Reading Excellent Act

1. Reading Excellent Act • Looking at the Balanced Literacy Approach REA--Day One

2. Balanced Literacy Programs • Emerged in 1990’s • Use basal readers, decodable text and other traditional programmed reading materials selectively • Include daily encounters with fiction and nonfiction trade books • Oral reading by teachers and students • Some direct skill instruction • Guided reading groups • Independent reading • Process writing • Spelling instruction REA--Day One

3. Balanced Reading Program • Centers on • Reading to children • Reading with children • Reading by children • Adapting basal with • Teacher Read Aloud • Shared Reading • Guided reading • Independent Reading REA--Day One

4. Strengths of Basal Readers • Spiral curriculum • Continuous from grade to grade • Time efficient • Ascending difficulty • Skills gradually introduced • Lesson plans provided • Variety of genres • Helpful to beginning teachers • Reassuring to administrators REA--Day One

5. Seven Principles for Literacy Development • Balanced Reading Programs • Help all students become independent, fluent readers in the early education years • Help students to expand their literacy abilities throughout their schooling REA--Day One

6. Principle One • Begin with the teacher’s knowledge of student reading processes • Knowledge of stages and milestone skills associated with reading and writing development • Bedrock upon which all learning and assessment activities are constructed REA--Day One

7. Principle Two • Rely on process and product student assessments that link directly to the knowledge base of reading • Informs teaching • Aids in grouping children efficiently and effectively according to learning needs • Examines students processes • Used to encourage students about progress • Conducted over time • Compare past and present abilities REA--Day One

8. Principle Three • Involve families in support of the reading development process • Has profound influence on the development of child’s reading ability • Encourage parents to create homes that stimulate literacy growth REA--Day One

9. Principle Four • Support reading to, with, and by students • Flexible and practical model for instruction • Embedded within it • Skill instruction and practice • Instructional level reading routines • Oral reading by students and teachers • Massive amounts of reading practice • Great deal of writing instruction and composition REA--Day One

10. Principle Four • Reading TO children • Every student is read to each day by a masterful reader • Teacher read alouds • Reading one to one by peer or adult • Lap reading REA--Day One

11. Principle Four • Reading WITH Children • Teacher reads with students daily • Usually in small groups, “house calls”, group choral reading, or shared reading REA--Day One

12. Principle Four • Reading BY Children • Daily independent reading opportunities • Time set aside for pleasure reading • Performance Reading • Students read to each other REA--Day One

13. Principle Five • Integrate the development of reading with writing instruction and composition • Students who become writers rapidly improve as readers • Learn phonetic elements • Become better decoders • Learn story elements • Improve comprehension REA--Day One

14. Principle Six • Develop reading and writing skills via “whole-to-parts-to-whole” instruction • Skills to be learned are taught within the context of the story • Helps students understand the relevance and usefulness of what they have learned REA--Day One

15. Principle Seven • Address the needs of all children • Ensures that most students attain reading fluency • Some students may require some program modifications • Need flexible, quality instruction • Support found in specialists and special education teachers REA--Day One

16. Challenges • Preservice teachers • Disharmony with past belief systems • Conflicting views among educators • Overcoming traditions in the schools • Inservice teachers • Time commitment • Comfort Zone • Administrative risk taking REA--Day One

17. Constructivism and Reading • Piaget--cognitive psychology • Vygotsky--sociohistorical psychology • Bruner, Gardner, Eisner, and Goodman--Semiotic interactionism • Learning is not the result of development; rather, learning is development • Errors are not to be avoided by are viewed as evidence of seeking to learn REA--Day One

18. Constructivism and Reading • Prior knowledge is a key factor • Learners represent their knowledge through a variety of symbol systems (movement, song, play) of which language is only one symbol • Talking, conversing, and dialoging= opportunities to develop critical thinking REA--Day One

19. Constructivism and Reading • Meaningfulness is central • Constructivism means whole to part to whole • Syntax=word order to word meaning • Graphophonics relates letters to sounds REA--Day One

20. Relationship of Constructivism to Balanced Literacy Curriculum • Balanced literacy instruction • Children learn to read by reading • Children learn to write by writing • Therefore, children and teachers engage in daily oral reading and writing activities • Teachers read to students • Helps develop concepts about and attitudes towards reading and language REA--Day One

21. Relationship of Constructivism to Balanced Literacy Curriculum • Children’s innate desire to use and learn language to express themselves and to meet their own social needs should be respected • Teachers use children’s oral language to create supplemental reading and writing materials (language experience approach) REA--Day One

22. Relationship of Constructivism to Balanced Literacy Curriculum • Includes use of emergent reading materials that students read independently • Guided reading and interactive writing • Teacher guides, teaches, models, and assists students • Children are given abundant reading materials and time to read REA--Day One

23. Relationship of Constructivism to Balanced Literacy Curriculum • Writing • Write for their own purpose and choose their own topic • Given time to write each day • Students construct meaning from print and, in the process, learn to read and write REA--Day One

24. Relationship of Constructivism to Balanced Literacy Curriculum • Goal of a BLP • Help students become independent, fluent readers • Seeks to create effective literacy learning situations REA--Day One