Story Content: 1. Getting to Know Literacy Learners (Slide #3-5) II. Selecting Texts (Slide #6-7) III. Emergent Literacy Learner Lesson (Slide #8-9) IV. Beginning Literacy Learner Lesson (Slide #10-11) V. Reflection (Slide #12) VI. Insight Gained (Slide #13) VII. Tell your digital story (Slide #14) VIII. Reference (Slide #15-16)

1. LITERACY
DEVELOPMENT
6706
D I G I T A L S T O R Y T E L L I N G B Y L U K E W . S C H L O E S S E R

2. STORY CONTENT
1. Getting to Know Literacy Learners (Slide #3-5)
II. Selecting Texts (Slide #6-7)
III. Emergent Literacy Learner Lesson (Slide #8-9)
IV. Beginning Literacy Learner Lesson (Slide #10-11)
V. Reflection (Slide #12)
VI. Insight Gained (Slide #13)
VII. Tell your digital story (Slide #14)
VIII. Reference (Slide #15-16)

3. I. GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT AND
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS PRE-3RD
GRADE
• Assessment informs instruction: “effective teaching cannot possibly begin until we first
discover where children are in their reading development.” (Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R.
B., 2016, p.10).
• Effective literacy instruction begins by the teacher gathering important information
about each student he or she has in their class.
– Cognitive Assessments measure literacy skill and strategies mastered by each student. (Ex.
Formative Assessment)
– Non-cognitive Assessments measure the motivation, engagement, self-concept, agency,
interest, and attitude of each student. (Afflerbach, P. , 2012, p.171). (Ex. Survey)

4. I. GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT AND
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS PRE-3RD
GRADE
• My Emergent Reader: “Abby”
– First grade, Somalian girl, daughter of single-mother, free-reduced lunch, after school
tutoring programs, Title I services.
• Cognitive: STEP (Strategic Teaching Evaluation of Progress) (University of Chicago,
2015).
– STEP 1 (early Kindergarten) of 12 (end of 3rd grade)
– Areas of Need: one-to-one correspondence, focus, phonemic awareness (vowel sounds).
• Non-Cognitive: Mariotti’s Reading Interest Inventory – (Mariotti, A.P., n.d.)
– Likes to read “sometimes”
– Thinks reading will “make your brain smarter, not dumber.”
– Are you a good reader? - “I don’t know”

5. I. GETTING TO KNOW EMERGENT AND
BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNERS PRE-3RD
GRADE
• My Beginning Reader: “Margo”
– Third grade, Caucasian girl, large middle class family, after school intervention programs,
formally homeschooled
• Cognitive: STEP (Strategic Teaching Evaluation of Progress) (University of Chicago,
2015).
– STEP 5 (middle of first) of 12 (end of 3rd grade)
– Areas of Need: decoding, spelling, and comprehension
• Non-Cognitive: Reading Interest Survey
– Responses showed that she is motivated to learn
– The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey indicated she is has a more positive view (61) than
indifferent view (50) toward reading (McKenna and Kear, 1990).

6. II. SELECTING TEXTS
• Several measures should be considered when selecting texts for instruction.
• “Teachers employing their professional judgment, experience, and knowledge of their
students and their subject are best situated to make such appraisals” (Common Core
State Standards Initiative, 2012a, p7).
• Some criteria that should be considered:
– Qualitative: Structure, Conventions, Vocabulary, Purpose,
– Quantitative: Readability, Reader-Task (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2012a, p7).
– Literacy Matrix: Text Complexity
Dr. Douglas K. Hartman’s
Literacy Matrix (Laureate
Education Producer,
2014a)

7. II. SELECTING TEXTS
ABBY’S TEXT
Narrative Text: “I’m the
Biggest Thing in the Ocean.”
By Kevin Sherry – Narrative,
Semiotic, Easy Text
Informational Text: “The
Ocean” – Informational,
Semiotic, Easy Text
Digital Text: “A Hole in the
Bottom of the Seas” –
Narrative, Semiotic, Easy
Text
MARGO’S TEXT
Narrative Text: “The Honest
Woodman,” in “The Children’s
Book of Virtues” by William J.
Bennett
Informational Text: “The
Mississippi River,” by Allan Fowler
– Informational, Semiotic, Easy
Digital Text: “Why Do Rivers
Curve?” by Henry Reich –
Informational, Semiotic, Medium
Text

8. III. EMERGENT LITERACY LEARNER
LESSON
Effective Lessons should have the following components:
1. Text Variety: Dr. Katherine Stahl, and other researchers suggest that literacy is best
supported when students are exposed to a variety of different texts (Laureate
Education (Producer), 2014r).
2. Align to Content Standards: the school, state, and national standards the lesson will
address should be considered. (Ex. Common Core)
3. Assessment Plan: their should be a measure of whether or not the students have
demonstrated the lesson objectives.
4. Provide Balanced Literacy Approach: lesson requires speaking, listening, reading,
and writing skills to be developed.

