Balanced Literacy Guided Writing Shared Reading Guided Reading Writing Workshop The teacher models to students a specific writing skill, using a mini-lesson, and demonstrates how they can apply the skill to their own writing. Students are given the opportunity to apply the new skill to enhance their writing. Through this process, students are able to improve their writing and master the craft. Interactive Read Alouds The teacher reads a text aloud to a group of students, stopping at strategic points in the story to allow for students to analyze and discuss specific points. Follow-up activities can help solidify points being made. These types of readings can help encourage excitement and engagement when reading, and can help students with specific strategies to use when reading independently. Similar to guided writing, the teacher and students work alongside one another to create a piece of writing together. The teacher and students both write words/ideas. This process helps students gain the confidence they need to be able to write well on their own, and engages them in the writing process. They are given the chance to develop important skills, such as justifying and critiquing pieces of writing. Shared/Interactive Writing Through the use of differentiated groups, students learn phonics, sight words, vocabulary, and spelling. This component of balanced literacy allows students to become independent and responsible for their own learning, and allows them to build an understanding of the components of the English language. During this phase of learning to write, students work with the teacher to create a piece of writing together. Students contribute ideas and thoughts, but the teacher does all of the writing. The teacher should use this time to focus on a specific strategy when writing. Guided Writing Word Work/Study The reading workshop is an instructional framework, where students are given the chance to see specific strategies being modeled by the teacher, and then have the chance to apply it to their own reading, independently. The teacher can also take time to conference with students, one-on-one, to see if they have been able to apply the various strategies taught effectively, during independent reading time. students partake in an interactive reading lesson. They share the reading responsibility with a partner or with the teacher. When given the opportunity to partake in a shared reading activity, students can often learn from one another, deepen their understanding of the text by listening to other viewpoints, and build fluency. They can also work on using a specific reading strategy immediately after it is modeled by the teacher. During shared reading, Teachers work with a small group of similarly leveled students to tackle a specific reading skill. In a smaller group setting, students will feel more willing to explore a strategy they may be struggling with, and are able to learn more effectively with and from their peers and teacher. This setting also allows teachers to keep track of student learning and provide further guidance and support. Reading Workshop Shared Reading Guided Reading *Adapted from http://www.literacybalancingacts.com/