Literate Environment Analysis

1. LITERATE ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS
Sheila Oneal
EDUC 6706R-3
April 2014
Walden University
Gina Pink

2. Literacy Environment Framework
Framework for Literacy Instruction:
(3 things we need to pay attention to)
• The Learners (Students themselves)
A. What do we need to know about our students
B. Cognitive Assessments
C. Non-cognitive Assessments
• Selection of Texts
A. What do we need to understand about how text are put together
B. Literacy Matrix
• Instructional Practices (Ourselves and the Instructional Context
A. Most important goal= fidelity to the students
B. Make critical decisions on their behalf

3. GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS
Assessments that help us understand and appreciate the diverse growth that students
experience and the reading challenges that they face must be a priority in each classroom.
• Running Records
• Reading Inventories
• Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early
Literacy (DIBELS)
• Concepts About Print
• Elementary ReadingAttitude
Survey (ERAS)
• Interest Inventories
• Me Stew
CognitiveAssessments provides teachers
with the ability to understand each
student’s growth and challenges as a
reader (Afflerbach, 2012).
Non-CognitiveAssessments focus on
students’ motivation to read, self-
concept, attitude toward reading, and
how they feel about themselves as
readers (Afflerbach, 2012).
NON-COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTSCOGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS
Reading Inventories provide us with the
means to assess and evaluate many of
these diverse aspects of students’
reading performance and growth
(Afflerbach, 2012).

4. COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS NON-COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS
GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS
(Continued)
I chose to use ConceptsAbout Print
(Clay,2006) to assess where my students
were cognitively.The questions that I was
looking to be answered were:
• Do they know where to turn for the
first page of the story?
• Do they know the direction of print
across a line of text?
• Can they point to track words as the
teacher reads aloud?
I chose to use the assessment ERAS
(Elementary ReadingAttitude Survey)to
assess my students non-cognitive abilities.
The questions that I was looking to be
answered were:
• How do you feel when you read a book
on a rainy Saturday?
• How do you feel about getting a book
for a present?
• How do you feel about reading instead
of playing?
The better you know your students, the
better you can connect them with text that
will impact them in profound ways
(Laureate Education, 2011).

5. COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS
Concepts about print (CAP),(Clay, 2006) test assessed three types of concepts about print:
• book orientation
• directionality concepts
• letter and word concepts
This test has 24 items and is assessed individually in about 10 minutes. I read a short book aloud while the
child looks on.The child is then asked to open the book, turn pages, and point out particular print features
as the text is read. I chose a first grade level text to administer the CAP test to my students.All three
students scored well on the majority of the test. I did notice that two of the three had difficulty with letter
and word concepts.When asked questions pertaining to sentence structure, I noticed that they were just
randomly pointing at words.This led me to believe that this may be the reason to why they are experiencing
comprehension difficulty. Cognitively, the three have shown that they are familiar with written text. They
know the orientation and directional concepts but are showing that they may have letter and word concept
problems.Their non-cognitive skills may not be being addressed at home.They need someone reading aloud
to them daily to model reading.They need to know where a sentence begins and where it ends to be able to
comprehend the text being read. Basically, these students need as much outside exposure into the world as
possible. Role playing, writing and familiarizing themselves
with their environment would be of tremendous help for
these students.
GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS
(Continued)

6. NON-COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS:
The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS),(McKenna & Kear, 1990) test assesses first- through
sixth-grade students’ attitudes toward reading at home and at school.The 20 items begin with the stem
“How do you feel….” and students mark one of four pictures of Garfield, the cartoon cat; each picture
depicts a different emotional state, ranging from positive to negative.This survey enabled me to quickly
estimate my students'’ abilities. My students did not show that they read for recreational purposes at all.
When asked if how they felt about reading a book on a rainy Saturday, all three replied that they did not
like doing reading on a Saturday whether it was raining or not. On the academic scale, the three were
somewhat better.Two of the three said they enjoy hearing the textbooks being read aloud but just not
for them to read them aloud to the class. By discovering this, I found that the students need to be
modeled reading aloud as often as possible.They also should be encouraged to read to themselves as
much as possible. Paired reading with their peers have proved to be successful for the group also. One
student has a tremendous vocabulary deficit, so I am trying to find other means to encourage this
student before I dive into reading aloud and eventually independent reading for this student. I have
found that this students parent is little or no help when trying to encourage
literacy skills. He lives with his mom and two other
siblings.The mother works two jobs while the children
are often passed from family member to member.
GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS
(Continued)

