Literate Environment Analysis

Literate Environment Analysis
By Karen LaPointe

The following presentation will examine the Framework for
Literacy Instruction as outlined by Dr. Douglas K. Hartman
(Laureate: Changes in Literacy Education, 2009), which assists
teachers in selecting assessment opportunities, texts, and
instructional practices for effective instruction across three literacy
perspectives: interactive, response, and critical.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners
Pre-K through grade 3

Key Points: Supporting Research
• Students will have more effective early • In Literacy Autobiographies (Laureate,
literacy experiences when they are 2009), adults shared memories and
provided with: incidents involving literacy that had
– Engaging and interesting materials impacted their experience.
– Support and assistance when they • Tompkins (2010) states that researchers
are having difficulty recommend teachers use a variety of
• Ongoing assessments are necessary in formal and informal assessment tools to
order to make sure that the above assess student reading levels, progress,
requirements are met. strengths, and weaknesses in order to
better provide for their academic needs.
– Cognitive assessments discover
academic areas in which students • A number of research studies, as cited
need more support by Gambrell et al. (1996) state that
“students who believe they are capable
– Non-cognitive assessments access and competent readers are more likely
student interests, motivation, and to outperform those who do not hold
attitudes such beliefs,” (p. 518).

Analysis: Getting to Know Literacy Learners
Assessing literacy skills of three students: James,” an ESL student with a suspected developmental delay in the
area of communication, “Patty,” a typically developing child, and “Ethan,” a child suspected to have autism
(pseudonyms)
Cognitive and non-cognitive measures
• The CAP test answer sheet (Tompkins, 2010, p. 113) was used to evaluate
understanding of:
– Book orientation concepts:
• James: Mastered
• Patty: Mastered
• Ethan: Emerging
– Letter concepts:
• James: Can name some letters
• Patty: Can name some letters
• Ethan: Can name all letters
– Word concepts:
• James: No skills yet
• Patty: No skills yet
• Ethan: Understands where words start and end, can read few
words (wow, cat, etc.)
– Directionality concepts:
• James: Understands left/right directionality
• Patty: Understands left/right and top/bottom directionality
• Ethan: No skills yet
• Informal classroom observation and parent interviews were used to evaluate students’ motivation, preferences, methods,
and interests:
– James: Sometimes looks at books during free time, only if there are other children already reading, prefers to read
one on one with a teacher, but sometimes sits with Patty while she is looking at a familiar book.
– Patty: Enjoys looking at books and chooses to reading during free play time activities often. Likes to pretend that she
is reading to the class, repeating memorized phrases from familiar books. Enjoys reading alone, with peers, or with a
teacher.
– Ethan: Enjoys looking at books, words, letters, and pictures, but does not seem understand a story. Enjoys using a
magnadoodle one on one with a teacher, usually wanting her to write or draw as he names the letters or pictures.

Selecting Texts
• Ensure a balanced program of • Dr. Douglas Hartman (Laureate, Analyzing and
literacy experiences by learning to Selecting Texts, 2009) gives an outline for a literacy
identify and categorize texts. matrix, in which he suggests teachers use as an
outline for balancing the types of materials used in
• Texts need to be highly engaging
a given program. Texts are categorized as to the
for two reasons:
level of difficulty, as narrative or informational, and
– To maximize the potential for as linguistic or semiotic.
student learning
– To avoid problem behaviors
stemming from disinterest or
frustration.

Analysis: Selecting Texts
(Example: baby/mother animal theme.)

The third dimension, level of difficulty, as been left
out of this chart because preschool students will
not actually be reading and decoding these texts
themselves.

*

*An online reading of a text has been included
(www.storylineonline.net) as a way to expose student
to a different interface and increase motivation.

The Interactive Perspective
DEFINITION:

A strategic and metacognitive understanding of the
five pillars of literacy: phonics, phonemics,
fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary,
(Laureate: Changes in Literacy Education, 2009).

