Rose PersonsWalden University

EDUC 6706

“We need to teach children learn how to learn!”

(Laureate Education, n.d., a)

Creating a literate environment provides students with an opportunity to develop necessary 21st century skills to be a culturally responsible citizen. It

encourages them to think critically and strategically while developing their reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Importance of a Literate Environment

❖ Builds upon students’ background knowledge and experiences.❖ Students are active participants in their learning.❖ Teacher is responsive to students’ needs, interests and considers motivational factors

when planning instruction.❖ Teacher uses assessments to gain insight into strengths and weaknesses.❖ Texts are selected based on level of engagement and specifically targets students’

developmental levels.❖ Instruction incorporates “The Five Pillars” (Laureate Education, n.d., b):

Phonemic Awareness Phonics Fluency VocabularyComprehension

❖ Students and Teacher engage in reflection on a continuum.❖ Instruction reflects all aspects of the Framework for Literacy Instruction.

Want to see what the Framework for Literacy instruction looks like? Keep going...

“We teach students NOT texts!” (Laureate Education, n.d.,c)

Making students the “centerpiece” of instruction in the classroom requires a teacher to acknowledge and consider cultural, linguistic, and developmental levels of his/her students (Laureate Education, n.d., c). As a teacher, it is essential that I understand who my students are, in order to build and foster my students’ identities as literacy learners and to support their learning. Acknowledging my students’ background knowledge, interests and motivational factors helped me develop a literate environment that is centered around my students. Please continue to find out how you can get to know your literacy learners!

Literacy Learner(s)

Activities to use:

★ Early Literacy Profile (ELP)★ Interest Surveys★ Literacy Autobiographies★ Outside Resources (Family members, prior educators)★ Elementary Attitude Reading Survey (ERAS)★ Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)★ Running Records★ Qualitative Reading Inventories (QRIs)★ Prior student work (i.e. portfolios)★ Observations and discussions

Getting to know Literacy Learners

“Me Stew” was one of the many assessments that I used to gain insight into my students’ interests, background knowledge and motivation (Laureate Education, n.d.,c)(Laureate Educan.d., c)

Directions:Provide students with a small paper bag. Explain to students that the bag is for them to collect and bring in, five items and/or objects that they love or are important to them. Students will then share each object and discuss why the object is so special to them. **This activity creates unity in the classroom. Students can make connections with their peers. Teacher can use items for extended learning opportunities and make connections during instruction later on. It also creates a sense of importance within the student(s) which is crucial to their motivation to take risks in their learning!

“Me Stew” Activity

With a plethora of available text resources, it is essential that teachers find engaging texts that are developmentally and intrinsically appropriate for

teaching and learning, as well as meet the goals and objectives set. Things to consider when selecting texts:➢ readability➢ text structure➢ text length➢ visual supports➢ size of print➢ singletons (new words that appear in the text) More singletons = harder to

read and comprehend➢ concept density

Selecting Texts

This literacy matrix is a resourceful tool to utilize in analyzing and selecting a balance of varied genre texts. I used this matrix to ensure that the texts that I selected were engaging, relevant, and developmentally appropriate for my students. Selecting texts that are too challenging or too easy for students will result in disengagement of the reader(s).

Literacy Matrix

Laureate Education, n.d., d)

These texts were strategically selected based on the data that I collected on my students. To compliment the science unit on animals and my students’ interest in non-fiction and storybooks, I chose to utilize “twin texts” (Camp, 2000). I also chose to integrate technology into my lessons utilizing interactive texts (Tompkins, 2010). Immersing my students into a variety of texts engages and motivates them to identify themselves as literate learners.

Featured Texts

“Reading is a process that begins in infancy and continues through adulthood” (Tompkins, 2010).

This perspective engages students in the process of strategical thinking. Lessons that focus on this perspective address the challenges and/or obstacles

of learning to read. Comprehension plays a major role in students’ reading success. Teaching students strategies and/or skills that attend to

comprehending texts by constructing meaning and having them apply those strategies and skills with automaticity as they read varying texts, is the main

purpose, aim and/or goal. Want to see some examples of instructional activities that will promote

Interactive Perspective? Continue on..

* K-W-L Charts or Flipbooks * Letter Cards* Interactive Read Alouds* Interactive Writing* Anticipation Guides* Guided Reading* Choral Reading* Making Words or Word Sorts* Sustained Silent Reading **Please continue onto the next slide to observe my interactive perspective lesson utilizing guided reading, a Matching Game worksheet, and a letter card activity. I chose these activities based on my students’ challenges with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, comprehension and noncognitive measures. (Tompkins, 2010).

