Literacy Education Today
Getting to Know Our Students
Changes in the Classroom
The better we know our students the better we can get them to connect with texts (Laureate Education, 2010f).
Selecting Texts
Literacy materials, methods, and goals have evolved and will continue to change over time (Laureate Education, 2010b). New state and federal mandates are continually being modernized and programed packages are being updated to better fit the needs of today's learners. With this reality, classroom teachers are acknowledging the need to cultivate a different mindset that is more fitting to the new-age literacy infused, classroom learning environment.
What stage of literacy development are they?
After reflecting upon the data construed through cognitive and noncognitive assessment measures, educators are given the opportunity to get to know the whole student. By identifying the background knowledge, performance level, literacy strengths and weaknesses, individual motivators, interests, and personal identities, we are then able to select texts that are most suited for our students (Laureate Education, 2010a).
What are the components of literacy development?
- Emergent (birth- Kindergarten)
- Beginning (late Kindergarten- 1st or 2nd grade)
- Transitional (mid 2nd-3rd grade)
- Intermediate (late 3rd- middle school)
- Advanced (middle school- adult
(Laureate Education, 2010h)
What is it we can know about students in a literacy way?
Guidelines for
Literacy Instruction
The Five Pillars + 1
1. Phonemic Awareness: ability to manipulate individual sounds
2. Phonics: oral language base to compare words
3. Vocabulary: comprehensive knowledge of words
4. Fluency: ability to read at a natural pace
5. Comprehension: understanding of text
+
6. Written Expression: refine understanding of what they are learning
(Laureate Education, 2010h).
The Literacy Matrix
The Facts
Three things we really need to know when helping students with literacy learning
- The students themselves
- The texts the students will be reading
- Our individual instructional practices
(Laureate Education, 2010b).
How do we determine the
current skill level of our students?
The Literacy Matrix is a tool used to provide a better balance in regards to the kind of literacy we provide our students with (Laureate Education, 2010a). By utilizing this matrix we can help our students effectively expand their literacy knowledge to a desirable degree.
What Do We Need to Know About How Texts Are Put Together?
- The literacy development that children are engaged in before formal instruction is introduced, is highly important as it builds background knowledge of print, oral language, and experiences with the world (Laureate education, 2010g).
- Literacy is nurtured by responsive adults (the more children are heard and responded to... the more they'll learn.)
- Educators must explain and encourage questioning while reading
- Oral language and literacy develop concurrently
- What children learn about speaking and listening, they use for reading and writing... and vice versa.
- Learning to read and write starts very early and persists through adulthood.
- To be an engaged lifelong learner, students need to be exposed to the transfomative power of texts (Laureate Education, 2010j).
Through Cognitive and Noncognitive Assessments
Narrative Texts
Fidelity
It is critical that we discover the "whole child"
(what are their...)
- motivators
- interests
- background knowledge
- personal identity
(Laureate Education, 2010f)
The Reality
- Often written in first person
- Characters are trying to overcome a problem or deal with a difficulty
Semiotic Texts
Folklore, Fantasy, or Realistic Fiction
Communicate contextual message
by means of pictures or symbols
Linguistic
Narrative Informational
Semiotic
- Noncognitive: The strategies used to assess a students motivation and engagement, self-concepts, agency, personal interests, attitudes, and the attributions they make for their performances in reading (Afflerbach, 2012).
- Cognitive: The assessments used to better understand students as literacy learners. These assessments help to outline learning strengths and weaknesses, target areas of miscue, and identify consistent patterns in learning (Laureate Education, 2010a).
We as educators need to demonstrate fidelity within our teaching program so we can ensure we are implementing instructional practices effectively (Laureate Education, 2010b). More importantly, we must demonstrate fidelity with our students to make sure we are making decisions that are in the best interest of their learning needs. Through the guidance of the literacy learning perspectives, we can more readily access the knowledge we need to ensure we are making thoughtful and informed decisions in our daily literacy planning.
