Afternoon session on balance in literacy in intermediate classrooms. Balancing curriculum needs and the needs of students. Practice with a think aloud.

1. Balanced Literacy in Intermediate
Classrooms, Grades 4-7
Burnaby
Oct 16, 2018
Faye Brownlie
Slideshare.net/fayebrownlie.burnaby.4-7

2. Ministry of Educa0on’s Defini0on of
Literacy
Literacy is the ability and willingness to make
meaning from text and express oneself in a
variety of modes and for a variety of purposes.
Literacy includes making connec0ons, analyzing
cri0cally, comprehending, crea0ng, and
communica0ng.
B.C. Ministry of EducaIon, 2017
2

3. Who are your learners?
• Class Review
• EPRA/DART – a performance based reading
assessment
• Strengths
• Stretches
• Search for paRerns to guide your teaching
• Respond to the informaIon you collect
• No plan, no point

5. Grade 4 Grade 5
+’s Can use a web
Can organize informaIon
Make simple connecIons
Foci Text Features – can’t use them
to extract informaIon
Strategies – need them
+’s Check for understanding but may
not use strategies
Can use note-making frame
Foci Note-making in own words
Strategies needed
Maid Ideas/Details
Text Features
Grade 6 Grade 7
+’s One or two strategies
Get gist – don’t misread
Some main ideas
Simple inferences
Make simple connecIons
Foci Need more strategies
Lack details and thoroughness in
note-making
Support inferences
Need to connect more widely
+’s One or two strategies
Get gist – check for
understanding
Main ideas
More thoughYul inferences
ConnecIons have impact on
understanding
Foci Evidence and detail in note-
making
Personal opinion, with
evidence

6. The Balance
• Whole class reading is thinking instrucIon
• Shared reading – modeling strategies and co-
creaIng meaning
• Small group/guided reading/readers’ workshop/
literature circles
• 1:1 conferences – oral reading, comprehension,
feedback
• Choice and independent pracIce
• Daily wriIng, oen connected to reading

7. Instruc0onal
Context
Text Choice/Level/
Purpose
Accessibility Who does the
work?
Read aloud A stretch.
Model model
model. Most kids
couldn’t read this
on their own.
Challenging. The teacher – and
moves to co-
construct
understanding with
the kids.
Shared reading Just beyond most
kids. Model and
guided pracIce.
Somewhat
challenging for
many.
Read together and
think together.
Small group
instrucIon/
conversaIon
Choice. Some just
right books. Guided
and some
independent
pracIce.
Matched to
individual student
choice.
The student reads
and thinks with side
by side and group
support.
Independent
reading
Wide range of
choice.
Independent
applicaIon.
With ‘producIve
effort’ and stamina,
level can vary.
The student,
reading with
purpose to
understand, learn,
entertain.
Inspired by Burkins & Yaris, co-founders of “ThinkTank for 21st Century Literacy” Blog:
burkinsandyaris.com Adapted by Brownlie for intermediate classrooms.

8. Instructional needs of struggling
readers (grades 3-9) – Lori Rog -
Struggling Readers
• Teaching
• Texts targeted toward their needs (and interests)
• More reading
• Explicit instrucIon and guided pracIce in
comprehension strategies
• Building vocabulary and fluency
• InformaIonal and funcIonal texts
• Using wriIng to make sense of reading

9. We CAN teach all our kids to read.
• Struggling readers need to read MORE than
non-struggling readers to close the gap.
• Struggling readers need to form a mental
model of what readers do when reading.
• Struggling readers need to read for meaning
and joy ☺
• Struggling readers do NOT need worksheets,
scripted programs, or more skills pracIce.

10. Do not be afraid to teach!!!

11. Daily ExpectaIons for All
… Do your students receive feedback from you
in each class?
…Have you an opportunity to listen to each
child read each day?
…Have you an opportunity to talk with each
child each day?

12. • Reading is understanding.
• Reading is always about making
sense.
• Reading has many forms and is
required across disciplines.

13. Think Aloud
• Teacher reads a sentence or 2 and thinks ‘aloud’ about
how she/he is construcIng meaning
• Students idenIfy the strategies the teacher has used
• Students are in reading pairs
• One student reads to his partner, and thinks ‘aloud’,
explaining how he is decoding and making sense
• Partner reflects back the strategies he noIces and
engages in dialogue about the content
• Repeat with opposite roles for students

14. Toilet Fact
• Have you ever watched toilet water as it flushes?
Which way does the water spin?
• Excerpt from What Happens Aer You Flush? –
ScholasIc, Moving Up in Literacy Place

15. • SomeImes the water goes down the toilet in a
clockwise direcIon and someImes it goes
down in a counter-clockwise direcIon. The
shape of the bowl and the angle of the water
flowing into the bowl determine which
direcIon the water flows from the bowl.

16. Toilet Fact
• Did you know that toilets are called many
different names? For example, there is the
throne, commode, john, loo and Ralph.

17. Toilet Fact
• Most toilets made today use only 6 litres of
water per flush. Toilets made before 1980 use
17-26 litres per flush.