A synthesis of many practices in education including interactive, responsive, and critical perspectives as well as the importance of the Literacy Matrix.

1. *
By Valerie Mitchell
February 16, 2014

2. Outline
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3. *
“The greatest gift is a passion for reading.”
-Elizabeth Hardwick

4. *
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To teach a student to read and meet all of his/her
literacy needs, first we must understand who the
reader is as a whole child.
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We do this through exploring the students:
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Cognitive aspects of literacy development
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Non-cognitive aspects of literacy development

5. What I Have Learned
* We need to get to know the whole child and get to know their
identity as a student and their background knowledge (Laureate
Education, 2010a).
* When teaching a student, it is important not to assume anything
about the child as a reader and how they view reading in and
out of school.
* “How an individual feels about herself/himself as a reader could
clearly influence whether reading would be sought or avoided–
and how persistently comprehension would be pursued” (Henk
& Melnick, 1995, p. 472).
* Thus, it is important, as a teacher, to know what your students’
cognitive aspects of literacy development are so you can create
the literacy environment that is best suited for each student.

6. * Assessing Motivation to Read pp. 520-525
* (McKenna & Kear, 1990)
* Measuring Attitudes Toward Reading
pp. 630-634 (Henk & Melnik, 1995)
* Student Interest Inventory
* Conversations with the Student
Ways to Find Out About Non-Cognitive
Aspects of Students’ Literacy
Development

7. What I Have Learned
* It’s important to find out about a student’s cognitive
aspect of literacy development, determine where
the student is with his/her instructional reading level
* Possible Areas to Assess
Concepts about Print
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Word Recognition
Word Identification
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Writing
Spelling

8. *
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Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS):
Assesses:
* Phonemic Awareness
* Phonics
* Fluency
* Comprehension
* Accuracy
Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS):
Assesses:
* Phonemic Awareness
* Word Identification
* Spelling
Developmental Reading Assessments (DRA’s)
Assesses:
* Comprehension
* Fluency
* Accuracy

9. Field Experience:
Getting to Know Your Literacy Learner
By Valerie Mitchell
* A brief analysis of my experience in the classroom
with assessing cognitive and non-cognitive aspects
of the reader

10. Literacy Matrix
through words
Narrative
Linguistic: Messages
Informational Text
Semiotic: communicating
messages through other
forms than words
-(Laureate Education, 2010b)

11. *
*Locating a book on the X axis: The closer to the
“Narrative” side will be books that follow a story
structure with characters, plot, and setting. The closer
to the “Informational Text” side will be books with text
features and non-fiction literature
*Locating a book on the Y axis: The closer to the
“Linguistic” side the book will relay its thoughts and
messages through words. The closer to the “Semiotic”
side will be books that convey its messages through
forms other than words; such as pictures and text
features
-(Laureate Education, 2010b)

12. *
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Careful selection of student text is one of the most important
supporting tools for proper implementation of effective
units. Purposefully selecting text is crucial for balanced
literacy and for precise selection of books based on the
desired lesson.
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Considerations for Analyzing Text:
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Narrative Text
Informational Text
Poetry
Basal Reading Textbooks
Internet Resources

13. •
Three Dimensions of Difficulty
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Readability
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Be aware of artificial inflated readability
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Multisyllabic words repeated multiple time will give the text a higher reading
level
Student’s background knowledge with the subject
Text Length
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Some authors use connective words and those that don’t make the text harder
to read
Print Size
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Struggling readers might be discouraged by this
Text Structure
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Unique words that appear only once
Large doesn’t always mean the text is easier to read and small doesn’t always
mean the text is harder to read
Visual Support
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Does the reader know how to read and understand the text features and
pictures?
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(Laureate Education, 2010b)

14. *
Selecting Text for the Literacy Block
By Valerie Mitchell
•
A brief analysis of my experience in the
classroom with purposeful selection of
literary text based on the Literacy Matrix

15. •
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Interactive Perspective
Critical Perspective
Response Perspective

16. •
Teaches children to be a strategic
processor and thinker about text
and the world around them.
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The ultimate goal of the Interactive
Perspective is to teach children
how to be literate learners who
can navigate the textual world
independently.
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(Laureate Education, 2010c)

17. •
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Visualizing
Summarizing
Predicting
Questioning
Schema
Word Families
Text Structure
Word Attack Strategies
Goal: To be metacognitive about attacking reading skills
and strategies.

