Balanced Literacy and Effective Literacy Practices

with Dr. Kimberly Tyson @tysonkimberly Sylvan Union School District

learningunlimitedllc.comJanuary 2018

Resources: learningunlimitedllc.com/balancedliteracy-sylvan-2/

Plan for the Day

Morning

  • Introductions | This and That
  • Balanced Literacy & Balanced Literacy Framework
  • Literacy-Rich Environment

Afternoon

  • Best Literacy Practices to Support Balanced Literacy
  • Fluency Strategies that Work! & Vocabulary
  • Conversations | Next Steps | Time to Explore

Balanced Literacy

  • Balanced literacy focuses on reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking and includes a range of literacy-rich activities. In balanced literacy classrooms, teachers combine explicit text-based teaching of skills and strategies with literature and language-rich activities. As part of a balanced literacy approach to reading, the teacher must use many different instructional approaches: direct instruction, student-centered instruction, individualization, whole class instruction, small heterogeneous grouping, and small homogeneous grouping to meet each student where he is and move him forward in the manner and time best suited to the student.

Balanced Literacy Framework

  • What is it?
  • Why is it important?

Balanced Literacy & the Daily Schedule

  • Scaffolding Instruction

Literacy-Rich Environment

  • What is it?

A literacy-rich classroom is one where students are surrounded by print and havemultiple opportunities to engage with authentic texts for a variety of purposes throughout the day.

A setting that encourages and supports listening, speaking, reading and writing in a variety of authentic ways –

through both print and digital media.

  • Why is it important?
  • Classroom Libraries

AFTERNOON

Reading Fluency

The 3 Dimensions of Fluency

  • What is it?
  • Why is it important?

Strategies that Work in the Classroom

  • Paired Readers
  • Resources:
  • Choral Reading
  • Reader’s Theater
  • Radio Reading
  • Fluency Coaching

Vocabulary

  • What is it?
  • Made up of 2 types of vocabulary:
  • Why is it important?

Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction (Chapter 4 in Blended Vocabulary)

Infographics on workshop page

  • Provide multiple exposures to words
  • Frontload vocabulary
  • Actively engage students

Vocabulary: 3 Big Ideas

  • Selecting Vocabulary
  • Teaching Vocabulary (Strategies)
  • Assessing Vocabulary (Chapter 4 in Blended Vocabulary)

Selecting Vocabulary (Chapter 3 in Blended Vocabulary)

Tiered Vocabulary

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Instructional Implications

1.

2. Labeling the environment and Word Walls

3.

4.

Types of Word Walls (#2 above)

Stages of Word Learning

Teaching Vocabulary: Instructional Strategies (Chapter 5 in Blended Vocabulary)

Digital Tools and Apps that Support Word Learning (Appendix A in Blended Vocabulary)

Linked on workshop page to infographic and descriptions

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