April 10th Post - Balanced Literacy

I put into the balanced literacy group for our presentations. To tell you the truth I wasn't sure I knew much about it. To take an educated guess I would have said that balanced literacy is being able to balance and incorporate all types of the education spectrum into the literacy realm. What I found out is that balanced literacy is a framework designed to help all students learn to read and write effectively. The program was created and makes the statement that all students can learn to read and write. This balance between reading and writing allows students to receive the teaching needed in order to read grade level status, while allowing students to work at a level that is not frustrating for them. There are several different models currently in schools today.

I read about a study done in 1998, I believe, about the improvements that the students showed after having a full year of balanced literacy instruction. The students had more fluent reading and writing skills and they were more confident in their work as a whole. They com paired these students to the students which did not have this literacy instruction and the differences were outstanding. All in all balanced literacy is something I would use in my classroom, but one that I would use as a resource and a helpful aide, but not the only source of literacy in my classroom.