Literacy Instruction

All things literacy!

msnatashatheodora Literacy Instruction

Zone of Proximal Development in Balanced Literacy

Welcome back to our balanced literacy series! Today the focus is on the zone of proximal development and using that within the gradual release model that balanced literacy follows. This post is meant to build a collective understanding of the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) and gradual release model so that you know what’s what when we get into later details of the framework. If you haven’t read the first two posts of the series, take a minute right now to read about the framework and the components.

Zone of Proximal Development

I can remember sitting in my Ed Psych course my freshman year of college and first hearing about Lev Vygotsky. At the time I was 18 and eager to be an educator but I wasn’t the best of students. Of course, I learned about ZPD back then but cast it off as irrelevant information as I jumped through hoops to earn my degree. Now, while everything I learned in college isn’t relevant in the classroom, Vygotsky is one of the most important people I learned about! So, in case you also cast aside important information let’s talk Vygotsky and ZPD.

Lev Vygotsky created an idea about learning towards the end of his life. He argued that when children learn, they first watch adults carefully before they act. As they do this, they slowly begin to take more and more on until they can complete the task independently without an adult. If you think about a child learning to walk this holds true. First, they observe adults walking. Young children have a sharp focus on new skills. Then they begin to slowly scoot around. Next, they pull themselves up and after many more steps (assisted by adults who love them), they are walking on their own. Children work within something referred to as their zone of proximal development (ZPD) to develop these skills. As children learn, concepts slowly shift from their unknown, through the ZPD, to their known. Learning follows a can’t do, can do with help, can do by myself pattern.

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the area in between known skills and unknown skills. That moment in time when learners can do something with help but can’t yet do it independently. This is the sweet spot we want to target as teachers. In a balanced literacy framework, we focus on this zone for most of our teaching.

If we take Vygotsky’s ZPD and combine the idea with the four stages of competence we see similar ideas. I like to pair these two theories together because I believe they go hand in hand and each one solidifies the other.

In the unknown, we have unconsciously incompetent. Students who fall here don’t know what they don’t know. They are unaware. They may be misinterpreting information. They may not see the value in what is being learned. They are unaware or unconsciously incompetent. In order for skills to shift into a child’s zone of proximal development, they must be aware of what they don’t know or consciously incompetent. Think about a child learning to write his name. At a young age, there is no real knowledge of a need to write your name. There is no knowledge about letters and there is no real desire.

The stage after unconsciously incompetent is consciously incompetent. You can see that this phase straddles both the unknown and the ZPD. Within this phase, students know that they don’t know or aren’t able to do something yet and they see the value of the skillset or knowledge. Here is where mistakes make a world of difference to the learning process. If students make mistakes within the first stage, it doesn’t matter because they are unaware of the skill or even the need for the skill. Once they become consciously incompetent their mistakes are helpful teaching moments on the path to becoming consciously competent. A child beginning to write their name might be trying to match their writing to an adult’s but can’t quite get the letters right. Mistakes are so valuable because their taking in what went wrong and trying to fix it.

The third phase is consciously competent. This sees students transitioning from the ZPD into the known. This is where students know or can do the skill but still must focus on it. They know all of the letters in their name perhaps but still have to write it very slowly in order to get it right. When they write they focus letter by letter or in small chunks. They aren’t yet to the point where they can write their name without thinking- that stage comes next.

The final stage is unconsciously competent and this exists entirely in the known portion. This stage is reached when skills and knowledge are automatic. The student does not even need to think about what they are doing it is just natural to them. Now kids get a piece of paper and put their name at the top without thinking.

What is the gradual release model?

Balanced literacy is based upon the gradual release of responsibility model. You’ll notice that this model is shaped by the work of Vygotsky. Students work left to right across the continuum quite similar to the previous images about the ZPD as teacher slowly release the responsibility of work from themselves to the student. You’ll notice there is a component of the balanced literacy framework for each step along the way. As teachers use a balanced literacy framework they begin teaching skills with high levels of support and slowly take away support as a skill transfers from the unknown, to the zone of proximal development, to mastery.

