Building a literate environment

Building a
Literate
Environment
Greta Giglio
Walden University
August 10, 2012

Getting to Know Literacy Learners
Who are my students?
Investigate your students’ interests,
motivations, and feelings about themselves
as readers.
Recent research supports the notion that
successful student readers are motivated,
have a positive attitude, a good self-concept,
and possess the ability to make accurate
attributions for their performances
(Afflerbach, 2012).

How do students perceive
the importance of reading?
Find out how confident children are as
readers and how useful they feel reading is
in their daily lives.

“Current theories suggest that
self-perceived competence and
task value are major
determinations of motivation
and task engagement”
(Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, & Mazzoni, 1996, p.
318).

What do I assess?
Get to know students (and their parents and caregivers) in a
personal way. This is essential to understanding their
motivations, interests, and attitudes surrounding literacy
development.

In addition to cognitive assessments that help reveal students
academic strengths and weaknesses, assessments that survey
students attitudes and motivation toward reading can help
teachers plan for more effective and individualized literacy
instruction.

Knowing Your Learners Strategy in
Practice
Researching my student’s interests, motivations,
and attitudes about reading
• enabled me to choose engaging texts that peaked their
interest and were motivating for each individual child.
• gave me insight into their thinking, so that I could plan
authentic and meaningful lessons that would help
show them how literacy can play an important role in
their lives.
• Allowed me to choose strategies strategically with the
purpose of scaffolding individual students, in order to
promote the maximum student growth.

Selecting Texts
Why do I need additional texts?
Teachers should use information gathered in motivational
surveys to supplement basal programs with additional
reading materials including trade books (both fiction and
non-fiction) that match student interest, giving students
important opportunities to interact with text that is not
provided by the basal series.

Tompkins (2010) contends that
it is unrealistic to assume a basal
reading series alone could constitute
a complete reading program.

How do I choose these texts?
Choose a variety of texts
using the literacy matrix as Being intentional about
described by Hartman the texts we choose helps
(Laureate Education, Inc., to ensure a balance of
2011c). This matrix helps literature in the
teachers to strike a balance classroom.
in the classroom between
narrative and informational
texts and linguistic and
semiotic texts. The matrix
addresses the level of text
difficulty as well, making it
possible to tailor lessons for
individual students and
their diverse interests.

Is technology an important
source of text?
Use the internet and other
technology to supplement
current reading materials,
increase student “When we use the internet in
motivation, give access to our classrooms for teaching
current information, and to and learning, we extend
give students practice with opportunities for all students
the “new literacies” as to acquire [new literacy] skills
described by Castek,
and strategies” (Castek, et
Bevans-Mangelson, and
Goldstone,(2006). al., 2006, p. 715).
Leu, Leu and Coiro (2004)
suggest that “these skills
increase opportunities for all
students to participate in a
growing high-tech work
force” (as cited in Castek, et
al., pp.721-722).

“Teachers who use
Are non-fiction texts fiction and nonfiction
trade books together
may be rewarded with
important in the early students who are excited
about learning” (Camp,
years? 2000,
p. 400).
Use text sets (paired fiction and non-fiction texts
that explore a common element), to enrich
students literacy experiences and to teach
multiple subjects. The strategic mix of
informational and narrative text is an effective
and efficient way to get students motivated,
excited about learning, and thinking critically
and responsively about text. This practice also
prepares students for the heavy reliance on
informational text they will experience in the
later grades.

The Text Selection Strategy in Practice
The strategic selecting of texts has
• positively affected my ability to make strategic decisions
about supplemental reading materials and how to strike a
balance using the literacy matrix model.
• helped me to increase student motivation and given meaning
and purpose to the lessons I designed for specific students.
• helped me to understand the importance of the “new
literacies” and has been beneficial in facilitating student’s use
of technology as a 21st century source of text and motivation.
• increased my understanding of the importance of non-fiction
and informational texts. These texts are instrumental in
assisting even very young children in building interest and
essential background knowledge where very little may exist.

