This document provides an analysis of literacy instruction for emergent and beginning readers in pre-K through 3rd grade. It discusses assessing students' cognitive and noncognitive abilities, selecting appropriate texts, and creating a literacy-rich environment. Sample lessons are described for an emergent reader focusing on phonemic awareness, vocabulary and cause/effect, and for a beginning reader using fiction and non-fiction texts about animals. Reflection emphasizes differences in emergent and beginning literacy instruction and the importance of foundational skills for future success.

1. LITERATE ENVIRONMENT
ANALYSIS
Angie Bailey
READ 6706 Literacy Development,
Pre K-3 WALDEN UNIVERSITY

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Getting to Know Emergent and Beginning Literacy
Learners, P-3
 Selecting Text
 Emergent Literacy Learner Lesson
 Beginning Literacy Learner Lesson
 Reflection

3. “GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT &
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3”
 It is of utmost importance to assess and diagnose
learners to optimize their chances of becoming
proficient, successful, and lifelong readers as
language is both expressive and receptive (Reutzel
& Cooter, 2014) and used by all humans in having
their needs met for learning, thinking, problem
solving, sharing ideas and feelings.

4. “GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT &
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3”
 “We’re not teaching subjects, we’re not teaching
topics, we’re not teaching text, we teach students”
(Dr. Janice Almasi, Laureate Education, 2014a).

5. “GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT &
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3”
 At the beginning of each new school year before
educators even open a textbook, it is imperative we
get to know our students’ ability levels and more
importantly interests, hobbies, and attitudes about
reading.
 We do this through cognitive and noncognitive
assessments.

6. “GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT &
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3”
 Cognitive Assessments
 As assessment drives instruction, educators must use a
variety of types to determine our students’ strengths and
weaknesses.
 Cognitive assessments I used with my emergent and
beginner learners:
 Informal Language Inventory to assess oral language
development
 Story Retelling Evaluation Guide: A Listening
Comprehension Assessment (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016).
 Lexile Framework of Reading to measure comprehension
(Lexile.com)
 Early Names Test to assess phonics and decoding skills
(2016).
 “Just as we read text to construct meaning, we can, through
assessment, read our students to construct a detailed
understanding of their strengths and needs” (Afflerbach, 2012
p.ix ).

7. “GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT &
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3”
 Noncognitive assessment - The “other” reading
assessment (Afflerbach, 2012).
 In order to get to really know my emergent literacy learner’s
feelings about reading, I administered a noncognitive
assessment : My Feelings About Reading (Mariotti, n.d.)
 I administered the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey
(McKenna & Kear, 1990) to assess my beginning learner’s
attitude about reading.

8. CREATING A LITERATE ENVIRONMENT
 Teachers who engage in language and literacy-rich activities
in all elements of instruction within the classroom improve
reading skills.
 A literacy-rich environment stresses the importance for all
students in:
 Speaking
 Reading
 Writing
 Given the support of this environment, students are better
prepared to work on other literacy skills including phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
 (Literacy Rich Environments, n.d.)

9. HOW THIS PRACTICE HAS HELPED ME:
 The research-based practice of getting to know
emergent and beginning literacy learners, P-3 has
helped me to better appreciate the fact that
educators must get to know their learners both
academically and personally.
 In addition, I have learned different ways to assess
my students both cognitively and noncognitively.

10. SELECTING TEXTS
 From this research-based practice, I have learned the
following:
 To ensure a balanced approach to literacy instruction,
educators must choose appropriate texts to meet cognitive
and noncognitive aspects of learners.
 All genres of texts need to be utilized in order to ensure a
balanced approach (Laureate Education, 2014b).
 To meet the rigor of the present Common Core State
Standards Initiative, informational texts must be introduced at
an early age to build background knowledge and introduce
students to vocabulary they will need later in order to enhance
comprehension and avoid the “fourth grade slump” (Laureate
Education, 2014c).

11. SELECTING TEXTS USING THE LITERARY
MATRIX BY DR. HARTMAN & DR. ALMASI
 Dr. Hartman introduces a two dimensional matrix for
thoughtfully analyzing and selecting text.
 Dr. Almasi adds a third dimension to the matrix-difficulty.
 Text difficulty depends on
the following factors:
-sentence length/length of text
-number of sentences
-single vs. multi-syllabic words
-concept density
-text structure
-size of print
-text features
Linguistic
(words)
Semiotic
(pictures)
Narrative Informational
Easy
Hard

12. SELECTING TEXTS
 All forms of text have a place in the literacy classroom,
and using the matrix to determine where the text fits into
each section of the matrix assists students in obtaining
reading goals (Laureate Education, 2014b).
 My learners’ common interest was animals. The three
texts I chose for learners address the theme “How can
we help animals around the world?” and are a
combination of narrative, informational, and digital texts.
 Narrative text - Will We See Animals? by Megan Litwin.
 Informational text - Animals Around the World by Linda
B. Ross;
 Digital text -Who Works at the Zoo? by Alyse Sweeney
(http://bkflix.grolier.com/b/node-33978/bk0014pr).