The Interactive Perspective
• The goal of the interactive perspective of • Emergent literacy is “the literacy
literacy is to “teach children how to be development that children are engaged in
literate learners who can navigate the textual before formal instruction,” (Laureate:
world independently,” (Laureate: Interactive Perspectives on Early Literacy, 2009), and
Perspective: Strategic Processing, 2009). includes oral language, alphabetic code, and
• Exposure to and gaining an interest in text print knowledge and concepts.
and language is the foundation of early
literacy learning in the interactive
perspective.
• Effective implementation of this perspective • Use of metacognition enables early readers
involves: to learn to choose the best and most
– The mechanics, or “five pillars” of effective strategy for decoding and
reading (phonics, phonemic awareness, understanding any given text (Laureate:
fluency, comprehension, and Interactive Perspective: Strategic Processing,
vocabulary) 2009).
– A repertoire of instructional strategies
that will help students understand how
to obtain information from text.
– Students’ functional use of
metacognitive strategies.

Analysis: Interactive Perspective
Lesson Materials:
Text: (Now I Know) What Makes the Weather by Janet Palazzo-Craig

Dry erase board and two different-colored markers

Lesson Foundations
State/District Standards:
• This lesson addresses the IEP goals for expressive and receptive language development.
• Early Learning Content Standards for English/Language Arts (Ohio Department of Education, 2010)
– Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition and Fluency for Early Childhood Indicator 7: “Recognize that words are made up of letters,” (p. 13)
– Acquisition of Vocabulary for Early Childhood Indicator 3: “Name items in common categories (e.g., animals, food, clothing, transportation,
etc.)”, (p. 14)
– Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood Indicator 3: “Begin to
distinguish print from pictures,” (p. 16)
– Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood Indicator 6: “Connect
information or ideas in text to prior knowledge and experience,” (p. 16)
– Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood Indicator 7: “Answer literal
questions to demonstrate comprehension of orally read age-appropriate texts,” (p. 16)
– Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood Indicator 8: “Respond to oral
reading by commenting or questioning,” (p. 17)
Learning Objectives: Because these three students have very different backgrounds and needs, I have differentiated the lesson objectives in order to match
the student’s appropriate skill level.
• James will identify one or more idea as prior knowledge, with verbal prompting as needed, and identify one or more concepts in the book as relating to
the theme of weather (i.e. rain, clouds, storm, etc.) no prompting.
• Patty will identify one or more idea as prior knowledge and one or more idea as new knowledge, with no prompting.
• Ethan will identify two or more concepts in the book as relating to the theme of weather (i.e. rain, clouds, storm, etc.) with no more than two verbal or
gestural prompts.
• All students will participate in the activity with two or more verbal responses, with prompting as needed.
Adaptations for ELLs, Students with Special Needs, and/or Struggling Readers:
• James (language delay): and Ethan (suspected autism, language delay) will be given verbal and/or gestural prompting as needed to participate.
Perspective(s) addressed in this lesson (Interactive, Critical, and/or Response): Interactive Perspective
Grouping structures (one-on-one, small group, whole class):
• This is a small group activity with three students: “James,” an ESL student with a suspected developmental delay in the area of communication, “Patty,”
a typically developing child, and “Ethan,” a child suspected to have autism (pseudonyms)
Age/Grade Range; Developmental Level(s): Preschool special education
Anticipated Lesson Duration: 15 minutes
Curricular Focus, Theme, or Subject Area: The weather

Lesson Procedure I used sign language to prompt my students
to name different types of weather.
Introduction/Anticipatory Set
• Question to students: “What do you know about the rain?”
• Students verbalize their ideas, with prompting. (Prompting
questions: “Where does the rain come from? What do we
wear in the rain? Is rain wet or dry?” etc.)
• The teacher writes a word for each idea (i.e. umbrella) on
the dry-erase board, saying the letters out loud, and
drawing a little picture/symbol by each idea so the
students can have a visual reminder of what they said, as
well as see their idea in text.
• The teacher leads a picture walk to get an idea of the
subject matter and to raise questions about what we might
learn, asking leading questions about what they think the
pictures mean, so that the students can think about finding
the answers as the book is being read.
Assessment: I will be able to see what kind of
background and concept knowledge my
students have by what they volunteer. Students
do not choose to volunteer information may be
feeling shy about not knowing about the
subject, or apprehensive about their language
ability, and either way should be identified and
watched more closely during the following
activity to make sure they can understand and
follow the lesson.


