This presentation discusses creating a literate environment for early literacy learners. It emphasizes getting to know students through cognitive and noncognitive assessments, selecting engaging texts using the Literacy Matrix framework, and integrating the interactive, critical, and response perspectives in literacy instruction. Specific teaching strategies are provided for each perspective when exploring the theme of plant life cycles, such as using a KWL chart, think alouds, and response journals.

1. Presentation by:
Chr isoula
Koutoulas
Walden
Universi ty
EDUC 6706: The
Beginning
Reader, PreK-3
CREATING A LITERATE
ENVIRONMENT

2.  Getting to know literacy learners
 Assessing students’ cognitive and noncognitive abilities
 Selecting engaging and appropriate texts to motivate
students
 Integrating the three literacy perspectives
 Interactive
 Critical
 Response
COMPONENTS OF A
LITERATE ENVIRONMENT

3. GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS
The process of creat ing a l i terate envi ronment is not an easy task. I t
requi res ski l l ful use of data gathered from cogni tive and noncogni tive
assessments about student per formance, thei r mot ivat ions and sel f -
percept ion towards reading, thei r l i teracy needs and final ly
expectat ions of students, parents and teachers. The bet ter you know
your students, the bet ter you can connect them wi th texts that wi l l
impact them in profound ways (Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.b) .
Student data, gathered from these di f ferent
types of assessments, can guide an educator
in creat ing an individual ized bluepr int
and selecting appropr iate books that
can essent ial ly promote mot ivat ion and
imp r ov e a s t u d e n t ’ s a c h i e v eme n t i n r e a d i n g .

4. GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS
Assessment is ongoing and provides immediate feedback to improve
teaching and learning for al l students (Tompkins, 2010, p. 75) .
 Cogni t ive Assessment : The Fountas & Pinnel l (2010) formal reading
a s s e s sme n t p r o v i d e d i n f o rma t i o n a b o u t e a c h s t u d e n t ’ s p h o n emi c a w a r e n e s s
ski l ls; blending and segment ing ski l ls; sight word recogni t ion; reading accuracy
and f luency; comprehension ski l ls; any use of reading st rategies and
inst ruct ional reading level .
 Noncogni t ive Assessment : The Elementar y Reading At t i tude Sur vey (McKenna
& Kear, 1990) provided informat ion that did not per tain to thei r reading
per formance, but was equal ly as impor tant . I t is impor tant to assess factor s
such as mot ivat ion and sel f-esteem because these are both possible outcomes
of becoming a bet ter reader (Af f lerbach, 2012, p. 174) . This assessment gave
me v a l u a b l e i n s i g h t i n t o my s t u d e n t s ’ s e l f-percept ions and at t i tudes regarding
reading in order to view the chi ld as a whole. This informat ion assisted me in
select ing books that would interest and mot ivate them.

5. SELECTING TEXTS
Select ing engaging and appropriate texts for students is a crucial par t of
inst ruct ion in the classroom yet , the process of matching them to the
needs and interests of students can be qui te chal lenging due to the
overwhelming amount of resources there are. In to d a y ’ s l i t e r a c y
classroom, you wi l l f ind many di f ferent forms of text f rom pr inted books
to digi tal media (Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.a) . Each has an
imp o r t a n t p l a c e i n to d a y ’ s c l a s s r o om a n d c a n b e e q u a l l y b e n e f i c i a l i f t h e
r ight one is matched wi th the r ight student .
Once the reading level , l i teracy needs and
mot ivat ions are determined teachers can
star t choosing appropriate texts for thei r
l i teracy inst ruct ion wi th the assistance of
the Li teracy Mat r ix that is discussed by
Dr. Douglas Har tman and Dr. Janice Almasi
(Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.a) .

6. SELECTING TEXTS
The Li teracy Mat r ix al lows teachers to keep l i teracy goals in mind whi le
thought ful ly analyzing and select ing text that are helpful and engaging to
each student (Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.a) . The four quadrants, as
Dr. Douglas Har tman descr ibed them, are nar rat ive, informat ional , l inguist ic
and semiot ic (Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.a) . In addi t ion, Dr. Janice
Almasi discussed a thi rd dimension, which is di f f icul ty. This thi rd dimension
has var ious areas to consider, such as readabi l i ty, text length, text st ructure,
size of pr int and visual suppor t (Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.a) .

