1. EDUC 302:
Literacy Foundations
Missy Short
rshort@gardner-webb.edu
rshort@clevelandcountyschools.org

2. Introductions:
 Me
 You – 20 Questions

3. What to expect this semester:
 Lots of reading 
 Notes in class
 Field experiences
 Challenges
 Opportunities
 Strategies (notebook/file)
 Syllabus overview (Blackboard)
 http://www.myeducationlab.com/
 Login for posttests
 cm323808

4. Survey:
 Need your cell phone
 www.polleverywhere.com
 Literacy Survey

6. Beliefs about reading: I think that reading is not a linear process
 Some stages, steps, and skills have a reciprocal relationship with
the skill before and after it.
 For example - the Big 5 (phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary,
fluency, and comprehension)
 The best readers have a pocket FULL of strategies that they use,
including letter sounds, affix knowledge, analogical (like word family
associations), context clues, and sight vocabulary.
 The more we can teach children to use multiple strategies, the
better readers they will become.
 My strongest belief about reading and teaching children to read is that
children learn to read by being talked to, read to, and demonstrated a
genuine love of reading consistently at an early age.
 I believe vocabulary is a key factor in early reading acquisition. Children
who are talked to and read to often develop strong vocabularies, an
understanding of story, and the purpose and function of language, which
are all essential for learning to read. (Morgan Blanton, Title One Reading
Teacher, Casar Elementary)

7.  Students who are not talked to, read to, and demonstrated a
love of reading consistently typically struggle with reading.
Addressing skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics and
fluency can make a significant improvement in reading skills
of students who would have otherwise struggled without
activities to nurture these skills.
 I believe providing opportunities to read to students,
teachers to share favorite texts, for students to share
favorite texts, compare and contrast texts, make
connections, book discussions, etc. encourage a true love of
reading which will last into adulthood.
 This should be our goal as educators.
 I believe forcing students to read, reading to accumulate
points, forcing memorized word lists, over focused emphasis
on test taking skills, etc. do not promote a true development
of life long readers. (Gina Gold, CCS Curriculum/Technology
Coordinator)

8.  It is one of the most important things we do.
 It is really intrinsic in every other thing we do, because in teaching
them to read, you enable the students to learn and grow in every other
area.
 Every part of reading is important, the phonics, the vocabulary, the
fluency, comprehension. Some learners respond best to certain
aspects, so it is our responsibility to put it all out there in ways they
can understand.
 Your room can be a reading lesson: if items are
labeled, schedules are posted, etc. Songs, poems, mysteries, fables,
etc. grab students attention and you can sneak reading skills in there
without the students even knowing it. Reading lessons can be both
deliberate and intentional: " Today we will practice the following
consonant diagrams", etc. OR come as result of a word a child cannot
decode or due to something that the student saw on the news.
 All are important, but the most important thing is that the
children "catch“
from us a positive attitude about "all things reading"!
(Robin Thurkill, 2nd
Grade Teacher, Boiling Springs Elementary)

9. “We shouldn't teach
great books; we
should teach a love
of reading.”
B. F. Skinner

10. Knowledge and Beliefs
About Reading
Chapter 1

11.  What factors influence how
we teach reading?

13. However…..
 How each reading teacher
arrives at excellence can be
very different according to
belief systems.

15. Latisha’s view: Systematic
Instructional Approach
 When children decode words
accurately and quickly, they are in a
better position to comprehend what
they read than children who are not
accurate and automatic deoders.
(Vacca, pg 7)
 Direct teaching
 Logical instructional sequence

16. Arch’s View: Constructivist View
 Children who engage in authentic
literacy will search for meaning in all
that they read and write (Vacca, pg 7)
 Focused on needs of individual child
 Teacher helps the child negotiate text
by meeting the most immediate
instructional needs
 Instruction based on individual
progress

17. According to the IRA,
excellent teachers….
Teachers make a difference in children’s reading achievement and
motivation to read. That’s why every child deserves to have an
excellent teacher in her or his classroom.
Excellent reading teachers
 Understand how literacy develops in children
 Can assess progress and relate instruction to previous experience
 Know a variety of ways to teach reading
 Provide a range of materials and texts for children to read
 Tailor instruction to individual students

