A Balanced Literacy Program

Literacy entails the ability of a person to read and write which enables the individual to carry out their work. Literacy usually fosters independence by allowing people to acquire information. Daily, children write and read independently and in different group settings. A balanced literacy approach which combines systematic and holistic, explicit instructions and entails daily writing, reading, and the word study is essential for all the learners including the students who are struggling to read (Lombardi & Behrman, 2016). Successful implementation of the balanced literacy program needs that the teachers make use of mixed method during the teaching of language arts. For a balanced literacy approach to help the struggling first grader become a stronger reader, it requires concentrating on the following reading activities; Reading Aloud.

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To implement the balance literacy method to assist the struggling first grader in becoming an active reader, I would apply the approach through offering guided reading. This would be successful by ensuring that I work with a small group that has similar reading and writing abilities and need identical assistance. Having a proper selection of the book is vital as it will ensure that there is matching of the institutional level of the students with reading difficulties and it supports the reading of the whole text (Pyle, Poliszczuk, & Danniels, 2018). I would ensure that I offer guided reading to the first-grade student struggling to read by explicitly teaching various reading approaches to the student. The assessment will be continuous, and there will be a flexible grouping that will enable the making of changes in areas that are essential. I would also allow successful implementation of balanced literary approach through implementing independent reading. In this way, the first grader who is struggling to read will be made to chose their reading based on the level of reading that they have and their interest. The struggling first grader will read independently for a given time. Reading alone will enable the struggling reader to have the opportunity in which they may practice the reading approaches which they were taught when reading aloud, guided reading, and shared reading.

A balanced literacy approach can be implemented successfully to help the struggling first grader become a stronger reader through a balance and combination of whole language and phonics. This entails the best way that may be used for teaching the struggling students how they can read (Graham, Liu, Aitken, Bartlett, Harris and Holzapfel, 2018). It would be relevant to plan the balanced literacy approach through mapping out of the whole language class whereby the struggling student would be taught the meaning of texts and words. Therefore, instead of consuming extra time on just concentrating on the sounding words out as well as other lessons that are phonics-related, the struggling student in their whole language class will be surrounded by multiple distinct kinds of the written language which they may explore.

The struggling student will be able to enhance their reading capability by having the chance of choosing the texts and books which they want to read. For instance, at the time of implementing a balanced literacy lesson, the struggling students will be encouraged to start reading aloud to the entire class. The struggling student will be expected to provide a phonics lesson that is explicit by using a different set of words. Creation of reading session to the struggling will not only enables the student in learning how to read, but it will also contribute to the successful implementation of a balanced literacy approach.

References

Graham, S., Liu, X., Aitken, A., Ng, C., Bartlett, B., Harris, K. R., & Holzapfel, J. (2018). Effectiveness of literacy programs balancing reading and writing instruction: A metaanalysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 53(3), 279-304. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.194

Lombardi, D., & Behrman, E. H. (2016). Balanced literacy and the underperforming English learner in high school. Reading Improvement, 53(4), 165-174.

Pyle, A., Poliszczuk, D., & Danniels, E. (2018). The challenges of promoting literacy integration within a play-based learning kindergarten program: Teacher perspectives and implementation. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 32(2), 219-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2017.1416006