• 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