Balanced Literacy in the Elementary
Classroom- Building from the Ground
Up
Core Content Training
3rd-5th Grade Teachers
NTA, August 2013
Dallas ISD Language & Literacy Department
Participants will understand the
Dallas ISD Balanced Literacy Framework.
Participants will know how to locate Dallas ISD
curriculum resources.
Participants will understand what a literacy block
looks like in the third through fifth grade
classroom.
Core Beliefs
• Our main purpose is to improve student academic achievement.
• Effective instruction makes the most difference in student academic
performance.
• There is no excuse for poor quality instruction.
• With our help, at risk students will achieve at the same rate as non-at risk
students.
• Staff members must have a commitment to children and a commitment to
the pursuit of excellence
What is our Lesson Focus?
• Our Lesson Objective for the first portion of this
training is: Participants will understand the
components of the Dallas ISD Balanced Literacy
Framework.
• Our Demonstration Of Learning for the first portion of
this training is:
Given the definitions of literacy components, participants
will be able to correctly match at least 4 of the 6
components with its definition.
Keep your eyes out for MRS
•Response Card
•Whip Around
•Modified Whip Around
•Think-Pair-Share
•Table Talk
•Quick Response
•Oral/Choral Response
•White Boards
Dallas ISD Reading & Writing
Philosophy
Dallas ISD believes that a balanced approach to literacy
development is essential to building the foundational blocks of
knowledge for strategic reading, writing, and analytical
thinking. We believe that purposeful integration of interactive
and engaging reading and writing skills in all disciplines, and
media literacy, provide opportunities for students to enjoy
reading, explore new learning, deepen thinking, ask and
answer questions, and more importantly, develop lifelong
learning.
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Balanced Literacy Characteristics
•The balanced approach to instruction is
based on a comprehensive view of
literacy that combines explicit
instruction, guided practice,
collaborative learning, and
independent reading and writing.
Characteristics of Balanced
Literacy
Comprehensive Literacy Framework
WORD STUDY
comprehension
READING
WRITING
Where would Bob be without his
tools?
Read Aloud
Teacher reads a selection aloud to students engaging in a
series of activities, including:
• previewing
• vocabulary development
• predicting
• questioning
• story analysis
• feature analysis
• responding
Shared Reading
Teacher and students read text together promoting
discussion, problem-solving and critical thinking. It is an
interactive experience in which an enlarged text is used
for all students to see.
Guided Reading
Teacher works with small groups of
students who have similar reading
needs. The teacher selects and
introduces new books carefully
chosen to match the instructional
levels of students with increasingly
challenging levels of difficulty. The
goal is to increase comprehension
and encourage independent reading.
Independent Reading
Students self-select and
independently read appropriate
books based on their
independent reading level and
interest. During this time,
students practice reading
strategies that were explicitly
taught during read aloud,
shared reading and guided
reading.
Reading Workshop
• A framework of reading instruction that includes
components that support comprehension and
vocabulary development, differentiation of
instruction and independence.
When the pieces fit together…
Writing Aloud/Modeled Writing
The teacher is routinely
modeling the writing process in
front of students by “thinking
out loud” and supporting the
writing process as a scribe.
Shared Writing
Teacher and students create the text together; then the
teacher does the actual writing.
Interactive Writing
The teacher and class compose together to create a variety of written text
written text using a “shared pen” technique. The group agrees on what to
agrees on what to write through discussion and negotiation. Together the
Together the teacher and students navigate through the writing process.
Small Group Writing
(Guided Writing)
Guided Writing lessons are temporary, small group
lessons teaching those strategies that a group of
students most need to practice with immediate
guidance from teachers.
Independent Writing
Students write independently in a variety of genres. Writing topics are
either directed by the teacher or often self-selected. During this time,
students practice writing strategies and techniques that were explicitly
taught during shared writing, interactive writing and guided writing.
