Creating a Literate Classroom Environment

Creating a Literate Classroom
Environment

Monica Daniels
Walden University
Instructor Amy Summers
The Beginning Reader, Pre K-3, EDUC-6706
October 12, 2013

Components of a Literate
Classroom Environment
Educators understand the importance of reading and writing as being critical
to a student’s success in school and beyond. “But the ability to read and
write does not develop naturally, without careful planning and instruction”
(National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998, p. 33).
As presented by Dr. Hartman, the
Framework for Literacy Instruction
(Laureate Education, 2012d) acts as a
planning guide that addresses the three
topics of learners, texts, and instructional
practices intertwined with three subtopics
(interactive, critical, and response).

Framework for Literacy Instruction
(Laureate Education, 2012d)

Understanding Literacy Learners
Every student brings different skill levels and
different interests into the classroom.
To create a literate environment that reflects
the learners of the classroom, you must first
get to know the students as individuals.

• What are their skill levels as readers and writers?
• What are their interests?
• How do they feel about reading and writing?

Understanding Skill Levels
Students enter the classroom at different
developmental stages of reading and writing.

Cognitive reading assessments provide
information to help better understand students’
literacy skills and strategies to determine the
next steps for instruction (Afflerbach, 2012).

Examples of
Cognitive Assessments
• Standardized tests such as Curriculum Based
Measurements (CBMs) that measure skills such
as Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Nonsense Word
Fluency (NWF) and Phoneme Segmentation
Fluency (PSF).
• Reading placement inventories (which include
alphabet/sound recognition, word lists, and
reading passages).
“A key feature of most inventories is the means
to identify a student’s independent,
instructional, and frustration reading levels”
(Afflerbach, 2012, p. 28).

Understanding Student Reading
Interests and Attitudes
Students enter the classroom with different
literacy interests and experiences that shape
who they are as a reader and writer.
Non-cognitive reading
assessments provide insight to a
student’s motivation and interest in
reading (McKenna & Kear, 1990).

Examples of
Non-Cognitive Assessments
• The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, or
ERAS (McKenna & Kear, 1990)
• Classroom activities such as “Me Stew” (Laureate
Education, 2012c) in which students bring in
meaningful show-and-tell objects that provide
insight to personal interests, cultural
influences, and individual identities.
Non-cognitive reading assessments help us
understand students in terms of “motivation to
read and willingness to persevere, self-concept
as a reader, reading interests, and attributions
for reading successes and failures”
(Afflerbach, 2012, p. 187).

How Understanding Literacy
Learners Shapes My Classroom
Using cognitive and non-cognitive assessments has helped me create a
literate environment by understanding the developmental levels and interests
of each student in my classroom.
I use the information from assessments to place students into leveled reading
groups and to plan for whole-group, small-group, and individual literacy
activities that meet the needs and interests of my students.

Selecting Texts:
Balanced Text Exposure
It is important for young children to have experience with a variety of texts
(narrative, informational, poetry, textbooks, and internet literacy) and to be
taught to understand what the text factors are in each type of text.
“Many experts agree that by including a wide variety of books (with equal
emphasis given to informational texts) a smoother transition may occur
between the stages of elementary school reading and intermediate-level
content reading” (Stephens, 2008, p. 488).

Selecting Texts:
Considering a Continuum
As presented by Dr. Hartman and Dr. Almasi (Laureate Education, 2012a) a
continuum that considers text in terms of narrative/informational factors,
linguistic/semiotic factors, and hard/easy dimensions of difficulty can be used
to offer students a variety of literacy experiences in the classroom.
By considering each individual text in respect to the continuum, areas that
may need to be offered more/less often can be addressed.

How Text Selection
Shapes My Classroom
• Using the text-selection continuum has helped to increase the
integration of informational text into my classroom reading
and writing lessons, creating a balance between narrative and
non-fiction experiences.
• I have started to pair narrative texts with same topic
informational texts to increase student interest.
• Technology has become a routine part of our classroom
literacy block through accessing on-line stories. “Online
stories are engaging and interactive literacy tools that
motivate readers to explore the world of books while using
online tools” (Castek et al., 2006, p. 717).

Perspectives on Literacy Learning
Interactive Perspective
Critical Perspective
Responsive Perspective
The Framework for Literacy Instruction (Laureate Education, 2012d) includes
three different perspectives to consider when planning for literacy instruction.
• The interactive perspective involves students being strategic and
thoughtful readers and writers.
• The critical perspective involves students being critical readers and
writers, considering the author’s perspective and background.
• The responsive perspective involves students’ reactions to the texts in
meaningful ways.

As stated by Dr. Almasi (Laureate Education, 2010d), depending on the
students, the texts, and the circumstances, we need to change the
perspective that we are using so that we can create capable
readers, motivated readers, and critical readers.

Supporting the
Interactive Perspective
Interactive Read-Alouds
“The focus is on enhancing students’ comprehension by
engaging them in the reading process
before, during, and after reading” (Tomkins, 2010, p.
439).
Interactive Writing
“Interactive writing is used to demonstrate how writing
works ands show students how to construct words using
their knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences and
spelling patterns” (Tomkins, 2010, p. 439).
Teaching Reading Strategies
“Good readers deliberately use specific strategies to aid
comprehension, particularly with regard to challenging
text” (Marcell, 2007, p. 779).

