1. Shannon Adams
Martha Moore
The Beginning Reader, PreK-3, EDUC-6706G-1
February 20, 2012

2. •The STAR Reading program (Renaissance Learning) helped create a literate
environment in my classroom through analyzing each child’s strengths and
weaknesses in order for the teacher to meet their needs more efficiently. The
student is able to take a computer generated and maintained assessment and
then the teacher is able to print out data that gives an indicator of the
student’s reading level and skills to be taught in order to help the child
succeed.
•“Me Stew” which was introduced by Leigh-Ann Hildreth (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2009c) was a great activity to get to know the students and
discover what interests them. Students take home a paper bag and bring
three ingredients to create the stew that describes them. This activity
benefits the students and the teacher in that as different stories are
presented in class, students take turns being the experts and all of the
students feel valued. Another benefit to using this strategy to get to know
the students is when students decide they are bored with reading, the teacher
can always pull out a book that interests them.

3. •The “Literacy Matrix” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a) helps the teacher
select text that is just right for the students. The top of the matrix is linguistic,
which means the text is more word oriented and the bottom of the matrix is
semiotic, which means the text uses things other than words. The left side of
the matrix is narrative, which is a story and the right side of the matrix is
informational, which focuses on giving information on a topic. This matrix has
been beneficial in ensuring the types of texts being read are balanced.
Literature in this quadrant Literature in this quadrant
would be stories with Linguistic would be informational with
words only words only.
Narrative Informational
Literature in this quadrant Literature in this quadrant
would be stories with Semiotic would be provided through websites
pictures only with pictures and videos only.
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2009)

4. •Elements of story structure (Tompkins, 2010, p. 295) is another helpful tool
in selecting texts to teach certain skills. Students in second grade need to
be able to discuss plot, characters, and setting.
Plot-“The most basic aspect of plot is the division of the main events into the
beginning, middle, and end.” (Tompkins, 2010, p.295). Students have been creating
graphic organizers with this information about the nonfiction stories they have
been reading.
Characters-“Characters are the most important structural element when stories are
centered on a character or group of characters.” (Tompkins, 2010, p. 298).
Students have been able to describe how they would feel if they were a certain
character in a certain story.
Setting-“The setting is generally thought of as the location where the story takes
place, but it’s only one aspect. There are four aspects of setting: location, weather,
time period, and time” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a). Students have also been
able to complete graphic organizers with this data as well.

5. Guided Reading is a great way to create a literacy environment in the classroom.
Modeling after Stahl (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009d), the teacher used
strategies for before reading, during reading, and after reading.
•Before reading the teacher will reread familiar text, review high-frequency words,
and introduce a new book. When introducing a new book, the teacher sets a
purpose for reading, performs a picture walk, and introduces one to three essential
vocabulary words that students may not already know.
•During reading the students read the text softly to themselves at their own pace
and the teacher informally assesses the children’s reading and assists if necessary.
•After reading the teacher engages the students in guided writing by creating a
sentence in a small group and then working together to cut the sentence up and
recreate the sentence.

6. The critical and response perspectives allow students to interact with what they
have read in order to get a better understanding of the story. According to
Almasi the critical perspective assists students in critically viewing multiple
perspectives (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b) and Almasi also mentioned the
response perspective is useful for the reader to be transformed by the text
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2009e).
The response perspective was used to so that students could explore the
characters in a story. Students are taught to use journal writing to explore
characters. The character journal is a variation of response journal. The
students wrote in their journal as if they were a character in the story and they
responded from that character’s perspective (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009f).

7. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Week 3: Analyzing and
selecting text. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Week 6: Critical perspective.
[Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009c). Week 2: Getting to Know
Your Students [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009d). Week 5: Interactive
perspective: Guided reading. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore:
Author.

8. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009f). Week 6: Response
perspective. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009f). Week 6: Response
perspective: Reading-writing connection. [Webcast]. The Beginning Reader.
Baltimore: Author.
Renaissance Learning. (2012). STAR Reading Enterprise. Retrieved from
http://www.renlearn.com/sr/default.aspx
Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach. Boston,
MA: Pearson Education, Inc.