Balanced Literacy
"A Balanced literacy program uses both whole language and phonics. The goal of a balanced literacy program is to include the strongest elements of each. There are five different components of a 'balanced literacy' program: The read aloud, guided reading, shared reading, independent reading, and Word study. In Reading Workshops, skills are directly taught to students during interactive read alouds. While the teacher reads the selection, s/he stops periodically to model the internal dialogue a good reader uses to help comprehend the work. For example the teacher might relate an event in the story to something that happened to him/her in real life (Schema/Text to self), make a connection to a similar event in another book (text/text), or a connection to the wider world (Text to world)." McGregor, T. Comprehension connections, bridges to strategic reading. Heinemann Educational Books, 2007
Fountas and Pinnel Book Levels & Lexile Levels
We level our books using the Fountas and Pinnell system (A-T) and Lexile levels. Click above Understanding My Child's Reading Level for more information.