What is Balanced Literacy?
“Literacy practices that inspire, invite, encourage and honor all students”

​A balanced approach to literacy instruction is a framework for teaching literacy thoroughly and completely which includes integrating writing and reading. In a successful balanced literacy program, teachers combine explicit instruction of skills, strategies and processes and student-centered activities that focus on authenticity, choice, and meaning. Teachers, in a balanced literacy classroom, look for specific evidence of student learning and understanding across the four domains of reading, writing, speaking and listening while integrating instruction with authentic reading and writing experiences so that students learn. This supports students learning the literacy strategies and skills while providing the opportunity for students to apply what they are learning.  The structures and processes of a balanced approach to literacy instruction support and guide the teacher to make informed and thoughtful decisions about the best way to help each student become a better reader, writer, and thinker.

Reading

• Understanding by Design Units with the following Balanced Literacy Components
  • Read Aloud and Literature Discussion
  • Shared Reading
• Guided Reading
• Independent Reading with Conferring

​Word Study

• Reading in Motion
  • Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
• Vocabulary Instruction
• Lexia
• High-Frequency Words

writing

• Building Writing as a Community
• Letter Formation
• Sentence Formation (Grammar)
• Developmental Spelling
• Descriptive Writing
• Narrative
• Expository/Informational
• Opinion/Argument
• Writing in Response to Reading​