7. SELECTING TEXTS
Using the cogni tive and noncogni tive assessment resul ts as wel l as
the Li teracy Matrix, I was able to choose appropriate and engaging
texts for my students that were at the beginning stages of l i teracy
development .
 Narrat ive texts:
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehler t (1990)
What I See by Hol ly Kel ler (2003)
 Informat ional texts:
Beans by Gai l Saunders-Smi th (1998)
A Garde n e r ’s Al ph abet by Mar y Azarian (2000)
 Onl ine texts:
It Is Spring by Cheryl Ryan (2014)
Vegetables by Cheryl Ryan (2014)

8. LITERACY LEARNING PERSPECTIVES
In order to have a balanced l i teracy program and create wel l - rounded
readers that not only can read, but who choose to read, who are
mot ivated to read and can think cr i t ical ly, educators must consider al l
three l i teracy perspect ives, interact ive, cr i t ical and response. The
f ramework for l i teracy inst ruct ion highl ights these three perspect ives
(Laureate Educat ion Producer, n.d.c) .
 Interact ive Perspect ive: Teaching students how
to read and be st rategic processors and thinkers.
 Cr i t ical Perspect ive: Teaching students how
to cr i t ical ly examine text and view texts f rom
var ious perspect ives.
 Response Perspect ive: Teaching students
how to connect through l ived exper iences and
respond to texts.

9. INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE
 In the interact ive perspect ive
teachers are mainly focusing on
teaching students how to read
by using reading st rategies and
becoming st rategic thinkers
(Laureate Educat ion Producer,
n.d.c) . Beginning readers need
to learn how to be st rategic and
metacogni t ive in order to
comprehend text bet ter, but this
does not come natural ly to
them, thus i t needs to be
careful ly thought out and
implemented through a plan.
Teaching st rategies used to
explore the theme of plant l i fe
cycles in my l i teracy lesson using
the interact ive perspect ive
include:
 Act ivat ing pr ior knowledge or
schema
 KWL Char t
 Making predicat ions
 Think aloud
 Guided reading

10. CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES
 The cr i t ical perspect ive is a way
to teach students how to
cr i t ical ly examine text and
perhaps view var ious
perspect ives of a stor y beyond
what they just read or see
(Laureate Educat ion Producer,
n.d.c) .
 The response perspect ive the
r e a d e r ’ s l i v e d ex p e r i e n c e s a r e
of pr imary impor tance and t ime
to al low the oppor tuni ty to
exper ience and respond should
be given (Laureate Educat ion
Producer, n.d.c) .
Teaching st rategies used to
explore the theme of plant l i fe
cycles in my l i teracy lesson using
the cr i t ical perspect ive include:
 Making predict ions
 Quest ioning the author
 Analyzing characters
Teaching st rategies used to
explore the theme of plant l i fe
cycles in my l i teracy lesson to
implement the response
perspect ive include:
 Read aloud
 Grand conversat ion
 Response Journals

11. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
 What insights did you gain about l iteracy and l iteracy
instruction from viewing this presentation?
 How might the information presented change your l iteracy
practices and/or your l iteracy interactions with students?
 In what ways can I suppor t you in the l iteracy development of
your students or chi ldren? How might you suppor t me in my
work with students or your chi ldren?
 What questions do you have?

12. REFERENCES
Af f lerbach, P. (2012) . Under standing and using reading assessment K–12
(2nd ed. ) . Newark, DE: Internat ional Reading Associat ion .
Azar ian, M. (2000) . A G a r d e n e r ’ s A l p h a b e t . Boston: Houghton Mi f f l in
Ehler t , L. (1990) . Growing Vegetable Soup. Boston: Houghton Mi f f l in Harcour t
Fountas, I .C. , & Pinnel l , G.S. (2010) . Fountas & Pinnel l
benchmark as sessment s ys tem 1,
Grades K-2, levels A-N. Por tsmouth, NH: Heinemann .
Kel ler, H. (2003) . What I See. Or land: Green Light Reader s/Harcour t
Laureate Educat ion (Producer ) . ( n.d.a) . Analyz ing and select ing text
[Video f i le] . Ret r ieved f rom ht tps://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Educat ion (Producer ) . ( n.d.b) . Get t ing to know your
s tudents. [Video f i le] .
Ret r ieved f rom ht tps://class.waldenu.edu

13. REFERENCES
Laureate Educat ion (Producer ) . (n.d.c) .Per spect ives on l i teracy learning .
[Video f i le] . Ret r ieved f rom ht tps://class.waldenu.edu
McKenna, M. C. , & Kear , D. J . (1990) . Measur ing at t i tude toward
reading: A new tool for teacher s. The Reading Teacher,
43(9) , 626-639. Ret r ieved f rom the Educat ion Research
Complete database.
Ryan, C. (2014) . I t Is Spr ing.
Ret r ieved f rom
ht tp://www. readinga-z .com/books/leveledbooks/book /?id=23
Ryan, C. (2014) . Vegetables .
Ret r ieved f rom
ht tp://www. readinga-z .com/books/leveled-books/book/?id=653
Saunder s-Smi th, G. (1998) . Beans. Mankato, Minnesota: Pebble Books
Tompkins , G. E. (2010) . Li teracy for the 21st centur y: A
balanced approach (5th ed. ) . Boston: Al lyn & Bacon.