1. Maxine Stewart-Forbes
EDUC 6706
Walden University
Instructor: Dr. Denise Love

2. INTRODUCTION
 ‘Learning to read and write is critical to a child’s
success in school’ (IRA & NAYEC, 1998). Tompkins,
(2010. pg. 111) aptly noted that “literacy is a process
that begins in infancy and continues into adulthood,
if not throughout life.”
 When teachers create a literate environment students
are encouraged to participate in the many learning
experiences at school. It also enables them to become
successful and motivated readers and writers. When
designing an effective literacy classroom, one must
ensure that there is fidelity to our students and we
must have their best interest at heart (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2009a).

3. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR
STUDENTS
 The better a teacher knows her students, the better
they can be connected with texts that will impact
them in profound ways (Laureate Education, Inc.,
2010a).
 Engaging students in conversation gives teachers a
better insight as to the background knowledge and
experiences, motivation, interests and what they
bring to the classroom.
 To better understand our students as literacy
learners, we conduct assessments that provide
information to guide our instructional planning
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c).

4. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR
STUDENTS (continued)
 Afflerbach (2007. pg. 28) noted that “assessment that
helps us understand and appreciate the diverse
growth that students experience and the reading
challenges that they face must be a priority in each
classroom.”
 Conducting assessments provide teachers with
opportunities to assess and evaluate the cultural and
diverse needs of students’ reading level. The
assessments conducted must be both cognitive and
non- cognitive or “the other” (Afflerbach, 2010. pg.
153).

5. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR
STUDENTS (continued)
 Some cognitive assessments include:
Concept About Print (Tompkins, 2010).
Developmental Reading Assessment (Tompkins,
2010).
Literacy Autobiography (Laureate Education,
Inc., 2010d).
Reading inventories (Laureate Education, Inc.,
2010 c).
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills
(DIBELS), (Tompkins, 2010).

6. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR
STUDENTS (continued)
 Some non-cognitive or “the other” (Afflerbach, 2007)
forms of assessment include:
Observation.
The Reader Self-Perception Scale (Henk &
Melnick, 1995).
Me Stew(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).
Assessing Motivation to Read (Gambrell, L. B.,
Palmer, B., Codling, R., & Mazzoni, S. 1996).
Conversations.

7. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR
STUDENTS (continued)
 Using both the cognitive and non-cognitive forms of
assessment is crucial in the bolstering of students’
literacy development. Each must work in tandem with
the other. Maintaining a balance between assessment
of learning and assessment for learning is critical.
 The data gathered will serve as a catalyst to planning
instructions, as well as, selecting appropriate texts
and materials that will serve the needs of the readers.

8. Selecting and Analyzing
Appropriate Texts
 Texts come in many forms and have a place in the
classroom (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010e). The
Literacy Matrix (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010e) is a
tool used for analyzing text. Texts are placed into four
quadrants of the Literacy Matrix.
Linguistic (words)
Narrative Informational
Semiotic ( pictures)

9. Selecting and Analyzing
Appropriate Texts
 Text difficulty is a crucial factor to consider when
analyzing text. Some other factors to consider also
are:
length of text, structure of text, size of print and
sentence length (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010e).
Text selected for use can be informational, narrative
and online. Frequent usage of informational text help
to alleviate the ‘fourth grade slump’ (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010f) which occurs because not
enough knowledge was provided in early years.

10. Selecting and Analyzing
Appropriate Texts
 Analyzing and selecting appropriate text is critical for
the development of literacy in students, as well as,
fostering motivation and interest in reading.
 Teachers who make informed decisions, plan
strategies and activities that are best suited for the
learning needs of students, create within these
students a life-long love for reading.

11. Interactive Perspective
 Teaching students to become strategic processers and
thinkers and readers(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010g)
is a critical component of the interactive perspective.
 Strategic processing therefore, must be threaded on
the five pillars, namely; phonics, phonemic awareness,
fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
 Some instructional activities that reinforce the
interactive perspectives are: read aloud, sight words,
KWL charts and engaging in conversation with
students.

12. Interactive Perspective
 The lesson I chose focused on identification of sight
words from the story ‘Safari’ (Tuchman, 2010).
Students read the story and noted frequently
occurring words. These were then recorded on the
whiteboard and repeated words after the teacher.
They were then instructed to draw legs under the
word caterpillars that had the correct word.
 The instructions were altered for two other students
who are at the emergent and transitional stage of
reading.

13. Critical and Responsive
Perspectives
 The critical perspective teaches students how to “
critically examine text and thinking about who wrote
the text” and the responsive perspective gives
students the “opportunity to experience and respond
to text” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010 g).
 Engaging students in critical perspective encourages
them to use their background knowledge and
experience and connect with the new knowledge
being acquired. When students respond to text they
share their deep feelings and emotions as they share
their experiences.

14. Critical and Responsive
Perspectives
 Using the critical and responsive perspectives in the
lesson conducted with the three students selected
gave students the opportunity to use higher order
thinking skills such as analyzing, judging and
questioning.
 (Molden, 2007) postulated that critical literacy gives
the reader or student the power to aptly understand
the text from all angles, while the responsive
perspective is also crucial and fosters growth and
development in students.

15. Feedback from Colleagues and
Family Members
 What insights did you gain about literacy and literacy
instruction from viewing this presentation?
 How might the information presented change your
literacy practices and/or your literacy interactions
with students?
 In what ways can I support you in the literacy
development of your students or children? How
might you support me in my work with students or
your children?
 What questions do you have?

16. References
 Afflerbach, P. (2007). Understanding and using
reading assessment, K–12. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
 Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B., Codling, R., & Mazzoni, S.
(1996). Assessing motivation to read. Reading
Teacher, 49(7), 518.
 Henk, W. A., & Melnick, S. A. (1995). The Reader Self-
Perception Scale (RSPS): A new tool for measuring
how children feel about. Reading Teacher, 48(6), 470

17. References(continued)
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010a). Getting to know your students. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; Author
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010b). Getting to know your students. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; Author
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010c). Reading inventories. [DVD]. The Beginning
Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; Author

18. References (continued)
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010d). Assessing word knowledge. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; Author
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010e). Analyzing and selecting texts. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; Author
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010f). Informational text in early years. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; Author

19. References (continued)
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010g). Perspectives on literacy learning. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD; 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.

20. References (continued)
 Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for 21st century: A
balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn &
Bacon.
 Tuchman, G. (2010). Safari. Scholastic Inc.