My students’ prior knowledge about
the weather:
– Snow (James)
– Rain (James)
– Sun (Patty)
– Wind (Patty)
– Clouds (all students, with prompts)
– “Friends can play in the snow”
(Patty)

Lesson Procedure
Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills
• The teacher reads the book aloud.
• Students and teacher will add to the dry erase board as
new information arises from the book.
• The teacher employs “echo reading”- or echo listening,
rather- for words, phrases, and short sentences
(Tompkins, 2010, p. 430).
• Assessment opportunity: observation of skills.
– A read-aloud allows students exposure to
language structure, vocabulary, and
pronunciation.
– With prompting and modeling from the teacher,
the students will begin to identify new Synthesis/Closure
knowledge to add to their schema.
• The teacher reviews the items on the board, prompting
– When students echo modeled speech, they are students to name them, and tell whether they were
practicing their expressive language and things that we knew before reading the book or new
articulation skills while at the same time. things that we just learned.
• Assessment: This will serve to tie in the new
information with the old, and the teacher can observe
whether the students (a.) remember which information
they already knew and which they just learned from
the book, (b.) can connect the pictures on the board to
the ideas we talked about, and (c.) recognize and name
any letters/ sounds from the words on the board.

My students’ new learning about the
weather from the book that was read:
– Weather comes from the sky
– The sun gives us heat
– Rainbows
– Puddles
– Fog
– Snow is cold

The Response and Critical Perspectives
DEFINITIONS:

The response perspective: “reading, reacting, and responding to
text in a variety of meaningful ways,”

The critical perspective: “Judging, evaluating, and thinking
critically about text,”

The Response and Critical Perspectives
• The ability to think critically about and • Dr. Janice Almasi (Laureate, 2009) states
respond to a text is an academic skill that the importance of the responding
that will benefit students throughout meaningfully to text- as opposed to simply
their educational careers and beyond. reading for comprehension- is the
difference between interaction and
transaction; i.e. a student can get a much
• If students were not introduced to deeper understanding if they access their
critical and response perspectives until prior knowledge, connect the subject
their later educational years, they would matter with important aspects of their
find themselves ill-equipped to produce lives, and critically think about what
the level of abstract thinking that is implications their new knowledge has for
involved in thinking critically about text. their schema.
• Homeyer states (as cited in Molden, 2007)
that “comprehension used to be our
• Even students in the emergent literacy
ultimate goal, but now it’s the point at
stage can begin to respond to text in a
which we begin our critical discussions,” (p.
meaningful way. 51). Thus, critical analysis is more
important to the modern reader than
simple comprehension.

Analysis: Critical and Response Perspectives
Lesson Materials:
Book (Splish, Splash by Marcia Leonard)

Storyboard: Copied/ laminated picture-pages from book

An original checklist with which to keep track of the skills you are
hoping to cultivate. Include a space for page numbers, student
initials, skill you want to assess, number of prompts, and comments.

Lesson Foundations:
State/District Standards:
• This lesson addresses the IEP goals for expressive and receptive language development.
• Early Learning Content Standards for English/Language Arts (Ohio Department of Education, 2010)
– Acquisition of Vocabulary for Early Childhood Indicator 3: “Name items in common categories (e.g., animals, food, clothing,
transportation, etc.)”, (p. 14)
– Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood Indicator 6: “Connect
information or ideas in text to prior knowledge and experience,” (p. 16)
– Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies for Early Childhood Indicator 8: “Respond
to oral reading by commenting or questioning,” (p. 17)
Learning Objectives: Because these three students have very different backgrounds and needs, I have differentiated the lesson objectives in order to
match the student’s appropriate skill level.
• James will make two or more predictions about the text, with no more than one teacher prompt each time.
• Patty will make two or more predictions about the text, and speculate about why the girl makes the choices she did.
• Ethan will make one or more predictions about the text, with teacher prompting as required.
Adaptations for ELLs, Students with Special Needs, and/or Struggling Readers:
• James (language delay): Will be paired with Patty to collaborate on the story-board sequence activity
• Ethan (suspected autism, language delay): Will have one-on-one time with the teacher to sequence the story-board, after watching the other
two children
Perspective(s) addressed in this lesson (Interactive, Critical, and/or Response):
• Critical and Response Perspectives
Grouping structures (one-on-one, small group, whole class):
• This is a small group activity with three students: “James,” an ESL student with a suspected developmental delay in the area of communication,
“Patty,” a typically developing child, and “Ethan,” a child suspected to have autism (pseudonyms)
Age/Grade Range; Developmental Level(s): Preschool (3 year olds, some with developmental disabilities)
Curricular Focus, Theme, or Subject Area: The weather (rain)
Anticipated Lesson Duration: 10-15 minutes

