Creating A Literate Environment

CREATING A LITERATE
ENVIRONMENT:
PRE-K TO THIRD GRADE
Genevieve Coon
Walden University
Dr. Gregory
EDUC-6706R-3 The Beginning Reader, PreK-3
December 18, 2011

CREATING A LITERATE
ENVIRONMENT
Index
 Getting to Know Literacy Learners, Pre-kindergarten-Third Grade
 Cognitive Assessments and Noncognitive/Affective Assessments
 Selecting Texts
 Selecting Appropriate and Engaging Texts
 The Interactive Perspective
 Selecting Specific Learning Strategies That Address Word Recognition
and Comprehension
 The Critical and Response Perspectives
 Selecting Specific Learning Strategies That Address Critically Thinking
About Texts and Responding To Them In Personal and Meaningful
Ways

GETTING TO KNOW LITERACY LEARNERS,
PRE-KINDERGARTEN-THIRD GRADE

Implementing cognitive and noncognitive
assessments allow you to gain knowledge about
students’ skills, strategies, development, motivation,
attitude, beliefs, identities, and interests.

PRE-KINDERGARTEN-THIRD GRADE CONTINUED

To understand each child’s attitude, interests, and
motivations try implementing these two
noncognitive/affective assessments.
First Assessment: Have the child bring 3 to 5 items
you can discuss (Laureate Education, 2010a).
Second Assessment: Utilize the Elementary Reading
Attitude Survey (McKenna & Kear, 1990, p. 630).

To understand where each child is developmentally
one can perform a series of cognitive assessments.
These various assessments allow you to assess
knowledge of phonics, word recognition, writing
capabilities, knowledge of print, as well as
speed, rhythm, accuracy, and comprehension
throughout the reading process.

The Tile Test allows each child to “manipulate letter
tiles to make words, and you can also arrange tiles
to spell words for them to read” (Tompkins, 2010, p.
166). This test allows one to assess phonic
knowledge, while developing appropriate lessons or
activities to meet the child’s future needs.

To determine word recognition one can use a high-
frequency word list, which can be found online or
within the Literacy for the 21st Century text. During
this activity have each child read a list of 100 high-
frequency words aloud. This activity allows one to
see what sight words a child can recognize, as well
as the number of words they can recognize overall.

To understand each child’s writing capabilities have
the child write for ten minutes about anything he or
she wants (Laureate Education, 2010b). Then look
for how the child expresses his or herself, how the
child uses periods, capitalization, etc…, and how
the child spells to determine where each child is
developmentally (Laureate Education, 2010b).

To understand each child’s development of reading
have him or her read a leveled book, of his or hers
choice, aloud while you observe a variety of areas.
Observe each child’s knowledge of print; perform a
miscue analysis; and check for speed, rhythm,
accuracy, and comprehension to determine if the
book is too easy, just right, or too hard for the child
(Tompkins, 2010).


(Tompkins, 2010, p. 113)

(Tompkins, 2010, p. 87)

SELECTING TEXTS FOR
PRE-KINDERGARTENERS-THIRD GRADERS
Consider using a variety of literacy experiences with
children by selecting appropriate and engaging
texts that help him or her feel confident; the
selection(s) should be based on each child’s
literacy needs and characteristics.

SELECTING TEXTS FOR
PRE-KINDERGARTENERS-THIRD GRADERS CONT.
Begin selecting texts by choosing a literacy topic for
the child; it’s best to choose one that is based on
the child’s interests so he or she stays motivated.
Then, select appropriately leveled texts for the child
based on the chosen topic and previous
assessments.

SELECTING TEXTS FOR
Additionally, offer the child different texts to expose
him or her to a variety of literacies. For
example, expose the child to narrative
texts, informational texts, and online texts. By
exposing him or her to these texts you are meeting
the child’s needs and interests while exposing him
or her to new reading experiences as well.

SELECTING TEXTS FOR
When selecting texts don’t forget get to consider
these characteristics:
Sentence Length
Number of Syllables
Concept Difficulty
Text Length
Text Structure (informational, poetic, etc…)
Size of Print
Visual Supports
Purpose for Using Text(s)
(Laureate Education, 2010c).

THE INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE,
We need to teach children how to be strategic and
metacognitive in order to be in control of their
learning. This means that we need to teach
children specific learning skills and strategies to
provide them with the opportunities to think about
their strategy use and become self-regulated in
their use of strategies. I have chosen two
strategies that address word recognition and
comprehension to demonstrate the effectiveness of
integrating the Interactive Perspective into the
learning process.

The first Interactive Perspective strategy is a picture
word list activity. This activity demonstrates how
pictures can help us decode words, as well as help
with word recognition. Furthermore, by
incorporating the picture word list the children are
more apt to refer to illustrations when they are
struggling with a word in the future.

