School District of Springfield Township

A SNAPSHOT OF GRADE 1 LANGUAGE ARTS:

Preparing students for grade 2 benchmark expectations

The Language Arts Standards in Action: Balanced Literacy
Balanced Literacy Framework
Reading Components
Developing Speaking and Listening Skills
Frequently Asked Questions?

(A Pennsylvania State Standards-Based Curriculum)

A Snapshot of Grade 1 Language Arts

What goes on in the Grade 1 classroom?

The Language Arts Standards in Action: Balanced Literacy

The “WHAT?”--What is Balanced Literacy?

Research tells us that writing, encoding, and reading, decoding, are two sides of the same coin—growth in one supports growth in another. As a matter of fact, the same can be said for the relationships among reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

A balanced literacy framework offers a structure for “balancing” reading and writing modes of instruction and learning so that each supports and strengthens the other. A balanced approach provides a daily variety of stimulating experiences in a social and supportive environment. In large group, small groups, “buddies,” and by themselves, students see skills modeled, experience skill building in a shared scaffold, practice skills in a guided scaffold, and work independently. The components of a Balanced Literacy classroom include portions of the Language Arts block devoted to: reading aloud, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, modeled writing, guided writing, independent writing, and word work (focused building of vocabulary, letters, letter forms, spelling, grammar).

Balanced Literacy Framework

Language Arts Standards

Reading Writing Speaking/Listening

Grammar/Usage/Conventions Research

Read Aloud T Modeled Writing Shared Reading E Guided Writing Leveled Guided Reading C Independent Writing Independent Reading H N O L O G Y

Word Work

The “HOW?” What does it look like?

Picture any first grade classroom at Enfield or Erdenheim. Spread throughout are small clusters of students and some independent workers; only one group is working with the teacher. The students not working with the teacher are working purposefully, managing their own learning. A few silently read a self-selected book, respond in their reading journals and then share the response with a buddy. Two are whisper reading; two others are pair reading. Some are working independently or with a partner in a literacy center. Everyone seems to know the routine and the rules; murmuring and conferring, focused on their learning, each child moves from activity to activity on an invisible schedule. Like the workings of a well-made clock, these activities and the schedule have been planned and meshed carefully. All of the classroom’s structure and its activities are designed to move each child from a level of high support, to moderate, to low, to little or no support in order to foster independence: self-reliance, self-monitoring.

There are several key elements that make this classroom work:

A Work Board manages the schedule of daily activities; using icons and the children’s names, the Work Board provides the structure and the organization for the classroom activities.

Literacy Centers (Integration of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, research) dot the room. These centers provide opportunities for practicing, enriching, manipulating, role-playing, interacting, extending, refining, sharing, responding, and exploring. Examples include: listening center, poetry center, making words center (play dough, magnets), browsing boxes, interactive computer programs, writing center, etc.

Word Wall—130 most frequently used words for reading

READING COMPONENTS

Reading Aloud—Teacher reads to the children from a diverse and carefully selected body of children’s literature above the level that children would be able to read. This activity serves several purposes: introduces quality literature, models fluent and expressive reading, develops listening skills, expands access to literature beyond children’s abilities.

Shared Reading—Teacher facilitates reading with the whole class and small groups, most often using the anthology in large text format that all children can see and at the instructional level of most students. The benefits include: providing the Language Arts Standards-driven scope and sequence, demonstrating reading strategies, and providing risk free opportunities for all to participate and behave as readers.

Guided Reading—Teacher works with flexible small groups having similar reading needs and abilities, while other children work on independent literacy activities/centers. This portion of balanced literacy provides: a bridge between Shared and Independent Reading, opportunity for children to read a large number of various leveled text/trade books, flexibility for children to move ahead as quickly as possible, and allows for authentic assessment and further planning for instruction based on this assessment. The school’s “Guided Reading Library” contains multiple copies of leveled books that provide children with a rich experience of books at their instructional reading levels.

Independent Reading—Children read by themselves at their independent reading level. Teacher provides support with mini-lessons. This portion provides time for sustained reading behavior, promotes fluency through reading, challenges readers to use strategies on a variety of texts, provides time for teacher/student reading conferences, and includes the use of reading response logs.

Word Work—focused attention to phonics, spelling and grammar.

How is reading progress assessed?

Running records offer regular assessment of skill acquisition and growth; they provide information with which teacher changes grouping and changes individual guided reading level.