Lesson Procedure:
Introduction/Anticipatory Set
• We will review the theme that we have been talking about for the past two weeks (weather, and specifically the rain),
and discuss all the things that we have learned about the rain from books we have read thus far, including what to
wear in the rain, where the rain comes from, what kinds of things happen during a storm, etc.
• Assessment: I will be able to take some informal notes about the information that the students were able to
volunteer on my checklist.
Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills
• Strategies: Story board activity utilizing elements of a think-aloud procedure (Tompkins, 2010)
• I will read the story aloud, pausing at each page and asking students what they think will come next for the first few
pages. After they have made a few predictions with prompting, I will simply pause after reading a page and see
whether they will continue to make predictions, or need continued prompting.
• After reading the story, we will go back and look at some of the pictures as I pose critical thinking questions:
– “Who do you think the girl in the pictures is? And who might have taken the pictures of her?”
– “Why do you think she threw her shirt in the air? Do you think she got in trouble? Would you get in trouble if
you threw your shirt at home?”
• I will then bring out the story-board pictures, and demonstrate to the students how to put them in order on the
bookshelf by doing the first two pages as a think-aloud procedure (Tompkins, 2010) in which I ask myself questions and
look to the students to help me answer them from information that they remember or their own schema of rain, wet
clothing, and getting ready for a bath.
• Student answers to questions will be recorded, marking their understanding of concepts.
• Assessment: An original checklist will be used to show when students made predictions, how many prompts were
given, and whether their predictions were logical, given the previous information. This checklist will give the
measurable data with which to judge whether the learning objectives have been met. The comments section is
where I will jot down their answers to the critical thinking questions (above).

Lesson Procedure:
Synthesis/Closure
• Students will have the opportunity to put the story board in order by themselves (Patty and
James working together with minimal teacher prompting, and Ethan one-on-one with the
teacher after observing his peers)

• Assessment: Through observation of the story board activity, the teacher will be able to
see whether the students can (a.) recall the sequence of the story, and (b.) use problem
solving and predicting to determine the order if they have not memorized each page.

Reference
Association for the Developmentally Disabled. "The Dahlberg Learning Center.“ Photo. ADD.
[http://addohio.org/Dahlberg.htm].
Cannon, Janell. (1993). Stellaluna. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.
Coupe, R., Flint, H., Ryan, D. (2008). My First Book of Animals.Sydney, Austrailia: Weldon Owen Pty Ltd.
DK Publishing. (1999). Touch and Feel Baby Animals. New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd.
Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The
Reading Teacher, 49(7), 518-533.
Molden, K. (2007). Critical literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: Strategies to move beyond
comprehension for reading improvement. Reading Improvement, 44(1), 50-56.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). The Beginning Reader, PreK-3 [Webcast]. Changes in
Literacy Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). The Beginning Reader, PreK-3 [Webcast]. Interactive
Perspective: Strategic Processing. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). The Beginning Reader, PreK-3 [Webcast]. Literacy
Autobiographies. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). The Beginning Reader, PreK-3 [Webcast]. Perspectives
on Early Literacy. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Ohio Department of Education. (2010). Early Learning Content Standards. Retrieved from:
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=1389&ContentID=1629&Content=83592.
The Screen Actor’s Guild Foundation: Storyline Online. (n.d.). Stellaluna as read by Pamela Reed [Motion
Picture]. Retrieved from www.storylineonline.net.
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Wild, Margaret. (2004). Piglet and Mama. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.
Wild, Margaret & Strevens-Marzo, Bridget. (2006). Kiss Kiss. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

Literate Environment Analysis

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (12)

Similar to Literate Environment Analysis

Similar to Literate Environment Analysis (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Literate Environment Analysis