This document summarizes strategies for creating a literate environment for pre-K through 3rd grade students. It discusses gathering data on students' cognitive and noncognitive reading abilities using surveys and assessments. The importance of selecting a variety of leveled texts including narrative, informational, linguistic and semiotic is explained. Teaching methods aligned with the interactive, critical and response perspectives are outlined, including implementing strategies like KWL charts. The document concludes that to create a literate environment, teachers should get to know their students, select diverse texts, teach strategic reading skills, and encourage critical thinking and emotional responses to texts.

1. Literate Environment Analysis
Amber White
EDUC 6706
The Beginning Reader,
Pre-K – 3rd grade
Walden University
December 2014

2. Getting to know Literacy Learners, P-3
It is important that teachers assess both the cognitive and noncognitive
aspects of their students reading abilities. Data on the noncognitive aspects
of students should be gathered and used to inform instruction. Information
on students attitudes towards reading, likes and interests, and their self-perception
as a reader can be used to tailor cognitive instruction to each
student’s individual needs (Afflerbach, 2012).
In the video, Literacy
Autobiographies (Laureate
education, n.d.), adults shared
stories of the teachers that
affected and shaped their love
of reading. Teachers have the
power to create positive reading
experiences that will effect
students throughout their lives.

3. Getting to know Literacy Learners, P-3, continued
In order to gather data on the attitudes of my Kindergarten ESOL students
towards reading I used a reading interest survey created by a Kindergarten
teacher. In order to meet the language needs of my ELL students I chose a
survey that allowed my students to point or give simple one words answers.
This is a sample of the questions I asked my students:
1. Do you like to read?
2. Do you like when someone reads to you?
3. Does someone read to you at home?
4. Do you have books of your own?
5. Do you like school?
Students answered the questions by coloring in a smiley face (for yes), a
straight face (for sometimes) or a frown face(for no), pointing to one of the
faces, or answering yes, no, sometimes.

4. Getting to know Literacy Learners, P-3, continued
Reading Interest Survey
(Lucas, n.d.)
Letter sound and recognition
assessment (Cox, n.d.)

5. Selecting Texts
In order to meet the needs of all students, teachers must provide a
variety of texts and text structures. Using the text matrix as a tool
provides a continuum to plot texts and a visual to ensure that teachers
are providing an appropriate variety of types of text and text structures.
Narrative, informational, linguistic, and semiotic texts in both easy and
hard levels are imperative so that all learners are challenged and
engaged during reading instruction (Laureate Education, n.d.a).
While creating a unit on the study of the autumn season, I used the text
matrix to ensure that I was including a variety of texts and varying text
structures at different levels of difficulty.

6. HARD
EASY
LINGUISTIC:
word oriented
SEMIOTIC: picture/
image oriented
NARRATIVE:
story
INFORMATIONAL:
provides information
Teachers can use the
text matrix as a tool
to see the kinds and
levels of difficulty of
the texts they use
during instruction.

7. Literacy Lesson: Interactive Perspective
The focus of the Interactive perspective is to teach students how to read
using the five pillars: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency,
comprehension, and vocabulary. The goal of the interactive perspective
is for students to become strategic readers and writers who can be
metacognitive and use strategic processing while reading a text. When
students encounter a problem during reading, they need to think about
how they are going to confront it. Students need to be able to choose
and use the best and most efficient strategy to solve their problem.
When students can use strategic processing and think metacognitively
about reading strategies they will become successful, independent
readers (Laureate Education, n.d.c.).
In order to support students as
they learned to be
metacognitive about reading, I
implemented the use of a KWL
chart. Using a KWL chart
encourages students to think
about their thinking and
activate their prior knowledge
as a base to build new
information on.

8. Literacy Lesson: Interactive
• An important aspect of learning to read in kindergarten
includes students being able to recognize high-frequency
sight words. To promote mastery of this skill, I
implemented an activity where students search for
“hidden” sight words. This activity also provides young
students with the opportunity to get up and move around
the room.

9. Literacy Lesson: Critical and Response
Perspectives
• The critical perspective challenges students to
think critically, evaluate, and make judgments
about texts (Laureate Education, n.d.b.).
To implement the critical perspective, students read two fall themed texts:
“Fletcher and the Falling Leaves” and “Leafy, The Leaf who wouldn’t leave.”
Students shared their favorite parts of each story with the class.

10. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspectives
• After reading both texts, students used a Venn
diagram to compare and contrast things that were
similar and different in both stories. Using a
graphic organizer helps students to organize their
thinking, making it easier to evaluate texts.

11. Literacy Lesson: Critical and
Response Perspectives
• The response perspective encourages
students to connect personally and or
emotionally to the text. (Laureate
Education, n.d.d.).
After filling in the Venn diagram,
students were asked to respond to the
text. Students drew pictures or wrote
letters offering advice to either of the
main characters. Using reader’s
response journals encourages students
to share their feelings and make an
emotional connection to the text.

12. When creating a literate environment it
is important for me to:
• Get to know both the cognitive and noncognitive needs of my
students.
• Select a variety of texts that will both challenge and engage my
students.
• Implement the components of the interactive perspective by
teaching students how to read and how to use strategies that
will make them good readers.
• Teach students to evaluate text based on different viewpoints,
opinions, and sources.
• Encourage students to make emotional connections with the
text and respond to the text with their thoughts and feelings.

13. References
Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12 (2nd ed). Newark, DE: International
Reading Association.
Bridewell, Norman. (1997). Clifford’s first autumn. New York: Scholastic, Inc.
Cox, Karen. (n.d.) Pre-K assessment forms. Retrieved on September 10, 2014 from:
http://www.prekinders.com/assessment-forms/
Hahn, J. and Striga, N. (n.d.) “Leafy,” the leaf who wouldn’t leave. Retrieved on September 17, 2014 from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mil_i4VB358
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.a).Analyzing and Selecting Texts. [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.b). Critical perspective. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.c..Interactive perspective: strategic processing. [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.d). Response perspective. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Lucas. (n.d.) Reading interest survey. Retrieved on September 9, 2014 from:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=reading%20interest%20inventories%20for%20kindergarten%20stude
nts&source=web&cd=15&ved=0CFwQFjAO&url=http://lucaskindergarten.wikispaces.com/file/view/Reading%2
BInterest%2BSurvey.docx&ei=ifcOVOL8Mo-2yAS0uIHgDw&usg=AFQjCNFuLCAPgqrXCLVLvJok33IyMnTrYg
Mizuno, H., Mizuno, K. and Ogawa, Y. (2008) Autumn Colors of Kyoto: A Seasonal portfolio. Tokyo: Kodansha
International.
Rawlinson, Julia. (2006). Fletcher and the Falling Leaves. New York, NY: Haper Collins, Inc.
Rustad, Martha E. H. (2009). Los animales in otono = Animals in Fall. Mankato: Capstone Press.
Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.