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Creating a learning literacy environment is an important step to furthering your student’s literacy development. A learning literacy environment is specifically described as a group of individuals who support each other in their learning and share similar values and beliefs (Vander Kolk, 2024). It takes intentionality to create a learning environment for literacy. In my classroom, I will purposely develop relationships with my students, communicating high expectations and creative thinking.

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Student relationship. I want every student in my classroom to feel loved, welcomed, and valued. I can do that by getting to know my students personally by asking questions about their interests and hobbies outside of school (Vander Kolk, 2024).

Communicating high expectations. I want my students to strive in their academics, and I will encourage them to give their best in every aspect of life.

Creative thinking. I will model creative thinking by demonstrating how to effectively and differently connect new information to previously understood ideas.

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I will ensure that my classroom continues growing academically by using mini lessons to ensure my students use creative thinking. I will also be tracking their development and learning struggles throughout the year.

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Motivation and engagement are necessary factors when learning the challenging aspects of literacy and must be implemented in the classroom. In my classroom, I will purposely motivate and engage my students by building student interest, grabbing their attention, and organizing my classroom space. Teaching Reading in the 21st Century says, “Students must have positive attitudes about themselves as learners, about their ability to succeed in school, and about instructional goals they, their teachers, and their students set” (Dewitz et al., 1997). For students to embrace and persevere through the hurdles of literacy, they must also be driven by their inner motivation.

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Building student interest. I will get to know my students on a personal level in which I can understand their interests. I can then use what they are interested in to provide motivation and use books that incorporate their hobbies to keep them engaged.

Grabbing student’s attention. I will grab my student’s attention when reading through my facial animation, vocal variety, and body position (Vander Kolk, 2024).  This will draw my students into the reading, keeping them engaged and motivated.

Classroom space. I want to create a space where my students can engage with each other and learn from one another. I will also motivate my students when reading by creating a comfortable library with seating, stuffed animals, and good lighting (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997).

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I will continue to ensure growth by doing mini lessons throughout the year and by modeling motivation and engagement while I'm teaching lessons. An example of this is when my students start to lose their attention, I can give them brain breaks like stretching or dancing. I will then assess motivation and engagement by doing weekly to monthly check-ins with my students to see where they are at with their motivation and engagement in what we are learning.

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Research reveals that a classroom gains more knowledge on literacy when dialogue is involved. Dialogue can be defined as “A true negotiation of meaning. Through this constructive process, participants achieve a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts- ideas that are bigger and better than any individual might have conceived on their own” (Vander Kolk, 2024). Dialogue is necessary for the class because when students work and talk together, rather than individually, they achieve something great. In my classroom, I will utilize dialogue by teaching students active listening skills, polite disagreements, and having group projects.

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Active listening skills. I will teach my students to gain active listening skills, so they can better comprehend new information and collaborate with a group better because they are listening to what others have to say.

Polite disagreements. When students learn to debate and disagree politely with each other it creates a respectful dialogue between them. They can learn from each other’s perspectives and gain new unknown information.

Group projects. I will organize my class into groups to work with each other on projects like book talks and literature circles (Vander Kolk, 2024). When students participate in these projects, they earn better ideas of literacy than they might have by themselves.

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To ensure my students gain skills for dialogue I will model and teach lessons about dialogue to grow their knowledge of this necessary skill. I will assess their dialogue by walking around the class when they are in discussion with each other to ensure they are growing in their dialogue. Another way to assess their dialogue is by peer feedback. When students work together, I can have their partners come up and share how their partners did with their dialogue. We will do this once a week.

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Print concepts, or print awareness, are a foundational part of early education in helping students learn to read and write. It also helps shape their attitudes towards reading and writing. Print concepts can be defined as knowing about the forms and functions of print (Vander Kolk, 2024). In my classroom, I will intentionally infuse print concepts by engaging in different print every day, reading aloud, and encouraging student interests.

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Engaging in different print every day. I will purposefully have my students engage in different books and forms of books to teach them that print is print, no matter what form it appears in.

Reading aloud. In my classroom, I will incorporate reading aloud to help instruct my students on the functions and forms of written language. While I read aloud, I will point and track the print and will ask my students questions about the print to keep them engaged (Vander Kolk, 2024).

Student interests. When my students are interested in a print, their attitudes change. I will intentionally get to know my students, so I can add what they are interested in to the print in my classroom. Their literacy will grow because they want to read and write about their interests.

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To guarantee my students understand print concepts I can assess them through a book conversation. The student and I will have a one-on-one meeting where the student will have to do a series of tasks about understanding a book and how to read a book correctly. For my students to gain this knowledge, I will do mini-lessons on the important factors of print concepts. I will also show examples of the functions of print while doing read-alouds to increase their knowledge.