9. III. EMERGENT LITERACY LEARNER
LESSONLiteracy Learner Lesson Synopsis:
This lesson is a series of short mini-lessons on ocean animals. The lesson begins with
a short discussion of what Abby already has learned about oceans. Then I read “I’m
the Biggest Thing in the Ocean.” Before reading, I will tell Abby to look for animals
that she remembered from class. After the first few pages, I will ask Abby to tell me
what she notices in the text. I want her to be able to notice that repeat phrases used
in the book. Once she has done that I will encourage her to read along with me. At
the end of the story, I will have her imagine she is the author of the story, and
complete the line, “I’m bigger than….” Selecting an ocean animal she has learned
about. (If we had time, we would write, and illustrate this picture). Then, we will move
on to an informational text “Oceans.” I will let Abby read the short passage, at her
reading level aloud. I will support her less at first, to get a better understanding of her
reading independence. After reading the passage one time through. We will read
together the questions for the passage, and re-read the passage again. We will then
go through each question one at a time. I will help practice the strategy of looking
back into the text to answer factual questions. (Due to time, I will write her oral
responses to the questions modeling age appropriate sentence writing.) This could
take quite a bit of time to complete. Finally, we will end the lesson by listening to “A
Hole in the Bottom of the Sea.” I will ask Abby to point out the animals that she
recognizes after listening to it one time through. We will talk about the repetition,
other animals that could be added, and perhaps sing along with it to close out the
time together.

10. IV. BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNER
LESSON
Beginning Literacy Learner Lesson Synopsis:
• Day 1: After review of what we knew about rivers I passed out the non-fiction text. We reviewed
important terminology, and read the chapter practicing decoding, and comprehension. After
reading, they answer factual, inferring and critical thinking questions, and then write and illustrate
3-5 ways that rivers help people.
• Day 2: We started the lesson with a discussion of things that we still wondered about rivers. I
shared that I wanted to know why rivers were bendy. I told them I found a video that explained it.
Students watch the video and explain what causes a river to curve to the partner aloud. Then they
described the process by writing and illustrating on a sheet of paper.
• Day 3: The lesson started by explaining that rivers can play an important role in literature like
narrative fiction. I explained the background of the story, and that it was a fable by Aesop. Then
we talked about other fables they may have heard, and how these stories always have a moral or
life lesson. Then we read the story to practice decoding. We then discussed what the moral of the
story was and wrote and illustrated it on a piece of paper.

11. IV. BEGINNING LITERACY LEARNER
LESSON
Margo’s work samples.

12. V. REFLECTION:
Similarities between instructional practices used with the emergent and beginning literacy
learners.
• Both learners used a lot of energy to “activate memory, active intention to become good
writers.” (Laurerate Education Producer, 2014d). It took them a long time to put their ideas
to pencil and paper.
• Both lessons provided opportunity for each to practice speaking, listening, reading, and
writing.
• Both introduced the learner to a variety of text types and genres.
• Both lessons taught cross-curricular skills and strategies that tied to other domains (Ex.
literary, science, and history standards.)
• Both have a positive Reading Identity (Ciampa, K. 2012)
• Information gathering in the form of either decoding (while reading), articulating (while
speaking), attending (while listening), and sentence structure (while writing) was a
challenge.
• Both required a gradual release or a scaffolding of concepts to make learning more

13. VI. INSIGHT GAINED ABOUT EMERGENT
AND BEGINNING LEARNERS:
• Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all essential components of literacy that
have to be developed at the same time.
• Listening and speaking is more heavily used by emergent and beginning learners as it
“paves” the way for further literacy learning.
• Oral language development is the most important indicator of future literacy
development (Rog, L.J. 2007).

14. VII. TELL YOUR DIGITAL STORY
• A digital story is a combination of tradition and technology to
communicate in the 21st century.
• Digital story telling using multi-media allows for more ideas to be shared
with more people all over the world.
• “Digital stories allow students to take a linear series of events and turn
them into a multidimensional experience. It encourages them to
communicate, collaborate, and research as well as to infuse media into the
process” (EdTechTeacher, 2013).
• “Told from the heart,” digital stories use a variety of media to
communicate a massage (University of Houston, College of Education,
2013).

15. VIII. REFERENCES:
• Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessments: K–12 (2nd ed.). Newark,
DE: International Reading Association. Chapter 8 “Assessing ‘The Other:’ Important
Noncognitive Aspects of Reading” (p.171-187)
• Ciampa, K. (2012). Reading in the digital age: Using electronic books as a teaching tool for
beginning readers. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 38(2). Retrieved
fromhttp://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ981797
• Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2012a). Common Core State Standards for English
language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects: Appendix A.
Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.pdf
• EdTechTeacher. (2013). Digital storytelling in the classroom. Retrieved
fromhttp://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/presentation-
multimedia/digital-storytelling
• Laureate Education (Producer). (2014a). Analyzing and selecting text [Video file]. Baltimore,
MD: author.
(approximate length: 14 minutes)

16. VIII. REFERENCES:
• Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping
every child succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Chapter 1, “Reading Assessment in the
Classroom” (pp. 9-23)
• Rog, L. J. (2007). Marvelous minilessons for teaching beginning writing, K–3. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
• The University of Chicago (2015) What is STEP? Retrieved https://uchicagoimpact.org/step
• University of Houston, College of Education. (2013). Educational uses of digital storytelling.
Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.cfm
• Mariotti, A. P. (n. d.). Using interest inventories with struggling and unmotivated readers.
Retrieved May 21, 2014, from http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415802093/news-
updates/Interest-Inventories.pdf
• McKenna, M. C., & Kear, D. J. (1990). Measuring attitude toward reading: A new tool for
teachers.Reading Teacher, 43(9), 626–639. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/Reading_Attitudes_McKenna_Ke
ar_1990.pdf