The highest level of support offered in a balanced literacy framework is I do, You watch. Here teachers are modeling skills and strategies they want to see their students take on. This exists in Read Aloud and Modeled Writing. In read aloud I preview skills that my students will need in the near future. I am showing them entirely on my own. After winter holiday we will transition into nonfiction reading. Right now in my read alouds, I am modeling the strategies I am going to want my students to use in the future. In modeled writing the teacher is doing all the thinking and working as well. This is the highest level of support.

The next tier of support is I do, You help. Here the teacher carefully masterminds (I’ve used this word before and I just feel like it fits this stage beautifully.) Here the teacher must be aware of all students in the class and each child’s ZPD. Shared reading and shared writing come into play here. This is where the teacher is still doing much of the heavy lifting but students are taking a turn at trying new ideas out with a high level of teacher support.

As we begin to lower our teacher support, the following phase is You do, I help. This is another phase where the teacher is masterminding the learning similar to the previous phase. Each child is still working within their ZPD but they are doing most of the heavy lifting while the teacher is there to guide. This is where we find interactive writing and guided reading. Here the teacher acts as more of a coach than a model.

The final stage is completely independent and, as you can see, a reverse of the first stage. This last phase is You do, I watch. Here we find independent reading and independent writing. The teacher isn’t doing the heavy lifting anymore and is barely supporting the child in the skills and strategies they have learned. Students here have mastery of the skills and strategies they were taught.

A word of warning! Just because one skill or strategy is mastered doesn’t mean that the teaching is done! These skills need reinforcement and there will be new skills and strategies to learn. The process literally goes back to the beginning and new learning takes place building off of the known. We’re going to talk more about the teacher role in the learning in the next section.

How do these two come together?

The balanced literacy framework uses the zone of proximal development as well as the gradual release of responsibility. I know the graphic above might seem like a bit much but I really love it to death. This lines right up with the gradual release model and all of the information above. Instead of showing the triangles of the gradual release model above it simply shows the teacher’s role.

When students are working in the unknown they are working with new information. Here the teacher’s role is to model skills and strategies for the student. As knowledge begins to shift from the unknown to the ZPD the teacher’s role shifts to explicit teaching. Concepts that are taught in a balanced literacy framework are not new. I’m going to repeat that! CONCEPTS, SKILLS, OR STRATEGIES THAT ARE TAUGHT IN A BALANCED LITERACY FRAMEWORK ARE NOT NEW TO STUDENTS. THE TEACHER HAS MODELED THEM SEVERAL TIMES PRIOR TO EXPLICIT TEACHING. Ok, sorry. I almost want to write it again in a bigger font because this is so important. A lot of times modeling is missing from teaching… ok just… I can’t help myself.

CONCEPTS, SKILLS, OR STRATEGIES THAT ARE TAUGHT IN A BALANCED LITERACY FRAMEWORK ARE NOT NEW TO STUDENTS. THE TEACHER HAS MODELED THEM SEVERAL TIMES PRIOR TO EXPLICIT TEACHING -Natasha Theodora

Alright, not sorry. We’ll talk about this a lot. My very first literacy coach said over and over “If you aren’t modeling, then you aren’t teaching.” So true. Anyways, back to explicit teaching. The concepts, skills or strategies you’re teaching aren’t new. The student has seen them before. They might have even begun to dabble in the work needed to take them on.

As students almost have these skills under control, your role as the teacher shifts from explicit teaching to prompting. For more information on prompting, PLEASE read this post about how we phrase our prompts. Here the skills and strategies we’re teaching should be almost under control. Maybe there are still some lapses from time to time but they are mostly under control with some corrections.

Finally, the skills and strategies transfer from the ZPD to the known. The role of a teacher shifts to reinforcement instead of prompting. Soon these skills become natural and students no longer even have to focus on them, they are just innate.

What’s Next?

