Balanced Literacy Routines

Shared Reading

Teachers read along an enlarged text with students. Shared Reading texts have fewer words on a page than Read Alouds but are still above a child’s independent reading level. Shared Reading helps develop background knowledge and builds a sense of story structure. Teachers often do multiple readings of the same story to build and extend comprehension of the text, develop vocabulary, and explicitly teach decoding strategies in context.


Follow these steps for a Shared Reading:

Select an enlarged text that includes a teaching point based on the needs of the students.
Build background knowledge on the topic of the text.
Set the purpose for reading the book.
Have students make predictions after they preview the cover, title and illustrations.
Browse through the book and have students confirm or revise their predictions.
Read the text with expression, with few stops. The first reading is for enjoyment.
Afterward, discuss the selection with children. Have children respond to the text either through writing or acting the story out. Children may also wish to write an innovation to the book.




Reread the Shared Reading text and use the prompts below to model thinking strategies.






Point out print conventions.
Focus on expanding vocabulary.
Use the following cueing-system prompts to model problem-solving as you read:

Structure Prompts
What word would sound right here?
Do we say it that way?
Visual Prompts
What letter does the word start with?
Does it look right?
Meaning Prompts
Can you use the picture to help you figure out this word?
What is happening in the selection?

Independent Reading Place Shared Reading books that have already been read in baskets for children to choose as independent reading or in a Read-Along center.


Balanced Literacy Routines Grades K-2

Modeled Reading
The teacher reads to students from a variety of texts above children’s reading level but at their listening level. Modeled reading provides a model of fluent reading, builds on children’s listening comprehension, and develops vocabulary.

1. Prepare
Choose a read aloud story and pre-read selection.
Identify what background knowledge needs to be developed.
Highlight places to stop, ask questions, make predictions or model using strategies.
Write discussion questions for after reading the story.

2. Before Reading
Introduce the selection. Read the title of the story and the author and illustrator’s names. Review the genre.
Activate prior knowledge on the selection topic.
Set a purpose for reading.
Have children make predictions about the selection.


3. During Reading
Read the selection aloud with expression.
Stop periodically to ask questions and make/confirm predictions.
Stop to model reading skills and strategies through think-alouds. Think-alouds can also model problem-solving while reading.


4. After Reading
Discuss what children have learned to extend understanding and connect prior knowledge to new concepts.
Have children make connections to their experiences, other texts and the world.
Have children fill in Story Maps or Graphic Organizers to demonstrate their understanding of the story.

Balanced Literacy Routines: Grades K-2


Guided Reading

Guided Reading enables the teacher to work with a small
group of students to help them learn strategies for reading
with understanding. Each student holds a copy of the text that
the teacher has pre-selected. The teacher introduces the text,
supports readers while they read, engages readers in
discussions and performs a mini-lesson after the reading.





BEFORE READING

1. Provide a book to each child in your small group.
2. Opening Conversation
Read the front and back covers and point out the pictures
Have students make predictions about what they will read.
Have students browse through the book and revise or confirm their predictions.



Continue Guided Reading


DURING READING

3. Begin by reading the book together. Have students follow along. Point to the words as you read.
4. Have students take turns reading a few pages while the other students follow along silently.
5. Review these word-solving strategies as students read: saying the first sound to see if that helps, looking at the picture, breaking the word into smaller parts or skipping over the word and reading to the end of the sentence.
6. Help students confirm or revise their predictions as they read.
7. Note how students utilize the three cueing systems:

Semantics – Using their background knowledge to uncover meaning.
Syntactics – Understanding the structure of the language.
Graphophonic – Understanding the relationship between letters and sounds to make meaning of words.




AFTER READING

8. Afterwards, use your assessment to plan a strategy mini-lesson. This provides a quick review of skills or strategies students need help with.
9. Have students reread the text to build fluency and comprehension.

Independent Reading


Independent Reading provides students with the opportunity to choose their own text and read on their own. They may choose from a variety of reading materials, such as leveled texts, big books, song charts, children’s literature, student-made books or other appropriate selections.

Independent Reading allows students to build self-confidence and independence as a reader. It also gives them practice integrating the cueing systems into their reading as well as developing fluency. Independent Reading allows children to experience the joy and success of reading.