How Effective Teachers Teach Reading
and Writing
Principle #1 - Effective Teachers Understand How Children Learn
Balanced Literacy promotes both teacher centered theories (Behaviorism)
and student centered learning theories (Constructivism, Interactive,
Sociolinguistic, Reader Response and Critical Literacy).
*See chart on page 13
Principle #2 – Effective Teachers Support Children’s Use of The Four Cueing
Systems
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The phonological or sound system
The syntactic or structural system
The semantic or meaning system
The pragmatic or social and cultural use system
*See chart on page 17
Principle #3 – Effective Teachers Create a Community of Learners
1. Responsibility – Students are responsible for their own learning and
see themselves as a valuable/contributing part of the classroom
community.
2. Opportunities – Students have opportunities to read and write for
real/meaningful purposes.
3. Engagement – Students are motivated to learn and are actively
involved in reading and writing activities. They have choices.
4. Demonstration – Teachers provide demonstrations of literacy skills
and strategies and children observe and learn.
5. Risk Taking – Students are encouraged to explore topics, make
guesses, and take risks.
6. Instruction – Teachers are expert readers and writers. They are part
of the community that guides the learning experience with
minilessons on procedures, skills and strategies related to reading
and writing.
7. Response – Children share personal connections to stories, make
predictions, ask questions and deepen their comprehension as they
write and discuss their own stories and the stories of other authors.
8. Choice – Students are often able to make choices of their own about
what they read and write. This is highly motivating.
9. Time – Children need large chunks of time to pursue reading and
writing activities. 2-3 hours of interrupted time is recommended.
(see page 10 for ideal schedule)
10. Assessment – Teachers and children work together to establish
guidelines for assessment so that children can monitor their own
work and participate in evaluation.
Principle #4 – Effective Teachers Adopt a Balanced Approach to Literacy
Instruction
Even though balanced programs vary, they usually embody these
characteristics:
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Literacy is viewed comprehensively involving both reading and
writing
Literature is at the heart of the program
Skills and strategies are taught both directly and indirectly
Reading instructions involves learning word recognition and
identification, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension
Writing instruction involves learning to express meaningful ideas and
use conventional spelling, grammar, and punctuation to express those
ideas
Students use reading and writing as tools for learning in the other
content areas.
The goal is to develop lifelong readers and writers.
Principle #5 – Effective Teachers Scaffold Children’s Reading and Writing
Experiences
Level of support goes from high to low.
Modeled, Shared, Interactive, Guided, Independent (see page 27)
Principle #6 – Effective Teachers Organize Literacy Instruction in Four
Ways
1.
2.
3.
4.
Basal Reading Programs
Literature Focus Units
Literature Circles
Reading and Writing Workshop
*See chart on pages 32 and 33.
*Refer to Miss Pannicia’s 4th grade classroom
Principle #7 – Effective Teachers Connect Instruction to Assessment
Teachers need assessment information that tells about the complex
achievements students are making in reading and writing.
Assessment procedures:
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Determine students’ background knowledge
Identify students’ reading levels
Monitor students’ learning
Identify strengths and weaknesses in students’ reading and writing
Analyze students’ spelling development
Document student learning
Showcase students’ best work
Assign grades
Standardized testing
Principle #8 – Effective Teachers Become Partners with Parents
Viewing parents as partners involves . . .
. . . providing literacy information to parents.
. . . using them as volunteers within a quality volunteering program.
. . . supporting literacy at home.
. . .encouraging and supporting family literacy.