Balanced Reading Program

Balanced Reading Program

1. Guided Reading

   • Time & Structure: Guided reading ideally takes place during a language block. With guided reading, students have the chance to gain far more independence than before. They work in small groups, rotating with the chance to experience new things as well as express their ideas. Students will also have the chance to speak to teachers and develop their strategies both during the reading and later during group discussions.
   • Classroom Atmosphere: The classroom atmosphere is peaceful yet buzzing with student engagement. Student are reading aloud, to themselves, the teacher or silently. Overall, it's calm enough to read, yet energized enough to be full of engagement.
   • Physical Space: The space is large and students are spread out in small groups. The teacher rotates amongst groups, assess them and engages them. The class has posters and charts in order to aid students with their reading and assessments.
   • Professional Materials: The teacher will have a copies of the books the students are reading and document the progress made. They can also use materials to help students as they read and answer questions in order to better support them.
   • Student Materials: Students will receive books with which to follow the teacher's reading while in a group (or several smaller groups). The books are carefully chosen to be of their level.

2. Shared Reading

   • Student Material: This type of reading is similar to the read-aloud, where students are not required to use any materials. All they need is to bring their engagement and attention.
   • Professional Material: Similar to the read-aloud, the teacher should gather various books of different genres and reading levels. This time around, it would also be good to have something to enlarge text (large paper/SmartBoard) and a finger pointer with which to allow students to read and point out specific words.
   • Physical Space: The physical space will be large enough for students to sit near one another with an open space near the teacher so that students may come to a piece of paper, board, or the book itself and point things out. Charts and posters are also visible.
   • Classroom Atmosphere: The classroom atmosphere is calm and collected during the reading. It becomes energizes and engaging as students answer questions and point things out to the teacher and their peers.
   • Time & Structure: Shared reading ideally takes place first thing in the morning to inspire the normality of literature in everyday life. It also ideally takes place during a language block. The structure begins with a teacher reading and the students following along. Students then answer questions and point things out before their teacher and peers. The questions can include subjects of comprehension, structure and/or word meaning/pronunciation.

3. Read Aloud

   • Physical Space: The physical space should be large enough for students to sit near one another without overlapping. It should also feature anchor charts and posters to help students during teacher assessment of student comprehension. (Charts/Posters featuring information about sequencing; "First, Next, Then, Last" and "The Fives"; "Characters, Settings, Problems, Solutions, Personal Connections" should be displayed in plain site.
   • Professional Materials: A teacher should have a book to read for the read aloud. The books can appeal to a "classroom theme", range in genre and/or in reading level, allowing students to gain access to literature they may otherwise be unable to read.
   • Student Materials: Students aren't required to bring anything for this activity.
   • Classroom Atmosphere: The classroom atmosphere should be one of peace and calmness as the reading takes place. As questions are posed and answered, the atmosphere should shift to one of acceptance and vocal engagement.
   • Time & Structure: The time and structure should be, during the morning, preferably first block, and in the classroom, so that students may fall into routine and feel comfortable as well as get used to the idea of starting the day with literacy as a natural order of things. The read aloud begins with the teacher reading and the students predicting while remaining engaged. It ends with the teacher asking comprehension and structure based questions in order to assess students.

4. Independent Reading

   • Student Material: Students will have books appropriate to their reading levels and access to several tools (anchor charts/posters) in the classroom as they individually read. Fluent readers can be given several roles and papers with instructions as to how to play those roles (Example: Questioner).
   • Professional Material: The teacher will have access to the same reading materials as the students in order to properly assess them. They will also have documentation regarding the assessment of students.
   • Physical Space: The space will be composed of several station, spread out, meant for small groups to read individually. In this stations, there will be different goals and ways with which students can interact with each other and the text. The teacher will also be seen at these stations, evaluating each group. Charts and posters will also remain visible for students to reference as they review their texts on their own,
   • Classroom Atmosphere: The classroom atmosphere will be one of calm and silence as students read at their stations. Once the reading portion comes to an end, students will be discussing their reading with one another, possibly with roles assigned, thus creating an atmosphere of open dialogue and acceptance of opinions without judgement.
   • Time & Structure: The time for independent reading through rotating stations would ideally take place during the language block, however, individual reading can take place as a reward for those who have done well with an activity or finished their work/snacks early. The structure for independent reading with rotating stations is one of reading , followed by discussion and, if the teacher is present, assessment of independent reading skills (this includes skills regarding comprehension and sequencing as well as basic cues). Structure for students who are not yet fluent can include a teacher offering word solving strategies and other such skills while in groups before or after they read.