The document discusses creating a literate classroom environment. It emphasizes getting to know students individually through assessments of reading attitudes, skills, and knowledge. These assessments help teachers identify student needs and interests to guide instruction. The document also stresses exposing students to a variety of texts, including stories, informational texts, and internet texts. Implementing lessons that teach comprehension strategies and decoding skills while allowing student response and perspective fosters literacy development.

2.  The first aspect of creating a literate classroom is
getting to know the students. We must strive to get
to know our students individually by assessing their
knowledge of and attitude toward reading. The most
important goal of any type of instruction is being
loyal and faithful to the students (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2012a).

3.  Assessing Attitude and Motivation
› The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
(Liberty County Schools, 2011) can be
administered to assess a student’s attitude
toward reading.
 Research has proven that a student’s attitude toward
reading is a major factor in reading achievement
(McKenna & Kear, 1990).

4.  Assessing Cognitive Abilities
› The DIBELS assessment (University of
Oregon, 2011) can be administered to
assess a student’s acquisition of early
literacy skills.
 The data collected from this assessment is used to make
instructional decisions that will benefit the students
(Tompkins, 2010).
 The skills that a student acquires in phonemic awareness
and phonics determines the child’s ability to decode and
read words (Tompkins, 2010).

5.  How does getting to know your
student’s create a literate
environment?
› The data that is collected from these assessments helps me
determine who needs additional support and in what areas.
› The information from the attitude survey gives me the
opportunity to gear my instruction toward topics that I know
will interest my students.
› The assessment results give me concrete evidence to share
with others at RTI meetings and conferences.

6.  Choosing the appropriate texts for
students is important. Students need
to be introduced to a read a variety of
texts including both stories and
informational texts (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010b).

7. Informational Texts
› Students need to be given many opportunities to read and
learn about informational texts in the early years of literacy
instruction (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).
› The future success of each child is influenced by his or her
ability to understand informational texts especially when
entering the third and fourth grades (Duke, 2004).
› Most of the texts that are read by adults are informational
texts whose main purpose is to provide information (Duke,
2004).

8. Internet Texts
› There are many opportunities for students to broaden their
reading experiences by allowing access to Internet texts
(Castek, Bevans-Mangelson, & Goldstone, 2006).
› Allowing students the opportunity to access reading material
through the Internet increases motivation for reading as
well as develops skills that will be necessary in the digital
future (Castek, Bevans-Mangelson, & Golstone, 2006).

9.  How does selecting the appropriate
texts help to create a literate
environment?
› Selecting texts that will interest students will build their
motivation for reading.
› Texts should not be too easy or too difficult but should fall
into the student’s instructional reading level (Tompkins,
2010).
› Allowing students to read a variety of material in the early
years will prepare students for the future.

10.  Students will build upon early literacy instruction
throughout their lives to become learners who
are able to fluently read material and
understand what they are reading. Educators
must teach students how to become strategic
readers who are able to decode words, read with
expression, and comprehend the material
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c).

11.  The lesson plan that I created allowed
me to help students begin to use a
comprehension strategy, prediction, to
understand the story they read
(Tompkins, 2010). The students were
also introduced to a sound-blending
activity that allowed them to decode
unfamiliar words (Tompkins, 2010).

12.  Introduction/Anticipatory Set
› The students will activate background knowledge by discussing
different animals and listing information that is already known. The
students will practice blending the phonemes to words containing
the short /i/ sound. The students will predict what events will
occur in the story.
 Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills
› The students will participate in a shared reading of the text.
 Synthesis/Closure
› The students will create a drawing describing what events took
place in the story as well as other things that pigs can do. The
students will write two sentences containing words that contain the
short /i/ sound.

13.  How did this lesson help to create
a literate environment?
› By implementing this lesson plan in my classroom, I was
able to teach my students the comprehension strategy,
predicting, in a way that maintained their attention.
› I was also able to teach a sound blending strategy that
my students will be able to use in the future to decode
words.

14.  Critical Perspective
› Teaching students how to examine texts from
multiple perspectives is important for complete
understanding (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d).
 Response Perspective
› Allowing students the opportunity to experience
texts that can change their lives in some way is
essential (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010e).

15.  The lesson plan that I created allowed me to
discuss with my students a negative situation
that was occurring in my classroom. I was
able to do this without pointing any fingers
at specific students. The students were
given the opportunity to share their emotions
and reactions as well as model different ways
to deal with the situation.

16.  Introduction/Anticipatory Set
› The students will activate background knowledge by discussing
what they already know about bullies. The students will describe
any encounters they have had with a bully.
 Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills
› The students will participate in a shared reading of the text. The
students will pause occasionally to discuss what events have
occurred and their thoughts about the bully’s actions.
 Synthesis/Closure
› The students will discuss the effects of the bully’s actions on the
characters in the story. The students will use hand puppets or
costumes to act out situations in which another student is being a
bully.

17.  How did this lesson help to create
a literate environment?
› By implementing this lesson in my classroom, I allowed
my students the opportunity to take a deeper look at
the story and its meaning.
› The students were given the opportunity to make
connections between the story and their personal lives.
› The students were given the opportunity to share
their emotions about the events in the text.

18.  Castek, J., Bevans-Mangelson, J., & Goldstone, B. (2006). Reading adventures online: Five
ways to introduce the new literacies of the internet through children’s literature.
The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 714–728.
 Duke, N. (2004). The case for informational text. Educational Leadership, 61(6), 40–44.
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010A). Week 1: Changes in Literacy
Education [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Week 3: Informational text in the
early years. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Week 5: Interactive perspective:
Strategic processing. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010d). Week 6: Critical perspective.
[Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
 Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010e). Week 6: Response perspective.
[Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
 Liberty County School System. (2011). Elementary reading attitude survey. Retrieved from
http://www.liberty.k12.ga.us/jwalts/reading%20materials/Elementary%20Reading%2
0Attitude%20Survey.pdf.
 McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626–639.
 Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston,
MA: Allyn & Bacon.
 University of Oregon. (2011). DIBELS. Retrieved from
https://dibels.uoregon.edu/dibelsinfo.php.