Sr. Mary Literacy Practices

BY S R. M A RY K N U C K L E S , O. S S . T.

LITERACY PRACTICES

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3

• At the beginning of the year, I gave my students three surveys: the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, Reader Self-Perception Scale, and Reading Interest Inventory.

• These helped me to ascertain how students saw themselves as readers.• I learned if they liked reading

or not, and what their interests were as far as reading, movies, and TV shows went.

RESULTS OF SURVEYS

• The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey showed that about half of my students liked to read while the other half did not. • The Reader Self-Perception Scale showed that

only four to five of my students saw themselves as good to average readers while the rest saw themselves as poor readers. • The Reading Interest Inventory showed that the

students loved books about adventure, mystery, science fiction and horror. They also liked stories, movies and TV shows about superheroes.

HOW I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• I will start off my students that perceive themselves as poor readers with books that are at the upper second-grade to lower third-grade level to build their confidence. • I will build our classroom library with books that

fall in the categories that students said they liked in the Reading Interest Inventory.

HOW ELSE I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• We have a program called Critic’s Chair, where students critique a book they have just finished reading in front of the whole class. • They give a brief summary

on the book, say which part they liked and did not like, and if they would recommend this book to the class. (This will hopefully get others to read this same book.)

HOW ELSE WILL I USE THIS INFORMATION?

• As we were working on these surveys, I noticed that those students who perceived themselves as poor readers, also had poor writing skills.

• As writing and reading go hand-in-hand, I will be working on proper writing skills: spelling, grammar, and word usage.

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR LITERACY LEARNERS, P-3 RESOURCES

• Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49(7), 518--533.

• Hildebrandt, D. (2001). But there's nothing good to read. Media Spectrum: The Journal for Library Media Specialists in Michigan, Fall 2001, p. 34–37. Retrieved from http://www.cluster7c.com/uploads/5/0/6/8/5068079/reading_interest_survey.pdf

• McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626-639.

SELECTING TEXTS

• Our school chose a basal textbook series that covers many different types of reading skills and strategies. Even so, teachers can add supplemental material that can enhance any given lesson.

• It is important to find texts that not only engage the students’ interests, but will also be somewhat challenging for them.

• There needs to be a mixture of narrative and informational texts in the fourth grade.

• While students are beginning to read books with less pictures, they should still build skills that will allow them to glean information from pictures and other graphic aids.

HOW I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• I am using more and more non-fiction texts in the classroom in the form of reading logs.• These books are to be taken home and read each night.• The students are to draw a picture and write a summary on

the book they have just read.

• I put out books from our classroom library that correspond with our current selection from the reading textbook. • These could be a mixture of narrative and non-fiction books.

• All of the books in my classroom are between the second and sixth grade reading level. • This helps to accommodate low-level readers and advanced

readers.

SELECTING TEXTS RESOURCES

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Analyzing and selecting text [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

LITERACY LESSON: INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE

• It is very important to choose reading strategies that will improve students’ metacognitive and comprehension skills.• It is also a good idea to tie in what is learned in

the classroom with anything a student may have encountered in their own experience.• Example: if we are reading a story about the beach, the

students in the class could talk about a time they (or someone they knew) went to the beach.

• Reading aloud also teaches students how to pace themselves, pronounce words properly, and use good inflection.

HOW I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• The whole class goes over all of the vocabulary words presented in the lesson before we begin a reading selection.• We present the vocabulary words on a Word Wall, so that the

students can refer to them throughout the week.• We use this Word Wall strategy in most subjects.

• I let students write any words they do not understand while we read a story on index cards or sticky notes. After the story is finished, then each student shows the words they did not understand, and we learn their definitions.

• I let students speak of previous experiences that pertain to the lessons that we are learning. I only let one or two speak though, since this could lead to every student wanting to share!

HOW ELSE I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• In order to test student fluency, I will have students read to themselves while reading a few pages from the selection. • I will take notes on how fast they read, if they seem to be

pausing at certain parts while they read, and if they read aloud or silently to themselves.

• I have been having the students write stories that pertain to the current selection they have been reading. • Three groups of students (struggling learners, on-level

learners, and advanced learners) are given a different assignment to write on, but the same theme is in each assignment.

INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE RESOURCES

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Interactive perspective: Guided reading. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Interactive

perspective: Shared reading. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Interactive

perspective: Strategic processing. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

LITERACY LESSON: CRITICAL AND RESPONSE PERSPECTIVES

• Critical thinking skill are very important for all students to develop.• They need to learn how to see things from multiple

perspectives.• This can help them to develop skills of empathy and build a

sense of social justice.

• They need to also become more reflective thinkers. • They need to question the author’s writings, or any other

piece of information in order to think for themselves.

• Whenever they write or respond, they need to clarify the reasons they have chosen this response.

HOW I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• I have had students write a character response journal entry after they have read a story. • They pretend to be a character

from a story we have just read, and write a diary entry about something that has just happened to them in the story.

• We did a character rating system (on a scale of 1-5), rating the importance of four characters (chosen by each student) and how much each one contributed to the overall value of the story. • After they rated the character,

they had to explain why they gave each character that specific number.

HOW ELSE I WILL USE THIS INFORMATION

• I had students write down what they thought were the most interesting parts of a story, the most boring/confusing parts of a story, and to choose which illustrations helped them to understand the story/selection better.• I gave them the choice of either writing or drawing their

responses, since some are more comfortable expressing themselves in either medium.

• After each lesson, we do a one minute quick-write activity in which the student writes down what they learned. • This helps develop writing skills, and gives the students a

chance to reflect on what they actually learned.

CRITICAL AND RESPONSE RESOURCES

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Critical perspective. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Interactive perspective: Guided reading. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

• Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Response perspective: Reading-writing connection. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

• 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.

• Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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