Educational resources for elementary students. Helping teachers, parents, and students become active thinkers and future leaders. We encourage giggles, grins, hugs, & high fives!
This is a HUGE Resource BINDER! (Binder NOT included) 154 pages are in a zip file.
All of the pieces needed to create a BALANCED LITERACY classroom are included.
Descriptors, samples, pictures, and resources. Printables in color and B/W.
Balanced Literacy consists of:
Read Alouds Shared Reading Guided Reading Independent Reading Modeled / Interactive Writing Shared Writing Guided Writing (Writer’s Workshop) Word Work
All of these are resourced in a BINDER format. Components are defined for collaborative discussions, suggested uses for the classroom. and examples for adding to YOUR own lesson plans. Daily use of elements through curriculum integrations ensure consistency for students.
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Balanced literacy has been defined as “an approach designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with understanding and fluency.” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001)
It is an approach to teaching. NOT a curriculum. It is HOW we teach our students to be independent readers and writers. It is NOT what books we use to teach them.
Balanced Literacy has been defined in “components” or “pieces” of literacy instruction.
This 8-week series will focus on the components of a complete BALANCED LITERACY program. We will focus on clear and concise definitions. Definitions that educators can discuss in collaborations. A “common language” where we can learn from each other and with each other.
The 8 components we will focus on are:
Read Alouds
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Independent Reading
Modeled / Interactive Writing
Shared Writing
Guided Writing / Writer’s Workshop
Word Work
Each week we will focus on one area of Balanced Literacy and share experiences, teacher tips, and resources to support and expand our Balanced Literacy repertoire.
Shared writing is an instructional approach to teach writing to students by writing with them. The idea is to teach writing through writing. The process of writing is demonstrated by the teacher through a ‘write aloud’ process. The teacher acts as a scribe while the students contribute ideas.
Effective literacy teachers present the demonstration, explanation, and models needed by naïve writers in order for them to understand how and why to incorporate genre and text structures (and such transcription skills as punctuation and spelling) into their own writing behavior. ReadWriteThink.org
During shared writing, the teacher transcribes the entire text while engaging students in a rich discussion about how the text should be composed.
Shared writing is taught to small groups or a whole class in briskly paced, 5- to 20-minute lessons.
Plan lessons for types of writing that present particular challenges to your students.
First, develop and extend children’s background and language knowledge on a topic or experience of interest.
Establish a purpose for the writing and an intellectually engaging opportunity for students to apply new learning. Students might write a letter to a local newspaper or write directions for a new game they have developed.
Write the entire text yourself in front of students (using chart paper or document viewer) while requesting input from students regarding aspects of the writing where they most need to expand their expertise. Consider, for example, whether your students need to focus attention on paragraph structure, word choice, or sentence expansion.
During the writing, model processes needed by your students. Have a small whiteboard available, for example, to demonstrate to students how to say a word slowly and write sounds heard into “sound boxes” (Clay, 2006) before writing a phonetically regular word into the text for them. For older students, begin with a root word and demonstrate how to add prefixes or suffixes to a new word.
Demonstrate in-the-moment revision during shared writing as necessary to construct a strong draft. Reread the text to students from time to time to discuss what needs to be written next or to monitor whether or not the text conveys information clearly. Add a word using a caret, for example, or delete unneeded text.
Do not deliberately make errors during shared writing. Model the immediate construction of a high-quality draft.
Read the completed text to students. Take a few minutes to have students orally summarize what has been learned about writing during this session.
Post the text in an accessible spot in the classroom, and provide opportunities for students to read or use the text multiple times over the next several days or weeks.
I use large paper that looks just like the paper the children use during writing workshop. I write on chart paper or perhaps a SmartBoard so the whole group can easily read it.
The children are engaged and involved in telling the story (or essay, song, poem, or other kinds of text).
I restate/scaffold children’s language by modeling rich language and coach them when they storytell.
Over time, children see each step of the writing process modeled:
Coming up with ideas
Planning across the pages, rehearsing how the text will go
Drafting words and sentences
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Over time, children see qualities of good writing modeled:
Balanced literacy has been defined as “an approach designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with understanding and fluency.” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001)
It is an approach to teaching. NOT a curriculum. It is HOW we teach our students to be independent readers and writers. It is NOT what books we use to teach them.
Balanced Literacy has been defined in “components” or “pieces” of literacy instruction.
This 8-week series will focus on the components of a complete BALANCED LITERACY program. We will focus on clear and concise definitions. Definitions that educators can discuss in collaborations. A “common language” where we can learn from each other and with each other.
