TK-5th Grade Reading
Balanced Literacy Instruction
FVSD utilizes a Balanced Literacy (BL) approach to help all students learn to read and write effectively. It is characterized by explicit skill instruction through the students' reading levels. Through various structures, teachers implement well-planned literacy instruction encompassing phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Components of Balanced Literacy
Word Study
This component of Balanced Literacy involves the areas of phonemic awareness (ability to identify, hear, and work with the smallest units of sounds), phonics (letter/sound relationships), morphemic analysis (using word parts to denote meaning), and automaticity for sight words. Word Study involves both the decoding (reading) and encoding (phonics and spelling) of our symbol system so students can make meaning from an author's message, and convey meaning by creating their own message.
Essential reading component(s) addressed: phonics, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary
Interactive Read Aloud
This component of Balanced Literacy involves the Teacher reading aloud various types of text to the whole class, taking away the visual sources of information, so students participate by listening to the teacher model reading and thinking strategies (metacognition). The teacher stops at planned points to ask questions that elicit student responses, as students learn to think deeply about text, to listen to others, and to grow their own ideas.
Essential reading components addressed: listening, speaking comprehension, and vocabulary
Shared Reading
This component of Balanced Literacy involves the teacher reading an enlarged or shared text aloud (students need to be able to see it). Students participate by reading along and using strategies when they encounter difficulties. The teacher explicitly models reading strategies and skills that the students need to learn. The responsibility for reading is "shared" between the teacher and the students; however, the teacher reads most of the text.
Essential reading component(s) addressed: fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary
Independent Readers Workshop
This component of Balanced Literacy consists of:
- A mini-lesson with the explicit teaching of a reading/learning objective (skill by strategy)
- Time for students to read text (either self-selected or teacher-recommended) at their independent reading level to practice reading strategies and develop fluency/automaticity and comprehension skills
- Teacher-student 1:1 or small group conferences in which the teacher prompts the use of strategies to discusses various aspects of the text, and learns about each student as a reader
- Strategy groups/guided reading in which teachers provide small-group reading instruction for students at a similar reading level and/or students working on a specific strategy
- A mini-lesson with the explicit teaching of a writing learning objective (skill and strategy)
- Time for students to write (self-selected topics) and follow the authentic writing process
- Teacher-student 1:1 or small group conferences in which the teacher prompts the use of strategies that were explicitly taught through modeling and mentoring texts, and learns about each student as a writer
- Strategy groups in which teachers provide small-group instruction for students at a similar writing level and/or students working on a specific strategy