1. Creating a Literate
Environment
Presentation by : Mindy J. Dole
EDUC 6706R-4
The Beginning Reader PreK-3
Instructor – Dr. Denise Love

2. The Essential Components of Creating a
Literate Environment
• Getting to Know the Literacy Learner
• Selecting Texts
• The Interactive Perspective
• The Critical Perspective
• The Response Perspective
• Feedback from Colleagues and Family Members of
Students

3. Getting to Know the Literacy Learner
According to Tompkins, “It is important that teachers learn about their students and
work to ensure that they’re motivated and have positive attitudes about literacy”
(Tompkins, 2010). To assess the motivation as well as the level of literacy
development of the three PreK emergent readers I chose to work with I performed
both cognitive and non-cognitive assessments with the students.
Non-Cognitive – Non-cognitive assessments evaluate motivation, interests, self-
concepts and attitudes of the reader (Afflerbach, 2007). In addition to classroom
observation I performed the Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey with each student.
The ERAS is a tool that can be used to gauge the reading attitudes of students both
at home and at school (McKenna & Kear, 1990). This was helpful to me in identifying
which students I needed to work with to find new ways to spark their interest in
reading.
Cognitive – I regularly use anecdotal note taking and running records to assess
students’ cognitive development. In addition, I performed a subtest of the Dynamic
Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) that focuses on assessing initial
sound fluency. According to the DIBELS Administration Guide, the Initial Sound
Fluency is a “standardized, individually administered measure of phonological
awareness that assesses a child’s ability to recognize and produce the initial sound in
an orally presented word” (DIBELS, 2011). I look forward to using this tool to track
my students’ progress throughout the year and will pass on the results to their
Kindergarten teachers.

4. Selecting Texts
Research tells us that there is a definite link between literacy learning at an
early age and a student’s success later in school (Laureate Education, 2010b).
It is important to provide my students with a range of different types of texts
with which to work. For this reason, while I usually lean toward the narrative
side of the literacy matrix, I made sure to include an informational text while
selecting texts for our current unit on bears. According to Dr. Neuman, children
are not taught enough informational text in the early years of school (Laureate
Education, 2010b). (word-focused)
(picture-focused)
In addition, while choosing texts, I took into account the preferences and
interests of the students I was working with. It is important to find texts that
will not only spark the students’ interest but ones that are at the appropriate
instructional level of those students.

5. The Interactive Perspective
According to the Framework for Literacy Instruction, the interactive
perspective involves helping students to be metacognitive readers and writers
as well as promoting the use of their independent use of reading strategies
(Laureate Education, 2010a).
The lesson I developed for this perspective was based on the book Brown Bear,
Brown Bear, What do you See? (Martin, 2007). It focused on connecting to
prior experiences with a similarly written story as well as using the repetitive
pattern of the story to allow for students to practice retelling the story and
word recognition. According to Tompkins, “Readers bring their background
knowledge to every reading experience; in fact, they read text differently
depending on their prior experiences” (Tompkins, 2010, p. 261).
My students were able to successfully recall the pattern of the story and retell
it to other students as well as their parents by looking at the illustrations even
though they are not yet reading. Also, they were able to recognize and write
some of the color words in the story.

6. The Critical Perspective
The critical perspective focuses on teaching students to examine and evaluate
texts (Laureate Education, 2010a). This is an area I had not previously
focused as much time on due to the young age of my students. While planning
and teaching I realized that they are more capable than I thought and I will
continue to find new ways for them to work on evaluating what they read.
The lesson I taught worked on comparing two versions of the Goldilocks story:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Marshall, 1998) and Beware of the Bears
(MacDonald, 2005). The students and I worked together in a small group
setting to compare the two stories using a Venn Diagram. Graphic organizers
such as Venn diagrams can aid students in identifying the important ideas in
text and the relationships between them (Tompkins, 2010). Small groups are
most effective when everyone works together to complete the task (Chapman &
King, 2005). The lesson was successful; after a couple of examples the
students were able to recall events from the stories and identify which story
(or both) they took place in. There was also much discussion and debate about
if the characters were making good choices in their actions.

7. The Response Perspective
The response perspective encourages students to react to what they are
reading and to make connections to their own lives and experiences (Laureate
Education, 2010a). As an extension of our comparison and discussions about
Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Marshall, 1998) and Beware of the Bears
(MacDonald, 2005), the students and I talked about how in both of the stories
the characters were scared when the owner of the house came home in the end
of the story. I asked each student to think about a time when they felt scared
and to draw a picture of it in their reading response journal. I then had them
tell me the story of their drawing and I wrote their words in their journal.
It is important to provide students with opportunities to respond and make
meaningful connections to text to help them comprehend what they are
reading. According to Tompkins, “Without learning to thoughtfully engage in
the reading process, it’s unlikely that students who struggle with
comprehension will improve very much” (Tompkins, 2010 p. 267).

8. Feedback from Colleagues and Family
Members of Students
• 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 instruction 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?

9. References
Afflerbach, P. (2007) Understanding and using reading assessment K-12. Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
Chapman, C., & King, R. (2005). Differentiated assessment strategies: One tool doesn’t fit all. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press.
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Data System, (2011). Administration Guide. Retreived from
dibels.uoregon.edu/
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). EDUC-6706R-4 The Beginning Reader, Prek-3
[Webcast]. Perspectives on Literacy Learning. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education Inc., (Executive Producer). (2010b). Informational text and the early years {Webcast}. The
beginning reader, PreK-3. Baltimore, MD: Author.
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. The Reading
Teacher, 43(9), 626–639.
MacDonald, A. (2005). Beware of the bears. London, UK: Little Tiger Press.
Marshall, J. (1998). Goldilocks and the three bears. London, UK: Puffin Books.
Martin, Bill, & Carle, E. (2007). Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? New York, NY: Henry Holt & Co.
Tompkins, G. (2010) Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.