Potential Interactive Perspective Activities

Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills Introduce strategy for reading CVC words: (use the list for examples) 1. Say the letter sounds 2. Blend the sounds together (Say them a little faster). 3. Say the word. Model strategy using CVC word list. Do strategy together. Students do strategy, independently. As small group, read the text “From Egg to Chicken” by Gerald Legg, PhD, using strategy for highlighted CVC words. Inform students to listen for the CVC words that have a short vowel sound as they are listening to the text. After reading, have students add CVC words to the list from the text that they heard and are not on the list. Distribute CVC Word Matching Egg Worksheet. Directions: Student(s) must match chicken CVC word (short vowel sound) to the corresponding egg that has a different word but the same short vowel sound. For example; Chicken has the word “hat” the matching egg has the word “sat”. Remind students to use strategy to read the words.Synthesis/Closure Students and teacher will review short vowel sounds and strategy. Student(s) will create new CVC words using the letter cards, modeling their newly learned strategy. Students will then write a sentence using the new CVC word.

Interactive Perspective Lesson Plan

These perspectives requires students to examine texts through a critical lens and then engage in written or oral response. In the critical

perspective, students are encouraged to question, synthesize, compare and contrast, and reflect while reading or listening to a text. The response

perspective requires students to use their experiences and critical examination, to respond to the text. Students are encouraged to consider

multiple perspectives by acknowledging thoughts and/or feelings of others.

Critical & Response Perspective

Grand Conversations/DiscussionsCharacter Open-Mind PortraitCharacter AnalysisRead AloudsJournal Response/Double Entries/Learning LogsDramatic Response/Quiet timeBook TalkCollaborative BooksHot SeatInteractive Writing **Please continue onto the next slide to observe my critical and response perspective lesson utilizing the Character Open-Minded Portrait Activity

Potential Critical & Response Perspective Activities

Building/Applying Knowledge and SkillsIntroduce Jon Scieszka’s “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” and perform a book walk (only showing the cover and last page of text) Engage students in making predictions using picture clues from the cover and last pageRead text to students. During reading ask students: “Who is telling the story?” “How do you think the Wolf feels when...” “What do you think the Wolf will do next?” After reading ask the students: “Who do you believe is telling the truth? “How do you know?”Compare & Contrast the two stories. (Use Venn Diagram) Ask: “How is the Wolf’s perspective on what happened different than the Little Pig’s perspective?” Synthesis/ClosureProvide students with Character Portrait and Thinking Activity. Students cut, draw and color their perceptions of the main character, A. Wolf. Students will then write 1-3 sentences conveying the character’s thoughts for each key point of the story. After completion of this activity, students will voluntarily show their

Character Portraits and read their Thinking activity.

My Critical & Response Lesson Plan

Reference

Camp, D. (2000). It takes two: Teaching with twin texts of fact and fiction. The Reading Teacher. 53(5). Retrieved from

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom- resources/lesson-plans/build-snowman-239.html

Hutchins, P. (1968). Rosie’s walk. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

[Image of multicultural elementary students]. (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.northpark.edu/Academics/School-of-Education/Undergraduate-Programs/ElementaryEducation

Image of open book]. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://beaabascal.wordpress.com/category/books/

[Image of blackboard]. (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.thingstoshareblog.com/2013/12/how-to-make-blackboard-frame-from.html

[Image of pencil can]. (n,d,) Retrieved from http://www.theclassroomkit.com/literacy-resources.html

[Image of book open]. (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/digitization/record_type.html

[Image of owl with book]. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://dominicsmithies.wordpress.com/

[Image of book with glasses]. (n.d.) Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com

Reference

Jacobs, J. (2010). The little red hen. Speakaboos. Retrieved from http://www.speakaboos.com/story/the-little-red-hen

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d., a). Research in early literacy. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/framset.jsp

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d., b). The beginning reader. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/framset.jsp

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d., c). Getting to know your students. [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/framset.jsp

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.,d). Analyzing and selecting text. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/framset.jsp

Legg, PhD, G. (1998). From egg to chicken. Danbury, CT: Grolier Publishing

Marshall, J. (1989). The three little pigs. New York, NY: Dial Books

MercerMe. (2014) [Image of book with heart]. Retrieved from

http://mercerme.com/9-books-you-should-read-to-your-5-year-old-give-or-take-5-years

Scieszka, J. (1989). The true story of the three little pigs. New York, NY: Penguin Publishing

Tilson, J. (2014). Underground wine letter: Wine writing what is it? Retrieved from

http://www.undergroundwineletter.com/2014/02/wine-writing-what-is-it/

Tomkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon

Please Provide FeedbackAs a teacher, it is crucial that we reflect on our teaching practices and methods. It is also

equally important that we gather feedback regarding those practices and methods, reflect on them and improve our teaching to better benefit our students. Here is your chance to provide

feedback on creating a literate environment and my literacy practices and methods. Thank you in advance! Please answer the following questions…

1. What insights did you gain about literacy and literacy instruction from viewing this presentation?2. How might the information presented change your literacy practices or literacy interaction with students?3. 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?4. What questions do you have?