Concept
Balanced literacy is a theory of teaching reading and writing the English language that arose in the 1990s and has a variety of interpretations. For some, balanced literacy strikes a balance between whole language and phonics and puts an end to the so called reading wars. Others say balanced literacy, in practice, usually means the whole language approach to reading. Some proponents of balanced literacy say it uses research-based elements of comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, phonemic awareness and phonics and includes instruction in a combination of the whole group, small group and 1:1 instruction in reading, writing, speaking and listening with the strongest research-based elements of each. They go on to say that the components of a balanced literacy approach include many different strategies applied during Reading Workshop and Writing Workshops. On the other hand, critics say balanced literacy, like whole language, is a meaning-based approach that when implemented does not include the explicit teaching of sound-letter relationships as provided by systematic phonics. Also, it is reasonably effective only for children to whom learning to read comes easily, which is less than half of students. During balanced literacy Reading Workshops, skills are explicitly modeled during mini-lessons. The mini-lesson has four parts: the connection, the teach (demonstration), the active engagement and the link. The teacher chooses a skill and strategy that he or she believes her class needs to be taught based on assessments that he or she has conducted in her classroom. During the connection phase, he or she connects prior learning to the current skill he or she is currently teaching. The teacher announces the teaching point or the skill and strategy that he or she is going to teach. In this approach, the teacher shows kids how to accomplish the skill by modeling the strategy in a book the students are familiar with. The teacher likewise uses a "think aloud" in this method to show students what he or she is currently thinking and then allows the students to work this out in their own books or in her book during the active engagement.