How the Interactive Perspective
Shapes My Classroom
• I offer students the opportunity to be interactive readers through whole
group read-alouds. I use strategies including choral reading and
interactive read-alouds.
• I have integrated strategy lessons with read-alouds focused on teaching
comprehension strategies including background knowledge and making
connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to world).
• Interactive reading also occurs daily during small group reading
instruction. Each student is placed in a homogenous group of 6-9
students where guided reading instruction takes place for 40 minutes each
day.
• Interactive writing activities occur on a daily basis through routines such as
“Morning Message” and spelling practice.

Supporting the
Critical Perspective
"Critical literacy has the potential to give
students the opportunity to read the word so that
they can read the world" (Molden, 2007, p. 56).
• Encourage students to think deeply about
the author’s motives and reasoning.
• Have students evaluate and judge source
reliability (Laureate Education, 2012b).
• Engage students in activities that look at
stories through different characters’
perspectives (Laureate Education, 2012b).
• Include stories that offer the opportunity to
explore social justice issues to allow
students to become “thoughtful and active
citizens” (Tompkins, 2010, p. 10).

How the Critical Perspective
Shapes My Classroom
• During read-alouds I pause to ask questions that relate to
genre, meaning, connections, and language.
• During read-alouds we focus on identifying the author and illustrator, and
the role that each serves.
• We discuss the text to make connections to the author’s style and/or
purpose (such as identifying rhyming books and stories written to
entertain).
• I integrate read-alouds with character perspectives by having students
imagine that they are the character of a story as a means to connect to the
character’s thoughts and feelings.
As students read from a critical
perspective “text becomes an
interactive tool to discover hidden
meanings and agendas”
(Molden, 2007, p. 52).

Supporting the
Responsive Perspective
Activities to support responding include discussions, thinkpair-square-share, graphic organizers, learning
logs, double-entry journals, and quickwriting
(Tomkins, 2010).

Other ideas include responding to text through character
journals, dramatizing, singing, and illustrating (Clyde, 2003;
Laureate Education, 2012e).
“Teachers help students develop

and refine their comprehension in
this stage as they think, talk, and
write about the information they’ve
read” (Tomkins, 2010, p. 408).

How the Responsive Perspective
Shapes My Classroom
• Response journals are used on a regular basis
in my classroom as a way to explore both
narrative and expository text.
• K-W-L charts, webbing, and brainstorming lists
are used to respond to read-alouds during group
discussions.
• We have now began exploring
character perspectives through
using a character journal and
responding to a story as a
character (Clyde, 2003).

Final Thoughts
In considering Framework for Literacy Instruction
(Laureate Education, 2012d), creating a literate
environment involves understanding the students
as learners (needs/strengths, ideas, and individual
interests), selecting appropriate texts (suitable
levels, genres, and personal interests), and using
developmentally appropriate practices that
promote literacy development. Additionally, each of
the components need to be considered through
the interactive, critical, and responsive
perspectives to offer students balanced literacy
experiences.

Questions to Consider
• What insights did you gain about literacy and
literacy instruction from viewing this
presentation?
• How might the information presented change
your literacy practices and/or your literacy
interactions with students?
• In what ways can I support you in the literacy
development of your students or children? How
might you support me in my work with students
or your children?
• What questions do you have?

References

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12 (2nd ed). Newark,
DE: International Reading Association.
Castek, J., Bevans-Mangelson, J., & Goldstone, B. (2006). Reading adventures online: Five ways
to introduce the new literacies of the Internet through children's literature. Reading Teacher, 59(7), 714–728.
Clyde, J. A. (2003). Stepping inside the story world: The subtext strategy—a tool for connecting
and comprehending. The Reading Teacher, 57(2), 150–160.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2012a). Analyzing and selecting text [Video webcast]. In The
Beginning Reader, Pre K-3. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackbo
ard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3467456_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (2012b). Critical perspective [Video webcast]. In The Beginning
Reader, Pre K-3. Retrieved from

References (cont.)

Laureate Education, Inc. (2012c). Getting to know your students [Video webcast]. In The
Laureate Education, Inc. (2012d). Perspectives on literacy learning [Video webcast]. In The
Laureate Education, Inc. (2012e). Responsive perspective: Reading-writing connection [Video
webcast]. In The Beginning Reader, Pre K-3. Retrieved from
Marcell, B. (2007). Traffic light reading: Fostering the independent use of comprehension
strategies with informational text. Reading Teacher, 60(8), 778–781

References (cont.)

McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626--639.
Molden, K. (2007). Critical literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: Strategies to
move beyond comprehension for reading improvement. Reading Improvement, 44(1), 50–56.
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read and write:
Developmentally appropriate practices for young children. Washington, DC: Author.
Stephens, K. E. (2008). A quick guide to selecting great informational books for young
children. Reading Teacher, 61(6), 488–490.
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.

Creating a Literate Classroom Environment

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