18. Excellent reading teachers also motivate children, encourage independent
learning, have high expectations for achievement, and help children who are
having difficulty. They understand that reading development begins well
before children enter school and continues throughout the school years—and
beyond.
 To ensure that children have the excellent teachers they deserve, IRA
advocates that
 Teachers must view themselves as lifelong learners
 Administrators must be instructional leaders
 Teacher educators must provide their students with a solid knowledge
base and extensive supervised practice
 Legislators and policymakers must understand the complex roles of the
teacher
 Parents, community members, and teachers must join in providing
learners with rich opportunities to explore, practice, and develop literacy
 (IRA Position Statement on Excellent Teachers, www.reading.org)

19. Where does all of this come from?
National Reading Panel assessed
the status of scientifically based
reading strategies and gave
recommendations on use of these
strategies as a way to increase
student achievement (released in
2000)

20.  But the IRA’s position is “No single
study ever establishes a program or
practice as effective; moreover, it is a
convergence of evidence from a
variety of study designs that is
ultimately scientifically convincing”
(IRA, 2002b, p.1)

21. TEACHERS produce
effective reading
instruction and
student achievement
– NOT programs.

22. New Literacies
 According to Karchmer, Mallette, Kara-Soteriou, and
Leu (2005) “new literacies” are the knowledge, skills,
strategies, and dispositions needed to use and adapt to
constantly changing information and communication
technologies. Developing new literacies is dependent
on teachers’ belief systems and relies on their
professional expertise and their evaluation of current
technology to succesfully integrate technology in their
classrooms. (Vacca, pg 9)

23. List of New Literacies

24. Why not a consensus on effective
reading instruction?
 Using several methods instead of one approach
empowers educators to apply their own
knowledge and expertise.
 Children are different.
 Reading is a process not an act that has many
areas that grow and change.
 Our belief systems are different.
 (Farstrup page 1)

25. So How Do Teacher’s Know This?
 Jean Piaget’s theory of constructivism explains the
acquisition of knowledge: Children do not internalize
knowledge directly from the outside but construct it from
interactions with the environment.
 Apply this acquisition of knowledge to teachers and it
shows that teacher’s engage in the process of seeking
and making meaning about how to teach through
personal, practical, and professional experiences.

26. Personal Knowledge
 Grows out your history as a reader and writer.
 What are some of your specific influences
(people, processes, and/or things?) when it
comes to reading and writing? Are all positive?
Why or why not?
 Reading autobiographical narrative (page 12)

27. Practical Knowledge
 Similar to personal knowledge because it is based on experiences
in and out of the classroom.
 The more you observe children and the instructional practices
involved in teaching reading the more begin to develop your own
theories about best practices and strategies.
 Often you find differences in what you are learning in college
and what is actually taking place in classrooms – and that is OK!
 Field experiences are imperative – watching teaching and talking
to teachers.
 Teaching extends beyond the classroom into the community.
 Beliefs may be influenced greatly by colleagues, administration, curriculum,
school board policies, district requirements, testing, public opinion, and other
factors.

28. Professional Knowledge
 Acquired from ongoing study of the practice of teaching
 Professional organizations, such at the International
Reading Association, often refer to what teacher’s
should know.
 Should be grounded in current theory, research, and
practice.
 Theories influence our way of knowing  influences our
way of teaching (planning, use and selection of text,
learner interaction, assessment, etc.)  influences
students’ reading performance  influences attitudes
toward reading

29. xmrbacdy
boragle
institution
flour wiggle come stove investigate girl door yell
the beautiful girl ran down the steep hill

30. List 1
 scrass
 sook
 tolly
 amittature
 lanfication
 tblc
 gfpv
 oeaiu
 rtbm
 gdhtaiueo
List 2

31. Cognitive Insights
 Alphabetic principle
 Association between graphemes (Letters) and Phonemes
(Letter Sounds)
 Written English contains predictable patterns that skilled readers
are able to associate with sounds rapidly and accurately (Vacca,
pg 17)
 Skillful readers chunk words into syllables automatically because
of knowledge of spelling patterns or orthographic knowledge. It is
so thoroughly learned that skilled readers do not have to put any
energy into word identification.
 Words are the primary units of written language  beginning
readers need to develop word-reading skills  important to
learning to read

32. The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different
groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is
to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the
next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo
things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the
short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A
mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem
complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is
difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate
future, but then one never can tell, After the procedure is completed one
arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into
their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the
whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.
What in the world is going on here?
Bransford, J.D., & Johnson, M.K. (1972). Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of
comprehension and recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 717-726.