First of all, tonight’s post was a lot of information. A lot of heavy-duty information. I would bookmark this post and come back to it from time to time throughout the series. I know that you are still just building your knowledge upon a limited understanding of the framework. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.

Each Tuesday a new post will appear giving you more insight into the life of a balanced literacy teacher! Next week our post will center around readers and writers workshop. The main focus will be the workshop format and what you need to have in place before beginning.

Use the comments section to ask any lingering questions or leave any comments so I can better help you on this journey to implementing a balanced literacy framework within your classroom.

You may also enjoy:

msnatashatheodora Literacy Instruction

Components of a Balanced Literacy Framework

There are many different components in a balanced literacy framework. Balanced literacy can seem like a complicated jigsaw puzzle where the pieces don’t always seem to fit together. After teaching in this framework for several years, I can assure you that the pieces all fit together and teaching using this method is extremely beneficial for students and teachers too! If you haven’t already read it, I would read an overview to balanced literacy prior to reading this post.

Maintaining the Balance

While there are many components to the framework each component will fall under a general category. These categories are reading, writing, word study, and read aloud. Listening and speaking skills are interwoven into all of the components. As you can see in the image above, reading and listening are both components where the child is taking in information. Writing and speaking are components where the child is putting out information. Read aloud and word study involve a balance of taking in and putting out. This is where the term balanced literacy comes from.

The Components

Here we go, we’re about to break down each of the components into slightly more manageable chunks. By the end, you should have a general picture of each piece of the puzzle. I find it beneficial to break down each component in the general sense before giving the details of each. Posts after this one will focus on the nitty-gritty of each piece. While getting to the nuts and bolts of each component, it will be helpful to come back to this post to see the big picture from time to time. Taking on a balanced literacy framework is also a balance between learning all the nuances of each component while keeping the big picture in mind. Don’t worry, I have faith that we can all get there together!

Interactive Read Aloud with Accountable Talk

Let’s start with something you probably already have going in your classroom- read aloud. It is instinctive for most teachers to read to children. Read aloud is truly the heart of my classroom and the foundation for my literacy program. Read aloud in a balanced literacy framework is more intentional than just reading a story. Here a teacher is modeling the moves a proficient reader makes by thinking aloud. A think aloud allows students to see inside the mind of a reader. Reading is thinking and students must be shown how readers think as they work through texts. Keep in mind, we’re not telling readers what to think but showing them how to think.

Now, notice how I snuck the word interactive in before the words read aloud? During an interactive read aloud, children do not simply sit back and enjoy the story they assist the teacher in working through the text as readers. Children will be engaged in a series of turn and talks to practice skills they know and skills that they will soon know with high levels of teacher support. Teachers will encourage students through prompting to think deeply and readerly about the texts they read together.

Now, don’t worry not every read aloud in a balanced literacy framework must be interactive. Of course, I still encourage you to read for reading sake. Each time I pick up a book in life it isn’t to learn something or try out a new skill I learned. Sometimes I read for pure enjoyment and the children in your class should too! I was at a reading conference where author Lester Laminack spoke. He was discussing read alouds and said wouldn’t you be annoyed if you went to the movie and just when the story got to a part where you couldn’t wait to see what was coming next, the lights suddenly came back on, a voice came over the speakers and said, “now, turn and talk to your neighbor! What do you think is coming next? Will these two fall in love? Is a wedding in their future? Think back on all you know!” You would be so annoyed! It is okay if every read aloud isn’t interactive, but, with all things balanced literacy, we need a balance.

Word Study

Word study also straddles both the input and output pieces of balanced literacy. In reading the focus is on learning how to decode words and solve those tricky parts to read fluently. In writing the focus is on learning how to decode words and solve the tricky parts to write fluently. Do you notice how these might go hand in hand? Word study is a combination of phonics, grammar, spelling, vocabulary and sometimes handwriting instruction. In order for a child to fluently read and write they need a solid foundation for how words work within the English language (assuming that you’re teaching balanced literacy in English).

