Balanced Literacy?

In many schools or districts, it is a glorified form of whole language. The term was coined by the whole language movement when their instructional concepts were leaving >30% of students at some level of illiteracy. (Interesting how phonics proponents always known to balance their instruction without it needing a name.)

So, bottom line: find out what kind of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction (moving indidividual sounds of language without writing/print) your school uses. If they say, “a little of this…eclectic…a little of that,” they don’t know what they use and probably just use someone’s basal.

Special Education and Title I reading teachers should have more training using a multi-sensory phonics approach (Visual-Auditory-Tactile-Kinesthetic techniques).

In the end, though, the Board of Education for a school district makes the final decision about what curriculum will be taught. Teachers have more say than parents, but the buck stops at the board level. Legally, parents do not have a say about methods and curriculum.

don’t write nasty emails about this comment

my interpretation of balanced literacy….

“let’s throw everything at the kids and hope to god something sticks!”

balanced literacy removes the school from having to make a decision about what is right and what is wrong with literacy instruction

if the school had some kind of opinion about literacy instruction, it would pick one way to teach, but like most schools, they have little idea what reading is so hence they say they are using a “balanced approach’ cuz it sounds good,

a good school would do some research, compare methods and ideas and PICK something instead of passing the buck and saying something like

all kids do not learn the same, yada yada yada,

translation,

we do not know what the h….. we are doing

why else would i get a call from a parent of a 12 yo in my area’s school district, telling me, they tried for 5 yrs and he still reads on a 1st grade level

my district uses “balanced literacy”

libby

It is justifiably frustrating when bright children dwell in the remedial reading program for years without solid achievement. Yes, it does say that something is very wrong with the reading program at that school. Can we conclude that the term “balanced literacy” is to blame, however. No, I don’t believe that logical step is warranted. Other districts, such as the one in which I work, use the term and really have excellent phonics and phonemic awareness components in their elementary reading curriculum. They require teachers to be trained and to use the P.A. and phonics methods. (No small task, I might assure you. Teachers fight against using something they don’t wish to use—quietly and passively behind the closed doors of their classrooms. Some, also, cannot really provide good phonics instruction due to their own auditory weaknesses. See next paragraph.)

No matter what “name” we put on something, it can still fail if teachers don’t use good instructional practices. There are many examples of parents having bad experiences with a certain method or technique and others with similar students having success with it. The method may be sound but the people doing it may have difficulty delivering. (For example: I know several special reading and special education teachers that cannot *hear* the individual sounds in words—cannot segment or blend. How, then, can they be successful teaching it? Simply, they cannot. Many, many children’s word recognition ability has been hurt by poor phonics instruction.)

I have come to believe the theory that reading is a sequential process (just like math). The steps are:

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Letter and then Word Recognition through phonics and a very limited (50-75 or so) sight word vocabulary.
3. Fluency—reading rate and accuracy
4. Comprehension of words, sentences, and passages.

To leave out any of these elements removes the balance from the program. The instructional needs within these four steps, however, are different—both within and between categories: Developmental, Corrective, and Remedial.

The term “balanced literacy” allowed a group of national reading people to save face. They bought into something called whole language and followed some gurus who did not base their ideas on teaching all learners. (We just cannot leave 30-40% of our readers in the dust!) Unfortunately, it was applied across the board in many universities for teacher education. Teachers followed their university leaders and swung the pendulum wildly in the whole language direction to the exclusion of phonics. Drill & kill (the reading enthusiasm) they called it when I began advocating multisensory phonics in the late 80’s and early 90’s. What I saw were phonics worksheets. (Overuse of worksheets was the killer in my opinion. Sound, direct instruction is the answer.)

My child failed to learn to read in public education because of these practices—including poor phonics and assignment to “Worksheet Queens.” I worked very hard to change district practices and became a teacher myself. I have been in a place similar to where you are: extremely frustrated with my child’s lack of progress.

Sorry this is so long.

There’s an article by Louisa Moats called “whole language lives on” at http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/whole_language_lives_on.html.
(Cut & paste that - or click on “ld in depth” at the top of this page then “reading,” and then scroll down to “whole language lives on”

However, don’t *assume* that just ‘cause some folks have copped the phrase as their new euphemism in doublespeak, that everybody who uses the term is doing so in the same way. I’d find out, though!

