Comprehensive Balanced DeSoto County Schools January 2012

Goal of the Balanced Literacy Framework To ensure all students become proficient, critical, readers and writers, motivated to read and write through their lives.

Effective Reading Instruction Reduce the amount of reading related assignments: Activities that are not actually reading such as workbook pages, circling, matching, copying, coloring, cutting, pasting, bookmarks etc. During literacy block the majority of time should be spent with REAL reading and writing experiences 75%. Phonics Phonemic Awareness Vocabulary Fluency Comprehension

Reading Focus Lesson Whole Group Focus Lessons Avoid whole class teaching of trade books and emphasize independent and small group experiences to increase amount of reading time. Teachers provide explicit strategy instruction through think aloud demonstration lessons. Thoughtful literacy requires students to read, think, write, and even discuss. Reading Focus Lesson

Gradual Release of Responsibility Teacher Modeling Shared Practice Guided & Collaborative Practice Independent Practice Application of the Strategy in Real Reading Situations

Thinking Within the Text Solving Words Monitoring & Correcting Searching & Using Information Summarizing Adjusting rate Maintaining Fluency Solving Words - Readers’ use a range of strategies to decompose word parts and understand what words mean. Monitoring & Correcting - This is where students use the cueing system checking whether reading sounds right, looks right, and makes sense, and working to solve problems Searching & Using Information - Summarizing-Putting together and remembering important pieces of information while disregarding irrelevant information Adjusting Rate - Depending on the type of text will determine the appropriate way to read text. For example, a student reading nonfiction will need to read a slower rate than a child reading a story. Maintaining Fluency- Smooth reading that results in expressive, phrased reading. Prosody

Thinking Beyond the Text Predicting Making Connections Personal, Text, World Inferring Synthesizing Predicting - Using prior knowledge to think about what will follow while reading a text. Making Connections - Searching and using connections to knowledge gained through personal experiences, other texts, and the world in which they live. These connections help students read and comprehend text of increasing complexity. Inferring - The reader goes beyond the literal meaning of a text. This is where the student will be thinking about what the author does not explicitly state in the text. Synthesizing - Putting together information from the text and from the reader’s background knowledge in order to create new understandings. This happens naturally as a reader proceeds through the text as thinking changes.

Thinking About the Text Analyzing Critiquing Analyzing - Examining elements of a text to gain an understanding of how it is constructed and noticing aspects of the writer’s craft. Critiquing - Evaluating a text based on the readers’ personal, text, or world knowledge. Along with thinking critically about the ideas contained in it or the authors purpose for composing the text.

Co-constructed Charts

Independent Reading Students need lots of time to practice reading in an effort to increase achievement. Allington’s research: High achieving schools read for as much as 90 minutes per day. Students are reading self selected text or assigned readings. Opportunity to practice reading strategies, develop fluency, and build stamina. Students practice skills and strategies learned in whole and small group lessons.

Student / Teacher Conferences Opportunity for teacher to gain insights into student’s reading habits and strategies.

Classroom Library Students need books they can and want to read A classroom library is an essential element in a balanced literacy classroom. Adequate # of books 600-1000 Arrangement - genre, author, topics & big ideas, etc With our thematic approach for implementing standards classrooms require baskets of multi-level texts around each topic. Levels should not be front and center. Notice books are facing out calling out to readers Hub of classroom literacy - Not just in ELA classrooms Interest and intrinsic motivation accelerate literacy progress

Primary Literacy Workstations Big Book Word Study Listening Poetry Writing Classroom Library

Guided Reading

Literature Circles Book Clubs Provides students with opportunities to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss and respond to text.

Bookrooms

Opportunity for students to share what they have learned about being a better reader. 5-8 minutes Teacher may call on random students or ask one or two students identified during individual student conferences. Reader’s Chair

Writing Workshop Blur the lines Time for students to view themselves as writers with the specific purpose of conveying their ideas in an easy understandable format for their readers. Writing Workshop

Author’s Craft (6 Traits) Ideas Organization Voice Word Choice Sentence Fluency Conventions

Focus Writing Lesson

Anchor Charts

Writing Conferences Independent Writing

Guided / Strategy Writing Groups

Author’s Share Chair

Balanced Literacy in the Common Core Classroom Will cultivate joyful, literacy learners . . . who can read and write who choose to read and write who read, write, and think