Keeping the balance …

When attempting to use the Balanced Literacy Approach for reading and writing instruction, maintaining a balance can be pretty tricky. All of the pieces of this approach are important to cover individually, but the effectiveness of the approach really comes when the pieces are used together.

Laura Chandler discussed the Balanced Literacy Framework that she has used successfully for the last several years on her webpage. She also has list of activites and printables for using a Balanced Literacy Approach on her site. Think about the many ways the Big Universe Site could be used in the various parts of this framework to combine reading and writing instruction as well as the many things both of those areas involve.

Here are some helpful guidelines for working to achieve that balance from a Scholastic Instructor Article, “Balanced Literacy: Teaching the Skills AND Thrills of Reading” by Dorothy Strickland.

Five Rules of Thumb for Maintaining Balance

1. Teach skills as a way to gain meaning. Skills are not ends in themselves.
2. Each day, include time for both guided instruction and independent work. Otherwise, students will never internalize skills and make them their own.
3. Avoid teaching children as if they were empty receptacles for knowledge. Instead, allow them to build knowledge in a process-oriented way.
4. Integrate print and electronic materials effectively. That way, your classroom will reflect the multimedia world in which students live.
5. Always consider standardized test scores in light of informal assessment data. Encourage parents to do the same

What I get from these rules is that all the pieces need to work together for the best Balanced Literacy Approach. If we teach skills in isolation, students may not realize those skills can be used together and incorporated while you are doing something else (like reading and writing). Help students make those needed connections. How many isolated skills do you use each day? In your daily experiences, do you have to integrate print and electronic media? Shouldn’t we be helping children learn how to do all of these things?