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Literate environment analysis

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  • 1. Literate Environment Analysis Allison Knutson EDUC 6706-R-6 February 2014

2. Getting to Know Literacy Learners All people have experiences that have shaped who they are as literate beings. Think about your literacy autobiography. How has your past shaped the literate being you are today? 3. Getting to Know Literacy Learners (Cont.) In order to implement successful instructional strategies and select appropriate texts for students, teachers must first understand their students' unique interests, backgrounds, and skills. Dr. Janice Almasi argues that the better we know our students, the better able we are to select texts that fit their individual needs (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). Almasi also states that teachers need to be aware of students' identities, cultures, context, and what they are bringing to the classroom in order to successfully implement teaching strategies and texts that fit each students' needs. (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). 4. Assessment Assessing students' literacy skills allows teachers to have a better understanding of where each student stands in relation to academic skills and motivation. A variety of cognitive and non-cognitive assessment methods can be used including: running records, reading inventories, DRA's, DIBELS, and informal observations. Dr. Peter Afflerbach describes reading inventories as a method to provide teachers with the means to assess and evaluate many diverse aspects of students' reading performance and growth (Afflerbach, 2012). 5. Analysis It is essential for teachers to understand the literacy needs of their students. As a kindergarten teacher, I like to assess my students regularly to determine their literacy development in order to better understand them as individuals, and to be able to find texts and topics that will engage and motivate them in literacy learning.Assessments that I use in my classroom include: - DRA - DIBELS - Running Records - Reading Inventories - Informal evaluations and observations of reading and writing skills 6. Selecting Texts Selecting appropriate texts for children is an important part of literacy development. Texts should be selected that positively influence the reading and writing goals we set for our students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). Dr. Janice Almasi defines the dimensions of difficulty that teachers need to be aware of when selecting texts for students: - Size of print/visual support - Text structure - Text length - Concepts/word choice/ sentence structure (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) 7. Selecting Texts (Cont.) Dr. Douglas Hartman uses the literacy matrix continuum to support teachers in making text decisions. The matrix allows teachers to be aware of the balance between the texts they are selecting for their students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). 8. Selecting Texts Analysis Tompkins writes that children need to be exposed to a variety of texts including narrative, informative, realistic, and other various genres (Tompkins, 2010). After evaluating my classroom library, I have found that I need to add more of a variety of texts for my students to read. I use Hartman's matrix when designing and implementing my literacy instruction to make sure that I have a balance of narrative and informational texts that use linguistic and semiotic strategies. 9. The Three Perspectives The Framework for Literacy Instruction describes the need for teachers to address the three perspectives in their literacy instruction: Interactive Perspective-teaches children to accurately read and write with fluency and comprehension. It also creates students that are strategic and meta-cognitive readers and writers.Critical Perspective-teaches children to judge, evaluate, and think critically about text.Response Perspective-teaches children to read, react, and respond to text in a variety of meaningful ways. 10. Interactive Perspective The interactive perspective focuses on teaching students how to read and write accurately, fluently, and with comprehension. Many of these instructional strategies include students' success in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. Dr. Janice Almasi states that in addition to teaching our students to read, we must also teach them to be strategic thinkers and to be metacognitive about their reading strategy use (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). 11. Interactive Perspective (Cont.) Katherine Stahl (2004) describes a variety of comprehension strategies for the primary grades that address the interactive perspective: Guided/instructed retellingsStory mapsTeacher-generated questionsTargeted activation of prior knowledgeLiterature webbingPicture walksKWL charts 12. Analysis of the Interactive Perspective Using the interactive perspective has helped me to create a literate environment by allowing me to use a variety of instructional strategies to help my students understand text.Strategies that address the interactive perspective that I have incorporated into my classroom include: Read-aloudsPicture walksPhonics activitiesWord walls 13. The Critical and Response Perspectives The critical and response perspectives focus on judging, evaluating, and responding to text in meaningful ways. Dr. Janice Almasi describes the critical perspective as a way to help students learn to critically respond, examine text from multiple perspectives, and make judgments about text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). Students can critically evaluate text when they look at the authors' purpose, characters, perspectives, and issues that are present within the text. 14. Critical and Response Perspectives (Cont.) Dr. Richard Vacca describes the importance of using response journals after reading a text. These journals allow students to respond freely to text with their thoughts and reactions. Their responses may be prompted or free written, and should be encouraged to relate the text to their own experiences. He also states that reading strengthens writing and writing strengthens reading (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). 15. Analysis of the Critical and Response Perspectives Using the interactive and response perspectives has helpedl me to create a literate environment by allowing me to use a variety of instructional strategies that help my students critically evaluate and respond to texts.Some strategies I use in my classroom include: - Response/Character journals - Authors' chair - Character portraits - Dramatization of text scenarios/perspectives (Clyde, 2003) - Identification of authors' purpose 16. Feedback 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 and/or your literacy interactions 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? 17. ReferencesAfflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K12 (2nd ed). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Clyde, J. A. (2003). Stepping inside the story world: The subtext strategya tool for connecting and comprehending. The Reading Teacher, 57(2), 150160. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) (2011). Analyzing and Selecting Texts [webcast]. The beginning reader, prek-3. Baltimore: author. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) (2011). Critical Perspective [webcast]. The beginning reader, prek-3. Baltimore: author. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) (2011). Getting to Know Your Students [webcast]. The beginning reader, prek-3. Baltimore: author. 18. References Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) (2011). Response Perspective: Reading-Writing Connection. [webcast]. The beginning reader, prek-3 . Baltimore: author. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer) (2011). Strategic Processing. [webcast]. The beginning reader, prek-3. Baltimore: author. Stahl, K. A. D. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades. Reading Teacher, 57(7), 598608. Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.