to smaller print which
seems to make text more difficult to read (Laureate,
Education, Inc., 2010b).
 Choosing the appropriate length of the text and the text
structure will greatly increase students’ readability.
 It is imperative for teachers to accommodate the reading
needs of their students to better meet their educational
requirements.

7.  Hartman, (Laureate, Education, Inc., 2010b), described a matrix where texts are categorized
based on three continuums; narrative to informative, linguistic to semiotic, and easy to
difficult. By using this matrix educators can be sure to balance the types of texts that they
use in the classroom.
 Research determines that students who are exposed to a selection of texts at an early age
will show the development at a more rapidly rate in obtaining needed literacy skills
(Tompkins, 2010).
 Using genre, text features, and text structures is vital in helping students understand how
authors organize and present ideas in their stories (Tompkins, 2010). Most reading
instruction in early literacy programs is based on narrative stories.
 Author, Kathy Stephens (2008), states that exposing children to a variety of informational
text will stimulate development of background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension
skills. Exposing students to a wide variety of text will also lead them to be proficient
readers.

8. The interactive perspective of literacy instruction involves
reading and writing accurately, fluently, and with
comprehension (Framework for Literacy Instruction, n.d.).
The teacher should foster expectations about the reading and
arouse student interest to read. This can be done by asking
warm-up questions or by giving them a purpose for reading or
listening to a story.
In this way students will enjoy learning language and develop a
positive attitude towards reading. Monitoring comprehension
includes not only activating background knowledge prior to
reading, but also active listening and questioning of students at
various points.

9. Stahl (2004) states, when children use reading strategies such as
summarizing, questioning, or activating prior knowledge they
are more likely to comprehend and remember what they read.
To be metacognitive as a learner, children must actively think about
their learning and process what they are doing (Laureate Education, Inc.,
2010c).
The five pillars of reading are: Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency,
Comprehension, and Writing. Strategic processing must be threaded
through all five pillars (Laureate Education, 2010c) of reading.
A metacognitive learner must be able to use these five pillars in order to
further develop reading strategies on their own. The reading strategies
to develop are: Making connections, Predicting, Clarifying, Asking
questions, Visualizing, and Summarizing.

10.  The Critical Perspective of literacy involves
challenging a text by considering problem-
posing questions.
 The critical perspective also involves teaching
children to examine the text and who created
it (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d). During
this time discussions can arise about the
author’s point of view, the main idea, the
genre, the setting, and other components of
the story.

11.  The critical perspective of the framework for literacy instruction involves
judging, evaluating, and thinking critically about text (Framework for Literacy
Instruction, n.d.). .
 Critical literacy focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection,
transformation, and action (Molden, 2007).
 Critical literacy encourages readers to be active participants in the reading
process: to question, to dispute, and to examine power relations (Molden,
2007).
 The critical perspective also involves teaching children to examine the text
and who created it (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d).
 Young children need to engaged in meaningful academic content and build
on prior learning (National Association for the Education of Young Children,
1998).

12. 
The response perspective provides students
with opportunities to experience texts in a
personal and emotional way (Laureate,
Education, Inc., 2010e).

13.  Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12 (2nd ed). Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
 Duffy, G. (2003). Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies. NY: The
Guilford Press
Framework for Literacy Learning (n.d.). Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?
tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_552773_1%26url
%3D
International Reading Association. (2005). Literacy development in the preschool years: a position statement of the International
Reading Association. Newark, DE: Author
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Perspectives on early literacy [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3.
Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Analyzing and selecting text [Webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK–3.
Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Interactive perspective: Strategic processing. [Webcast]. Baltimore, MD:
Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010d). Week 6: Critical perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore:
Author.
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010e). Week 6: Response perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader.
Baltimore: Author.
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
Stahl, K. A. D. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades. Reading Teacher,
57(7), 598–608.
Stephens, K. E. (2008). A quick guide to selecting great informational books for young children. Reading Teacher, 61(6),
488-490.
 Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.