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The Reading Place

Welcome to the Heart of my classroom!

A Balanced Literacy Program

The Importance of Reading -
Children come into the classroom with a wide range of experience in reading and writing.  Yet, all of the students need to listen to and read quality literature and be immersed in literacy activities that will enrich their lives.  A Balanced Literacy Program allows access for all students by providing instruction below, at, and above grade-level expectations.  It gives all students opportunities to read, write, listen, and speak for authentic purposes and links these experiences to explicit skills instruction and practice.

The Importance of Writing -
Writing reinforces reading just as reading reinforces writing.  Through both reading and writing children gain insights into the literacy process.  They learn to clearly express themselves, clarify their thoughts, make links between what they already know and new information, and learn how to effectively communicate to a variety of audiences. 

When students write, they need to integrate multiple sources of information.  They need to understand the importance of meaning and syntax in what they write.  they must also use graphophonic skills such as letter-sound relationships and encoding strategies.

Students need daily opportunities to write for authentic purposes.  For students to become proficient writers, they also need explicit instruction and modeling in the writing process and ample opportunities to practice.

Modeled Reading - We start our reading day with a whole group lesson.  This is a great time to share read-alouds, model fluency, teach general reading strategies, and give explicit instruction on specific skills.  It allows the student to access text beyond his or her ability and gives exposure to a variety of genres.

Modeled Writing - The teacher demonstrates the act of writing, modeling writing conventions and supporting the students' use of letter-sound relationships.

Shared Reading - Shared reading is appropriate all during the day, as it conveys that "bedtime story" tone to help model fluency.  It is also a time to teach strategies, model reading strategies, extend meaning, and hold discussions about what we are reading.

Shared Writing - Used more often in the earlier part of the year, in shared writing, the teacher and children compose together.  The teacher scribes and children share topic ideas.  Students help by suggesting sounds and letters for words, spelling words they know, and helping to punctuate sentences and provide correct capitalization.

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Guided Reading - Guided reading is an instructional reading process for small, flexible groups of 2-6 students.  Each group meets daily for 15-20 minutes.  Guided reading uses gradually leveled books and scaffolds lessons to ensure that students are reading and learning appropriate skills and strategies at their own instructional level.  It allows you to group and regroup your students based on their skills and strategy needs and reading levels.  I continually monitor and evaluate these groups to make sure that they remain flexible and that I am meeting the instructional needs of each student.

Benefits of Guided Reading include:

• Build a bridge between whole group shared reading and independent reading

• Match students with texts that have appropriate challenges and yet ensure successful reading

• Guide individual students in the reading process

• Monitor individual students' needs and strategy use

• Tailor skills and strategy instruction to meet specific students' needs

• Introduce and model new skills and strategies

• Scaffold instruction for each level of guided reading

• Work together with students to develop reading strategies, decoding skills, problem-solving strategies, and comprehension skills

• Extend previous instruction

• Help students understand and appreciate text

Leveled Reading:

There are four stages of reading development: early emergent, upper emergent, early fluency, and fluency.  Guided reading formats for each instructional stage have been carefully designed to scaffold students' reading experiences and focus their learning.  The following information provides a brief overview of each instructional stage and the guided reading formats:

Early Emergent
Levels A-D - concepts of Print and Beginning Reading Strategies

• Students are typically in kindergarten or beginning first grade.

• They are just developing an awareness of print, basic decoding skills, and learning how to connect print to sounds.

• Students are carefully guided through the reading process.

Upper Emergent
Levels E-G - Reading Strategies and Levels H-J - Silent Guided Reading

• Students are generally in first grade.

• They are developing good decoding skills and reading strategies.  They are learning to read silently and developing more comprehension skills.

• Students take on more responsibility for their learning and require less teacher support.

Early Fluency
Levels K-N - Beginning Guided Literature Circles

• Students are typically at the end of first grade or in second grade.

• They have good decoding skills, are developing higher-level thinking skills and are learning more about fiction and nonfiction elements.

Fluency
Levels O-T - Guided Literature Circles

• Students are usually in third or fourth grade.

• They are able to read independently and comprehend longer, more complex text.

Determining Instructional Reading Levels:

It is important to use carefully leveled books for guided reading to ensure that all students are reading at their correct instructional reading level.  When students read with 90-94% accuracy based on an Assessment of Reading Behavior (running record), they are reading at an instructional level.  At the instructional level, books should provide enough support to ensure a successful reading experience and still have enough challenges for students to acquire and practice new skills and strategies.

If a student reads below 90%, the text may pose too many challenges and will not support learning and comprehension.  If a student reads with 95-100% accuracy, the text is probably too easy and doesn't offer the necessary skills and challenges to encourage reading development.

Our guided reading books, as well as our homework books, are based on the leveled book system.  Look at the letters on the back of the homework books to keep track of how your child is progressing.

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Guided Writing - The teacher and child choose the topic and while the child scribes, the teacher supports.  This is often working with only a small group of students or one student at a time.  Generally the guided writing focuses on phonics skills, encoding strategies, spelling, mechanics, or edition skills.  It usually only takes a few minutes since the focus is only on one skill or strategy at a time.

Independent Reading - The children practice reading.  Although the child is responsible, the teacher ensures success.  Reading is shown to be valued in the classroom.

Independent Writing - Independent writing is child-directed, meaning they choose their topic.  They demonstrate understanding of sounds/symbols and they have an opportunity to practice the writing process.

Independent writing can include the following writing experiences: 

• Journal writing: Students are free to record their own stories and thoughts. 

• Content writing: Students write about such things as observations made in content areas, summaries of their learning, or questions they have about a topic.

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Word Study

Students gain knowledge of the essentials of learning about letters, sounds, and words in the word study component of a balanced literacy program.  Word study helps children develop phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, letter-sound relationships, spelling patterns, knowledge of high-frequency words, an understanding of word structure, and a variety of effective word-solving actions.

Whole-group lessons, small group practice, and independent work by the children give them multiple opportunities to apply what they've learned about how letters and words work. The children are also engaged in learning about letters and words in a word study center. 

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resource:  Wright Group Literacy teacher resource guide

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