Dear educators,
This letter serves as a means of addressing one of our grave
concerns about the right approach to teaching Literacy. Year after year
we have been asking the same questions. Phonics?.... Whole language? …..
Reading and Writing in isolation? These questions have been the heart of
heated controversy all over the world.
Well I have news for you!
During this week, my colleagues and I were privileged to have one of the
ministry officials, Mrs. Marilyn Munro- Francis, facilitate a workshop
on the Balanced Literacy Approach. This workshop was 'the bomb'!
Interactive, engaging and informative are some of the words I can use to
describe the session.
By now, you may be wondering what this approach is about. Don't get too
perturbed. I will tell you about it in a nutshell.
According to Lynch (2018), the Balanced Literacy Approach (BLA) is a
best practice framework that guides students towards a proficient, life-long
reading and writing.
In layman terms let's just say it is a method which strikes a balance
between skills and knowledge, reading and writing and phonics and whole
language and allows students to maximize their potential.
Traditionally, teachers treated language Arts as a disjointed subject.
However, this approach emphasizes that Language Arts be taught as a whole
subject during a block of uninterrupted time of usually 60 minutes or more.
This approach allows for daily read aloud, shared reading/writing, word study,
independent reading/ writing, guided reading/ writing.
In my opinion, this is the best method thus far. Simply because it follows a
gradual release of responsibility. It doesn’t force the teacher to ‘fit it all
in’ and it allows the teacher to differentiate learning. Isn't that awesome!
Moreover, this is just an appetizer for you. I have included two videos at
the end which delved deeper into the different aspects of the BLA. These
videos elaborated that the Balance Literacy Approach is a great tool for
helping students to learn and read well.
I do hope we can collaborate in using this best practice so we can effectively
and expeditiously address the cries of our students.
Yours Truly,
Jael
Brathwaite
Teacher- student
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibAYZRv2oLM
Jael I share the same sentiment, the presentation that Mrs. Marilyn Munro- Francis presented was indeed 'the bomb.' As she presented, the strategies that she used was very interactive. These strategies ranged from Read the room to 3 stars and a wish. There is no way students can feel bored for these strategies are very interactive. When I enter the classroom there is no doubt about it that I will be using those strategies taught.
ReplyDeleteDear Jael,
ReplyDeleteI also believe that this is the best method so far especially because of our local language situation. I love the fact that it requires that teachers differentiate instructions since we observe that students are at different levels of the English - Language Continuum. Also, by utilizing Gradual Release of Responsibility teachers can now model the standard way of writing which will help students get closer to attaining proficiency in the language.
I am so happy we have this workshop which served as a refresher for some of us and a learning experience for others. I look forward to using this approach to help my writers attain proficiency and to hearing of the experiences of all my peers including you Jael and Shavel so that I can further learn about the Balanced Literacy Approach.
Yours Truly,
Anika Henry
This blog really speaks a lot Jael. The Balanced Literacy Approach (BLA) is extremely important. It was an eye opening session because I am guilty of teaching Language Arts in parts and not a whole paying attention to whole language than phonics and not striking a balance. Thanks for the videos. I will surely view them to further understand BLA.
ReplyDelete