Literacy Learners PreK-3

1. Literacy Learners
PreK-3
MARIA STAMP
WALDEN UNIVERSITY
INSTRUCTOR: DR. JANN JAMES
READ 6706R-1 LITERACY DEVELOPMENT PREK-3
FEBRUARY 18, 2016

2. Getting to know your
Literacy Learners
Getting to know your literacy learners in your
classroom is so important for a multitude of reasons.
With the understanding that all of our students learn
and read at different times in multiple ways, it is our
job as teachers to foster that learning and provide
appropriate text for our students. This will help to
assist in growing their reading abilities.

3. Selecting Texts
Selecting the appropriate texts for your readers is so important. It is not
appropriate to always have the students reading challenging texts (Shanahan,
2013). These texts relate to the cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of both
emergent and beginning literacy learners in many ways. In regards to the
emergent learners, they are listening, identifying concepts of print, fostering
alphabetic knowledge, and participating in rhyming. The beginning learner
on the other hand, is figuring out words on their own, possibly reading on
their own with the informational digital text, and coming up with the words to
a story based on the books. Each of their individual needs as learners can be
met in different ways through the same books. Through observations, you
can determine their functional and developmental stages of their reading
and their writing (Laureate Education, 2014b).

4. Digital Text
Informational
How do plants grow? By Julie Lundgren

5. Texts
Pancakes for
breakfast
By Tomi dePaola
Hop on pop
By Dr. Seuss
Brown bear, brown bear, what
do you see?
By Bill Martin
Wordless picture book Rhyming one
vowel word book
Book to be used for
Shared Reading

6. Emergent Literacy Learner
Emergent literacy learners are in the developmental stage where pictures
are a key aspect to their learning. Their orthographic knowledge mainly
consists of concept sorts about the words they know and how they work
(Laureate Education, 2014c). Repeated words, such as those found in Hop on
Pop, make text easier to read (Laureate Education, 2014a). Participating in
shared reading where the teacher does the majority of the reading and the
student participation increases in word pattern is a very efficient and useful
method for literacy learning in emergent readers.

7. Modeling
Modeling shared reading for emergent
literacy learners is very crucial. Allowing
the students to read along with you
whether that be in rhyming stories or text
that has a lot of repeated phrases will
give the opportunity to verbally put
together what they are hearing and
seeing. There is great value in
participating. It shows how personally
interested the student is, how important
the task is, and how successful the
completion is to their future (Malloy,
2013, p.280)

8. Lesson for the
Emergent Literacy Learner
Introduction
I began the lesson by asking the students
why we learn to read. This got them
thinking about the purpose behind not only
the lesson but about the concept of phonics
and literacy in general. We began the
lesson by reading/looking at the wordless
picture book Pancakes for Breakfast by
Tomi dePaola. We did a pre-read by going
through the story just once to look at the
pictures and get the initial meaning of the
story. Next we went through the book
again and I asked the students to verbally
give me the words that they would write on
each page to give more meaning to the
pictures. Lastly, I had the students each be
responsible for one or two pages of the
book that they were to write the text for.
We also used this text to determine if their
listening vocabulary, their speaking
vocabulary, and their writing vocabulary
match (Reutzel and Cooter, 2016, p.258).
Applying Skills
The emergent learner that I am
observing was given HOP ON POP
by Dr. Seuss. With a partner, the
two of them quietly read this text.
I gave the students approximately
5 minutes to read with their
partner. Then we came together
as a whole group again and
discussed if we thought that
reading with text included was
more helpful and easier compared
to the wordless picture book. We
talked about how the words
transform into a clear and concise
message that the reader can
understand (Wren, 2013).
Closure
To close the lesson, we did a shared
reading as a whole class with the
book Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do
You See? by Bill Martin. This book
highlights the special sound “e” in me
that we have previous learned as well
as using two vowel rules. The
students read with me the pieces that
are repetitive where the same
question about what does the animal
see is asked again and again. The
repetition is an important phonemic
awareness concept for emergent
readers. This book was a little bit
above their reading level but it ties
the concepts of using pictures to
make meaning of the text in such a
way that they could possibly read the
majority of the book by using their
alphabetic knowledge and the
semiotic clues.

