Balanced Literacy

Ensuring relevancy for teachers in professional development is but one of the variables that determines whether or not our plan has the impetus to be implemented with fidelity in the classroom. Our professional learning program for teachers provides numerous avenues in which to deliver content to teachers in a way that we know will impact instruction in a positive manner. Where a personalized approach puts teachers in the drivers seat when it comes to charting a path forward, that is but one means in our delivery model. Indeed it is also important to create a paradigm of consistency, teamwork, and dare I say standardization in some of our approaches? You are correct, I stated on October 31st that 'Abandoning a system that relies on a standardized approach requires a paradigm shift'. I'll stand by that statement, but offer up the caveat that at the same time we all need to be rowing the boat in the same direction. That means having an understanding of what the district is trying to accomplish collectively and working together and smarter to achieve that goal. For us that goal is pretty simple: improve student outcomes when it comes to reading proficiency. Getting the results we aspire to achieve however is a totally different story!

A balanced literacy initiative is one of the primary ways we can do this. We know that dedicating a large portion of our instructional day to literacy instruction isn't enough. Its what is done with those instructional minutes that count the most. That is where our balanced literacy framework is helpful. This includes ensuring the five core elements of reading are part of our daily instructional practice: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. A comprehensive literacy program includes standards encompassing reading, writing, listening, speaking, and foundation skills (Gambell & Morrow, Best Practices in Literacy Instruction). The key here is the realization that we don't teach [one], reading for example; without making a connection to [another], writing for example. In fact, the literacy program should be balanced among those strands.

Take a moment to view the graphic depicted here. Notice that within the large center circle, which is the [all encompassing] topic of literacy instruction, it is divided into separate areas of emphasis. The largest (green) being reading instruction, where the instruction may look different depending on the needs of the students. The next largest subset of literacy instruction is writing (blue), and again the instruction may look different dependent on the needs of the class that day. The final slice of the framework is word study (red), which includes such topics as phonics and word structures. As you can see from this graphic, implementing a balanced literacy framework takes quite a commitment of instructional time for our teachers. Further, it requires an immense amount of teamwork and collaboration, because not one teacher can do all this alone. The collaboration is critically important for a number of reasons, but you may recall a discussion about ensuring a guaranteed and viable curriculum. In a nutshell, this is every student, every day, can expect to receive the same content. 

This segment of our professional development then, is designed to manage the implementation of this framework within our system. Indeed, this is a very complex change in instructional design for our educators that began over a year ago. In addition to designing instruction that identifies and meets both major and minor literacy standards the 'in district' professional development includes delivery via workshop model that includes coaching support from our literacy coach Mrs. Kiewiet, and support from Mrs. Blohm at the AEA. Further, these experts conduct literacy walk through observations where they are able to determine to what extent key instructional practices are being implemented with fidelity and what are teachers' most pressing needs and supports are.

What has been most impressive for me from my view in the balcony is seeing truly transformational instructional practice in our classrooms. For certain this can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of our teacher leaders who have steered this work, and to the teacher in the classrooms that have embraced these practices.