How to Reach and Teach All Children Through Balanced Literacy
(Grades 3-8)
Practical Strategies, Lessons, and Activities
by Sandra Rief & Julie Heimburge
2007 Edition
A balanced literacy program for upper elementary and middle school students includes:
· Explicit teacher modeling of reading and writing strategies, skills, and metacognitive processes
· Student modeling and sharing of standard-setting, proficient reading & writing
· Expository and narrative reading and writing experiences throughout the day and threading throughout all content areas
· Reading to students (read aloud), together with students (shared and guided), and by students (independently), using quality pieces of fiction and nonfiction text
· Oral language development and listening experiences
· Word study instruction and practice to build students’ vocabulary, word recognition, spelling, and fluency skills
· Independent reading and writing to build stamina and fluency
· Multiple opportunities for engagement, inquiry, and expression through various reading and writing groupings, formats, resources and projects
· Multiple and varied student assessments to drive instruction
These are the topics addressed in How to Reach & Teach All Children through Balanced Literacy. This comprehensive resource provides expert guidance, strategies, and activities for teaching literacy to diverse readers and writers in grades 3-8. It is packed with creative, motivating, ready-to-use strategies, lessons, tools, and activities. This book shows you:
- How to balance teacher talk/student talk, teacher-directed/student-directed activities, formal/informal assessments, instructional grouping formats, and learning style preferences
- How to obtain books and organize/manage the classroom library
- Reading and Writing workshops – tips and guidance
- 24 motivating literacy stations for upper elementary/middle school classrooms
- Strategies for accessing and comprehending nonfiction, and several motivating activities to help students understand expository text features and structures
- Numerous activities, strategies, websites, and interventions for building spelling, vocabulary and fluency
- How to make oral language come alive using “Quick-Talks”, commercials, newscasts, and a host of other techniques
- How to use a thematic approach to integrate content – with lesson plans, resources, and activities for a “survival” theme
- How to develop special units of study around authors, story elements, and genres
- How to put Book Clubs into practice, with several management tools, and over 60 choices of culminating Book Club activities.
- Types of reading and writing difficulties in students and information about research-based intervention programs to support struggling students
- A host of metacognitive reading comprehension strategies and scaffolds supported by the research to strengthen comprehension in readers of all abilities
- Numerous research-based strategies for use during the writing process, and for explicitly teaching various narrative and expository writing genres
- How to teach and enhance literacy through current technologies and empower struggling readers/writers through assistive technology.
- 60 recommended literacy web sites for teachers and students
- PLUS several reproducibles and motivating classroom activities