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Jesse Boyd Elementary School practices a balanced literacy approach to teaching and learning English Language Arts. Literacy is embedded within all core subject areas. Students read and write across the curriculum. Within the balanced literacy program, students have:
Reading Aloud:
Teacher reads selection aloud to students
Provides adult model of fluent reading
Develops sense of story/text
Develops vocabulary
Encourages prediction
Builds a community of readers
Develops active listening and encourages rich conversation/questioning
Builds background knowledge
Allows teacher to integrate content areas
Shared Reading:
Teacher and students read text together
Demonstrates awareness of text
Develops sense of story or content
Promotes reading strategies
Develops fluency and phrasing
Increases comprehension
Encourages politeness and respect
Guided Reading:
Teacher introduces a selection at student’s instructional level
Promotes reading strategies
Increases comprehension
Encourages independent reading
Expands belief in own ability
Independent Reading:
Students read independently
Encourages strategic reading
Increases comprehension
Supports writing development
Extends experiences with a variety of written texts
Promotes reading for enjoyment and information
Develops fluency
Fosters self-confidence by reading familiar and new text
Provides opportunities to use mistakes as learning opportunities
Phonics:
Demonstrates how words work
Increases letter/sound relationship
Increases vocabulary
Develops letter formation
Promoates blending
Promotes fluency
Develops active listening
Increases phonemic awareness
Improves encoding and decoding words
Supports flexibility in reading
Encourages students to attack unknown words with confidence
Modeled/Shared Writing:
Teacher and students collaborate to write text; the teacher acts as a scribe
Develops concepts of print
Develops writing strategies
Supports reading development
Provides models for a variety of writing styles
Models the connection between sounds, letters, and words
Produces text that students can read independently
Necessitates communicating in a clear and specific manner
Interactive Writing:
Teachers and students compose together using a “shared pen” technique in which students do some of the writing
Provides opportunities to plan and construct texts
Increases spelling knowledge
Produces written language resources in the classroom
Creates opportunities to apply what has been learned
Independent Writing: Students Write Independently:
Strengthen text sequence
Develops an understanding of multiple uses of writing
Support their reading development
Develops writing strategies
Develops active independence