Title: Office of
1Introduction to Balanced Literacy
- Office of
- Curriculum and Instruction
2Components of a Balanced Literacy Block
Read Aloud
Whole Group Shared Reading
Small Group Guided Reading
Independent Reading
Writing
Word Study
3I Do We Do- You Do
Fisher and Frey, 2007
4Read Aloud
- Teacher reads and models comprehension
skills while students listen. - 10-15 minutes
5Read Aloud Research
- To build knowledge for students eventual
success, the single most important activity is
reading aloud to them.
- Reading aloud to children increases language and
literacy development when teachers are
intentional and purposeful about - WHY they read,
- WHAT they read, and
- HOW they read.
- Teachers can make a large difference in
childrens vocabulary development when they
explain and discuss important new words during
read alouds.
- Reading aloud interactively builds comprehension.
It has maximum learning potential when children
participate actively and respond.
6Read Aloud Research, continued
- Children whose parents have not read to them
often enough will not develop the same knowledge
of written language and how it differs from oral
language.
- Teachers can develop this knowledge in students
by reading aloud to them in the classroom.
Read Aloud Advantages
- develop positive attitudes toward reading
- increase enjoyment of reading
- strengthen cognitive development
- instill a sense of story structure and
organization
7Discussion Notes
How does purposeful pre-planning of your Read
Aloud improve student learning?
8Whole Group Shared Reading
- Teacher guides a whole-group reading of
the text. - 20-30 minutes
9 Whole Group Shared Reading The Focus
- Build book and print awareness
- Activate background knowledge
- Provide direct instruction of vocabulary
- Provide direct instruction of comprehension
strategies with grade-level text - Provide instruction and repeated practice in
decoding - Increase reading accuracy and fluency
- Engage students in choral reading, echo reading,
and readers theater
10Small Group Guided Reading
- Teacher guides small-group reading of
the text while other students engage in
meaningful practice of literacy skills. - 40-60 minutes
11 Small Group Guided Reading Framework
- Students practice comprehension strategies and
decoding with instructional-level text (text they
can read at 90-94 accuracy).
- Groups are flexible and needs-based (data)
- Book and print awareness
- Phonics skills
- Reading accuracy and fluency
- Reading comprehension
- Other students work independently or with
partners on literacy tasks to practice and
consolidate skills previously taught.
- How will the practice propel students forward as
readers?
- On which task does each student need to work to
become more proficient?
- Are students able to do the activity
independently?
12When an adult and a child or group of children
spend unhurried and uninterrupted time viewing,
reading and sharing a book together, the unspoken
messages about reading and about books are as
important, and perhaps longer lasting, than any
part of the actual content. Margaret Mooney,
Shared Reading Making it Work for You and Your
Children (1994)
13Discussion Notes
How are Whole Group Shared Reading and Small
Group Guided Reading different?
14IndependentReading
- Students engage in independent reading while the
teacher monitors and conferences with students. - 15-20 minutes
15Independent Reading Research
- The amount of time students spend reading
independently is the best predictor of - reading achievement
- the amount of gain made by students between
second and fifth grades. - Students who begin reading a book in school are
more likely to continue reading outside of
school. -
Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988)
16Independent Reading Structure
- While reading independent-level texts (gt95
accuracy), students apply their decoding and
comprehension skills without teacher guidance. - book and print awareness
- phonics
- accuracy
- fluency
- comprehension
- Students in upper elementary grades benefit from
tracking their thinking and monitoring
comprehension through writing.
- Teachers can identify students needs by
conferencing with students and administering
assessments.
17 Correlation Between Time Spent Reading
and Standardized Test Results
Percentile Rank Minutes Read per Day Estimated Words Read per Year
98 90.7 4,733,000
90 40.4 2,357,000
70 21.7 1,168,000
50 12.9 601,000
20 3.1 134,000
10 1.6 51,00
Dr. David Bennett, Chicago Rush University
18Word Study
- Teacher leads instruction in
word patterns. - 20 minutes
19 Word Study The Focus
- Must be explicit and systematic
- Focus on phonological awareness
- Rhymes, syllables, onsets/rimes
- Focus on phonics
- Letter-sound correspondence, patterns, and
decoding skills - Include analysis of word structures
- Contractions, inflected endings
- Homophones, syllable types
- Prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots
20Discussion Notes
How does Word Study compare to traditional
spelling instruction?
21Writing
- Teacher guides students through a
focused writing process. - 30-60 minutes
22Writing Research
- Although handwriting and correct spelling are
skills children must eventually master, these are
not the focus when we engage children in writing. - Instead, we should focus on writing as a form of
communication. - Neuman, Roskos, Wright,
and Lenhart (2007)
23 Writing The Structure
Components Mini-lessons Shared
Writing Independent Writing Conferencing
Focused Process Writing -Provides explicit
instruction for specific genres of
writing -Includes pre-writing, drafting,
revising, editing, publishing
- Use the writing process for two purposes
- Mechanics (sound-symbol relationships and English
language conventions) - Content (communicating ideas, messages, and
stories)
24Contact Information
- If you have additional questions about the
balanced literacy overview you may contact - wicklo_at_tulsaschools.org
- Natalie Hutto huttona_at_tulsaschools.org
- Ayn Grubb grubbay_at_tulsaschools.org