Balanced Reading at NES

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Balanced Readingat NES
Mary Sue Mulligan Rosemary Slocum Reading
Specialists Narragansett Elementary School
January 2002
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Narragansett Elementary School strives to have a
balanced reading program. Balanced reading
instruction emphasizes both meaning and the
code. Because of the whole language movement,
many teachers had not learned to teach phonemic
awareness and phonics (the code) in a systematic
and explicit way. Reading tests indicated that
children who were having difficulty reading were
unable to decode.
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Learning the code requires learning to separate
the speech sounds within words, and learning how
those sounds are represented by letters. Here
kindergarten students segment words using Elkonin
boxes.
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In Systems for Change in Literacy Education,
authors Carol Lyons and Gay Su Pinnell state that
To be effective, staff development must become a
way of life in our schools. The book describes
staff development as a spiral of learning. The
Early Reading Success Initiative has brought this
kind of professional development to NES.
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Lyons and Pinnell believe that the school
principal plays a major role in achieving a
school culture of collaboration that supports
teacher learning. At NES, Dr. DeFrances secured
the Early Reading Success Initiative for
kindergarten and first grade teachers to help
build that culture.
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The Early Reading Success (ERS) Initiative
brought classroom teachers and reading teachers
together at the kindergarten and first grade
levels last year (second grade is included this
year) to examine NESs reading program. Now,
reading teachers are modeling phonics and
comprehension lessons at all grade levels. The
steps in the spiral of learning process here at
NES are
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1. Gather student achievement data These
students are being assessed on spelling.
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• 2. Provide the basics (materials and
  mentoring support) These children are using
  magnetic letters and whiteboards to make words
  and to take them apart.

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3. Demonstrate the process As part of the ERS
grant, Mrs. Mulligan, a reading fellow, has
modeled lessons in kindergarten and first grades.
Here she teaches a blending lesson to
kindergarten students while the teacher observes.
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4. Engage the learnersTeachers need to
understand why learning new skills is important.
Dr. Susan Brady discusses reading research at a
second grade teachers workshop.
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5. Try it out Teachers need the opportunity
to try out new procedures.Mrs. Choiniere teaches
kindergarten students to count sounds in words -
a phonemic awareness skill.
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6. Coach for shifts in behaviorObserve the
process and give feedback to teachers. Mrs.
Gardner, a reading teacher, teaches first grade
students a phonics lesson about blends while the
classroom teacher observes.
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After Mrs. Gardner demonstrates, the children
practice making words with blends.
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Mrs. Goudailler, a reading teacher, reviews
syllable types in a first grade classroom.
Phonics instruction teaches children how speech
sounds are represented by letters and letter
patterns.
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Mrs. Webb helps children reclassify words on
their word wall by the six syllable types.
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Mrs. DeLuca implements what shes learned about
syllable types with an ESL student.
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Mrs. Cook teaches syllabication via the spot and
dot method. The children check that they have
labeled the syllables correctly.
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In addition to phonemic awareness and phonics
instruction, a balanced reading program must
include instruction inunderstanding how print
works vocabulary development comprehension
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Mrs. Crowther, a reading teacher, teaches a
concepts about print lesson to a kindergarten
class.
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Mrs. Carvalho reviews high-frequency words with a
small group of kindergarten children.
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Mrs. Kenny, a first grade teacher, is guiding
children to read for a purpose as they continue
to move towards independence.
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7. Extend learningTeachers need to reflect on
the effectiveness of new practices in their
classrooms. Mr. Sylvia and Mrs. Zilly discuss
their students spelling at a second grade
workshop.