Design Elements and Features:
- Level of difficulty- (developmentally appropriate)
- Readability (sentence length, concept density)
- Text length (short, medium, long)
- Text structure (cues and key words)
- Size of print (small, medium, large)
- Visual support (picture cues)
- How the text will be used (independent, small group, whole group)
- Cross curricular connections
(Laureate Education, 2010a)
Informational Texts
"In classrooms across the nation, a new emphasis on promoting a love for reading is replacing an emphasis on skills.... How are children to find the joy in reading if their classroom experiences are limited to worksheets? How can teachers encourage students to become lifelong readers if they rarely ask them to read? It is only through meaningful literacy experiences that children develop an enthusiasm for reading. Few basal readers and skill sheets stimulate hearts and minds the way books do" (Yopp & Yopp, 1996, p. 2-3).
Linguistic Texts
"Designed to make it easier for the reader to find information" (Learning A-Z, 2013).
What do we need to know about their current skill level?
(Laureate Education, 2010a)
How do we construct
and utilize assessment data?
Oral Language: the ability to know and understand words
- listening comprehension
- oral language vocabulary
Alphabetic Code: making meaning of individual letters and sounds
- phonological/phonemic awareness
- invented spelling
- knowledge of alphabet
Print Knowledge and Concepts: how books work
- environmental print
- concepts of print
(Laureate Education, 2010h)
Perspectives of Literacy Learning
1. Observation: listen and watch what the students are doing as they read and write to gain an understanding of the connections they are making
with the text.
2. Documentation: construct student learning autobiographies to establish an understanding of individual interests and developmental levels.
3. Interpretation: identify how the students are developing in terms of
their developmental levels of reading, writing and spelling (independent, instructional, and frustration).
4. Evaluation and Planning: interpret data to effectively plan lessons and organize students according to their developmental stages.
(Laureate Education, 2010a)
Responsive Perspective
Critical Perspective
Allows the reader to encounter an emotional and personal reading experience (Laureate Education, 2010h).
Interactive Perspective
- Teaches students how to think deeply
- Teaches students to critically examine and judge a text in multiple ways
- Teaches students how to think analytically
- Teaches students how to get interactively involved with a text
(Laureate Education, 2010c)
Who were the characters?
- Provides students with the necessary space, support and safety to respond to texts
- Teaches students how to read and what to do with their reading
- Leads to new textual discoveries
(Laureate Education, 2010j)
- When students are able to respond to a text, they can more easily understand, discuss, and share their thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
- The readers lived experiences are of primary importance when engaging in a text.
(Laureate Education, 2010h)
Who wrote the text?
What was the authors purpose?
- Teaches students how to read and write
- Teaches students to be strategic processors and thinkers
- Teaches students to be metacognitive learners
- Teaches students to be reflective and self regulating
- Teaches students how to use questioning strategies when reading a text
- Teaches students how to be literate learners who can navigate the textual world without constant prompts and support
(Laureate Education, 2010e)
What gender was the author?
What were the authors motivators?
What characters influenced the story?
Where was the setting?
What was the plot of the story?
Is it believable?
Referecnes
Holl, b. (n.d.). Learning A-Z. Cambium Learning. Retrieved from http://www.learninga-z.com/commoncore/informational-text.html
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010a). Analyzing and selecting texts. [Video webcast]. In The beginning reader preK-3. Retrieved from https://
class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010b). Changes in literacy development. [Video webcast]. In The beginning reader preK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010c). Critical Perspective. [Video webcast]. In The beginning reader preK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010d). Informational text in the early years. [Video webcast]. In The beginning reader preK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010e). Interactive perspective: Strategic processing. 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%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3469525_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010f). Literacy autobiographies. In The Beginning reader PreK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010g). Perspectives on early literacy. [Video webcast]. In The beginning reader preK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010h). Perspectives on literacy learning. In The Beginning Reader PreK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3469525_1%26url%3D
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010i). Response perspective [Video webcast]. In The Beginning Reader. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher?type=Course&id =_550355_1&url=
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010j). Response perspective: Reading-writing connection. [Video webcast]. In The beginning reader preK-3. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url =%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id %3D_550355_1%26url%3D
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (1996). Literacy-based reading activities (2nd ed.). Allyn & Bacon. Needham Heights: Mass.