PreK-3 Literacy Learners

READ 6706: Literacy Development, PreK–3By: Florence Dupont

Getting to Know Your Learner Teachers know the standards their students are expected to meet,

but we cannot help our students succeed unless we understand them as a learner.

We need to know their attitude towards reading, interests, and reading abilities/habits.

It is a teacher’s job to locate where each child is in his or her development to ffer appropriate instruction for growth, and to fill any gaps (Reutzel, 2016, p. 11).

We can use this information to plan lessons that will appropriately meet our learners at their individual levels. This can also be helpful in planning scaffolding techniques to ensure student success.

To better understand your learner you can use both cognitive and non-cognitive assessments.

Cognitive Vs Non-Cognitive Assessments

Cognitive Assessments

Can highlight students’ strengths and weaknesses in literacy.

Can assess the students’ skills or habits in literacy such as fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, decoding, etc.

Non-Cognitive Assessments

Can measure attitude towards reading, interests, or motivation to read.

Can be both contributors to and outcomes of reading success (Afflerbach, 2012, p. 171).

Emergent and Beginning Literacy LearnersFocus for Emergent Literacy Learners Alphabetic principle Concepts of print Phonemic awareness Phonics/decoding Sentence patterns High frequency words Familiar concepts

Focus for Beginning Literacy Learners

Richer vocabulary Fluency Comprehension Greater variation in

sentence patterns Longer sentences Inventive spelling

Text Selection It is important to focus on how these texts work with your

students and how they fit with your goals. You also want to find a balance between narrative and informational texts as well as linguistic and semiotic texts (Laureate Education, 2014a).

Texts must not only be informative, but also engaging and appropriate for the learner or lesson format.

Narrative Text: Bye, Bye, Butterflies! by Andrew Larsen Informational Text: Caterpillar to Butterfly by Laura Marsh Digital Text: Butterfly Facts found at

https://kidskonnect.com/animals/butterfly/

Emergent Literacy Lesson Focus: Butterflies, asking higher-level questions, vocabulary Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.4: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2: Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Learning Objectives: Student will be able to Ask questions about a text based on pictures and background knowledge Ask questions about a text for clarification if something is not understood Infer the meaning of new vocabulary words based on context clues

Text: Caterpillar to Butterfly by Laura Marsh This lesson was conducted one-on-one with a specific Emergent literacy learner. A KWL

chart was used to reference background knowledge and ask higher levels of questions. Vocabuarly words were also highlighted with the student making inferences on their meaning based on context clues.

Beginning Literacy Lesson Focus: Butterflies, comprehension, compare and contrast Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.9: With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.

Learning Objectives: Student will be able to Explain the main events and details from a story. Compare the events in a story with personal experiences from the classroom. Contrast the events in a story with personal experiences from the classroom.

Text: Bye, Bye, Butterflies! by Andrew Larsen This lesson was conducted one-on-one with a specific Beginning literacy learner.

Using a venn diagram, the student compared the events from the story with the experience our classroom had with raising caterpillars into butterflies.

Reflection Both cognitive and non-cognitive assessments are crucial to

guide your instruction and provide valuable information about your learners.

Text selection is a vital step in planning your instruction. It is important to have a balanced literacy program with informational, narrative, and digital texts to introduce students to a wide variety of text types.

As an educator it is important to have a wide knowledge base of all developmental levels of literacy learners. Even as a Kindergarten teacher, I must understand all developmental levels to best serve my students.

Modeling and scaffolding are key to ensure student success.

References

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment: K–12 (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Analyzing and selecting texts [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.