2. Introduction
• Literacy education is extremely important in a child’s education.
It has been stated that the best predictor of a child’s ability to
function competently in school and contribute to a literate
society is how well that child progresses in reading and writing
(NAEYC, 1998). As literacy educators, it is imperative that we
recognize literacy starts early in a child’s life and a student’s
background and culture influence their literacy education
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). When a student comes into
the classroom, it is our job as educators to expand on what
students know about written language and environmental print
through meaningful experiences with reading and writing
(Tompkins, 2010).
3. Getting to Know Literacy Learners
It is beneficial for educators to find out about students’ interests, likes
and dislikes, needs and wants, to know how to successfully instruct
them.
• Cognitive Development (A child’s reading development)
* Assessment - Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)
– criterion-referenced assessment, which assesses a students’
reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension. This assessment is used
to determine students’ just-right books (Tompkins, 2007), which are
books they can fluently read and comprehend, independently.
• Noncognitive Development (A child’s attitude towards reading)
* Assessment - Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
- researches the role of attitude in children’s literacy
development. This assessment is used to determine a child’s academic
and recreational attitude towards reading, developed by Michael
McKenna and Dennis Kear (McKeena & Kear, 1990).
4. Selecting Texts
When selecting appropriate texts, we must think about what
makes them appropriate and how are we going to use them in our
curriculum. It is imperative that educators have an idea of how to
determine if a text is appropriate based on certain criteria.
• Literacy Matrix
Douglas Hartman presented the idea of the literacy matrix,
where texts are placed in one of the following four quadrants,
linguistic, informational, semiotic or narrative (Laureate Education,
Inc., 2010a). This matrix helps educators to determine texts of
appropriate types to meet literacy goals and objects for students.
• Interests
Having students read books that are of interest to them, will
create a more positive attitude toward reading (Afflerbach, 2007).
It is important to get to know to students to find out what they are
interested in, as well as, what books or authors that have inspired or
moved them.
5. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
• Interactive Perspective
• Teaching students how to read and write fluently, accurately and
with comprehension (Framework).
• Activity: Read Aloud/Think Aloud
• Making Connections
• One of the ways beginning and transitional readers can
deepen their understanding of the texts they read is by
connecting to the texts (Tompkins, 2010).
• Students listened to a read aloud, where the teacher
modeled how to make personal and text connections to
better understand a story. The students then read
independently, using sticky notes to mark a place where
they made a connection.
6. Critical and Response Perspectives
• Critical and Response Perspective
- Teaching students how to judge, evaluate and think critically
about a text and how to react and respond emotionally and personally
to texts.
– Critical Perspective - Response Perspective
*Students should think * Students should be
about the reasons behind provided with
ideas, concepts, etc. or opportunities to formulate
answer the question why? a personal response to a
(Laureate Education, Inc., text (Framework, 2010)
2010b)
Activity: Recognizing the Author’s Purpose
The students participated in grand conversations, which are student-
centered discussions about stories, exploring the big ideas (Tompkins,
2010), where they discussed the reasons behind the author’s purpose.
They then chose a character and thought about the character’s
purpose and the reasons behind that purpose.
7. Conclusion
It is imperative to realize that we, as educators, teach students and not texts and
so we need to ensure we get to know the whole human being, to know how to
successfully instruct them (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010e). Although it is
important to know a students’ cognitive development, it is as equally important to
know a students’ noncognitive development. Afflerbach states, “reading attitudes
are closely related to reader motivation and reader self-concept” (Afflerbach,
2007, pg. 161). Educators should use research-based assessment practices to
properly assess a students’ cognitive and noncognitive development. From these
assessments it is important to study and analyze data, to know the proper
research-based instructional practices to use. Texts are powerful tools to use in
the classroom and so when selecting texts for students, we must ensure they are
appropriate to teach the skill identified as a need and that they are just right for
the student. We must remember, that in order for students to comprehend the
text, they must bring something to the text and so the must be active participants
in their learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010f). One way to ensure students are
active participants in their learning is by getting to know them, finding out what
they are interested in, in order to incorporate and build on that in the classroom.
8. References
Afflerbach, Peter. (2007). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12. Newark,
DE: International Reading Association.
Framework for Literacy Instruction (2010). Retrieved from
http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Perspectives in early
literacy. [Webcast]. Learning experiences. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Changes in literacy
education. [Webcast]. Learning experiences. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Analyzing and selecting
appropriate texts. [Webcast]. Learning experiences. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010d). Critical perspective. [Webcast].
Learning experiences. Baltimore, MD: Author.
9. References Continued
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010e). Getting to know your students.
[Webcast]. Learning experiences. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010f). Perspectives in early literacy.
[Webcast]. Learning experiences. Baltimore, MD: Author.
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool
for teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626–639.
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read
and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for young children.
Washington, DC: Author.
Rathvon, Natalie. (2006). DRA review. Retrieved from
natalierathvon.com/images/DRA_Review-08-25-2006.pdf.
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.).
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
