Literate Environment Literate Environment AnalysisAnalysis

Pamela AdamsPamela AdamsOctober 7, 2014October 7, 2014

Instructor: Dr. Martha MooreInstructor: Dr. Martha MooreEDUC 6706: The Beginning Reader, Pre K -3EDUC 6706: The Beginning Reader, Pre K -3

What is a literate What is a literate environment?environment?

A rich literate environment typically contains written materials (newspapers, A rich literate environment typically contains written materials (newspapers, books, and posters) electronic broadcast media (radios and TVs), and information books, and posters) electronic broadcast media (radios and TVs), and information and communications technology (computers and Internet access) which enourage and communications technology (computers and Internet access) which enourage literacy acquisition, a reading culture, imporved literacy retention and access to literacy acquisition, a reading culture, imporved literacy retention and access to

information (Literate Environment, 2010).information (Literate Environment, 2010).

3 Essentials of a Literate Environment

• Getting to Know Literacy Learners• Selecting Texts• Literacy Instruction (Interactive

Perspective, Critical Perspective, and Response Perspective)

Getting to Know Literacy Learners

• Teachers must motivate students to want to read and have fun while doing it.

• In order to create a literate environment, teachers must get to know the children in their classrooms (Laureate Education, 2010a).

• Teachers can begin to understand more about their students through interacting with families, talking to students, and interest inventories.

Getting to Know Literacy Learners

• Assessing both cognitive and metacognitive aspects is crucial in teaching students because for students to become effective life-long learners they must have both the skill and the will to read (Johns & Lenski, 1994).

Activities for Getting to Know Literacy Learners

• Me Stew• Literacy Autobiographies• Interest Surveys• Developmental Reading

Assessment• Sight Word Assessment

Selecting TextsSelecting TextsTeachers must choose engaging text that appeal to Teachers must choose engaging text that appeal to student’s identities; cultural, community, gender, student’s identities; cultural, community, gender,

developmental (Laureate Education, 2009).developmental (Laureate Education, 2009).

Selecting TextThe following are to be

considered when selecting texts:

• Genre• Dimensions of

Difficulty• Text Sources• Size of Print• Text Length

A very useful tool to use when selecting a text is the LITERARY MATRIX. This tool helps teachers to balance the text and difficulty of the text.

Literacy PerspectivesInteractive

CriticalResponse

Literacy Perspectives• All three perspectives are key components

in creating a literate envrionment (Laureate Environment, 2009).

• Once teachers know their students, they need to determine what they are going to do with those texts, and for those students to help them become literate learners (Laureate Education, 2009).

Interactive Perspective• Teaching students how to read and become

strategic processors and thinkers (Laureate Education, 2010).

• Use schema as a strategy for comprehension.• Students learn to choose most effective strategy

when reading, use different strategies for different types of text, and make predictions, visualize, and make sense of text.

Critical Perspective• Teaching students to critically examine

text. To look at text from a different perspective (Laureate Education, 2009).

• Being able to have a discussion with others about the different meanings a text might have and teaching the potentially critically-literate learner how to think flexibly about it.

Response Perspective• This perspective gives students the

opportunity to experience and respond to text (Laureate Education, 2009).

• A student is who responsive to a book can be transformed by its message (Laureate Education, 2009).

Comprehension is the goal of reading; it’s the reason people read. Students must understand what they’re reading to learn from the experience, they must make sense of the words in text to maintain interest; and they must enjoy reading to become life long readers (Tompkins, 2010)

References

• Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Analyzing and selecting text [Webcast]. • Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Getting to know your students [Webcast]. • Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Perspectives on literacy.[Webcast].• Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.