Most often, people who are frustrated with balanced literacy, have a problem because they feel word study is not being included and given the proper dedicated time. In my experience, I have seen many “balanced literacy” programs leave out this component because it is a harder one to tackle. Word study is tricky but that doesn’t mean we just leave it out in the cold and ignore it. It would be detrimental to the child if this piece of the balanced literacy framework is left out. The key to a balanced literacy program is building skills in all the areas at the same time. We don’t leave any out. So if this is a frustration you have, please know, word study is an essential component of a balanced literacy framework.

Reading

Reading has many different pieces that fall under this umbrella of a word. Reading focuses primarily on input. The conversations we have around texts and the writing we do about our reading give us the output connection needed in a balanced literacy framework. None of the pieces work in isolation, they all work together.

Reader’s Workshop

Reader’s Workshop is dedicated time each day to focus on the skills and strategies readers use. The teacher begins reader’s workshop whole group at the gathering area. She starts with a 10-minute mini-lesson. This mini-lesson focuses on a skill or strategy that readers need in order to become proficient. After the magic words “off you go” students head off to work independently. During this independent time, the teacher meets with students 1:1 (conferring) or in small groups (guided reading or strategy groups). At the end of independent time, the students are called back to the gathering area and have a share. During share, teachers can highlight student work and students can share their success and ask for help with their struggles.

In the perfect school day, reader’s workshop would take about an hour. It would start with a 10-minute mini-lesson, go into 45 minutes of independent work time, and end with 5-minute share. Now, as teachers very few of us live in this idealistic world. In a post coming up in this series, we’ll talk all about scheduling. For now, let’s worry about getting the gist of each of the components.

Independent Reading

Independent reading takes place during the independent time of reader’s workshop… go figure! During this time readers choose their own just right books. They are working by themselves to practice the skills and strategies they know. While students are choosing their own text it is important that they are working within their independent reading level. There is limited teacher support (except for 1:1 conferring) during independent reading time. Students should be successfully practicing what they already know and continue the work of building strong reading habits.

Guided Reading

During the independent work time of reader’s workshop teachers can pull guided reading groups. Guided reading is a time where readers at the same level gather with a teacher to read. It focuses heavily on the “we do” portion of balanced literacy. The texts they read with the teacher are at their instructional level and are typically chosen by the teacher. All students in the group read the same text. The teacher works with the small group as well as each individual child to teach decoding and comprehension skills pertinent to their instructional reading level. At times some writing and word work will take place during a guided reading lesson.

Guided reading is NOT round robin or popcorn reading. There is no place for round robin or popcorn reading in balanced literacy. It just isn’t best practice anymore. Please click on the following links to read more about why round robin reading just isn’t used in 21st-century classrooms.

Reading Strategy Groups

During the independent work time of reader’s workshop, teachers can also pull strategy groups. Strategy groups might be comprised of students of many different levels who all need to work on the same strategy. In this group, students will all be reading different stories each at their level while working on the same strategy as the teacher provides a high level of support.

Shared Reading

Shared reading takes place at a time outside of the Reader’s Workshop. Typically shared reading will be whole group instruction. During this time students look with the teacher at an enlarged, shared text. The teacher works with the students on skills that have been taught or will be taught during reader’s workshop and have been modeled during read aloud. Students work on decoding skills, fluency, and concepts of print (directionality, 1:1 match, etc.) while lead by the teacher.

Writing

Similar to reading, writing is a broad category with many components listed underneath it. Writing primarily focuses on output in the form of stories being written or told. Writers also use conversations to take their writing to a higher level. Here they use both their output and input skills. Frequently writers will study master writers and use reading and mentor texts to help take on new skills as well. As you can see, in a balanced literacy framework no skills are learned in isolation but are all learned together in order to create a more literate life.

