digital story

EARLY LITERACY ENVIRONMENTS: A DIGITAL STORYCreated by: Amanda Matson

Walden UniversityDr. (Dagel) Lepisto Brown

READ 6706: Literacy Development, PreK–3

“The silent motionless act of reading belies the activity happening inside the readers head. The symbols on the page being converted into a meaningful message that the reader understands. In the readers head, the authors tale is unfolding word-for-word exactly how the author wrote it.”

(Wren, S., Litke, B., Jinkins, D., Paynter, S., Watts, J. & Alanis, I. 2013)

Literate Environment Analysis

1. Getting to know Emergent and beginning Literacy Learners

2. Selecting Texts3. Emergent Literacy Learner Lesson4. Beginning Literacy Learner Lesson

5. Reflection

Getting to Know Emergent and Beginning Learners

Effective literacy educators continuously seek new ways of creating literacy learning possible for all leaners

Having knowledge on our students helps make their learning more relevant and meaningful

Get to know your students. What do they love? What do they bring to the classroom? Know who they are and what interests them.

Treating our students like they are smart and important makes them want to do better in school.

(Laureate Education, 2014b)

Getting to Know Emergent and Beginning Learners (part 2)

It is important to find out about students literacy development

Many struggling readers do not like to read because classroom material is too difficult and not enjoyable.

The use of cognitive and non-cognitive assessments will give teachers crucial information about their students that will assist them in differentiating instruction

Finding his/her independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels is the first step in motivating a struggling reader.

“When we teach we change the way kids think and learn.”

(Mariotti, A. P. n. d.)



Learn student interests through the use of non-cognitive assessments Student learning autobiographies:

-Write about themselves, how they view themselves (Laureate Education, 2014a)

• Elementary Reading Attitude Survey -Learn what topics and types of books each

child enjoys-Students may take survey on their own, orit can be read to them

(Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. 2016)


Assessments should be used to identify appropriate instructional practices to support their literacy development

Assessment areas can includeOral languagePhonemic awarenessConcepts of printListening/ Reading Comprehension


Getting to Know Emergent and Beginning Learners(Part 5)

Emergent ReadersBirth through kindergartenPretend reading and writing (scribbling)In the process of developing phonemic

awareness (letter names and sounds)Engages in reading through read

alouds with teacherConversations and read alouds help

build comprehension and vocabulary skills



Getting to Know Emergent and Beginning Learners (part 6) Beginning Readers

Late kindergarten through second grade In the process of learning to read Can recognize words by sight Developing phonics awareness: able to

pull apart sounds, blend sounds, put letter(s) to sound(s)

Learning vocabulary through texts and conversations

Benefits from hearing people read and talk fluently

Developing writing skills Shows comprehension through

discussion, illustrating and writing



Selecting Text Literacy Matrix:

Narrative or informationalLinguistic (word oriented) or semiotic

(picture oriented)Mapping allows teachers to see if there is a balance of textsprovided and if they fit with goals

(Laureate Education, 2014a)

Selecting Texts (part 2) Consider the difficulty

Readability, sentence length, and number of syllables

Concept density: decreases with background knowledge

Singletons: unique new words, which would make it harder for independent reads

Text structure: informational, cause/effect, compare/contrast, descriptive, problem/solution, poetic

Choose a book students can relate to, and creates excitement when reading

(Laureate Education, 2014a)

Selecting Text (part 3)

Size of print: smaller, bigger

Visual support: number of illustrations

Consider difficulty in curriculum: use books that students struggle with as read alouds. Show them strategies for comprehension

Easier books are perfect for independent reads


Assessments To learn my students interests, abilities, strengths, and areas of

growth I used the following assessments:

Emergent Reader: Cognitive assessments included: -Metalinguistic Interview (print knowledge)-Literal Blooms Questions Stems (listening comprehension) Noncognitive assessment included:-Elementary Reading Attitude Survey(interests)

Beginning Reader: Cognitive Assessments Included:-Starpoint Phonics Assessment (phonics)-Guided Reading Thinking Activity (comprehension)• Non-cognitive Assessments included:-Student Learning Biography (interests) (Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. 2016)

