Mrs. Blake’s 4 th Grade Balanced Literacy Program

My Philosophy of Teaching Reading Reading is necessary for a child to do well throughout their lifetime. It is important to encourage children to read and write. The classroom environment needs to be a comfortable setting for the students to read. Reading will be taught through reading aloud, shared reading, guided reading, cooperative reading, and independent reading. Teachers should provide activities for all parts of reading, before, during, and after. Students need constant positive reinforcement from both home and school.

Balanced Literacy This reading approach is a flexible way to teach reading and writing The teacher is able to use on-going assessments to carefully plan individual classroom instruction for each student.

An Introduction to My Reading Program My language arts block will be two and a half hours long. Students will rotate through five different learning centers. Students will be given three weeks for the completion of their trade book and culminating activities.

Guided & Shared Reading Students will be placed in cooperative groups to read a book and complete assigned tasks. Students will not be assigned to groups according to their reading levels. –They all have a lot to learn from each other!

Independent Reading & Library Students will select their own books from our classroom library to read by themselves. Students may also go to the school’s library to check out and renew books. The books students read during this time may count for Book It.

Writer’s Workshop Students will work through the writing process to create their own stories. When they complete a story they may choose to publish it for everyone else to read. They could create: –A book –An internet page –A Hyper Studio project

Spelling They will have new spelling words each week to study. They will practice their words in class through different activities. –Pre-test, Post-test –Creative Writing –Back Writing –Overhead activities

Vocabulary They will learn many new vocabulary words, which will mostly come from their reading. The larger their vocabulary background is, the better they will be able to comprehend what they are reading.

Assessment and Evaluation Students will be assessed through many different activities. –Teacher observation, records, and conferences –Projects and extension activities –Reading logs and journals –Rubrics Students will also keep a portfolio for their writing and other important samples of their growth.

Parental Involvement Parents are the most important teacher for their children. They have the most influence on them!

How Can Parents Help? Parents are important for their children’s literacy development, because the groundwork for reading begins during the early years of life. Parents can show an interest in reading, it will encourage the children to read, too. They learn from observation. Parents can help improve children’s reading and writing skills by: –Reading to them –Run your finger under the line of print –Leave out words as you read –Discuss what you read together –Having older siblings read to the younger ones.

Activities for Parents to Use These are some ways to enrich your child’s reading development: –Compare and contrast different books –Tell stories using only the illustrations –Read and reread stories together –Listen to books on tape –Go to the library weekly –Ask them questions about the book

What Parents Can Do If They Notice Their Child Having Trouble with Reading You can help your child by: –Helping them choose the correct book…no more than 3 – 5 errors per page –Asking them to look at the picture and think about the story –Telling them to reread or read on –Asking them to pronounce the word they don’t know –Not interrupting them while they are reading –Calling Mrs. Blake whenever you need anything!