The document discusses creating a literate environment for students in pre-K through 3rd grade. It emphasizes the importance of getting to know individual students in order to best support their literacy development. Teachers should learn about students' backgrounds, interests, and identities to select texts that appeal to them and facilitate instructional practices like read-alouds that foster engagement. The document also provides a framework for literacy instruction that addresses cognitive and affective needs through interactive, critical, and response-based perspectives. Overall, the key aspects of a literate environment include knowing students well on an individual level and using instructional strategies that account for their unique experiences and identities.

1. Creating a Literate
Environment
By Melissa Zielezinski
EDUC 6706
The Beginning Reader-PreK-3
Walden University
December 15, 2013

2. A Literate Environment
• In order to have a literate environment in a classroom, the most
important goal needs to be commitment to the students and not
to the program, which includes having their best interests at
heart and making decisions that will help them succeed and be
successful readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2011)
• Having students‟ best interests at heart means getting to know
the students better- allowing an enhanced connection to texts
that will impact them in profound ways.
• An effective literate environment will also have literacy
instruction which includes the interactive, critical, and response
perspectives.

3. Framework for Literacy Instruction
Learners
Affective and cognitive aspects of
literacy learning
Texts
Instructional Practices
Text structures, types, genres, and
Developmentally appropriate
difficulty levels matched to literacy research-based practices used with
learners and literacy goals and
appropriate texts to facilitate
objectives
affective and cognitive aspects of
literacy development in all learners
Use a variety of informal and formal Determine texts of the appropriate
Use instructional methods that
assessments to determine areas of types and levels of difficulty to meet address the cognitive and affective
Reading and writing accurately,
strength and need in literacy
literacy goals and objectives for needs of students and the demands
fluently, and with comprehension
development.
students.
of the particular text.
Being strategic and metacognitive
Promote students' independent use
readers and writers
of reading strategies and skills.
Interactive Perspective
Critical Perspective
Judging, evaluating, and thinking
critically about text
Response Perspective
Reading, reacting, and responding
to text in a variety of meaningful
ways
Find out about ideas, issues, and
Select texts that provide
Foster a critical stance by teaching
problems that matter to students. opportunities for students to judge, students how to judge, evaluate,
Understand the learner as a unique
evaluate, and think critically.
and think critically about texts.
individual.
Find out about students' interests
Select texts that connect to
Provide opportunities for students to
and identities.
students' identities and/or interests
read, react, and formulate a
Understand what matters to
and that have the potential to evoke
personal response to text.
students and who they are as
an emotional or personal response.
individuals.

4. I. Getting to Know Literacy Learners (PreK-3)
All people have experiences that shape themselves as literate
beings.
Analysis
• Getting to know readers includes discovering what kind of
background knowledge they bring with them to the
classroom and identifying students as readers, writers, and
speakers, rather than running into preconceived ideas.
• The information can be obtained in many ways- students
each bring in [five] objects from home and talk with the class
about them, Reading Inventories, etc.
• Conducting activities to get to know students better also
helps with instruction and creates a positive rapport between
teacher and student- which lets the student know they are
important.

5. Research-Based Practices
• Reading Inventories
– Part of instruction: observations, anecdotal
notes, conferences, checklists, rubrics, running
records
Research
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011).
Literacy autobiographies [Video webcast].
Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/fram
eset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebap
ps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Fty
pe%3DCourse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011).
Getting to know your students [Video webcast].
Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/fram
eset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebap
ps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Fty
pe%3DCourse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
– Published: Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI),
Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA),
Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS)

6. II. Selecting Texts
• Analysis
– A Literacy Matrix is a tool that allows
teachers to take texts they are using with
their students and map them on the matrix,
in order to ensure a full balance of the kinds
of materials students are engaging with.
– Consider the difficulty of the text:
readability, text length, text structure, size of
print, and visual support.
NarrativeLinguistic
InformationalLinguistic
NarrativeSemiotic
InformationalSemiotic
– The matrix is helpful in connecting what is
being done with other things in the
classroom and in student learning; it keeps
the goals of the teacher in focus.
• Research
– Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011).
Analyzing and selecting texts [Video
webcast]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/
frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%
2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fl
auncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4067
480_1%26url%3D

7. III. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
The ultimate goal of the Interactive Perspective is to teach children how to be literate learners
who can navigate the textual world independently.
• Analysis
– The Interactive Perspective involves not only
teaching children how to read but also how
to become strategic thinkers.
– Strategic Processing is strung through the
five pillars and includes being
metacognitive about strategy use and
being reflective and self-regulating.
– Developing a child’s language and literacy:
–
Reading aloud to children
–
Read aloud in small groups
–
Provide fiction and non-fiction books
–
Extend children‟s vocabularies
–
Engage in „extended discourse‟ with children
–
Use direct instruction when appropriate
–
Teach alphabet and sounds of letters
–
Provide a print-rich environment
–
Infuse literacy throughout the curriculum
• Research-Based Practices
– Read-alouds
– Shared Reading
–
Provides opportunities for the teacher
to promote students‟ literacy
development across the five pillars:
phonemic awareness, phonics,
fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension
–
Great opportunity for teacher to
model the reading process
– Word Study

8. IV. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspective
Critical Perspective:
•
Being able to look at text and:
–
–
•
Examine it from multiple perspectives
Critically evaluate the text
“Critical literacy is defined as not only a
teaching method but a way of thinking
and a way of being that challenges texts
and life” (Molden, 2007, p. 50).
Research Strategies:
• Response and character journals,
using problem posing questions, story
mapping, mind portraits, cloze
exercises
Response Perspective:
• Provides literacy experiences that will
affect students on a personal and
emotional level
• Reader Response Theory
– Interaction with Text: reader and text
interact with each other, no
impression made, but a path is
created
– Transaction with Text: reader and text
interact with each other; the paths
are changed and the reader is
changed by the experience and
transformed by the text
• The Reader Response Perspective is
all about TRANSFORMATION

9. References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Analyzing and selecting texts [Video webcast].
Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flaunche
r%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011) Critical literacy [Video webcast]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCo
urse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Getting to know your students [Video webcast]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCo
urse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Literacy autobiographies [Video webcast]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCo
urse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Response perspective [Video webcast]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCo
urse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D
McKenna, M.C., & Kear, D.J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626-639.
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.
Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Walden University. (2013). Framework for literacy instruction. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCo
urse%26id%3D_4067480_1%26url%3D#global-nav-flyout

10. Feedback
from Colleagues and Family Members of Students
~What insights did you gain about literacy and literacy
instruction from viewing the presentation?
~How might the information presented change your
literacy practices and/or your literacy interactions with
students?
~In what ways can I support you in the literacy
development of your students or children? How might
you support me in my work with students or your
children?
~What questions do you have?