7. SELECTING TEXTS
LINGUISTIC
SEMIOTIC
NARRATIVE INFORMATIONAL
One useful tool teachers can use
when analyzing and selecting text in
Literacy Matrix (2011). It assists in
Instructional Decision Making for
your students, and making
connections across the curriculum
(Laureate Education, 2011).
The Literacy Matrix helped
me to balance my text
selection.
Text selected should be engaging and based on students’ needs
and interest.There should be a balance of narrative text and
informational text. Using informational text in the early years
can help students to build background knowledge and avoid
the “4th grade slump” (Laureate Education, 2011).

8. What matters most is that teachers know their students well so that they can adapt the components in their instructional program to ensure
that all students succeed ( Tompkins,2010).
SELECTING TEXTS
(continued)
While selecting texts,
focus on:
• Readability
• Length
• Background
knowledge
• Student interest
SelectingTexts: Considerations
“Using computers increases students’ motivation
to read, write, and learn. Stories on the web build
students’ understanding of story structures and
introduces new opportunities to develop online
navigational skills” (Castek, 2006).
I selected the following texts to supplement a unit
onAnimalAdaptations:
1. When I LivedWith Bats by Faith McNulty
2. WonderfulWorms by Linda Glaser
http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/nature.html
3. Claws, Coats, and Camouflage: TheWays Animals
Fit intoTheirWorld by Susan EE. Goodman

9. LITERACY LESSON:
INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE
• The ultimate goal of the
Interactive Perspective is to
teach children to be literate
learners who can navigate
through a text independently
(Laureate Education, 2010).
• Use schema as a strategy for
comprehension
• Use instructional strategies that
address the needs of students and
the demands of the text
( Laureate Education, 2011).
Learning objective:
The students were asked to identify the basic
needs and specific physical characteristics of
animals and to investigate how weather and
seasonal changes affect animals.
Texts:
1. When I LivedWith Bats by Faith
McNulty
2. WonderfulWorms by Linda Glaser
http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/natur
e.html
The shared reading lesson compared
Earthworms and Bats habitats.The group
conducted an experiment with Earthworms
by providing an Earthworm four different
types of soil.The group observed as the
Earthworm decided on the type of soil it
preferred.The group then discussed it’s
findings.

10. (continued)
• These practices allowed me to focus on making meaning from the text
by making connections into their own lives. Using schema is a good
strategy for understanding text (Laureate Education, 2010).
• The purpose was made clear at the beginning of the lesson.The group
sorted picture cards according to what animals need/do not need to
survive.The group and I then discussed their findings about the
animals needs.The lesson then moved to the comparison of the
Earthworm and the Bat habitats through text about each.

11. LITERACY LESSON:
CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES
• The Critical Perspective allows students to examine a text critically and think more deeply
about what they are reading (Laureate Education, 2010).
• The Response Perspective allows students to make meaningful connections to text
(Laureate Education, 2010).
• The purpose of this lesson was to give the emergent readers the opportunity to evaluate
and think critically about the narrative texts, When I lived With Bats and Wonderful
Worms. The practice helped me create a literate environment by giving my students time
to think about the habitats of the two animals.
• The Critical Perspective gave the students the opportunity to observe the Earthworms
choice of soil and draw inferences as to why he chose the soil.
• The Response Perspective gave the students a chance to write their personal responses to
the animals habitats.
It is important to engage our students in reading and writing to
discover what they have to say because the more they write
about what they read, the more they will understand what they
read (Laureate Education, 2010).

12. REFERENCES:
Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K-12 (2nd ed.).
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Glaser, L., & Krupinski, L. (1992). Wonderful worms. Brookfield, Conn: Millbrook Press.
Goodman, S. E., & Doolittle, M. J. (2001). Claws, coats, and camouflage: The ways animals fit
into their world. Brookfield, Conn: Millbrook Press.
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers. Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626-639.
McNulty, F., & Shiffman, L. (1998). When I lived with bats. New York: Scholastic.
PBSkids. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/nature.html
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.