Writer’s Workshop

Writer’s workshop is dedicated time each day to focus on the skills and strategies writers use. Workshop follows a similar structure whether it is for reading or writing. The teacher begins writer’s workshop whole group at the gathering area. There she starts with a 10-minute mini-lesson. The mini-lesson focuses on a skill, strategy, or craft that writers need to take on. This is very targeted teaching (similar to reading) focused on the class’s zone of proximal development. After the magic words “off you go” students head off to work independently on writing. During this independent time, the teacher meets with students 1:1 (conferring) or in small strategy groups. Guided writing is used but primarily in grades 0 (kindergarten) and 1. At the end of independent time, the students are called back to the gathering area and have a share. During share, teachers can highlight student work and students can share their success and ask for help with their struggles.

Again, in the perfect school day, writer’s workshop would take about an hour. It would start with a 10-minute mini-lesson, go into 45 minutes of independent work time, and end with five-minute share. Now, as teachers very few of us live in this idealistic world. In a post coming up in this series, we’ll talk all about scheduling. For now, let’s worry about getting the gist of each of the components.

Independent Writing

Due to the nature of writing, students are each working at their own level each time they pick up a pencil. This means in one independent writing time some students might need to focus on using punctuation to create sentences while others are focused on breaking their writing into paragraphs. This is the beauty of a balanced literacy framework as well as the workshop model, all students are able to work at their own level while all working to achieve similar end goals. There is limited teacher support (except for 1:1 conferring) during independent work time. Students should be successfully practicing what they already know and continue the work of building strong reading habits. Independent writing time takes place within the writer’s workshop time.

Writing Strategy Groups

During the independent work time of writer’s workshop, teachers might pull strategy groups. Strategy groups can be comprised of students of many different levels who all need to work on the same strategy. In this group, students will all be writing different stories each at their level while working on the same strategy.

Guided Writing

Guided writing is on the very high level of support. Teachers will typically use this with lower writers in the early primary grades. More details will come on this later. As for now, just know it exists.

Shared Writing

Shared writing takes place at a time outside of the writer’s workshop. Typically shared writing will be whole group. During this time the teacher along with the students of the class compose a text together. This could be a letter to another class, a story that happened to the whole class, a list, a recipe and much much more. During this time the teacher masterminds the writing process pulling each child up to contribute to the writing in a way that matches what’s within that child’s zone of proximal development. Some writers might be called up at the end of the line to show where the next line should begin if they are having trouble with the return sweep. Some writers might be called up to write a lowercase r if that is something within their zone of proximal development. Some writers might be sent off the carpet to research or add-on independently of the class. During shared writing, all students’ needs are being met in an extremely responsive way.

The Big Picture

Now, I hope you aren’t too overwhelmed. It can be very easy to feel overwhelmed when learning about the whole big picture and how everything fits together. As you learn a bit more about each component life will start to feel a whole lot better.

What’s next?

Relax. Breathe in and breathe out. Shifting to a balanced literacy framework is a journey and it isn’t going to happen overnight. Remember this is just one post in a series. It isn’t important that you understand everything right now but instead that you are beginning to build your understanding. Just think, what is one idea I can try in my classroom tomorrow to shift into a balanced literacy model?

Each Tuesday a new post will appear giving you more insight into the life of a balanced literacy teacher! Next week our post will focus on the gradual release model and the zone of proximal development.

Use the comments section to ask any lingering questions or leave any comments with things I can do to better help you on this journey to implementing a balanced literacy framework within your classroom.

You may also enjoy:

msnatashatheodora Literacy Instruction

Balanced Literacy Framework

There are many different components of the balanced literacy framework. It can be frustrating and confusing to try to take all of these on. I have taught within a balanced literacy framework for 7 years now after being trained in Literacy Collaborative. So, let’s break it down!

This is just one in a series of many blog posts discussing balanced literacy. By the end of this post, you should have gained a very big picture view of the balanced literacy framework. Please ask all of the important questions you have in the comments. This way I can model responsive teaching and meet your needs! Posts will be added to the series every Tuesday. I hope to see you back for even more!

What does “balanced literacy” mean?