33.  Schemata – reflects the prior knowledge, experiences, conceptual
understandings, attitudes, values, skills, and procedures a reader
brings to a situation (Vacca, pg 18)
 Schema is described as the process humans use to organize and
construct meaning in their head.
 Directly influences reading and comprehension in three ways
a. Provides a framework for readers to organize text efficiently and
effectively (putting new information into old information)
b. Allows the reader to make inferences (predicting what will or might
happen next) to help fill in the gaps
c. Helps readers to elaborate on the material
Cognitive Insights

34. Cognitive Insights
 Metacognition:
 Self–knowledge – what we know about ourselves as
readers and learners (Do children know what
reading is for?)
 Task knowledge – Knowledge of reading and the
strategies that can be used in a given instance
(Knowing what to do when you don’t understand –
pocketful of strategies)
 Self–monitoring – Ability to monitor by keeping track of
comprehension (Automatic pilot)

35. Language
 When the parts of language are taught in
isolation then learning to read can be very
difficult.
 Support for holistic (whole language) reading
comes from two areas of language study:
 Psycholinguistics – reading is an active process that
combines the how and the why of language
 Sociolinguistics – language is used for
communication

36. Language: Psycholinguistics
Readers act on and interact with written language
in an effort to make sense of text.
 Graphophonemic System – The print itself…the more
experience readers have with written language the
more they learn about the sounds of letters and words.
 Syntactic System – Readers use their knowledge of the
arrangement of words in a sentence to construct
meaning from the text.
 Semantic System – Schemata that readers bring to the
text

37. Language: Sociolinguistics
Ten uses of language:
1. Instrumental – to get something
2. Regulatory – controls behavior, attitude, etc. of others.
3. Interactional – Getting along with or separating from others.
4. Personal – Individuality
5. Heuristic – Seeking knowledge
6. Imaginative
7. Representational – Information, propositions, etc.
8. Divertive – Jokes, puns, etc.
9. Authoritative/contractual – Laws, regulations, etc.
10. Perpetuating – Histories, diaries, notes, etc.

38. Four expectations (strategies) of beginning readers:
1. Text Intent – Language is expected to be
meaningful
2. Negotiability – Use whatever knowledge they
have about text to make the print meaningful;
give and take process
3. Risk-taking – Experiment with the uses of
language
4. Fine-tuning – The more they read and interact
with text the better they become at constructing
meaning.

39. Models of Reading
 Bottom-Up: Print  Letters 
Spelling Patterns  Words 
Sentence  Paragraph  Text
 Top-Down: Predictions about the
print  Decoding to test predictions
 Interactive – Combines prior
knowledge with semantics,
graphophonemics, and syntax.

40. Bottom-Up Reading
 “Data” driven – Letters and words
 Automaticity – automatic recognition of
letter, word, text
 Visually driven – text is extremely
important
 Decoding must become automatic so that
comprehension can take place

41. Top-Down Reading
 Prior knowledge is important
 Conceptually driven – reader’s
mind triggers processing during
reading
 Very non-visual – what’s in your
head is more important

42. Interactive
 Rarely is reading totally top-down or bottom-up
 When readers bring a lot of topic knowledge to
the text then their experiences are more active
and there is very little use of graphophonemic
information.
 When readers have little experience with the
topic then they rely much more on print and text
clues and are more passive readers.

43. Summary
 3-2-1 Strategy
 Write down three things you
learned tonight about reading.
 Write down two things you want to
know more about.
 Write down one question you still
have.

44. Due 1/24
 Chapters 1, 3, and 4 Posttest
 Reading Autobiography
 Bring read-aloud book to class on
1/31 instead of 1/24