Jesse Boyd Elementary School practices a balanced literacy approach to teaching an learning English Language Arts. Using this method, literacy is embedded within all core subject areas. Students read and write across the curriculum. Teachers implement a Reader’s and Writer’s workshop structure to their classrooms. Within the balanced literacy program students have:
READING ALOUD:
- Teacher reads selection aloud to students
- Provides adult model of fluent reading
- Develops sense of story/text
- Develops vocabulary
- Encourages prediction
- Builds a community of readers
- Develops active listening
SHARED READING:
- Teacher and students read text together
- Demonstrates awareness of text
- Develops sense of story or content
- Promotes reading strategies
- Develops fluency and phrasing
- Increases comprehension
- Encourages politeness and respect
GUIDED READING:
- Teacher introduces a selection at student’s instructional level
- Promotes reading strategies
- Increases comprehension
- Encourages independent reading
- Expands belief in own ability
INDEPENDENT READING:
- Students read independently
- Encourages strategic reading
- Increases comprehension
- Supports writing development
- Extends experiences with a variety of written texts
- Promotes reading for enjoyment and information
- Develops fluency
- Fosters self-confidence by reading familiar and new text
- Provides opportunities to use mistakes as learning opportunities
MODELED/SHARED WRITING:
- Teacher and students collaborate to write text; teacher acts as scribe
- Develops concepts of print
- Develops writing strategies
- Supports reading development
- Provides model for a variety of writing styles
- Models the connection among and between sounds, letters, and words
- Produces text that students can read independently
- Necessitates communicating in a clear and specific manner
INTERACTIVE WRITING:
- Teacher and students compose together using a “shared pen” technique in which students do some of the writing
- Provides opportunities to plan and construct texts
- Increases spelling knowledge
- Produces written language resources in the classroom
- Creates opportunities to apply what has been learned
INDEPENDENT WRITING: STUDENTS WRITE INDEPENDENTLY AND:
- Strengthen text sequence
- Develop understanding of multiple uses of writing
- Support their reading development
- Develop writing strategies
- Develop active independence