Our literacy lives are composed of inputting information and outputting information. Balanced literacy is a framework to allow students equal opportunities to input (read, listen) and output (write, speak). Giving students access to equal opportunities to read, write, listen, speak, etc. allows them to build these critical skills together. It gives them a full picture view as to how the input and output work together. Readers are writers and writers are readers. Listeners are speakers and speakers are listeners. This balance is not something that only pops up once in a while but is a connection made several times a day. The work being done isn’t in isolation so the connections are made in the moment- showing students the full picture of a literate life.

When teaching a balanced literacy framework the teacher to student work ratio is also balanced. Teachers balance out the I do, we do, you do parts of the framework throughout the day. The gradual release model is used to slowly transfer responsibility of skills and strategies from the teacher to the student. The release model allows students to take things on and show pride in their independence.

Keys to Balanced Literacy

There are many important factors of using a balanced literacy framework to teach. These key components will appear regularly throughout this balanced literacy series.

Input=Output

Each and every day there should be a balance between the input and the output work done by students. They should have opportunities to engage in conversations both as a listener and a speaker. Students should have time to read and to write on their own and with teacher help. Students should see their teacher demonstrating these habits throughout their day.

Independence is the goal

The balanced literacy framework operates on the gradual release model. To teach skills, teachers begin with the highest level of support and show students what to do, we call this modeling. Teachers then gradually release support to the students as the students become more capable. Students end their journey able to complete skills independently. Independence is the goal of balanced literacy. We want our students to be able to transfer all of their knowledge to new situations and new contexts without teacher support. In the end, we aren’t teaching a specific book or teaching to a specific writing assignment; we are teaching transferable skills that have longevity.

Responsive Teaching

Teachers who teach using the balanced literacy framework and the gradual release model are responsive to student need. Each lesson is taught with the students’ zones of proximal development in mind. Teachers notice what skills students are taking on, what skills they might be ready for, and which ones they won’t be able to take on yet. Teaching is targeted to the skills students are ready to take on while offering support to the skills that students are already independent in and setting them to take on what they aren’t yet able to.

Choice

Student choice is so important in school and it is especially important to a balanced literacy framework. Students need choice within what they read and write. The framework works to personalize learning and give students choices in what they read and write.

Modeling

Teachers must model what they expect from their students. Modeling is so so so important in the balanced literacy classroom. Modeling must be planned out and intentionally done. When working with a gradual release model students should see things modeled many times before they are expected to take it on themselves. My first literacy coach, Jessica Pelka, always said, “if you aren’t modeling then you aren’t teaching.” If we don’t show our readers and writers what we expect from them, how will they ever know if they get there?

Components of Balanced Literacy

There are many different components of a balanced literacy framework. This is where teachers get overwhelmed. There is no way you can take it on all at once. Let me say that again, there is NO WAY you can take it all on at once. I’m just going to list the various parts here. Read them, soak it in and more details will be coming soon about each area.

Read Aloud
Reader’s Workshop
Writer’s Workshop
Shared Reading
Shared Writing
Read Aloud
Word Study
Accountable Talk

What’s next in this series?

Each Tuesday a new post will be added to the series. Use the comments section to ask any lingering questions or leave any comments with things I can do to better help you on this journey to implementing a balanced literacy framework within your classroom. This series is intended to give teachers a simple, yet well thought out guide to teaching a balanced literacy framework. The next post will be all about the components of a balanced literacy framework in the big picture sense.

If this post was helpful to you on your journey to teaching within a balanced literacy framework please take a moment to share this with your teacher friends! I have also created a handout that you can CLICK HERE to download!

You may also enjoy:

msnatashatheodora Literacy Instruction

Changing Our Thinking: Prompting Kids with “You Know This!”

There are many practices from long ago that we need to rethink as teachers. This series looks to bring up those practices and offer alternate ideas that are more relevant in today’s classroom. Today we’re discussing using the prompt, “you know this” when a child gets stuck.

Why Do We Prompt?