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Vocabulary is a key factor in literacy and is needed for everyday life when communicating. Everyone has different vocabularies and children need to be encouraged to build their vocabularies. Vocabulary can be defined as a word or set of words known by someone. Once students acquire a vocabulary of a few thousand words, the number of different words they can be taught is large (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997).

I will input new vocabulary in my classroom through interactive reading, vocabulary notebooks, and matching games.

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Interactive reading. I will use interactive reading while reading to my students to help build their vocabulary. When we read a new word, I will define the word and give examples so they can fully understand it and its meaning.

Vocabulary notebooks. When learning new vocab, my students will keep a notebook to write and track the new words they learn. This will help remind them to remember the words, because they will write definitions and examples.

Matching games. I will utilize matching games when learning vocab to keep the new vocabulary fresh in their head. Repetition is very important when learning new words, so matching games are a fun way to remember the words.

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My students’ vocabulary will grow through the mini-lessons I do throughout the year. The mini lessons will focus on one word I will keep reusing throughout the year to keep the new vocabulary fresh in their head. I will assess the new vocabulary by giving teacher-made tests and questioning my students (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997). The teacher-made tests will happen every other week and include multiple choice and matching. While the questioning will be daily and will be less formal to help me see where my students are at in their vocab.

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Phonemic awareness is an aspect of literacy that has been dismissed in the past before. I will build phonemic awareness in my classroom because this component is critical to literacy. After all, it is the foundation for all literacy skills. Phonemic awareness can be described as the awareness of speech and hearing (Vander Kolk, 2024). A few ways I will build phonemic awareness in my classroom are by chopping syllables, using chips, and accessing online programs.

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Chopping syllables. When learning phonemic awareness, I will use the chopping method to build on their knowledge. Chopping syllables allows students to break down a word and recognize each sound.

Chips. I will use chips to provide a visual aid when learning phonemic awareness. The chips act as the individual sounds the student hears which they will then connect to blend the word. The students can also rearrange the chips to create a different word.

Online programs. My students will use technology and online programs to help develop their phonemic awareness (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997). These programs will keep students engaged and give them diverse learning methods.

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Phonemic awareness is crucial for literacy, so I plan to incorporate weekly lessons to help my students develop these skills. This will become a regular part of our routine to reinforce phonemic awareness. Additionally, I will conduct individual assessments focusing on various aspects of phonemic awareness, including rhyme, segmentation, and blending. These assessments will help me understand each student’s progress and specific needs in phonemic awareness.

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Phonics are essential when learning literacy and teaching reading. Phonics can be defined as letter knowledge and the spelling of words (VanderKolk, 2024). Teaching phonics requires teachers to plan. In my classroom, I will plan to combine reading with phonics, letter-matching activities, and modeling the writing of words.

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Reading with phonics. I will combine reading with phonics by using leveled books that involve all letters, A to Z (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997). This will teach my students to read unfamiliar words and continue their decoding word skills.

Letter-matching activities. I will incorporate letter-matching activities to encourage my students to understand the difference between uppercase letters and lowercase letters. This will encourage my students to become familiar with these 26 letters and continue their phonic skills.

Modeling the writing of words. I will demonstrate how to write words on the board to teach my students the correct letter formation. This will improve handwriting in my classroom and enhance their understanding of letter knowledge.

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Phonics are essential for students because they need to grasp the various characteristics of letters. I will conduct lessons and activities focusing on these letter characteristics to promote and reinforce phonics knowledge in my classroom. I will assess my students using the Letter Lessons and First Words Placement Test to determine their phonics understanding and identify areas for improvement (Letter Lessons and First Words, Mesmer, 2019). This will guide me in providing each student with the necessary support and tailored instruction.

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Sight words are an essential concept when students are learning how to read fluently. Sight words are words that students can recognize automatically without puzzling them out (VanderKolk, 2024). Students who recognize sight words will become proficient readers because they can focus on the meaning of their reading rather than trying to figure out the words. In my classroom, I will develop sight words by repetition, flashcards, and read-alouds.

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Repetition. I will incorporate repetition of sight words in everyday lessons to encourage my students to use and memorize the many sight words we learn. Repetition of sight words will help establish and solidify these new words.

Flashcards. While learning sight words, flashcards will help develop the different sight words. Students will have a visual of the words, which is essential because many sight words have irregular spelling so the students can start to memorize which words are difficult to spell.

Read-aloud. During read-aloud, I will use books that contain many different sight words to help my students understand how the various words we are learning fit into different sentences.

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I plan to teach sight words to students through mini-lessons, focusing on one word each day and using various tools and methods to retain the word. The next day, we will review the word and decide whether to move on to a new word or continue with the same word (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997). To ensure my students retain the new words, I will assess my students individually. The assessments will be conducted using a simple word list, and I will track their errors, indicating where students succeed and where growth is needed.

