1. Literate Environment
Analysis
Melanie Weinshall
EDUC6706
The Beginning Reader, PreK-3

2. Getting to Know Literacy Learners
In order to create an effective, literate
environment, it is crucial to get to know and
understand your literacy learners. Administering
assessments, both cognitive and noncognitive, to my
students and collecting data from those assessments
allowed me to modify my instruction to better
support my students. Listening to students read, and
allowing students to hear themselves read is an
appealing way of pinpointing specific problems that
they are having with reading. I found the
Elementary Reading Attitude Survey useful in
assessing the reading motivation of each of my
students (McKenna & Kear, 1990). Through the
survey, I was able to differentiate students’ attitude
toward academic reading and students’ attitude
toward recreational reading (Afflerbach, 2012).
Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using
reading assessment, K–12 (2nd ed). Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
McKenna, M.C., & Kear, D.J. (1990). Measuring
attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626-
639.

3. Getting to Know Literacy Learners
• “Me Stew”
• “Show and Tell”
–Have students bring
in three objects
from home that are
significant to them
and/or their family
–Favorite book
At the beginning of a school year
as well as throughout the year,
teachers should provide
opportunities to learn about
students’ backgrounds, interests,
and life experiences.

4. Selecting Texts
Gathering information about students’
cultural backgrounds, interests, and
life experiences from activities
such as “Show and Tell’ and “Me
Stew”, I have been able to find
books that are of interest to each
of my unique students (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010).
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).
(2010). Getting to know your
students [Video webcast]. In The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3.
Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu

5. Selecting Texts
Providing a well-rounded, literate
environment requires meticulous
selection of texts that motivate
and honor students interests in
reading. Keeping the Literacy
Matrix in mind, choose texts that
fall in all four areas of the matrix:
linguistic, narrative, informational,
and semiotic (Laureate Education,
Inc., 2010).Also, evaluate
difficulty of text by readability,
text structure, length of text,
size of print, and visual supports.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).
(2010). Analyzing and selecting
texts [Video webcast]. In The
Beginning Reader, PreK-3.
Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
According to the Literacy Matrix, a book is
considered linguistic if it is word oriented,
a narrative if it tells a story, informational
if it gives us information to seek a purpose,
and semiotic if it communicates a message
through pictures (Laureate Education, Inc.,
2010)

6. Literacy Lesson: Interactive
Perspective
• The interactive perspective
encourages a literate environment in
which students use effective reading
strategies to comprehend text.
• The goal of the interactive
perspective is to teach children how
to become strategic, metacognitive
thinkers who can independently
navigate through the textual world
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010).
Interactive perspective: Strategic Processing [Video
webcast]. In The Beginning Reader, PreK-3.
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

7. Literacy Lesson: Interactive
Perspective
I learned many strategies
for the interactive
perspective that will help me
to create a literate
environment.
To begin the lesson, discuss
prior knowledge.
Next, make predictions
about the story.
Then, use an online text so
the students can have a
visually interactive
reading of the story.
After, review new
vocabulary, sight words,
rhyming words, etc.

8. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspectives
• The ability to think critically
about text is essential
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010)
• Teaching students to think
critically allows them to analyze
text beyond just the story or
beyond just the facts.
• Thinking critically about texts
involves sharing thoughts to
make meaning of texts.
Laureate Education, Inc.
(Producer). (2010). Critical
Perspective [Video webcast]. In
The Beginning Reader, PreK-3.
Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
• Reading with a critical
perspective takes into
account:
– Author’s purpose
– moral/lesson of the
story
– Different
perspectives
– Validity

9. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspectives
• The goal of the
response perspective is
for students to have a
lived experience with
the text (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010)
Laureate Education, Inc.
(Producer). (2010).
Response Perspective
[Video webcast]. In The
Beginning Reader, PreK-
3. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.e
du
• In order to develop a
literate environment, I
must provide
opportunities for my
students to personally
and emotionally relate
to texts:
– Write from different
perspectives
– Compare/Contrast fairy
tales
– Recreate stories through
dramatic expression