Strategies for Effective Balanced Literacy provides a teacher-friendly guide to the critical elements of a comprehensive balanced literacy framework. Through understanding the developmental progression of word study, reading, and writing, and administering purposeful assessments, teachers can create learning environments to more effectively meet students' needs. The research-based model lessons and flexible, effective strategies help teachers find engaging ways to support all learners and support standards.
This is Balanced Literacy: Grades K-6 Students learn to read and write best when their teachers balance literacy instruction. But how do you strike the right balance of skills and knowledge, reading and writing, small and whole group instruction, and direct and dialogic instruction, so that all students can learn to their maximum potential? The answer lies in the intentional design of learning activities, purposeful selection of instructional materials, evidence-based teaching methods, and in strategic groupings of students based on assessment data. Together, these create the perfect balance of high impact learning experiences that engage and excite learners. In this hands-on essential guide, best-selling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nancy Akhavan help you define that balance for your students, lighting the path to implementing balanced literacy in your classroom. Their plan empowers you to integrate evidence-based approaches that include: • Instructional materials comprised of both informational and narrative texts. • The best uses of instructional delivery modes, including direct and dialogic instruction. • Grouping patterns that work best to accomplish learning aims for different learners at different stages. • Instruction in foundational skills and meaning making, including oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. • Technology used as a tool for increasing learning of a specific literary process. All the tips and tools you need to realize the goal of balanced literacy learning are included, with classroom videos that show strategies in action. Tap your intuition, collaborate with your peers, and put the research-based strategies embedded in this roadmap to work in your classroom to implement or deepen a strong, successful balanced literacy program. Grow as a reading and writing teacher while leading your students to grow as readers and writers.
This easy-to-follow guide is filled with practical approaches to help teachers transition towards a balanced literacy framework. Designed for both newer and veteran teachers alike, this straightforward book offers simple techniques and concrete strategies to nurture reading and writing skills through Shared/Guided/Independent Reading and Writing activities. This resource gives teachers in-depth lessons plans that take the guesswork out of what is needed in the Language Arts classroom to implement the Balanced Literacy approach.
Middle and high school students must become proficient readers and writers to successfully meet the requirements of the secondary curricula and be adequately prepared for college, employment, and citizenship. 'Literacy Across the Curriculum' is a guide for educators who are concerned with how students experience literacy instruction across the secondary school curriculum and need strategies for raising student performance levels.
How to Reach and Teach All Children Through Balanced Literacy offers you a handbook for teaching literacy to diverse students in grades 3-8. The balanced literacy method combines the best practices of phonics and other skill-based language instruction with the holistic, literature-based approach in order to help you teach reading, writing, and speaking in a clear and approachable format. This dynamic resource offers an easily accessible research-based approach to balanced literacy that is grounded in the innovative ideas developed by authors Sandra F. Rief and Julie A. Heimburge. The book includes detailed descriptions of what a balanced literacy classroom looks like and shows how to create a program from the ground up or give your existing program a boost. The book can be used across content areas and is filled with reproducible worksheets, activities, and other handy classroom tools. Some topics covered include: Shared book experiences Reading aloud Oral language and vocabulary development Guided reading for comprehension Modeled writing Reading and writing conferences Book clubs Content area reading and writing Ongoing assessments Enhancing literacy through technology
Formerly a SkyLight publication Take advantage of this insightful tool to integrate the language arts, and begin to improve students' reading and writing skills immediately.
In this much anticipated follow-up to their groundbreaking book, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom, authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, together with co-author Katie Cunningham, extend the conversation in Shifting the Balance 3-5: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This new text is built in mind specifically for grades 3-5 teachers around best practices for the intermediate classroom. Shifting the Balance 3-5 introduces six more shifts across individual chapters that: Zoom in on a common (but not-as helpful-as-we-had-hoped) practice to reconsider Untangle a number of "misunderstandings" that have likely contributed to the use of the common practice Propose a more science-aligned shift to the current practice Provide solid scientific research to support the revised practice Offer a collection of high-leverage, easy-to-implement instructional routines to support the shift to more brain-friendly instruction The authors offer a refreshing approach that is respectful, accessible, and practical - grounded in an earnest commitment to building a bridge between research and classroom practice. As with the first Shifting the Balance, they aim to keep students at the forefront of reading instruction.
Grounded in a strong evidence base, this indispensable practitioner guide and text has given thousands of teachers tools to support the literacy growth of beginning and struggling readers in grades K?2. The interactive strategies approach (ISA) is organized around core instructional goals related to enhancing word learning and comprehension of text. The book provides guidance for assessment and instruction in whole-class, small-group, and one-to-one settings, using the curricular materials teachers already have. Purchasers get access to a companion website where they can download and print 26 reproducible forms in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Of special value, the website also features nearly 200 pages of additional printable forms, handouts, and picture sorts that supplement the book's content. New to This Edition *Incorporates the latest research on literacy development and on the ISA. *Describes connections to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). *Explains how to use the ISA with English learners. *Chapter on fluency. *Expanded coverage of morphological knowledge. *Companion website with downloadable reproducible tools and extensive supplemental materials. See also Comprehensive Reading Intervention in Grades 3?8, by Lynn M. Gelzheiser, Donna M. Scanlon, Laura Hallgren-Flynn, and Peggy Connors, which presents the Interactive Strategies Approach--Extended (ISA-X) for intermediate and middle grade struggling readers.
The Daily 5, Second Edition retains the core literacy components that made the first edition one of the most widely read books in education and enhances these practices based on years of further experience in classrooms and compelling new brain research. The Daily 5 provides a way for any teacher to structure literacy (and now math) time to increase student independence and allow for individualized attention in small groups and one-on-one. Teachers and schools implementing the Daily 5 will do the following: Spend less time on classroom management and more time teaching Help students develop independence, stamina, and accountability Provide students with abundant time for practicing reading, writing, and math Increase the time teachers spend with students one-on-one and in small groups Improve schoolwide achievement and success in literacy and math. The Daily 5, Second Edition gives teachers everything they need to launch and sustain the Daily 5, including materials and setup, model behaviors, detailed lesson plans, specific tips for implementing each component, and solutions to common challenges. By following this simple and proven structure, teachers can move from a harried classroom toward one that hums with productive and engaged learners. What's new in the second edition: Detailed launch plans for the first three weeks Full color photos, figures, and charts Increased flexibility regarding when and how to introduce each Daily 5 choice New chapter on differentiating instruction by age and stamina Ideas about how to integrate the Daily 5 with the CAFE assessment system New chapter on the Math Daily 3 structure