Theme tests provide periodic information about skill acquisition

WRITING COMPONENTS Modeled Writing—Students watch and listen as the teacher thinks, talks, and writes. The teacher models good writing. Through mini-lessons the teacher instructs correct grammar, usage, and conventions; exposes children to a variety of writing styles, modes, and purposes; demonstrates and encourages the use of graphic organizers; and models good handwriting. Shared and Interactive Writing—Teacher and students collaborate on a piece of writing. The teacher acts as the scribe and uses a “shared pen” technique that involves the students. This approach enables learners’ ideas to be recorded, demonstrates the concepts of print and how works work, expands writing beyond a child’s individual ability, helps learners learn the “building up” and “breaking down” processes of reading and writing, increases spelling knowledge and understanding the need for standard spelling. Guided Writing (also called Writers’ Workshop)—Students engage in writing a variety of texts with the teacher’s guidance. Lessons on processes and

conventions of writing are provided through mini-lessons. The teacher conferences with students about their writings.

Independent Writing—Students write “on their own.” Written pieces may include stories, poems, journal entries, lists, etc. This manner of writing is often incorporated in literacy centers.

How is writing progress assessed?

Assessment is based on the Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Domain Scoring Guide

and assesses Focus, Organization, Content, Style, and Conventions

Our Checklist for Good Writing _____Did I use good handwriting? _____Did I use capital letters? _____Did I use punctuation? _____Did I spell the word wall words correctly? _____Did I reread my sentences to be sure that they made sense? _____Did I use interesting ideas with different kinds of sentences? _____Does my illustration match my writing?

Embedded in the first grade checklist which teachers use with their students are key

skills: Handwriting (spacing, lower case, upper case) Conventions

--Spelling (high frequency, sounds, possessives, contractions, -s to naming words) --Capitalization (beginning of sentence, people’s names, places, things) --Punctuation (correct end marks, comma in dates)

Sentence Structure/Variety Person/object; what person/object does Naming part; action part Telling sentence; asking sentence; exclamations Complete sentences

Word choice Multiple meaning words Sensory words Synonyms Voice Exact words

Grammar Naming words—people, animals, things, places, special naming words Proper nouns for places, things Pronouns (he, she, it, they) Action words Present tense Is/are; was/were Possessive pronouns Describing words—color, size, shape, taste, feel, smell

I or me

Some things we do…to learn and practice:

Kid-writing (stories, journals), clipboard interviews (“Do you like the color ‘red’?” “Do you eat pumpkin pie?”), rhyming games (Bingo); write on individual white boards with markers and erasers, make “little books,” listen to books on tape and write responses, use Wickki stix to make letters, rhyme with word families, use the computer…

Developing Speaking and Listening Skills

Within the Balanced Literacy framework are opportunities designed for students to acquire, practice, and build skills:

Listen and respond to literature Identify main characters and the setting in a story Identify the problem in a story Tell how problem is solved Retell story in logical order Identify beginning, middle, end Use clues to determine fiction vs. non-fiction

Focus and attend during group discussions Communicate meaningfully in everyday conversation

Shared reading (i.e., Morning Message) with teacher, classmates Guided reading with teacher, classmates Writing Workshop Plays Literacy Centers (partners, small groups, independently) Author’s Chair

?Questions Most Frequently Asked?

Exactly how does Balanced Literacy connect to the LA Standards?

Our Language Arts Standards give us the standards for content and skill—what we want students to know and to be able to do by the end of the K-2 grade band. We know that early literacy is the result of a planned, systematic, integrated language arts curriculum framework that implements the Language Arts Standards. Balanced Literacy provides this framework.

What about phonics?

Our program includes phonics instruction because phonics is one tool in a toolbox of strategies; successful readers must have sound-letter knowledge in order to read. Phonics is taught through mini-lessons as part of shared reading and shared writing. However, reading should focus on high quality literature (fiction, nonfiction, letters, maps, charts, computer programs, etc.) so that students develop comprehension skills as well as decoding skills---children learn by reading, not by completing practice exercises and skill sheets.

What can parents do to help?

Read to and with your child as often as possible.
Listen to your child read to you. Ask questions about the story and the characters. Ask your child “What if?” questions about the events.
Begin a habit of visiting the local library.
Expose your child to environmental print: signs, directions, advertisements, menus, etc. Read and point out the letters, punctuation, and smaller words inside of larger ones.
Build your child’s background knowledge by visiting places of interest and by talking about destinations and the trip during car rides; take a train ride; go to the zoo.

Acknowledgment: “Guided Reading in a Balanced Literacy Program,” a notebook created for the professional development of SDST K-2 teachers, is the work of Joyce Huff and was invaluable to this snapshot for its description of balanced literacy components.