18. •
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Modeling, Modeling, Modeling
Class Discussion
Cooperative Learning
Graphic Organizers
Scaffolding
Purposefully Selected Text

19. Critical Perspective teaching students how to
critically examine text (Laureate Education,
2010d).
• Who created the text
• What beliefs they may or may not have had when
creating the text
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Was the author male or female
What was the authors emotions about the subject
What’s the moral or message the author tried to
convey

20. •
Response Perspective allows the children
the opportunity to experience the text and
respond to the text (Laureate Education,
2010d).
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The way the reader thoughtfully responds
to the text is the overall outcome and what
the reader “took away” from the story.
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How the reader responded to the moral or
message of the text.

21. *
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Journaling
Collages
Me Bags
Write a letter from a different perspective
Write a Song
Act out characters from different perspective
Debates
Persuasive Letters

22. Insight gained about literacy and literacy instruction:
• How class discussion is involved to help the reader
understand the text better.
• “I also liked how the students is able to select their
own text to help them become more interested in
reading.”
• I also liked how involved a student can become in
their text they selected by the response perspective.
•
•
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(Bradshaw, 2014)
“Its important to use the matrix to help you choose
the content books in the classroom” (Post, 2014).
“How important it is to use different tools for
students to be interactive with lessons and engaged
in the response perspective” (Dale, 2014)

23. How might the information presented change your literacy practices
and/or your literacy interactions with students?
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“The information will help me, as a parent, to let my child choose his own
text and help him get more involved with what he’s interested in so he
develops a deeper love for reading” (Bradshaw, 2014).
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“I was reminded, again, of the importance of choice for our students. For
example, choice of books and the choice of how they show what they
know” (Post, 2014).
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“I will be more aware of the types of books I present or select with kids. I
need to me more aware of the Literacy Matrix to help guide my text
selection” (Dale, 2014).

24. •
“You can support me by keeping up with the reading strategies
and continue to allow students to read more books of their
interest. I will help you by continual communication and I will
give my child more choice at home” (Bradshaw, 2014).
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“You can help me to be more strategic in teaching the strategies”
(Post, 2014).
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“We can share great books and the purpose of why we are using
them. We can bounce ideas off of each other to be able to get
quality lessons and projects” (Dale, 2014).
Questions:
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“How do we keep updated on current practices? Where do we
find the information?” (Post, 2014)

25. Resources:
Bradshaw, B. (2014, February 20). Interview by V Mitchell [].
Reflection on presentation.
Dale, K. (2014, February 20). Interview by V Mitchell [].
Reflection on presentation.
Developmental reading assessment. (2014). Retrieved from http://
www.pearsonschool.com
Dynamic indicator of basic early literacy skills. (2014). Retrieved from
https://dibels.uoregon.edu
Henk, W., & Melnick, S. (1995). The reader self-perception scarle(rsps): A new tool
for measuring how children feel about themselves as readers. The
Reading Teacher, 48(6), 470-482.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Getting to know your
students [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Analyzing & Selecting Text
[Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com

26. Resources Continued:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Interactive Perspective:
Strategic Processing [Video webcast]. Retrieved from
http://www.courseurl.com
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010d). Perspectives on Literacy
Learning[Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new
tool for teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626-639
Phonological awareness literacy screening. (2007). Retrieved from http://
pals.virginia.edu
Post, M. (2014, February 20). Interview by V Mitchell [].
Reflection on presentation.