Why Is It Important To A Balanced Literacy Classroom?

Talking about texts as the learners read has shown to make reading more meaningful for learners as they read. As educators we try to make introduce our learners to all genres of text and encourage them to read. What good is all of this if educators don not find ways to make their reading more meaningful. This can be done by modeling good reading habits. Educators can ask our learners questions that require them to dig deeper into the text. Finally, by providing them with different activities that allow them to ask and answer questions about text allows the learners to take control of their learning and sharing about a text they are reading. When learners are given opportunities to choose the book they are reading and choose the best approach

Learners today need to begin to use their receptive and expressive language skills to engage in meaningful text talks. Teachers can use these text talks to assess learners and create lessons that will help the learners grow and dig deeper into literacy. When text talks are used in classrooms today, learners ask questions, share their thoughts and ideas, and listen to their peers to form deeper connections to the texts they are reading. What is discourse and why is it important to a balanced literacy classroom? This was the question that Margaret Policastro had and researched to find the answer. She found that when learners want to talk and they actually love to talk. These two components are important pieces to text talk being successful for our learners. He found that there must be equal discourse in the classroom. That is there must be equal opportunities for learners to speak about texts and write about them too. This requires learners to do face to face conversations with each other. “Classroom discourse typically refers to the language that the students and teachers use to communicate with each other, including talking, discussion, conversations, and debates” (Policastro,

The second way to integrate text talk into a balanced literacy program is by using exit slips during differentiate small group instruction. In a balanced literacy classroom the language that is spoken and shared by our learners is the key to learning and understanding texts. This is because during guided reading the learners read text, talk about text, and ask and answer questions about the text. With exit slips each member of the group is given the opportunity to hear the thoughts of other members of the group and share their thoughts and feelings with the group. This is also a great way for teachers to collect data on each of the learners in the group. The teacher can assess how the learner is self-monitoring. Teachers can look to see if each learners is willing to share what they have learned from the text, what they still have questions about after reading the text, and what they want to learn more about after reading the text. With all this data the teacher can collect valuable information that will help them formative assess their learners. With this data the teacher can guide the