Power point about literacy environment in a PreK-3rd grade classroom.

1. PreK-3rd Grade Literacy Learners
A GUIDE TO THE LITERACY ENRICHED CLASSROOM
BY: NANCY SUMMEROUR

2. Essential Question
How do I teach
learners at the PreK-3
levels?

3. Getting to know your learner
 Knowing your learner will help guide your instruction. It will
help you create an appropriate literacy environment.
 How do you get to know your learner?
 There are 2 ways: Cognitive Assessment and Noncognitive
Assessment

4. What are Cognitive Assessments?
 Cognitive assessments will give you an idea of what skills your student has. It will
show a snapshot of what they are able to do.
 Examples of Cognitive Assessments:
 Dibels
 Pre-Assessments
 Running Records

5. What are Non-Cognitive Assessments?
 Noncognitive assessments allow you to see a student’s likes and dislikes.
 Examples of Noncognitive Assessments:
 Reading Inventories
 Reading Questionnaires (Mariotti, n.d.)
 Student Interviews

6. What is unique about the Emergent Learner?
 Things to focus on with your
emergent reader:
 Concepts of print
 Content specific vocabulary
 Phonics
 Decoding
 Retelling/Recalling
When looking for books for your Emergent Reader:
• Each page displays the print in the same place
• Sentences are written in a pattern (1-2 sentences
repeated)
• Illustrations provide support for the text
• Contains familiar objects (e.g. dog, letters of the
alphabet ) and experiences (e.g. going to school)
• Contains and repeats high frequency words
(sightwordgames.com, n.d.)

7. What is unique about the Beginning Reader?
 Things to focus on with
your Beginning Reader:
 Vocabulary
 Higher Order Thinking
 Phonemic Awareness
Activities that could benefit the Beginning Reader:
• Close reading activities
• Think-Pair-Share
• 4-square writing
• Digital Texts

8. Text Selection
 Texts must be active, engaging, and allow students to collaborate (Reutzel &
Cooter, 2016).
 Informational vs. Narrative
 Literacy Matrix for analyzing texts (Laureate Education, 2014)
 Semiotic (more pictures) or Linguistic (more words)
 Text Difficulty
 Exposing students to both types of books on the same subject allows them to
compare and contrast new information that they learn.

9. Emergent Learner Lesson Plan
 Pre-Assessment: Whole Group Discussion
 During Reading
 A lot of hand motions to remember key vocabulary words.
 Modeling how to read a sentence.
 Showing a lot of pictures and visuals to help them understand.
 After Reading
 Recalling information read
 Transitioned to scaffold 4-square writing

10. Beginning Learner Lesson Plan
 Pre-Assessment: Activating their Schema (Laureate Education, 2014e)
 During Reading
 Picking out content specific vocabulary
 Modeling how to read fluently
 Visuals to help support understanding
 After Reading
 4-square writing with little scaffolding
 Comparing and Contrasting between 2 books

11. Moving Ahead
 All learners need modeling. They learn what they see.
 Literacy gets them thinking (Laureate Education, 2014d)
 Assessments (Cognitive and Noncognitive) will help steer your instruction
 While you may start in small group to help focus on skills, as they grow in their reading
ability they can transition to student centered groups.
 Practice makes perfect. Find out what fits for your classroom and student needs.

12. References
 All About Early Emergent Readers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2016, from
http://www.sightwordsgame.com/httpwww-sightwordsgame-sundry/all-about-early-emergent-readers/
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014d). Beginning writing, conversations with Ray Reutzel[Audio file]. Baltimore,
MD: Author.
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Analyzing and selecting texts [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
 Log In. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2016, from
https://www.mclasshome.com/mobilelogin/educator_login?login_type=traditional
 Mariotti, A. P. (n. d.). Using interest inventories with struggling and unmotivated readers. Retrieved
fromhttp://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news-updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf
 Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child
succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.