Leigh Anne Boisseau

Leigh Anne Boisseau

EDUC 527 2/2/2013

Creating a Literate Environment

Creating a literate environment in a classroom is very important. The environment in which a child learns determines his/her success in reading, writing, and learning in general. If the environment is not conducive to a child’s learning, the child will lose motivation. The literate environment includes many physical materials as well as non-physical aspects such as feelings of safety, encouragement and accomplishment.

When completing the setup of a classroom, an effective teacher will arrange the room in such a way that materials are easily accessible and will consider placement of materials that will encourage the student’s interaction with a large variety of these materials. The teacher will also organize the room in a way that using the many materials will “flow” easily for children of all ages. The “flow” of the classroom will come from specific routines and clearly labeled materials and expectations taught by the teacher from day one. Following will be examples of materials, aspects and routines in an effective literate environment.

A literate environment consists of numerous materials and routines. Every effective classroom needs a word wall. There may be numerous word walls in a classroom. They can look different depending on the type. There must be a high-frequency word wall that the children can see and use readily. This word wall will be posted all year long and will grow as the child’s sight word vocabulary grows. Another type of word wall is a content area word wall that is posted during thematic units, etc. and is interactive with the children. Various labels should be placed on objects around the room in order for the children to see and begin to recognize these words as well. Labels can be used for things such as blocks, a clock, desks, etc.

Content area wordsDifferent examples of high frequency word walls

Labels in a classroom

Another large area of important materials that are part of a literate environment is books. Just putting books on a shelf will not motivate or ensure that a child will want to or learn to read. The teacher must incorporate a wide variety of texts. These texts must be diverse in difficulty, genre and topic. They must also be organized in a way that is easily accessible to students and on their levels to ensure success and motivation. The way the books are displayed also plays a big role in the success of a student’s reading. The books must be front-facing and inviting. There should also be numerous copies of popular books. Within these book areas, there should be comfortable seating, such as bean bags and character chairs to encourage the students to read daily and want to continue to read the books.

Here are examples of reading areas in a Kindergarten classroom.

Another area of a literate environment classroom incorporates writing areas. The students can use the word walls as well as other print around the room to experiment with writing. There should be a wide-variety of writing utensils and materials readily available for the students. In lower level classrooms, writing is experimental and consists of pictures, various letters and simple words. The students will need easy access to inspirational tools in order to feel comfortable diving into the writing process. As the students get older, they will need specific routines and organizational tools to help them through the writing process.

Student in a writing center

Technology is also important in the literate environment. When students are unable to read themselves, it helps to have technology to read for them. The kids need to be exposed to books of all social and racial backgrounds and they may not be available on the child’s level. To ensure that the students are exposed to these books, the teacher can use computer programs and listening centers to incorporate these books.

Using the computer to listen to stories/books

Having all these physical aspects of a literate environment is not enough. Without an effective teacher to design, as well as implement routines and rules, the environment is not enough. The teacher must also teach the students skills and concepts that go along with each of these literate areas in order for the children to use them adequately and successfully. The teacher must TEACH the words on the word walls, phonics skills, word attack skills, comprehension, writing techniques and even oral language skills in order for the literate environment to be a success. Most of these skills and lessons will be better taught in small groups using a variety of manipulatives. They are also best taught in a manner with which the students can make connections between the lessons and their everyday lives.

Mini lessons within the classroom

The environment a teacher sets in his/her classroom will determine how well a child learns to read as well as how receptive a child will be when learning to read. Incorporating a variety of text throughout the classroom, making books and other texts easily available and accessible, displaying them in a welcoming manner, storing them by levels the children can read independently, and giving the students optional ways of listening to texts helps provide the students with a literate environment in which they can learn to read. The teacher must also provide materials and instruction in writing to further the student’s literacy skills. The teacher must also teach, model and organize the manner in which the environment will be used in order for it to be successful.

SUCCESS!!!!