Foundations of Balanced Literacy

All children can learn
Children learn about literacy in an environment that is print-rich
Learning is a social process
Learning is a constructive process
An organized environment supports the learning process
Powerful demonstrations are an important part of the learning process
Children learn best when they are responsible for their own learning

What the RESEARCH says about good literacy teaching.

Richard Allington
Perspectives on Reading
From the video series, Strategies for Teaching Reading

Students:

will read and write a lot.

Students who read widely and extensively are better readers therefore classrooms need to have a wide variety of reading material that is of interest and invites the students to open the book and read.
"If there isn't anything of interest to read, they won't read."

will have access to appropriate texts.

Students need a wide variety of texts at varied reading levels. There must be balance of narrative, expository, and poetry choices for each of the key ideas covered in the curriculum.

will foster fluency to develop comprehension.

When reading is fluent, there is comprehension.

need explicit strategy instruction.

Teachers must teach through student reflection, naming and explaining the strategy.

need expert teaching.

The classroom teacher is becoming the front line person and is very important in the literate classroom. Good classroom instruction for ALL students with teachers who have ongoing assessment and are effective kid-watchers.

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