Start by introducing the picture word list to the child
and explaining that pictures can help us decode
unknown words. On this list include ten pictures
and two blank lines (for high frequency words) that
correspond with the preselected text. Next, display
the pre-cut words to accompany the pictures. Give
the child a few minutes to review the words, and
then ask him or her to predict which word goes with
the corresponding picture. Last, review the words
together and glue them into place. Again, by doing
this activity you are reinforcing that pictures can
help with word recognition and decoding when
reading a story.

The second Interactive Perspective strategy is to
teach children about how to use their “schema” to
connect prior knowledge to new information for
better comprehension.

Begin by explaining that our “schema” is our ideas
that help us understand text. Then present a
folder, with a picture of the brain, and explain that
all these ideas are stored in pretend folders in our
brain (Laureate Education, 2010d). Proceed to tell
him or her that these stored ideas help us to
understand books that we read. Demonstrate how
to retrieve these ideas by thinking aloud and writing
these thoughts down on sticky notes. Allow the
child to participate as you add these notes to the
folder.

At different points during the read aloud make sure to
stop to recall some of the sticky notes from the
folder to reinforce the schema strategy. Hopefully,
the reader will proceed to stop on his or her own to
add new information to the folder and/or to
reconnect to information that was already written by
him or her. At the end of the story, again talk about
how our prior knowledge, schema, and/or ideas
help us to understand and connect to new text.

THE CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES,
We need to teach children how to be critical and responsive in
order to examine, evaluate, judge, and become emotionally
and personally connected with the text(s). This further means
that we need to teach children specific strategies to provide
them with the knowledge to become self-regulated in their use
of critical and response strategies. To demonstrate the
importance of including Critical and Response Perspectives I
have chosen four strategies that address thinking about texts
in-depth and responding to texts on a personal level. I chose
to share a bookmark activity (Molden, 2007) and a Venn
diagram for thinking critically about texts, and to demonstrate
that children need to examine each text carefully to fully
understand them. Additionally, I chose to share a series of
questions and a written response, using a prompt, to teach
children how to use their prior knowledge and feelings for
better comprehension when responding meaningfully.

PRE-KINDERGARTEN-THIRD GRADE CONT.
At the end of the story one can discuss the follow-up
critical thinking activity; the four bookmarks that
require specific information on each (Molden,
2007). The bookmarks require the child to write
and draw a part of the text he or she really liked
and found interesting on the first bookmark; write
and draw something he or she did not understand
and found confusing on the second bookmark; write
a word he or she thought was important for the
entire class or you to know and why; and choose a
picture and write why this picture helped him or her
understand the book (Molden, 2007, p. 52).

A Venn diagram is a great tool to compare two stories
and for children to critically think about both texts.
Begin by talking about what a Venn diagram is and
the directions on how to complete one; a Venn
diagram allows a child to list several differences
between the two stories, as well as many
similarities on the same template.

Give children the opportunity to interact with and
experience the texts on a personal level so they
can respond meaningfully while using their
emotions. One can accomplish this by asking a
series of questions, such as the ones listed below.
“How did this story make you feel?”
“How can this story help you and the people around you?”
“Has this ever happened to you or a friend?”
“What does the author want us to learn?”
(Durand, Howell, Schumacher, & Sutton, 2008, p. 25)?

Another way to let children interact with texts in a
meaningful way is to allow them to write about the
text(s) using their background knowledge and
feelings. Prompts can be used as well to help
children express their feelings. To evoke a child’s
self-worth I often use the prompt, “I like me
because…”. This will allow one to see how a child
views him or herself, and if any self-esteem
strategies are needed to build this child’s
confidence.

By teaching children how to examine texts and
respond to texts it allows them to make connections
on a personal level, while acquiring new information
through critiquing. Additionally, children learn that
by critiquing texts it better helps them to understand
the content better. Furthermore, when children
connect with the text(s) the children are also more
apt to use their emotions to help them understand
when reading next time. By teaching children how
to use these strategies they become critical and
responsive readers since they are able to examine,
evaluate, judge, and become emotionally and
personally connected to the text(s).

CONCLUSION
By incorporating these strategies and activities one
can begin to create a literate environment for
children. These strategies can further help any
child become a successful reader and/or writer
when the time is taken to implement them properly.

REFERENCES
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. Reading
Teacher, 59(7), 714–728. Retrieved from http://libraryguides.waldenu.edu/educ6706
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. Retrieved from http://libraryguides.waldenu.edu/educ6706
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Getting to know your students
[Webcast]. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Assessing word knowledge
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Analyzing and selecting text
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010d). Virtual field experience: Strategic
processing [Webcast]. Baltimore: Author.
McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626–639. Retrieved from
http://libraryguides.waldenu.edu/educ6706
Molden, K. (2007). Critical literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: Strategies to
move beyond comprehension for reading improvement. Reading Improvement, 44(1),
50–56. Retrieved from http://libraryguides.waldenu.edu/educ6706
Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston:
MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Creating A Literate Environment

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