We give kids several prompts in a day. I would say most of the prompts I give students throughout the day are not academic prompts. Most of my prompts are for shoelaces that are untied, pencils that are on the floor, or behaviors that need to be changed. When we prompt students we want them to recall a very specific set of information and change something. When I say, “step out of line and tie your shoe” to a child he or she knows what to do. It helps him to recall a system of steps to go through in situations like the one he is in. Eventually, I would want to see him look down and step out of line to tie his shoe all by himself. We prompt kids to help them remember and help them create an internal dialogue for situations they might encounter in future. The goal is always independence.

Teach, Prompt, Reinforce

Many times teachers begin prompts with the phrase “remember…” This assumes that students have already been taught the prompt. Before I can expect a student to step out of line and tie his shoe I have to show him what I mean. It might seem simple but we must explicitly teach what we mean by a prompt before it can be used by a student. During the first week of school when a child’s shoes are untied, I prompt them and show them what to do. After they catch on I can simply prompt. After a while, my words become the voice in their head. Now, when they notice a shoe is untied they simply step out of line and tie it. First I teach the prompt, then I can prompt, then I reinforce if needed. I do, we do, you do.

Using “You Know This”

If we prompt a child by saying, “come on, you know this” or “we just did this yesterday” or even “think back and remember” when they don’t know we aren’t helping them recall any information. All we are telling them is that they should know. Guess what, if they knew they would do it. If they remembered from yesterday you wouldn’t need to give the prompt today. They would just do it. This prompt doesn’t help them it only frustrates them and it frustrates you. When we prompt with our classroom we want it to guide students to the right choice and help create an internal dialogue for them.

Do This Instead

Instead of prompting with you know this, go through the steps: teach, prompt, reinforce. If a student gets stuck on a word, saying “we read that word yesterday” isn’t helpful. Instead, try this:

Teach:

The first few times teach the child the prompt. I have just selected a simple prompt and a simple situation to see what it might look like.

When I see a word I don’t know I look at the first letter and get my mouth ready to say the sound. I notice this word starts with a d. I know a d makes the sound d. Here I told the child the situation they might find themselves in- I see a word I don’t know. I next told them what to do- I look at the first letter and get my mouth ready to say the sound. Then I showed them what I meant and said the d sound. Prompts need to be short and they need to be direct. First name the situation then tell what to do.

Prompt:

Once you have gone through the teach a few times, prompt the child to have them go through the steps on their own. “When you see a word you don’t know, look at the first letter and get your mouth ready to say the sound.” This reminds the child of what they can do at an unknown word and sets them up for success. This prompts should also have the child recall all the times that you showed him how to do this as a reader. Again the prompt is short it names the situation and it tells what to do. Soon this prompt will become the voice inside their head when they approach an unknown word.

Reinforce:

After a while, the student won’t need this prompt anymore. Your prompting voice will now be the internal voice inside guiding them in this situation. They should now be able to notice what situation they are in and recall what to do. Every once in a while you will need to go back and reinforce their knowledge but they should be able to do it on their own the majority of the time. Independence is always the goal.

Changing Our Thinking

I hope this small shift in thinking is helpful in your classroom tomorrow. Try it out. Just select a certain situation it doesn’t even have to be academic and try out the teach, prompt, reinforce method.

Leave a comment below about your shift in thinking, any questions you might have, and how this is working for you within the classroom.

You may also enjoy:

msnatashatheodora Literacy Instruction

New Series Announcement!

Hello, loyal blog followers!

I am announcing a new series on the blog that I have been working on for a while now. I have taught in a balanced literacy classroom for the last 7 years. This year I am working with the principal of my school and the teachers to slowly shift into a balanced literacy framework. I am creating a blog series breaking down the various components and “how to” of balanced literacy and the workshop model. I want to invite you along on this journey!

Each and every Tuesday (starting November 28th) there will be a new post regarding balanced literacy. Hopefully, this will be beneficial if you are new to the framework or if you have been doing it for years! Let me know what you would like to learn more about in regards to literacy instruction.

With Love,