7/30/2019 Balanced Literacy and Adolescents

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Question: How does an integrated literacy framework (also referred to as balanced literacy)

support adolescents literacy development?

Answer: I have found that balanced literacy looks very different with Middle Level students

than it does in the Elementary grades. Consider the three basic parts of Balanced Literacy:Readers Workshop, Writers Workshop, and Vocabulary/Word Study.

Readers Workshop in Elementary grades usually consists of guided reading and independent

practice, as well as a small mini-lesson. Taking this effective approach to literacy and shifting it

to the Middle Level involves the removal of guided reading and instead, channeling students

energy into things such as book clubs and literary essays. The focus becomes much more about

collaboration between students, rather than collaboration between student and teacher. While the

teacher-student collaboration is present, there is a noticeable shift from dependence to

independence. I think this supports literacy development immensely. Consider student well-

being at this age. Students are starting to search for independence and find themselves. In the

same way, students are starting to find more independence in their reading and find genres,characters, and storylines that they enjoy.

Writers Workshop also begins to focus more on independence. Students are expected to take

practices they worked with in Elementary School, such as using small moments to write a

narrative, and expand on them to create a well-written five paragraph essay. Especially in sixth

grade, students begin to be introduced to the five paragraph structure, and start to use it

consistently. However, since the literacy framework stresses an overlap in the literacy subjects,

Writers Workshop does not keep itself from Readers Workshop; rather, students in the Middle

Level, use information from their reading as the base for their Writing. This is the biggest

difference I have noticed between Elementary and Middle Level literacy. While Elementary

grades tend to focus on the components of balanced literacy, Middle grades tend to focus on the

overlap between them; thus, this notion supports a strong, literate student.

Lastly, with Vocabulary and Word Study, students are expected to begin using words in context.

Rather than focusing on parts of a word, the phonics of a sound, or the syntax of a sentence,

students are now expected to recognize words in context. Again, this supports the idea of

balanced literacy overlapping in the Middle grades. Just as students are using reading to now

support their writing, students are using vocabulary to support their writing and the vocabulary is

often fueled by the literacy. In my opinion, balanced literacy is the only way to effectively bring

about a well-literate student in the Middle grades. I think in order to generate success, students

must see literacy as a set of overlapping ideas, rather than three separate entities.