The 8 components we will focus on are:
Read Alouds
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Independent Reading
Modeled / Interactive Writing
Shared Writing
Guided Writing / Writer’s Workshop
Word Work
Each week we will focus on one area of Balanced Literacy and share experiences, teacher tips, and resources to support and expand our Balanced Literacy repertoire.
Guided reading is subject to many interpretations, but Burkins & Croft (2010) identify these common elements:
Working with small groups
Matching student reading ability to text levels
Giving everyone in the group the same text
Introducing the text
Listening to individuals read
Prompting students to integrate their reading processes
Engaging students in conversations about the text
The goal is to help students develop strategies to apply independently. Work focuses on processes integral to reading proficiently, such as cross-checking print and meaning information, rather than on learning a particular book’s word meanings. (For example, a student might see an illustration and say “dog” when the text says puppy, but after noticing the beginning /p/ in puppy, correct the mistake.) During guided reading, teachers monitor student reading processes and check that texts are within students’ grasps, allowing students to assemble their newly acquired skills into a smooth, integrated reading system (Clay, p.17)
It varies based on reading level, but here’s a general structure for a 15-20 minute lesson.
Students re-read familiar texts for several minutes. This is a great way to promote fluency!
For just a minute or so, the students practice previously learned sight words.
The teacher introduces the text.
The students read the text out loud or silently while the teacher coaches. They do not take turns reading; instead, each child reads the text in its entirety.
The teacher leads a discussion of the text.
The teacher makes 1-2 teaching points.
If time allows, students do a few minutes of word work or guided writing.
Establish Routines. Routines for The Lesson format ( this helps with TIME constraints ), routines for when Guided reading happens, AND routines for what the OTHER students are doing while the teacher is teaching at the table.
2. Make SMART text choices. The text should provide multiple opportunities for students to apply strategies and skills you have identified for the group.
3. Dive into INSTRUCTION. Before, during & after reading.
3. Assess and Be Flexible. Your groups should be fluid and should change as your students’ instructional needs change. That’s where informal and formal assessments come in handy.
Balanced literacy has been defined as “an approach designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with understanding and fluency.” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001)
It is an approach to teaching. NOT a curriculum. It is HOW we teach our students to be independent readers and writers. It is NOT what books we use to teach them.
Balanced Literacy has been defined in “components” or “pieces” of literacy instruction.
This 8-week series will focus on the components of a complete BALANCED LITERACY program. We will focus on clear and concise definitions. Definitions that educators can discuss in collaborations. A “common language” where we can learn from each other and with each other.
The 8 components we will focus on are:
Read Alouds
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Independent Reading
Modeled / Interactive Writing
Shared Writing
Guided Writing / Writer’s Workshop
Word Work
Each week we will focus on one area of Balanced Literacy and share experiences, teacher tips, and resources to support and expand our Balanced Literacy repertoire.
This week: READ ALOUDS.
As defined by education.com, the teacher reads aloud various types of text. She often models her thinking aloud as she reads. The students participate by listening to the text and the teacher’s thinking strategies and then trying some of them out by talking with partners. The teacher reads the text, therefore taking away the visual sources of information, so that students can focus on meaning and structure.
The READ ALOUD is done BY the teacher FOR the students.
Marie Clay (1991) writes that when teachers read aloud to students “meanings can be negotiated in discussion before, during, and after the story reading” (p.171). Reading aloud to students should include think-aloud or interactive elements and focus intentionally on the meaning “within the text,” “about the text,” and “beyond the text” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006, p.33). Read aloud, as part of the gradual release of responsibility, feeds naturally into shared, guided, and independent reading as teachers demonstrate for students the ways the reading process works (Burkins & Croft, 2010).
Among the many benefits of a read aloud, Rog (2001) lists the following:
building vocabulary
developing understandings of story structures
supporting developing connections between print elements
encouraging high levels of understanding
teaching the reading process in a meaningful context
modeling fluency
motivating students to read
There are many types of print for Read Alouds. Classroom library books, Big Books, chapter books, charts, and poetry are resources for teachers to read TO students.
The main goal of a read aloud is to engage students with the text.
To create their own thinking based on their life connections, and discuss the text with peers. Each will bring their own comprehension based on their life experiences. As they learn to communicate their thoughts and understanding to others, their own comprehension will expand. The teacher has an opportunity to draw the students INTO the book. Use your storytelling techniques, be the characters, create the world using your voice, and open the doors to new adventures.
In summary, a READ ALOUD is a book, a chart, a poem on a smartboard, or any other text, where the teacher reads TO the students using self-questions and think aloud reading strategies. The goal is to model fluent and expressive reading. The students then INTERACT with the text through discussions, writing, and/or thinking for themselves.
These literacy posts may help in YOUR Balanced Literacy journey.
