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

During the Independent Readers Workshop, all teaching and learning across different components of Balanced Literacy are applied and reinforced. Students may respond to the text in meaningful ways such as writing, discussing, or sketching.

Essential Reading Component(s) addressed: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension

Modeled/Shared Writing

This component of Balanced Literacy involves teachers demonstrating the thoughts and actions that go into creating a text. It is an opportunity for students to observe a proficient writer going through the process of putting ideas into a written form. Modeled writing must be strategic, focused, and brief. Depending on the developmental level, five to ten minutes would suffice to model different aspects of writing. At the primary level, teachers may choose to model early print concepts while modeling the construction of a meaningful piece of text, and model spelling strategies drawing on phonic or visual understandings. At the upper elementary level, where students' knowledge of different text types and purposes is expanding, teachers may use modeled writing to support their understanding of the structure and features of each writing type.

Independent Writers Workshop

This component of Balanced Literacy consists of:

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

The writing process and structures for all three types of writing identified in the CA CCDSS are followed during the Writing Workshop. All teaching and learning components of the Balanced Literacy component are applied and reinforced.