This document discusses literacy instruction for beginning readers. It covers assessing students' backgrounds, motivation to read, and attitudes towards reading. When selecting texts, the teacher considers factors like readability, illustrations, length, and print size. Literacy lessons should teach reading strategies through activities like read-alouds, word walls, and modeling. Students need opportunities to think critically about texts and connect with them on a personal level. Assessments like reading surveys, interviews, and "Me stews" provide insight into students as whole learners.

1. LiterateEnvironmentAnalysisPresentation
Patricia Muniru
Walden University
Dr. Bernice Parrott
The Beginning Reader, PreK-3
EDUC -6706R-3

2. Literacy
• Literacy is complex, it requires the ability to
process both reading and writing of a variety of
text (Tompkins, 2010).

3. Getting to Know Literacy Learners
Analysis
• Getting to know the backgrounds of my students
is crucial to their success. This research-based
practice has allowed me to learn about the whole
child and their motivation to read (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010a). Getting to know literacy
learners can be achieved through formal and
informal assessments.

4. Gettingto Know Literacy Learners:
Research
• To assess students motivation to read I used a Motivation
to Read Profile (MRP). It includes a reading
survey, completed by the student, and a conversational
interview, conducted by the teacher
(Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, & Mazzoni, 1996).
• To measure students attitudes towards reading I used an
Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna &
Kear, 1990).
• Me stew is another great way to find out more about
students. This is a recipe about the student. They bring
three items in a bag that are exclusively about them, and
each child meets with the teacher to talk about what went
into their stew (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a).

5. Selecting Texts
Analysis
• Texts today comes in many forms. When
selecting a text you should consider;
readability, illustrations, text length, text
structure, and size of print. (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010b).
• With this knowledge I choose text that are of
interest to students, that will engage them, a
text that is readable, challenging, but will not
push them past their level of frustration.

6. Selecting Texts: Research
• The literacy matrix assists in the selection of
text according to the needs of students
(Laureate Education Inc., 2010b).
• This matrix also connects
what you are doing, to
students backgrounds,
and how to tap into it.
Linguistic (word oriented)
Semiotic (pictures)
Narrative text Informational
text

7. Literacy Lesson:
Interactive Perspective Analysis
• Interactive perspective teaches students how to
read.
• Spending time teaching students how to
effectively read text is important.
• With this in mind some strategies I have used
are read alouds, word walls, and modeling for my
students what good readers do while reading.

8. Literacy Lesson:
Interactive Perspective Research
• There are a variety of ways to teach the
interactive perspective. Using word
study, shared reading lessons, read alouds, and
word sorts will give students the necessary tools
to navigate effectively through texts, and derive
meaning from text.

9. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspectives Analysis
• The critical perspective of literacy gives students the
opportunity to think analytically about text, looking at
believability (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c).
• Response perspective of literacy should effect students on a
personal and emotional level (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2010d).
• Knowing this it has helped me choose text that my students
will connect with , and give them experiences they may not
normally have with text.
• I have also given my students more time to work on these
perspectives.

10. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspectives Research
• Critical Perspective
• Students should:
• Judge validity and veracity of text
• Evaluate websites for credibility
• Critically view text from multiple perspectives
• Have thinking time and space to analyze text
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c)
Response Perspective
• Students should:
• Be given time and space, and safety in the classroom to support
text
• Be given time to transform their identities
• Be given a lot of think time
• Connect to text emotionally and personally
(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d)

11. References
Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996).
Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49(7),
518--533.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010b). Analyzing and selecting
texts. [Video webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3.
Baltimore: author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010c). Critical Perspective.
[Video webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3 . Baltimore:
author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010a). Getting to know your
students. [Video webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3.
Baltimore: author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010d). Response Perspective. [Video
webcast]. The beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore: author.
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A
new tool for teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626--639.