13. EMERGENT LITERACY LEARNER LESSON
 From my lesson with my emergent learner, I learned how using paired texts
helped to create a literate environment for my learner. I also learned how
much more knowledge and pleasure students gain from reading paired text
selections. In conducting this lesson one-on-one, I was also able to engage
in deeper conversation, meet my learner’s needs, and focus on her interests.
 My literacy learner’s strategic processing and
metacognition in the reading and writing processes
were promoted through thinking about what events
in the texts presented a cause and effect relationship
and then writing her own cause/effect relationship and
illustrating it, vocabulary development through vocab. squares,
and decoding and fluency.
 Metacognition is a critical skill to acquire as it helps the reader monitor his or
her own comprehension and allows corrective actions to be taken when
needed (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016).

14. BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNER LESSON
 I was able to create a literate environment with my beginning learner through
a guided reading, choral reading, and echo reading with one fiction and one
non-fiction book about animals addressing the concept from fact to fiction.
From my lesson with my beginning learner, I learned that this stage of
learners are able to identify the plot and setting including the conflict in the
text and are able to make predictions about the text and text-to-self
connections.
 My beginning reader’s strategic processing and metacognition in the reading
and writing processes were promoted through read-alouds, predicting,
clarifying facts, and setting a purpose for reading. In addition, answering text-
dependent questions, comparing and cross-referencing fiction and non-fiction
texts about animals, creating a fact chart with the assistance from the
teacher, and researching and recording factual information about animals also
aided in the processes.
 Metacognition immensely assists students in comprehending and taking
corrective steps during reading (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016).

15. REFLECTION – SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES WITH
EMERGENT AND BEGINNING LEARNERS
(LAUREATE EDUCATION, 2014E)
Emergent Learners Beginning Learners
Phonemic Awareness is key Focus more one phonics
Alphabetic principle Reading fluency
Concepts of print Reading Comprehension through
complex read-alouds and video
clips
Blending/Segmenting Blending/Segmenting/Decoding
Scribbling, drawing pictures,
circles, lines
Inventive Spelling
Read-Alouds with a lot of teacher
modeling
Read-Alouds, small group work,
independent work with less
modeling
Vocabulary development through
listening, conversations, pictures
Vocabulary from books being
shared and from content areas

16. REFLECTION
 Insights gained about emergent and beginning
literacy instruction are emergent learners benefit
from listening and speaking instruction as they are
just learning letter names and beginning to learn
the sounds associated with the letters. In addition,
emergent learners are not writing and just making
scribbles, drawing pictures, circles, and lines.
 Beginning readers benefit from reading and writing
instruction as they have the basic literacy skills to
read and write.
 (Laureate Education, 2014e)

17. REFLECTION – CREATING A LITERACY
ENVIRONMENT
 My understanding of creating a literacy environment has
been expanded immensely throughout this course.
 Students are to be engrossed in reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and role playing.
 Various genres of books need to be made available in
different mediums, such as books on CD and e books
from the Web.
 Writing materials need to be accessible to motivate and
encourage students to write.
 A print-rich environment with labels is important.
 Conversing with students through open-ended questions
is essential to build and enhance students vocabulary.

18. REFLECTION
 My digital story can bring about social change for
literacy teaching and learning by showing educators
how important foundational skills in literacy is to
ensure future success in education and life in
general.
 Additionally, I hope to bring about social change to
fellow educators about the different stages of
literacy and how each stage requires specific
instructional strategies to ensure the best possible
education for our students.

19. REFERENCES
 References
 Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment: K–12 (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Getting to know your students [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014b). Analyzing and selecting texts [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014c). Informational text in the early years [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014d). Developing language and literacy [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
 Laureate Education (Producer). (2014e). The beginning reader [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
 Literary Rich Environments. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/literacy-rich-environments
 Lexile Framework of Reading. (2016). Retrieved from lexile.com
 Litwin, M. (2008). Will we see animals? Glenview, IL: Pearson Education.
 Mariotti, A. P. (n. d.). Using interest inventories with struggling and unmotivated readers. Retrieved from
http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news- updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf
 McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. Retrieved from
http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/Reading_Attitudes_McKen
na_Kear_1990.pdf
 Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child
succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
 Ross, L. (2008). Animals around the world. Glenview, IL: Pearson Education.
 Sweeney, A. (2016.) Who works at the zoo? Retrieved from http://bkflix.grolier.com/b/node- 33978/bk0014pr)