1. Literate
Environment Darcie Bowling
EDUC- 6706
Analysis Dr. Martha Moore
February 16, 2012
Presentation

2. Getting to Know Literacy Learners
Effective literacy teachers must be aware of their students’
reading abilities and interests.
Reading inventories and student interest activities are
essential when planning meaningful and effective literacy
instruction that is geared toward a student’s developmental
level.
Having a solid understanding of students’ reading strengths
and weaknesses is imperative in helping them grow as
readers.
When teachers can make the process of learning to read
enjoyable, we can positively impact our students’ attitudes and
views of reading.

3. Cognitive Assessments
o Reading inventories were administered with three students.
o The reading performance of the three students was below that
of their peers.
o These students were struggling with decoding, fluency and
comprehension. m
oThe reading inventory was used to
“Reading inventories
determine the students’ current reading are individually
levels. administered
diagnostic
oThe results guided text selections for assessments designed
future guided reading lessons. to evaluate a number
of different aspects of
I will continue to use reading inventories students’ reading
with my students to determine their performance”
strengths and weaknesses in their literacy (Nilsson, 2008).
development.

4. Noncognitive Assessments Understanding
•Interest inventories allow teachers what motivates
to select texts that are of high interest students, can lead
to students. to increased
reading which can
• Taking students’ interests
kjhkjhkjh
into consideration is important
impact reading
achievement
(Afflerbach, 2007).
when planning literacy activities.
•Knowing the topics that are of interest can motivate
students to grow as readers, as well as make the process
of learning to read enjoyable.
The information gained about my students’ interests will
help me to plan meaningful lessons that will motivate
them to read and foster a lifelong love for reading. I will
continue to complete interest activities with my literacy learners.

5. Text Selection One of the keys to
helping struggling
readers is to provide
•Young children need opportunities to read them with books
varied texts. that they can and
want to read (Rog &
•Exposing students to informational texts in the Kropp, 2012).
early years will prepare them as they get older
and are expected to read text books.
I am making more informed decisions about the texts that I am choosing
to share with my students. I have been reading more informational
texts with my students and have noticed that they are choosing to read them
on their own.

6. The literacy matrix is
a great tool for
effectively
selecting vtexts to
share with students
(Walden
University, 2010).

7. Interactive Perspective
The interactive
perspective is
•It is through the interactive perspective that used as we teach
we teach our students to be strategic, students how to
read (Laureate
self-regulated and metacognitive thinkers. Education,
2011).
•As students become better readers, they are
able to independently navigate a text.
Prior to taking this course, EDUC-6706, I felt the
most comfortable with this perspective, but now realize the
importance of getting students’ to think critically about text and
respond to it in emotional ways.

8. Interactive Perspective
This lesson focused on the decoding and comprehension of the text Will
Zig Get Well?.
I modeled how good readers activate their prior knowledge, a skill
that helps students to become metacognitive readers. This type of
learning activity promotes strategic processing and metacognition in
that it requires students to think about what they are reading.
Good readers make use of their prior knowledge and experiences
to help them understand what they are reading (Gibson, 2004).
As I listened to each child read, I filled out a running record to
note miscues. This helped me to pin point areas in which each
student needed remediation.

9. Critical and Response Perspectives
The critical and response perspectives encourage and challenge
students to think beyond the literal comprehension of text and
look at the social implications and meanings.
The critical perspective requires One of the most
students to examine texts looking for important things
the author’s point of view. teachers can do with a
text is encourage
students to make an
The response perspective encourages emotional connection
with what they read
students to make an emotional (Laureate, 2010).
connection to the text.

10. Critical and Response Perspectives
The Critical Perspective The Response Perspective
To encourage students to think critically To encourage students to make an emotional
about what they are reading, I modeled the connection to a given text, I asked them to
think-aloud procedure. respond to the text in a response journal.
I found the think-aloud strategy to be a great I found that response journals are also a great
tool that encourages students to think strategy to get students to write about their
critically as they read. Teachers use the think- emotional connections to texts. Making
aloud procedure to teach students how to emotional connections to texts can lead readers
direct and monitor their thinking during to discover social implications and meanings
reading (Wilhelm, 2002). embedded in text.

11. Conclusions
As a result of taking this course, EDUC-6706, I
have learned how to create an optimal literate
environment for literacy learners to grow and
flourish as readers and writers. I have made
necessary changes in my teaching practices to
include the research-based practices detailed in
this presentation. I have found these practices
helpful in teaching my students to become more
confident readers and writers.

12. Take a few moments to consider…
•What insights did you gain about literacy and literacy
instruction from viewing this presentation?
•How might the information presented change your literacy
practices and/or your literacy interactions with students?
•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?
•What questions do you have?

13. Thank you for taking the time
to view my presentation
and share your thoughts
and questions.

14. References
Afflerbach, P. (2007). Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K-12. Newwark: International Reading
Association.
Gibson, A. (2004). Reading For Meaning:Tutoring Elementary Students to Enhance
Comprehension. Reading Rockets , 1-12.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011a). Perspectives on literacy learning. [Webcast]. The Beginning
Reader PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011b). Week 6: Critical perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning
Reader. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Nilsson, N. L. (2008). A Critical Analysis of Eight Informal Reading Inventories. The Reading
Teacher , 526-536.
Rog, L., & Kropp, P. (2012). Hooking Struggling Readers: Using Books They Can and Want to
Read. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/374/
Wilhelm, J. (2002). Action Strategies for Deeping Comprhension. New York: Scholastic.