Have you read “Speech to Print” by Moats? It is so good. I’ve learned much from that woman. I have another Jeanne Chall student as a mentor, too. I’ve been lucky to find some good folks to teach me how to think about reading and evidence and drawing conclusions. (None of this in my preservice education and not much in my M.Ed. either! Maybe my standards are too high…I’ve been accused of that.)

Susan Long wrote:
> What I
> saw were phonics worksheets. (Overuse of worksheets was the
> killer in my opinion. Sound, direct instruction is the
> answer.)
>
> My child failed to learn to read in public education because
> of these practices—including poor phonics and assignment to
> “Worksheet Queens.”

This is exactly what was happening with my son. The teacher did use “explode the code” which is principle should help my son (at least to some extend) but not when she was assigning him mostly worksheet. He just “copy and paste” form one page to another without really mastering anything- not even understanding much. You cannot really teach reading without reading…. His fluency was virtually none… beyond a few “sight words” he saw over and over in the children’s books we read at home…

I, too, have seen some good programs exploited by teachers who give limited to no verbal instruction or feedback and receive nothing but written worksheets. You are so correct that to teach reading, a teacher must actually listen to students read.

What have you done about this problem?

Susan,

as somebody on this BB said once: it is easier to move the mountain than to change a teacher (and my son school had only one special ed teacher) we finally succeeded in placing him in a private LD school (yes with two hours commute each day).

In a meantime I had learned whatever I could to help him (and being foreign it was not really what I had ever wished for), than I found a tutor that I felt knew how to help him (she did help him tremendously, but logistically it was not possible to continue beyond the summer two years ago, but it gave him a great start), we got finally 1:1 at school using Wilson (which ment he at least did not regress during the school year an deven amde some progress) and finally now it is the school (which I hope will help him).

I should say it is helping him already - he definitively it reading much more at school that he had ever done before (but still he will not look for a book to read….he reads however magazines- so at least he is using his reading skills to some extend beyond school), but my son has multiple deficits - when I read about the Dysphoneidetic (Mixed) Dyslexia- that is really him plus the RAN deficit and the overwhelming ADD….

Yes, I am a fan of Luisa Moats!!! I ordered Speech to Print when I read your message.

On another matter, I know that this is the reading board, but do you have books that are a “must” for Math teachers? You seem to know a lot of books, Susan. Thanks!

I like anything by Marilyn Burns, but she’s been around long time and math instruction isn’t in the throws of change like reading seems to be. The sequence of instruction for math is pretty well set at the elementary level, anyway.

There is another doc out of Columbia University that I heard at a national LDA conference in Atlanta a few years back. Kate something if my memory serves me (doubtful many days). She was awesome and I’ve been meaning to dig around and see what she’s published of late. Maybe someone else will know the name.

As I posted on another thread or BB, my 18-year-old son finally read a book just purely for himself: an adult level novel called “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo. Not for a book report. Not for school. Not because I said to read. Just for himself. I was thrilled but didn’t make too much out of it in the hopes that another few pages would turn in the coming days. In the hopes that he would finally see himself as a reader. I know how the salmon feel…

Check out LD In Depth for an article or two by her. (Also the outstanding inclusion article)
Math is, unfortunately, also a battlefield… just check out the “Mathematically correct” website. It’s a familiar-sounding conflict between “get hte basics” and “go straight to the meaning.”
Marilyn Burns is wonderful, but sometimes just too language-intensive and I have to modify for kids who don’t like to think in words. Peggy Kaye has great math games (though often highly verbal — but this is *great* for good verbal thinkers who just haven’t made that connection in math.)
But for math and LD issues — I have to go across the pond and read Chinn & AShcroft (Dyslexia & Mathematics Handbook for Teaching) and Miles & Miles, ed. Mathematics and Dyslexia.
Landmark school has published their program (and I keep hoping that New Community will do the same for older kiddos).
And of course, there’s a bunch of stuff on my site about math. (www.resourceroom.net) — and I went to a *great* session on making secondary content areas (including algebra) “click” with rhythm and multisensory teaching last week.

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Susan: Like Victoria, you should NEVER apologize for going on ‘too long’ — I for one wait for your every word!
Thanks for another great post…
Elizabeth

Susan Long wrote:
>
> As I posted on another thread or BB, my 18-year-old son
> finally read a book just purely for himself: an adult level
> novel called “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo.

thanks- I am hoping….

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