Writing Workshop
During Writing Workshop,
children proceed through the
writing process and use a
variety of writing forms. The
teacher guides the process and
provides instruction through
focus lessons and conferences.
When the pieces fit together…
Word StudyThe Connection
Phonics & Decoding
Phonics is the study and use of
sound/spelling correspondences
to help students identify written
words.
Phonics instruction teaches
students the relationship
between letters(graphemes) and
speech sounds(phonemes).
Fluency
Fluency refers to the ability of students to read and write quickly,
effortlessly, and efficiently with good, meaningful expression…
“Fluent readers... are able to read words accurately and effortlessly. They
recognize words and phrases instantly on sight. Very little cognitive energy
is expended in decoding the words. This means, then, that the maximum
amount of cognitive energy can be directed to the all-important task of
making sense of the text.”
Vocabulary
Words that make up speech (oral) or text (reading and
writing) and their meanings
Distinctions:
• Receptive vocabulary: requires a reader to associate a
specific meaning with a given label
• Oral vocabulary
• Reading vocabulary
• Expressive vocabulary: requires a speaker or writer to
produce a specific label for a particular meaning
• Oral vocabulary
• Writing vocabulary
Grammar/Language
•Every word has a job
•Punctuation helps with fluency and
comprehension
•CUPSS
•Academic Language
Demonstration of Learning
• Given the definitions of literacy components,
participants will be able to correctly match at least 4 of
the 6 components with its definition.
Lesson Objective
• Participants will know how to locate and utilize Dallas
ISD curriculum resources.
Curriculum Tools for RLA
•CPG (curriculum planning guide)
•Semester curriculum maps
•Six weeks curriculum maps
•Calendar Maps (by six weeks- 5th grade
only)
•Journeys/Senderos
•The Write Source
CPG
Semester Curriculum
Map
Semester Curriculum Map
Six Weeks Curriculum Maps
Six Weeks Curriculum Map
Calendar Maps (by 6 weeks)
THIS IS ONLY AVAILABLE IN
2013-2014 FOR 5TH GRADE
Dallas Independent School District
*
RLA Standards for the First Six-Weeks Grading Period- Grade 5
5.2E
Reading/Vocabulary
•Students will demonstrate dictionary skills.
Development. Students
• Determine correct meaning of a new
understand new vocabulary
word
and use it when reading and
• Demonstrate how to locate the
writing. Students are
pronunciation, syllabication and part of
expected to:
speech of a new word.
(E) use a dictionary, a
•Students will demonstrate how to use a glossary.
glossary, or a thesaurus
• Demonstrate how to locate the
(printed or electronic) to
pronunciation, syllabication and part of
determine the meanings,
speech of a new word.
syllabication, pronunciations,
• Determine meaning of new word as used
alternate word choices, and
in the text.
parts of speech of words. (RS) •Students will demonstrate how to use a
thesaurus.
• Select alternate word choices for a given
word.
Demonstration of Learning
•Given a list of 4 curriculum tools,
participants will explain how each tool
helps in planning a Balanced Literacy
lesson with 95% accuracy.
CPG
Semester
Curriculum Map
Six Weeks Calendar Map
Six Weeks
Curriculum Map
Daily Schedule
“Our goal was to write a book about teaching
reading in upper elementary classrooms, but we
quickly abandoned that idea. The
interconnectedness of reading and writing is
profound and inescapable. We couldn’t address
reading without discussing writing as well, because
literacy doesn’t unfold that way in the classroom –
or shouldn’t. Fragmenting these complex literacy
processes interferes with the greatest goal of
literacy education – the construction of meaning
from and through text. Using reading and writing
together in harmonious concert enables learners to
draw on these complementary processes at the
same time they work to construct meaning.”
- Irene Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell, Guiding Readers and Writers,
p. vi
• Michelle Brown, MLEP
• micbrown@dallasisd.org
• 972.502.4195
• Michele Nichols, RLA
• manichols@dallasisd.org
• 972.925.6705