9. Assessments Used
 Question and answering
 Observation in reading
 Oral reading fluency checklist provide by our curriculum
 Metalinguistic interview (Reutzel and Cooter, 2016, p.96)
 Concepts of print assessment in framework (Wren, 2015) – I asked my
learner to identify the front and back of a book, show me where I would
begin reading, follow the words as I read, and lastly point to capital and
lowercase letters.
 Non-cognitive assessment – Interest inventory (Mariotti, n.d., p.3-7).

10. Beginning Literacy Learner
Beginning literacy learners often read words letter by letter and
participate in invented spelling in this stage (Laureate Education,
2014c). Invented spelling gives the teacher an understanding of
what they know and comes easy to them, what they may be
confused by but are attempting to use anyway, and what is
lacking from their writing (Laureate Education, 2014b).

11. Lesson for the
Beginning Literacy Learner
Becoming a Writer!
Introduction
The first step that we will
learn is that you start with
deciding on a storyline.
We began by referencing
the wordless picture book
and talked about the
words that we would write
down if we were the
author.
Appling Skills
I will then showed the
pictures of Hop On Pop by
Dr. Seuss to the students
and have them write the
words that they think go
along with the pictures. We
compared and contrasted
their words with the words
that Dr. Seuss wrote to go
along with the pictures.
Closure
I had the students each
choose a topic and write
their own story using
invented spelling. If they
had difficulty, I
differentiated the
instruction by giving them
a picture to begin to
brainstorm from.

12. Invented Spelling Example
(using Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss)
Written by my beginning literacy learner

13. Assessments Used
 One of the assessments that I used with my beginning literacy learner was the
Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) in both the initial evaluation and the
assessment at the end of the text lesson (Reutzel and Cooter, 2016, p.235).
 I assessed her accuracy, her volume and expression, the phrasing that was
used, as well as the smoothness and the pace. The results varied based on the
text that she was reading. Overall, my literacy learner had excellent word
recognition and consistently self-corrected. She words sounded like natural
language when she read and her reading was generally smooth and
continuously conversational.
 I also assessed the functional and developmental levels of her independent
writing and invented spelling. (Laureate Education, 2014b). By allowing the
students to use invented spelling, it gives students the opportunity to integrate
their knowledge of phonemic awareness (Rog, 2007, p.6).
 Non-cognitive assessment – Reader interests and self-concepts

14. Reflection
Using multiple lessons to introduce and teach subjects in reading and writing
ensures that students get the direct instruction and guided practice that is
necessary. Differentiating in the text difficulty levels encourages students to
want to achieve more (Witter, 2013, p.40). Involving their interests and
educating in accordance to the learning styles of the students will ensure
productive learning.
My emergent and beginning literacy learners each succeeded in their areas of
strengths and were able to learn efficiently in order to positively impact their
weaknesses. I was able to effectively decide which strategies and techniques
worked best with each of these learners.

15. References
DePaola, T. (1978). Pancakes for breakfast. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
Geisel, T. S. (1963). Hop on Pop, by Dr. Seuss. New York: Beginner Books.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Analyzing and selecting texts
[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014b). Assessing word knowledge
[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014c). The beginning reader [Video
file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Lundgren, J. K., & K. L. (n.d.). How Do Plants Grow? Retrieved January
31, 2016, from https://www.getepic.com/educators
Malloy, J. A., Marinak, B. A., Gambrell, L. B., & Mazzoni, S. A. (2013).
Assessing motivation to read: The motivation to read profile—
revised. The Reading Teacher, 67(4), 273–282.
Mariotti, A. P. (n. d.). Using interest inventories with struggling and
unmotivated readers.Retrieved from
http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news
updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf

16. References continued.
Martin, B., & Carle, E. (1992). Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You
See?. New York: H. Holt.
Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading
assessment and instruction: Helping every child succeed (5th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson.
Rog, L. J. (2007). Marvelous minilessons for teaching beginning
writing, K–3. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Shanahan, T. (2013). The Common Core ate my baby and other urban
legends. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/The-Common-Core-Ate-My-Baby-and-Other-
Urban-Legends.aspx
Wren, S., Litke, B., Jinkins, D., Paynter, S., Watts, J. & Alanis, I. (2013).
Cognitive elements of reading. In Cognitive Foundations of
Learning to Read: A Framework. Retrieved from
http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/elements.html