Office of

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Introduction to Balanced Literacy

• Office of
• Curriculum and Instruction

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Components of a Balanced Literacy Block
Read Aloud
Whole Group Shared Reading
Small Group Guided Reading
Independent Reading
Writing
Word Study
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I Do We Do- You Do
Fisher and Frey, 2007
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Read Aloud

• Teacher reads and models comprehension
  skills while students listen.
• 10-15 minutes

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Read 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.

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Read 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

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Discussion Notes
How does purposeful pre-planning of your Read
Aloud improve student learning?
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Whole Group Shared Reading

• Teacher guides a whole-group reading of
  the text.
• 20-30 minutes

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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

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Small Group Guided Reading

• Teacher guides small-group reading of
  the text while other students engage in
  meaningful practice of literacy skills.
• 40-60 minutes

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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?

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When 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)
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Discussion Notes
How are Whole Group Shared Reading and Small
Group Guided Reading different?
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IndependentReading

• Students engage in independent reading while the
  teacher monitors and conferences with students.
• 15-20 minutes

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Independent 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)

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Independent 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.

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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
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Word Study

• Teacher leads instruction in
  word patterns.
• 20 minutes

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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

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Discussion Notes
How does Word Study compare to traditional
spelling instruction?
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Writing

• Teacher guides students through a
  focused writing process.
• 30-60 minutes

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Writing 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)

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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)

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Contact 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