Balanced Literacy Components of a Well-Balanced Literacy Program Phonological Awareness Working With Letters and Words Presented by: Natalie Meek and Melissa Vandermeer Designed and Developed by Belinda Cini and Melissa Vandermeer for Rockets Fern Bluff Elementary, Round Rock ISD, 2000

Components of a Balanced Literacy Program Students will have the opportunity to: Expand their use and appreciation of oral language. Expand their use and appreciation of printed language. Hear quality literature read aloud daily. Learn about and manipulate the building blocks of spoken language. Learn about and manipulate the building blocks of written language.

Components continued... Learn the relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters of written language. Learn decoding strategies for reading. Write daily. Relate their writing to reading and spelling. Practice accurate and fluent reading. Read and comprehend a wide assortment of books and other texts in a variety of genres.

Component continued... Develop and comprehend new vocabulary through wide reading and direct vocabulary instruction. Learn and apply comprehension strategies as they reflect upon and think critically about what they read.

Approaches for Balanced Literacy Instruction The development of reading and writing skills and strategies occurs within the context of the reading and writing that children are doing in the classroom. Teachers utilize a variety of teaching approaches to effectively encourage and develop literacy.

Phonological Awareness The teacher demonstrates and provides activities to develop understandings of spoken language.

Letter and Word Study The teacher demonstrates and provides activities that teach students how letters work together in words and how words work together in sentences.

Read To’s The teacher reads aloud daily from quality literature and models the reading process, as well as focusing on a particular teaching point emphasizing story elements, the writing craft, and/or making meaning.

Shared Reading The teacher works with the whole class or a small group, reading together from a text which all students can see.

Guided Reading The teacher works with a small group of students who read at the same level and demonstrate similar behaviors and instructional needs.

Independent Reading Students have daily opportunities to read books at their independent reading level.

Write To’s The teacher models the components of the writing process by writing pieces on a chart in front of the child, thinking aloud as she writes.

Shared Writing The teacher and students compose a message together, with the teacher doing the actual writing on a chart in front of the children.

Interactive Writing Similar to shared writing, the students and teacher write a piece together while “sharing the pen.”

Writing Workshop This allows for guided and independent writing, as students engage in the writing process with teacher conferencing and support.

What is Phonological Awareness? Phonological awareness refers to the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds that make up language. Teachers provide oral language activities that engage student in working with the sounds of letters and words. Instruction progresses through: Rhyming Syllabication Phoneme isolation Sound blending Segmentation Sound substitution

Suggestions for Working With Your Child 1. Share rhyming poems, songs, and jingles. Identify the rhyming words. Generate other words that belong in the same rhyming families. 2. Read aloud rhyming stories. Identify the rhyming words. 3. Share rhyming riddles or incomplete poems for your child to answer. 4. Play “What Doesn’t Belong?” Recite a set of words in which one word does not rhyme with the others and have your child identify the odd word.

Suggestions continued Recite words for your child to clap the syllables. Clap the syllables and have your child identify the word. 6. Play singing games focusing on sounds. 7. Play question games focusing on sounds of language. 8. Use picture cards and Elkonian boxes to segment sounds in words.

What is Letter and Word Study? Letter and word study refers to direct instruction and focused activities designed to build alphabetic knowledge and increase a child’s understanding of how letters and words work. Teachers provide multilevel activities which enhance students’ abilities to identify and use the relationship between sounds and letters, use spelling patterns, and relate new words to known high frequency words.

Suggestions for Working With Your Child 1. Use flash cards to practice letter and sound identification. 2. Read aloud a variety of alphabet books. 3. Build alphabet puzzles. 4. Hunt for letters in alphabetical order on road signs and billboards. 5. Help your child make an alphabet book. 6. Play “I Spy.”

Suggestions continued Go on a sound hunt for items beginning with individual letters. 8. Post sight words on the refrigerator for daily practice.

Suggestions continued Make a book of sight words. Have your child practice making these words with magnetic letters or letter cards. 10. Make familiar word puzzles. 11. Clap and count words in sentences.

Suggestions continued Use a white board or chalk board to practice correct letter formation. 13. Use a white board or magnetic board and letters to practice word families. 14. Be word detectives. Find sight words as many times as possible.

Coming Workshops Balanced Reading Instruction for the Emergent Reader Balanced Reading Instruction for the Progressing Reader Balanced Writing Instruction for the Emergent / Progressing Writer