Tracy Kuhles - The Beginning Reader PreK-3 – EDUC 6706 power point slide show

1. Creating a Literature Environment
By: Tracy Kuhles
Walden University
Instructor: Dr. Martha Moore
The Beginning Reader PreK-3 – EDUC 6706

2. Getting to Know Literacy Learners Analysis
• An effective literacy classroom is seen when teachers make critical decisions on behalf of
their students that will help them become successful readers, writers, speakers and visualizers
(Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.b). In order for teachers to make academic decisions for their
students, they must get to know each child, their families and their cultural background. All
individuals have a literacy biography which means they have experiences which shape themselves
as to how they see themselves as literacy begins (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.g).
• Dr. Almasi indications that it is not what we are teaching but who we are teaching (Laureate
Education, Inc., n.d.d). Getting to know students on a deeper level is an essential element to
foster a level of motivation within children, so they have a desire to read and write.
• Tompkins (2010) found that student’s motivation and engagement affect
their success in reading and writing therefore teachers need to ensure their
students have positive attitudes about literacy.

3. Getting to Know Literacy Learners Research
• According to Afflerbach (2012) “assessments that help us understand and appreciate the
diverse growth that students experience and the reading challenges that they face must be a
priority in each classroom” (p.27).
• Understanding how children learn to read and write impacts the instructional methods that
teachers use (Tompkins, 2000).
• Gathering data to gain insight about children’s literacy development can be done through the
use of cognitive and non-cognitive assessments.

4. Getting to Know Literacy Learners Research
(Cont.)
Cognitive Assessments
• Cognitive assessments provide teachers with the opportunity to interpret students’
academic literacy growth and areas of concern. Some examples of cognitive assessments are:
– Reading A-Z Running Records
– Words-Their-Way Spelling Inventory
– Fry’s 100 Sight Word List
Non-Cognitive Assessments
• Non-cognitive assessments focus on how children see themselves as
readers, their attitude about reading and their motivational level to want to
read. Some examples of non-cognitive assessments are:
– Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey (ERAS)
– Interviews with Students
– Classroom Observations

5. Selecting Texts
• “As teachers, we have a responsibility to provide students with a wide range of literacy
experiences that demonstrate the ways we read and write in our daily lives” (Castek, Bevans-
Mangelson & Goldstone, 2006, p. 716).
• The literacy matrix is a useful tool for thoughtfully analyzing and selecting texts in a
unified, balanced approach (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.a).

6. Selecting Texts
(Cont.)
• When books are placed on the literacy matrix, teachers can see how a text works or does
not work for students and how it fits with literacy goals (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.a). Books
can be located along the literacy matrix from one end, which is narrative texts that are
linguistic or semiotic (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.a). On the other end which is informational
text that are linguistic or semiotic (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.a).
• Students must be exposed to varied texts including printed and digital.
• Within this continuum, teachers need to take into consideration the level of difficulty each
text offers and how the text will fit the student’s needs. Some areas of difficulty can be:
– Readability (sentence length, number of syllables and concept density)
– Text Length
– Text Structure (informational, descriptive, cause/effect, problem/solution,
compare/contrast and poetic structure)
– Size of Print
– Visual Support (charts/graphs/illustrations that lend a lot of meaning to the
text)
(Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.a).

7. Selecting Texts
(Cont.)
Texts Chosen for Beginning Readers
o Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion (online text from www.storylineonline.net)
o Billy Gets Lost by Francis Morgan (online text from http://www.readinga-z.com/)
o Caring for Your Dog by Blane Jeffries (online text from http://www.readinga-z.com/)
o Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day
o Dogs at Work by Kathie Lestern (online text from http://www.readinga-z.com/)

8. Selecting Texts
(Cont.)
• As I have been working with the three beginning readers, I have gathered cognitive and non-
cognitive assessment for each student who has provided me an insight into their interests,
dislikes, academic areas that are secure and skills which need strengthening. Therefore, I found
out that each of the children has a passion for dogs. They either had a dog at home or wanted a
dog as a pet. I selected texts that are of interest to the children so they will be active
participants in their learning process and mentally engaged (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.h).
According to Dr. Morrow predictions can be made about how a first-grade child will be reading in
the eleventh-grade (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.e). For this reason, I chose narrative and
informational texts that were both semiotic and linguistic with varying degrees
of difficulty. Those texts that were on the students’ instructional level
provided for productive struggle. These beginning readers focused on decoding
and comprehension strategies.

9. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
• As stated by Muspratt, Luke, and Freebody (1997) young readers should be provided with
opportunities to practice countless reading skills, to become instantaneous “code breakers,
meaning makers, text users and text critics” (p. 95). The ultimate goal of the interactive
perspective is to teach children how to be literate learners who can navigate the textual world
independently (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.f). When educators use the interactive perspective,
they are teaching children how to read and become strategic thinkers in terms of phonics,
fluency, comprehension and vocabulary awareness (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.f). Today,
literacy lessons are designed with the goal of students to become active learners
by using strategic and metacognitive strategies.

10. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
(Cont.)
• The lessons I created for the interactive perspective was designed for the course of five
days. Each day the children were exposed to different books using the literacy matrix to ensure
the children were receiving a variety of literature. The focus of these lessons ranged from
retell a story using character names, setting and events, using text features in nonfiction texts
and comparing similarities and differences between two nonfiction texts with the same topic.
While reading the beginning readers worked on reading with expression, appropriate rate,
applying strategies, and self-correcting words that were mispronounced. During writing
activities, the students expressed their opinions about the book, stated the reason for
their opinion and provide closure. Also, the children wrote their informational text
about dogs. Additionally, the children used upper and lowercase letters correctly,
end punctuation marks, conventional spelling and phonemic awareness to spell words.

11. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
(Cont.)
Activates to reinforce the interactive perspective
o K-W-L Chart
o Interactive Read-Aloud
o Grand Conversations
o Guided Reading Groups
o Question-Answer Relationship
o Reading Log
o Interactive Writing
o Open-Mind Portrait

12. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response
Perspective
• The analogy that Dr. Almasi uses to describe the Transaction with a Text is there are two
balls of clay. One ball is the reader, and the other ball is the text. When the reader and the
text come in contact with each other, the two balls collide, and their paths are changed
(Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.i).
• Being able to examine the text from multiple perspectives allows one to think critically
about it, evaluate the text and make judgments of the text (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.c).
When you can examine a text critically you think more deeply about the text, which is crucial
(Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.c).
• A rich literature environment is one that allows children to respond to a text
in meaningful ways. Therefore, the lesson I implemented for the critical and
response perspective reinforced the concept of text-to-self, identifying the
author’s purpose for writing the story as well as thinking deeply about how
the characters in the story felt. For this lesson, I chose the book Harry the Dirty
Dog by Gene Zion since it was a familiar story for the beginning readers.

13. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response
Perspective (Cont.)
Activates to reinforce the critical and response perspective
o Interactive Read-Aloud
o Grand Conversations
o Sketch-to-Stretch
o Response Journal
o Character Journal
• The purpose of an interactive read-aloud is to engage children in the reading process
before, during, and after reading to enhance student’s comprehension (Tompkins, 2000). The
teacher stops reading periodically to talk about what has just happened in the
text. A grand conversation is a “…discussion about stories in which students
explore the big ideas and reflect on their feelings” (Tompkins, 2010, p. 436).
Through the use of these two strategies the students were able to work on a
sketch-to-stretch activity which helps the children deepen their understanding of
the story by drawing pictures “…that represent what the story means to them,
not pictures of their favorite character or episode” (Tompkins, 2010, p.466).

14. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response
Perspective (Cont.)
• Next, the students worked on a response journal where they wrote an alternative solution to
Harrys (the dog) problem. A response journal allows children to respond freely in writing about
their feelings to a text and not focusing on the mechanics of sentences, but rather exploring
the content (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.j). Lastly, the children closed their eye and pretended
they were one of the family members (mother, father, sister or brother) from the story Harry
the Dirty Dog. The students used a character journal to write how that family member felt at
the end of the story when they realized it was Harry who had returned home. A character
journal is a variation of a response journal where students write as if they are
the character and respond with feelings and emotions (Laureate Education,
Inc., n.d.j).

15. “The more that you read, the more things
you will know. The more that you learn, the
more places you’ll go”.
Dr. Seuss

16. References
Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment K-12 (2nd ed.). Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
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. Reading Teacher,
(59)7, 714-728.
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.a). Analyzing and selecting text [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.b). Changes in literacy education [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.c). Critical perspective [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu

17. References
(Cont.)
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.d). Getting to know your students [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.e). Informational text in the early years [Video file].
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.f). Interactive perspective: Strategic processing [Video
file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.g.). Literacy autobiographies [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.h). Perspectives on early literacy [Video file].
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.i). Response perspective [Video file]. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu

18. References
(Cont.)
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.j). Response perspective: Reading and writing connection
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Muspratt, S., Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1997). Constructing critical literacies. Cresskill, NJ:
Hampton.
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century. A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.