Welcome Educators of Literacy

Welcome Educators of LiteracyDeanne Opatosky

Developed by Deanne Opatosky

• Establishing a Professional Learning Community

• Examining our Practices and Challenging our Beliefs

• Identifying Characteristics and Instructional Practices of Effective Literacy Teachers

• Defining Balanced Literacy

• Organizing a Balanced Literacy Program

Agenda


Establishing a Professional Learning Community

Record some key words and phrases as you watch the video.


Ice Breaker• Choose a partner and stand facing each other.

• Examine the appearance and physical traits of your partner.

• Stand back to back and change three things about your own appearance.

• Try to identify your partner’s changes.

• Repeat the process.


Ice Breaker Reflection

How does the experience relate to educational change?

• Past Practice

• Adding and Eliminating Material

• Interdependence & Collaboration


Essential Elements Elementary Literacy Program

Goal –• Establish a common language for literacy

across the district by building a shared understanding of balanced literacy and its role in effective literacy instruction

• Identify best practices in literacy which focus on strategy acquisition


Reflect upon your current literacy instruction…• Describe your current literacy related programs,

approaches, techniques, and methodologies?• How would you describe the general reading abilities of

your students? (strengths/weaknesses) How do you assess their abilities?

• How do you decide what to teach? When to teach it? Who to teach it to?

Reflect upon your background knowledge about balanced literacy…

• What do you already know about balanced literacy?• What do you want to learn about balanced literacy?

Examining our Practices and Challenging our BeliefsGoal – What do we do?


Possible Daily ScheduleMon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri.


Possible Daily ScheduleMon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri.

SSR/DEARCan be done before/after lunch





15 min Direct TeachingShared InteractiveCore books/anthology



60 minDirect Teaching

Shared InteractiveCore books/anthology


45 minGuided reading



Modeled Reading (Read Aloud) Can be done before/after lunch



Modeled Reading (Read Aloud)Can be done

before/after lunch


30 minShared/Modeled WritingGrammar/Spelling

30 minWriters Workshop


30 minWriters Workshop


Examining our Practices and Challenging our BeliefsGoal – What do we want?

Collaborate

Respectful of differences

Gain knowledge

about reading strategies

Read to learnResearchers

Comprehension

Fluency Choice

Challenges

Successful

Strategic Motivated

Socially conscious

Knowledgeable

Word analysis

Decoding

Engaged Readers

Concept knowledge

National Reading Panel Report


Defining Balanced Literacy

A combination of authentic reading and writingexperiences to create lifelong literacy learners

Ten components that gradually release dependency on teacher and increase student independence by varying level of instruction

The levels of support are easily thought of as:

Read/Write to…Read/Write with…Read/Write by


READING• Read aloud - Modeled

reading• Shared reading• Interactive reading• Small group instruction

Guided reading/Lit circle• Independent reading

WRITING• Write aloud - Modeled

writing• Shared writing• Interactive writing• Guided writing-Lit response• Independent writing-

Writers Workshop


Reading Components

• Modeled Reading - Read aloudModel strategy

• Shared Reading Explicit instruction + think aloud strategy

• Small group instruction –Facilitate, support, & assess application of

strategy in guided reading/literature circles

• Independent ReadingAssess independent application of strategy


TEACH THE READER

NOT THE STORY


GuidedReading

Description of Approach Advantages for Students

Modeled reading

Shared reading

Guided reading

Literature circles

Independent Reading

Reading Components

• Modeled Reading - Read aloudModel strategy

• Shared Reading Explicit instruction + think aloud strategy

• Small group instruction –Facilitate, support, & assess application of

strategy in guided reading/literature circles

• Independent ReadingAssess independent application of strategy


Decoding

•Picture Clues•Context Clues•Stretch and sounds•Syllabication•Chunking •Find smaller words•Substitution•Rereading•Word Patterns/Families•Root words/Prefixes/Suffixes

Model Lessons Emphasize Strategy Acquisition


Comprehension

•Make predictions•Make connections•Use self-questioning•Determine importance•Summarize•Infer•Visualize

BEFORE AFTER

______ ______ Students are heterogeneously grouped

______ ______ Guided reading should occur one hour per day

______ ______ Guided reading is an assessment tool

______ ______ The children read orally during guided reading

______ ______ The grade level of a book is not as important as where the students are in their development of the reading process

______ ______ Guided reading lessons are to teach decoding strategies

______ ______ Guided reading lessons are to teach comprehension strategies

______ ______ There is always a word study component of a guided reading lesson

______ ______ The groups are flexible

______ ______ The goal/objective of the lessons for each group is the same on one day, just presented at a different level depending on the students’ abilities

______ ______ You must level your classroom library when you are implementing guided reading


……

• Students homogeneously grouped

• An instructional and assessment tool

• A group of students reading a book at their instructional level(90-94% accuracy) in a whisper voice

• A tool to teach and support the application of decoding strategies

• A tool to teach and support the application of comprehension strategies

• An opportunity to provide word study

• Flexible groups

• Providing differentiated instruction to your proficient readers in a small group setting at least 3X per week and to your struggling readers at least 4X per week.


……

• A new program to replace your existing “program”

• Teacher providing direct instruction “imparting knowledge”

• All of the students reading the same book/anthology in a small group setting

• NEVER round robin reading (30)

• A time for students not in groups to do “busy work”Developed by Deanne Opatosky


4. How do you organize lessons, materials and assessment

Reflection1. Learnings (1 idea to bring back to

your classroom?

2. Changes from current practices/philosophy

3. Needs – future PD, coaching

4. Comforts -Developed by Deanne Opatosky

Documents

Welcome Educators of Literacy