Balanced Literacy

The article "The Components of Balanced Literacy" was personally a great read. When I thought about balanced literacy before reading the article I thought it was just whole group and guided reading. This article has given me more of an insight as to what balanced literacy actually is. As teachers, we make decisions everyday about the best ways we can help our students become better readers and writers. 

Shared writing and read aloud are components of balanced literacy that focus on building students' independence in the meaning and structure sources of information. This means the teacher does the modeling of thinking, the teacher does the physical writing while the students supply the teacher with the ideas, and the teacher reads loud a story while the students discuss the components of the story by listening and comprehending. (Mermelstein, 2006)

Interactive writing and shared reading are components of balanced literacy that focus on building students' independence in the visual sources of information. That means the teacher composes a large text with the students. The students participate by writing parts of the text. A shared reading differs from a read aloud because the teacher reads a story aloud the class has already read. The students read along with the teacher. The students use strategies to help them when they encounter difficulties.(Mermelstein, 2006)

I particularly found interactive writing and shared reading to be very interesting. I do shared writing and read alouds all the time. I think slowing down and chunking an interactive writing so the students are not bored or overwhelmed is a great idea. I also feel that shared reading is a great way to show and discuss different strategies that students can use when they are reading. When they get to a word they don't know they can use the clues in pictures and letter sounds to help them. Shared reading would be a component I would not do as frequent in whole group because most of my students know how to read. But it would be a great component to do in small groups. (Mermelstein, 2006)

Writing workshop and reading workshop are components in balanced literacy where teachers work with individuals or small groups to use meaning, structure and visual sources of information independently to compose meaning into and from texts all at once. (Mermelstein, 2006)

When using balanced literacy, teachers will decide how often to do each component based upon the assessments of their class. For example, my students would not need shared reading as often as read aloud because most of my students know how to read but need more help with comprehension. 

Over all I thought this was a must read article for teachers who teach early literacy! The ideas within this article will make you think about how you teach literacy and what are some components you could add into your routine. 

References 

Mermelstein, L. (2006). Reading/writing connections in the K-2 classroom. Boston: Pearson 

Hello! My name is Renee and I teach first grade. I am currently finishing my masters on Urban Education. This degree will help me to educate the Urban community that I currently teach in to the best of my abilities. What I expect to learn from this course is to grasp a better understanding of early literacy education and best practices that I can incorporate within my classroom.

Growing up I came from a very large family. Lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. But as time went on my family has come down to me and my mom. She is one of my best friends. She has helped me to become the woman I am today by expressing how proud she is of me and the choices I have made in life. However, I am excited to hopefully one day expand my family by having one of my own.

A few hobbies of mine include cooking, working out, shopping, having dinner with friends, reading and sleeping. Yes, sleeping is my favorite past time.

When I think about how I learned to read no specific moment pops into my mind. I don't actually remember learning to read. All of a sudden I was just reading. I do remember a specific moment when I was in first grade. Every week one student would bring in their favorite book and would read it aloud to the class. When it was my turn I brought in the Berenstein Bears book. But, when I went to read it aloud to the class I had to keep asking the teacher for help. I remember that didn't make me feel good that I had to keep asking for help.

However, ever since I can remember I always loved books. Even to this day I love to read. I try to instill a love of books to my students by reading them some of my favorite child books. Hoping that my excitement and enthusiasm will transfer onto them. However, these days its more about reading for purpose rather than pleasure. I am sure the reading for this class will be a combination of them both.