Texts for Emergent and Beginning Literacy Learners Lesson’s

The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor, written by Joanna Cole

(Cole, J., & Degen, B. 1992) Commotion in the Ocean,

written by Giles Andrea (eBook)

(Andreae, Giles. 2010) I Am the Biggest Thing in the

Ocean, written by Kevin Sherry

(Sherry, Kevin. 2010)

After assessing my students interests, I selected these texts matched their interests, and they met instructional skills and goals

Emergent Literacy Learner Lesson My lesson focused on listening comprehension

Cognitive and non-cognitive assessment data showed students struggling to retain information on characters and character details. I selected goals, objectives and instructional strategies that would meet their needs through the use of Close Reading strategies

Learning Objectives: 1. Students will form and support opinions about main characters

using textual evidence2. Infer the characters feelings using textual evidence 3. Demonstrate understanding of main characters and supporting

evidence through discussion, illustration, and writing tasks

Emergent Literacy Learner Lesson (part 2)

Through Close Reading and guided reads, we annotated character details in the text using sticky notes

Close reading invites students to look at a text piece by piece, and teachers them how to process the details in a text

Students used these sticky notes to write simple sentences and create illustrations that described their favorite characters

Close Reading and discussion go hand in hand

Children need to learn how to make inferences using what they already know, with the information in the text, to construct an understanding

(Fisher, D., & Frey, N. 2012)(Dalton, B. 2013)

Beginning Literacy Learner Lesson

My lesson focused on reading/listening comprehension strategies

Pre-assessments showed my student was weak in the area and comprehension

Together we practiced “magnified reading” and looking closely at texts.

As we worked through texts, I modeled many examples of using context clues to gain understanding of unfamiliar words and phrases

We worked through each text three times:First read: Learn the gist of the text. Second read: Learn unfamiliar words and phrases through the

use of Context Clues.○ After the second read we examine text-based comprehension questions to guide our thinking.

Third read: Find information to use that supports what we know.

(Greenwood, S. C., & Flanigan, K. 2007) (Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. 2016)

Beginning Literacy Learners Lesson(Part 2)

After our third read, we used our sticky notes to answer text based questions.

I modeled and preformed think alouds showing how to combine information we know and details in the text to answer text-based questions.

Students practiced these Close Reading strategies independently: they read a text, annotate details, and combines what they know and details in the text to answer two text-based questions through writing.

It is crucial that students learn how to use strategies that involve them looking carefully at text features, such as words and pictures, to determine the construction of meaning

The use of teacher-led conversation will promote high-level thinking as well as generating student interest and overall engagement in the text, topic, and even questions at hand

(Dalton, B. 2013)(Greenwood, S. C., & Flanigan, K. 2007)

Reflection My digital story shows what I learned in order to effectively

teach my students. My digital story shows the understanding emergent and

beginning literacy learners. My story shows my understanding of text selection, based off

of students ability levels, and what types of texts are suitable for independent and guided reads.

It also shows my understanding of different non-cognitive, and cognitive assessments and how they can be used to plan students next step in their literacy learning.

Lastly, it shows my instructional choices to best meet the needs of my students in their literacy development.

I hope you enjoyed my digital story! Thank you for viewing!

ResourcesDalton, B. (2013). Engaging Children in Close Reading: Multimodal Commentaries and Illustration Remix. Reading Teacher, 66(8), 642-649.

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2012). Close reading in elementary schools. Reading Teacher, 66(3), 179–188.Retrieved from the Walden Library databases

Greenwood, S. C., & Flanigan, K. (2007). Overlapping Vocabulary and Comprehension: Context Clues Complement Semantic Gradients. Reading Teacher, 61(3), 249-254. from http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news-updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Analyzing and selecting texts [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014b). Getting to know your students [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Mariotti, A. P. (n. d.). Using interest inventories with struggling and unmotivated readers.

Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and iinstruction: Helping every child succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Wren, S., Litke, B., Jinkins, D., Paynter, S., Watts, J. & Alanis, I. (2013). Cognitive elements of reading. In Cognitive Foundations of Learning to Read: A Framework. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/elements.html

http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news-updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf

http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news-updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf

http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/elements.html