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Fluency is critical for students to become proficient readers. Fluency can be defined as the ability to read rapidly and smoothly, without many errors, and with appropriate expression (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997). In my classroom, I will develop fluency by going over its three essential parts: accuracy, pacing, and prosody

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Accuracy. I will incorporate direct instruction for phonics and sight words so my students can accurately speak and read words. This will help develop decoding skills for my students so they can easily understand the words on the page.

Pacing. I will utilize direct instruction while teaching pacing by modeling it. Another useful tool to work on pacing is choral or unison reading with the whole class or small group. This helps and encourages students to work on timing—not too fast and not too slow.

Prosody. Prosody is the expression in the voice. A way I will develop this in my classroom is through direct instruction. During direct instruction, I will focus on the different elements of prosody: phrasing, pitch, volume, and stress.

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My students will be involved in learning fluency daily. One way I will teach and incorporate fluency in lessons is through different forms of reading. In the classroom, we will incorporate read-alouds, readers’ theater, individual reading, choral reading, and many other methods for students to practice their fluency. I can then assess them by doing the ORF Assessment. This is when the teacher listens to a student read for a minute and the teacher scores the student by counting the number of words and correct words in a minute (VanderKolk, 2024).

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Comprehension is a factor in literacy that is important for all students. Comprehension involves interacting with a text and using intentional thinking to construct meaning (Vander Kolk, 2024). Readers need the ability to engage with, understand, and respond to a text to have full comprehension of a text. For comprehension to develop students need to under three factors: the reader, the text, and the context.

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The reader. Students bring a variety of skills to the classroom. In my classroom, I will teach skills like oral language, accurate fluent reading, and vocabulary to ensure my readers are ready to comprehend a text.

The text. I will ensure that the texts in my class vary in genre, style, difficulty level, theme, and appeal. This will guarantee that my students will find a text they enjoy and want to comprehend.

The context. For my students to be able to comprehend they need to know the context of what they read and build knowledge before. Comprehension cannot occur without knowledge (Teaching Reading in the 21st Century, Dewitz et al., 1997). I will teach my students how to gain extra knowledge and context like when, where, and why. This will ensure my students have the extra context and knowledge of a text to fully understand it.

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I will teach comprehension by providing mini lessons in whole groups and small groups each week with explicit instruction and guided practice. I will ensure during whole group and small group instruction a variety of contexts and text types are being used to grow their comprehension of different texts. I will assess students by doing one-on-one assessments once a week. I will give students a text and will observe if they engage with, understand, and respond to the text. This will tell me if my students need growth in this area.

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VanderKolk, B. (2024, September, 4) Creating a Community of Learners [Lecture]

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

VanderKolk, B. (2024, September, 18) Motivation/Engagement and Read Alouds [Lecture]

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VanderKolk, B. (2024, October, 1) Teaching the Skill of Dialogue [Lecture]

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VanderKolk, B. (2024, October, 16) Do You Believe Everything That You See in Print? [Lecture]

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

VanderKolk, B. (2024, October, 21) How Aware are You? [Lecture]

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

Mesmer, H. A. (2019). Letter lessons and first words: Phonics Foundations That Work. Heinemann Educational Books.

VanderKolk, B. (2024, October, 23) Phonics [Lecture]

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

VanderKolk, B. (2024, October, 28) I Spy With My Little Eye… a Word [Lecture]

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

VanderKolk, B. (2024, October, 30) Fluency [Lecture]

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Dewitz, Peter et al. (2020) Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners (6th ed.). Pearson.

VanderKolk, B. (2024, November, 4) Comprehension [Lecture]

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Culturally responsive teaching is necessary in the classroom to create a welcoming space for every student no matter the differences. Culturally responsive teaching is “The use of cultural knowledge, background experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of culturally diverse students to create learning opportunities that are more relevant and effective for them” (Vander Kolk, 2024). I will use culturally responsive practices to benefit the students by making sure my students feel part of a learning community, feel motivated, connect the literacy curriculum to students' backgrounds, and use diverse books when teaching literacy.

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Learning Community. I will ensure all my students feel part of the learning community in my classroom by promoting collaborative learning where the students feel safe to express themselves.

Building motivation. In my classroom, I will help build my student’s motivation by setting clear and realistic goals they can achieve. This will help motivate them to want to do the best they can to achieve their goal. I will also model building motivation by continually motivating every one of my students.

Connecting the literacy curriculum to student’s backgrounds. As I get to know my students, I will use examples from my student’s lives during literacy lessons to help keep them engaged and provide a sense of belonging (Vander Kolk, 2024).

Diverse books. In my classroom library, I will offer a diverse range of books like books in different languages, biographies about different cultural people, and different leveled books for all types of readers (picture books, chapter books, and comic books). This will encourage all students to read and read diverse books.

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VanderKolk, B. (2024, November, 13) Supporting Students From Diverse Backgrounds [Lecture]