Interactive Perspective:
How do I teach children to be
strategic processors and thinkers?
Teaching students “how to be literate learners who can
navigate the textual world independently” (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2011d) is the ultimate goal of literacy
instruction.
Strickland (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011d) states that
literacy is cultivated and nurtured by responsive adults. This
statement is at the heart of the interactive perspective.
Teachers must scaffold students in their attempts to read and write
accurately, fluently, and with comprehension by using
instructional methods such as guided reading, that address those
students individual cognitive and affective needs and help them to
become metacognitive thinkers as well as independent, skilled
users of an assortment of reading strategies.

How can I support the interactive
perspective?
Scaffold students in their attempt
to read and write accurately,
fluently, and with comprehension
by using instructional methods
such as guided reading, that
address those students needs and
help them to become “I thought about it
and I think that
metacognitive thinkers and since snakes are
cold blooded, it
independent users of reading would be easier to
catch one in the
strategies and skills. winter, because it
would be slower!”

Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris (2010) report that guided reading “provide[s]
opportunities for teachers to assess students’ strategies” (p. 371).

How does guided reading support
students metacognitive and
independent use of strategies?
There are many effective, research based
strategies that can be used to help students
become critical thinkers, including teachers use
of higher order thinking questions, think-a-louds,
read-a-louds, guided reading, and graphic
organizers. The strategies that I have found to
be most helpful are guided reading and graphic
organizers. Guided reading requires students to
read texts at their instructional level on their
own in a small group. This method scaffolds students
as they try out strategies independently while the
teacher is there to support their efforts and
monitor independent use of specific strategies and skills.

How do I monitor students as they
interact with the text?
It is not enough to simply teach strategies,
but teachers must assess whether the
students are able to use those strategies
appropriately and independently. Along
with questioning and informal observation,
the use of graphic organizers such as
Thinking Maps (Hyerle & Yeager, 2007)
can facilitate students metacognitive growth
as they explain their thinking out loud.

Tompkins (2011) contends that it is important
for students to be metacognitive, explaining
their thinking during or after reading in order
for teachers to be able to get an insight into
what is going on inside their heads.

The Interactive Strategy in Practice
Teaching with the interactive perspective in
mind has taught me that
• teachers need to be strategic as they select texts that will
motivate their students in a meaningful way and are at the
students appropriate difficulty level.
• students need opportunities to practice specific skills and
strategies in context so that they become automatic and fluent
in their use.
• teachers must guide students to be metacognitive about the
strategies that they choose while becoming more fluent readers
who are able to understand and the whole of what they read.
• teachers need to develop a variety of assessment methods in
order to find out what their students comprehend about what
they read and how they know they know it, as well as to use for
planning of future instruction to address areas of need.

The Critical and Responsive
Perspectives
How do I teach children to be critical thinkers and
responders to text in a meaningful way?
Choose teaching techniques that help unlock students ability to
see text in a unique way; using student’s background knowledge
as a foundation upon which to build understanding. Give
students the opportunity to make judgments about the author’s
purpose and to think about and evaluate the text
in a critical manner.
Almasi (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b) describes
student’s interaction with text at this
level as a transaction” between reader and text in
which the text, as well as the reader, are marked by the experience
in such a way that both are permanently transformed by the
event., like clay billiard balls that collide are changed forever.

How can I facilitate student’s
transaction with the text?
The very effective subtext strategy (Clyde, 2003) helps
students step inside a character in the text, feel what they
feel, say what they would say, and articulate aloud the
thoughts of a given character, thus revealing student’s under-
standing of the story and making it possible for them to think
more critically and responsively about the text. Through this
strategy, students are given an authentic opportunity to
explore the text and the author’s purpose in telling the story.
Clyde (2003) reveals that, “Drama activities
help transform school from a place where we
tell students what to think to a place where
we help them experience thinking” (p. 152).

After playing Ruby Bridges, one student remarked, “When I was being
Ruby, I felt like I was her, and I didn’t like people yelling at me. I wanted
them to stop but, I couldn’t do anything. I was kind of mad and scared.”

How can I support the critical and
responsive perspectives?
Teach students to read to determine the authors purpose.
“When children are encouraged to read analytically, they
uncover hidden values in the stories they read” (Lamme, as
cited in Durand, Howell, Schumacher, Sutton, 2008, p.
24).
Explore key vocabulary in order to
help students make sense of a text
and use metacognitive strategies
like graphic organizers to scaffold
students efforts to do so.

