Literate Environment Analysis

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Literate Environment Analysis

• By Sabrina Harrelson

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To establish a classroom of successful readers
and writers one must create a literate classroom
environment.

• Research
• It is essential that lessons are created that
  support
• both student achievement and student motivation
• (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).
• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
  (2010).
• Changes in literacy education. Webcast. The
  beginning
• reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD author.

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Getting to Know Literacy Learners
To begin establishing a literate environment an
educator must first get to know the learners. I
use informal and formal assessments to get to
know my students and create an environment that
is favorable to the diverse needs of the students
present in my classroom.

• Below are some suggestions for activities that
  will assist you in getting to know your students
• Motivation to read profile
• Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
• Conversations with students/parents
• Student literacy autobiography

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Getting to Know Literacy Learners (cont.)

• Research
• The understanding of how a student learns to
• read and write influences the instructional
• approaches that an educator utilizes (Tompkins,
• 2010). When teachers use an inventory to get
• better acquainted with their students, they are
  are
• given an assortment of information about their
• students literacy likes and dislikes, as well as
  
• reading performance and growth (Afflerback,
• 2007).

Afflerbach, P. (2007). Understanding and using
reading assessment, K-12. Newark, DE
International Reading Association. Tompkins,
G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century A
balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA Allyn
Bacon.
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Selecting Texts

• To ensure that an effective literacy lesson is
  being created, one must choose appropriate texts
  for the students. Choosing appropriate texts is
  directly related to the students ability to
  comprehend what is being read. There are
  numerous types of texts to choose from. Within
  my classroom, I use a variety of texts that
  enhance my students learning. It is essential
  and very beneficial to use the Literacy Matrix
  when selecting appropriate texts.

Linguistic
Literacy Matrix
Narrative
Informational
Semiotic
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Selecting Texts (Cont.)
Narrative Text
Informational Text

• Research
• It is essential to consider different aspects
  while choosing appropriate texts for students.
  Some things to take into consideration are
  readability, length, and structure of the text
  (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Teachers are
  constantly searching for texts that are engaging
  and acceptable for their students (Laureate
  Education, Inc., 2010).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010).Analyzing and selecting text. Webcast.
The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD
author.
Online Text
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Literacy Lesson Interactive Perspective

• Students need to interact and expand their
  thinking about the information in a text. I
  encourage the students to do this by using the
  reading strategies that we use on a daily basis
  in the classroom. As their proficiency with
  these strategies increase, so will their ability
  to read and comprehend stories. Students should
  be encouraged to become independent learners and
  one way that I do this is by implementing the
  Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two versions
  of the same story. This research based strategy
  has assisted me in utilizing a larger variety of
  strategies to increase my students reading
  abilities.

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Literacy Lesson Interactive Perspective (Cont.)

• Research
• Strategies are also referred to as text factors
  and when the are utilized students motivation
  will increase (Tompkins, 2010). Educators need
  to be using a variety of strategies in the
  classroom (Tompkins, 2010). According to Stahl
  (2004), the instructional practices that teachers
  use help to aid in the success of the
  comprehension strategies that have been
  implemented for the students.

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st
century A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston,
MA Allyn Bacon. Stahl, K. (2004. Proof,
practice and promise comprehension strategy
instruction in the primary grades. Reading
Teacher, 57(7), 598-609.
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Literacy Lesson Critical and Response
Perspectives

• The critical and response perspectives are
  strategies that have been research based and have
  assisted me in creating a literate classroom
  environment. When looking at the literacy
  framework, these two perspectives are thought to
  be the most important. After gaining more
  knowledge about these two perspectives, I am now
  take a different approach to prepare lessons for
  my students. It is my goal to present my
  students with lessons that revolve around these
  perspectives. By implementing these two
  perspectives in the classroom, I am encouraging
  my students to use their higher order thinking
  skills.

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Literacy Lesson Critical and Response
Perspectives (Cont.)

• Research
• Students should assess a text as they read this
  is part of the critical perspective (Laureate
  Education, Inc., 2010a). Throughout the lesson
  that I created for this course, my students
  remained engaged and demonstrated that they were
  utilizing their higher order thinking skills.
  The skills that were focused on throughout the
  lesson encouraged the students to become
  metacognitive thinkers. One of the activities
  that I utilized during the lesson required the
  students to critically analyze Harriet Tubman
  this activity was called a Character Portrayal.
  According to Tompkins (2010), these types of
  activities help to increase student
  comprehension.
• Continued on next slide

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Literacy Lesson Critical and Response
Perspectives (Cont.)

• The response perspective entails that the
  students experience, as well as, connect with a
  text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). To
  incorporate this perspective into my lesson, I
  provided the students with a question and they
  had to compose a journal entry that conveyed
  their viewpoint of the question. This journal
  activity also promoted their higher order
  thinking skills. The students were later allowed
  to share their journal entries with their
  classmates. Although planning and implementing
  lessons that include the critical and response
  perspectives takes a large amount of time, it is
  well worth the effort to see the tremendous
  benefits.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).
(2010a). Critical Perspective. Webcast. The
beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD
author. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive
Producer). (2010b). Response Perspective.
Webcast. The beginning reader, PreK-3.
Baltimore, MD author. Tompkins, G.E. (2010).
Literacy for the 21st century A balanced
approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA Allyn Bacon.
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• Our job as educators is to promote the growth of
  literacy among our students by creating a
  literate environment in the classroom. No matter
  what stage of literacy development a child begins
  the school year at, an educator has the
  capability of increasing that development level
  by implementing a classroom that will benefit the
  learning of reading, writing, listening, and
  speaking (Gunning, 2005).

Gunning, T.J. (2005). Creating literacy
Instruction for all students. Boston, MA Pearson
Education, Inc.