This document discusses creating a literate environment for beginning readers. It emphasizes the importance of teachers getting to know their students to understand their literacy strengths, weaknesses, interests and development. This helps teachers select appropriate texts and design effective literacy lessons incorporating read alouds, informal reading inventories and focusing on interactive, critical and response perspectives.

1. Literate Environment AnalysisCreating A Literate Environment For The Beginning ReaderBy R. McKenzie

2. Getting To Know Literacy Learners, P-3AnalysisGetting to know our learners can help teachers to create a literate environment in many ways. When teachers take the time to get to know their students, they can find out whatstage students are in, in the literacy process. By getting to know students, teachers are able to evaluate students’ strengths and weaknesses in literacy. Also, teachers are able to find out what type of texts are of interests to their students. Children learn best and are motivated the most when they are presented with texts that are of interest to them. Students’ attitudes towards reading can make a big impact on how well they perform in reading (McKenna& Kear, 1990). Finding out about students and where they are in their development of literacy, helps teachers to find out about students personally. All of these components of getting to know literacy learners, helps to create a literate environment.Research Two resources that help support this practice are the “Elementary Reading Attitude Survey(ERAS)” (McKenna & Kear, 1990) and Informal Reading Inventories. The ERAS (McKenna & Kear, 1990) is a noncognitive assessment, which means it assesses things such as, attitude, likes, dislikes, and motivation. Informal Reading Inventories are effective at providing information to guide instructional planning (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009a). “Teachers use informal reading inventories to diagnose students’ reading levels and…to assess reading strengths and weaknesses” (Tompkins, 2006, pp. 310-311).

3. Selecting TextsAnalysis It is important to select texts that students can relate to or find interesting.Selecting the right types of text can help create a literate environment. When consideringtexts, teachers should analyze the difficulty of the text. It would not be wise to select text thatis either too easy or too difficult. Teachers should consider text readability, concept density,singletons (new words), length of text, and text structure (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b).ResearchTwo resources that help support this practice are the Framework for Literacy Instruction (Walden University, 2011) and the Literacy Matrix (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b). The Framework for Literacy Instruction (Walden University, 2011) helps teachers to decide whichtypes of texts to use in relation to the interactive, critical, and response perspectives. The Literacy Matrix (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b) is a tool that can be used to analyze and select text. This tool shows that literature is found on a continuum from narrative to Informational, from linguistic to semiotic (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b).

4. Literacy Lesson: Interactive PerspectiveAnalysisThe interactive perspective helps to create a literate environment because teachers help studentsto become strategic processors and thinkers (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009c). The purpose of the interactive perspective is to teach children how to read. Learning how to read creates a literate environment in itself. ResearchOne resource that helps support this practice is utilizing read alouds. When students are read to, they have opportunities to talk with the adult about the book and that is more beneficial to them than whole group reading (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009e).

5. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response PerspectivesAnalysisThe critical perspective teaches children how to critically examine text and who created the text. In this perspective, students are taught to think beyond the surface of the text (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009c). The response perspective allows students the opportunity to actually experience text and respond to it (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009c).ResearchTwo resources that support these practices are open-mind portraits (Tompkins, 2006) and grand conversations (Tompkins, 2006).

6. ReferencesLaureate Education, Inc. (2009). Video Program # 8. Reading inventories. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: AuthorLaureate Education, Inc. (2009). Video Program # 11. Analyzing and selecting text. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: AuthorLaureate Education, Inc. (2009). Video Program # 13. Perspectives on literacy learning. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: AuthorLaureate Education, Inc. (2009). Video Program # 14 Interactive perspective: Strategic processing. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: AuthorLaureate Education, Inc. (2009). Video Program # 15. Developing language and literacy. The Beginning Reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: AuthorMcKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626-639. Retrieved from EBSCOhostTompkins, G. E. (2006). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall/Merrill

7. Feedback From Colleagues and Family Members of StudentsWhat insights did you gain about literacy and literacy instruction from viewing this 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?