Use the read-a-loud and think-a-loud strategies to model
cognitive strategies and ask a variety of higher level questions.

“Read-a-louds give students a vehicle for talking and
thinking about the literature and helps students bring their
own meaning to the text”(Newton, Stegemeire,& Padak, as
cited in Durand, et. al., 2008, p. 25).

“Substantial evidence indicates that teacher questioning can
play a key role in enhancing student comprehension”
(Stahl, 2004, p. 599).
“What is the author
trying to tell us
here?”

Use reading logs to record students’ responses to
literature in writing, as a source of reference, and to
build schema about a theme.
Vacca (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011e) reminds us
that writing helps us learn more about what we read
and offers students a unique interpretation of the
text.
Use strategies like think-pair-share to get
students thinking critically about the text
and talking about their feelings with
others.

The Critical and Response Perspective
Strategy in Practice
Teaching with the critical and response perspective
has required me to
• choose socially and culturally provocative literature that
provides an opportunity to think critically about a topic and
that evokes a strong response.
• ask well thought out probing questions that require students
to use cognitive and metacognitive skills.
• consider students schema and help them build background
knowledge about the text and the vocabulary involved.
• use and teach strategies such as subtext, think-pair-
share, read-a-loud, think-a-loud, and reading logs in order to
get students to think deeply and critically about the text and
to respond to it in a personal way.

Summary
Three essential instructional components prove vital in
teaching students to think metacognitively, critically, and
affectively about text that teachers need to keep in mind
when planning for instruction:
1. Know your students and develop assessments to help you do that.
2. Be able to select a variety of quality literature based on what you
have learned about your students academically as well as non-
cognitively.
3. Teach with the interactive, critical, and responsive perspectives in
mind, so that students are taught to think deeply, analyze, judge,
and respond to text in a meaningful and authentic way.
“Teachers therefore do not lead classes carefully along
to foreseen conclusions, sustained by critical authority,
about literary works. Instead, they face the difficult
but interesting task of acknowledging the differences,
and crafting out of that material, significant discussion”
(Probst, 1987, p. 2).

References
• Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12 (2nd ed).
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Afflerbach, P., Pearson, P. D., & Paris, S. G. (2008). Clarifying differences between
reading skills and reading strategies. Reading Teacher, 61(5), 364–373.
• Bridges, R. (2003). Ruby Bridges goes to school: my true story. New York, NY:
Scholastic Press.
• Camp, D. (2000). It takes two: teaching with twin texts. The Reading Teacher, 53(5),
400-409.
• 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. The 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.
• Durand, C., Howell, R., Schumacher, L. A., & Sutton, J. (2008). Using interactive
read-alouds and reader response to shape students' concept of care. Illinois
Reading Council Journal, 36(1), 22–29.
• Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing
motivation to read. The ReadingTeacher, 49(7), 518--533.
• Hyerle, D., & Yeager, C., (2007). Thinking Maps: A language for learning. Retrieved
from http://www.thinkingmaps.com

References, cont.
• Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th
ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
• LaLaureate Education, Inc. (Almasi, J.) (2011a). Critical perspective. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader. Baltimore, MD: Almasi.
• Laureate Education, Inc. (Almasi, J.) (2011b). Responsive perspective. [DVD]. The
Beginning Reader. Baltimore, MD: Almasi.
• Laureate Education, Inc. (Hartman, D., & Almasi, J.) (2011c). Analyzing and
selecting text. [DVD]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore, MD: Hartman &
Almasi.
• Laureate Education, Inc. (Strickland, D.) (2011d). Perspectives on Early Literacy.
[DVD]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore, MD: Strickland.
• Laureate Education, Inc. (Vacca, R.) (2011e). Responsive perspective: reading-
writing connection. [DVD]. The Beginning Reader. Baltimore, MD: Almasi.
• Probst, R. E. (1987). Transactional theory in the teaching of literature. Resources in
Education, 22(12).
• Stahl, K. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: comprehension strategy instruction
in the primary grades. International Reading Association, 57(7), 598-609.

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