Independent Reading

Independent reading is the final stage in a balanced literacy program. It has the least teachersupport, therefore, students read independently. Not to be confused with silent reading, independent reading involves a mini-lesson beforehand to refresh students on their comprehension and decoding strategies. In our class, students can grab a partner, snatch up a book (that is correctly chosen at their own reading level) and can find somewhere comfortable in the classroom to enjoy 15-20 minutes of reading time. Students are often asked to look for words in their book that have special patterns that were talked about in class (e.g. silent k words, or words with the long a sound). Afterwards, we meet back on the carpet to talk about the books we read, the letter patterns we found, and the strategies we used to figure out unfamiliar words.

How to Foster Good Reading Habits at Home

1) Make sure your home is full of reader-friendly material that is geared towards your childs interest (and not necessarily just books!) -magazines -books with CDs -comic books -internet stories -newspapers 2) Set up a special spot in your home to allow your child to read and be creative with words 3) Set aside quiet time every day for you child to read and write 4) Read together! 5) Participate fully in your childs schools home reading program

Mrs. Stryzkos Grade 1/2 Class

Balanced Literacy in the Classroom

A Parents Guide to Effective Reading Strategies

Reading is for Life!

Read Alouds

Guided Reading
Guided reading occurs in our class usually after a read aloud or a shared reading lesson. We take what weve learned from these two components and do small group work to deepen our understanding of the concepts, skills and strategies at hand. During this group time, students read a book that is at their level and are guided with effective reading strategies as they talk and think through the text. We make predictions and connections to the text and pictures, we talk about new vocabulary and how we solved the words we did not know. Guided reading is very important as it allows for students to become more independent readers. While a guided reading group is learning together at the yellow table, the other students in our class are required to be independently participating in another literacy-rich activity. The following is an idea of what students in our class will be typically involved in during guided reading groups: Group 1: spelling sight words on the board with magnetic letters and word tiles Group 2: with the teacher at the guided reading table, learning new reading strategies Group 3: writing a story using words from our weekly shared reading text Group 4: listening to and reading a story on CD, then drawing and writing about their favourite part

What is Balanced Literacy?

Balanced literacy is a system of strategic, interacting components designed to help students to become better readers. It is a program that firmly emphasizes the
Every student can be a good reader!

In our class, reading books aloud is an important daily event. A fictional or non-fictional book is chosen based on its relevance to whats being studied in class. We talk about the book beforehand, making note of the cover, title and illustrations. We often take a picture walk and stroll through the pictures to see what kind of predictions we can make of the storyline. While reading, we try to make personal connections with the book to enhance our understanding and background knowledge. After reading, we talk about story elements, the authors message, and make more connections. We sometimes do a reading response, like writing about how the main character felt in the story. We also have student read alouds every day, to further enhance our enjoyment of reading!
Shared Reading

notion that ALL children can become good readers and writers! It

Shared reading occurs when teachers and students read together. All students are able to see the words of the text at the same time. In class, we read big books, charts, poems, songs, chants and short stories together on the carpet. It exposes them to a wide variety of print and print concepts, and helps them to inherit the strategies necessary to become a great reader. During a shared reading lesson in our class, we go over the words together and talk about the ideas presented in the reading and other elements like sounds, grammar and punctuation. Over the week, we do fun things with our shared reading like presenting it as a Readers Theatre act or writing the words of the text on paper, cutting them out and putting them back together like a puzzle!

teaches them to value literacy and to recognize its importance in their lives. In our class, this system allows for every student to receive the support that they need, while reading at a level that is not frustrating for them. It exposes students to a huge amount of real-life reading and writing experiences. Balanced literacy is comprised of 4 components, and each component lets the student work increasingly independently. The 4 components are as follows: