2. A Literate Environment
Creating a literate environment requires patience and
diligence. Educators are required to provide rich-text
environments with interesting and engaging texts that
exposes students to narrative and informational texts.
3. Literacy Environment
Students must be able to relate to the text, experience it
and respond to it in a meaningful way. This can include
verbal responses, written responses, or students can
respond in writing prompts. When students have
authentic experiences with the text, it enables them to
comprehend a little better. I’m looking forward to the
connections my students will continue to make in and out
the classroom.
4. Understanding theand identities and
Finding out about students’ interests
Students
understanding what matters to students and who they
are as individuals. I find myself really connecting with
my students. I often listen to their conversations as they
discuss certain topics with peers in the classroom and
during recess. I find out a lot about my students by
having authentic conversations about their home lives,
the current music trends, and the things they enjoy doing
after school. This enables me to choose text that they are
interested in. For example, from a recent conversation, I
found that one of my emergent readers is really
interested in animals. So I have included many new texts
in our class library about different types of animals and
often ask him to share additional information about the
7. Purpose of Assessments
Assessment data provides valuable information
that informs instruction and enables educators to
provide timely interventions where necessary. With
data, teachers are able to choose appropriate
activities, methods of instruction, and appropriate
strategies that will be most beneficial.
8. Formal and Summative
Assessments
Using a variety of informal and formal assessments to determine
areas of strength and need in literacy development. For example, my
grade level uses a variety of assessments to assist students in
meeting goals. For instance, all students are assessed at the end of
each reading unit to determine their level of understanding of
narrative and informational texts. Students are assessed on
vocabulary, reading comprehension, and utilizing information from
the text to answer a short-answer question. I also informally assess
my students by questioning to determine what information they still
need to reach goals.
9. Assessments
During my literacy instruction, I address a multitude of needs that
are essential to the literacy development of my students and it
provides the foundation to effective teaching. For instance, I
administer multiple formative and summative assessments that tells
me my students levels in reading, writing, fluency, and
comprehension. I consistently provide a story test at the end of every
story to test these things. I also utilize DIBELS, writing prompts,
fluency test, etc to inform me of each student’s strengths and
weaknesses.
11. Choosing Texts
A literacy autobiography consists of the process in which we acquire
literacy. My literacy autobiography started with being introduced to
reading with bedtime stories. It then stemmed into being introduced to
letters, sounds, and reading systems that enabled me to formulate words.
I then began to read independently and develop a thirst for reading and
found interesting text. As a result, I continue to read and find myself
wanting and desiring for my students to develop the same love for
reading as I have.
I know that much of their literacy development has to come from me. I
have to choose texts that are engaging, relevant, appropriate, and able to
connect with students (Afflerbach, 2012). With these, my students can
develop essential skills that they need to be successful in literacy.
12. Texts
When choosing the right texts for students to read in class, it is essential to consider a multitude of things. For
instance, student motivation, level of engagement, relevance, connectivity to standards, and student interest
(Tompkins, 2010). As educators we have to be mindful that in order for our students to develop a love for reading,
they have to first love what they are reading. As we have learned, our literacy autobiographies help shape the
readers and non-readers that we are. When we have positive interactions with texts, we develop a true passion
for reading and continue that love and reading habits well into adulthood. It’s critical that educators create an
environment that is rich in literacy and makes text readily accessible for students.
To do this, teachers have to pay special attention to their students. They have to learn their likes and dislikes,
habits, home lives, hobbies, and things they are interested in. From this information, teachers can begin to provide
texts that are related to specific to their interests. When a student enjoys the topic they are reading about, they
typically do better at focusing and comprehend the text (Tompkins, 2010). Moreover, our school has a multitude of
available texts that correlate to student’s interests and national standards. Our students frequently check out
books in our school’s library and I often catch them reading during instruction. Of course we do not want students
to miss out on instructional material, but we definitely want them to enjoy reading to the point where they do it in
their free time.
13. Critical Perspective
The critical perspective I believe it is important to
understand my students thoughts, the problems they
face, and the issues they encounter at home. I ask a
variety of questions and engage my students in a
meaningful conversations that enables me to get to
know them on a deeper level. From this information I can
have students engage in reading and writing
assignments where they can think critically about the
text and evaluate it enough to write something
meaningful about it.
14. Critical Perspective
Critical perspectives teaches students how to critically examine text
(Tompkins, 2010). This idea can be implemented in my classroom by
relating the story to everyday issues that students may encounter.
When a whole-group discussion is facilitated, students can share
their personal experiences. For instance, a few weeks ago, my
students and I read a story about a character who lost a family
member. Students were able to share their feelings about when one
of their relatives died. They shared their thoughts, feelings, and
ways of handling the situation. For those students who had never
experienced death, they were able to listen to their peers and gain
an understanding of how our character might have felt. They were
able to relate feelings and emotions to the story.
16. Response Perspective
The response perspective helps me to understand the
issues that matter to my students and help shape them
as individuals. In order to do this I engage students in
small reading group on a particular text and we engage
in dialogue in regards to what was read. I ask a variety
of questions that allows students to share their
comprehension and to talk about how the story and/or
characters are like their lives. Depending on the story,
students have to complete an assignment that relates,
thus showing their knowledge of the story.
17. Response Perspective
Response perspectives allows children the opportunity to experience
and respond to the text (Tompkins, 2010). This idea allows students
the opportunity to have an authentic interaction with the story and
be able to respond with feelings, thoughtfulness, and experience. I will
incorporate this in my class by allowing students to share personal
experiences that are related to the selected text. There is great joy in
students making a valuable connection with the stories. Students
are able better able to fully understand the events taking place in
the story. From that they can provide significant value to class
discussions and writing prompts.
19. Lesson Development
To assist in lesson development, I must remain cognizant of the
perspectives and ensure that I’m including them in each lesson.
When I do this, it enables me to address a variety of needs and
allows me to understand my students. It’s important to focus on the
content and keep the end goals in mind to assist each student in
becoming life-long learners. This helps me develop more meaningful
lessons and choose texts that students can learn from, relate to,
and grow from. With the skills they acquire, they can apply them in
a variety of settings, including when they read independently.
20. Activating Prior Knowledge
Activating student’s prior knowledge by assisting them in painting
pictures for terms teachers want students to remember is a great
example. The teacher should help students relate to the vocabulary
word to help them remember and make personal connections with it.
Teachers should also do this by sharing a lot of her own personal
connections with students so they can share things about their life,
thus allowing them to see that they can get schema (prior
knowledge) outside of a text. For instance, mentioning a relative who
is a marine biologist that works and studies coral reef which
connects to the story that they are about to read (Laureate
Education Inc., 2010).
