A Balanced Approach to Literacy Instruction in grades PreK-5

For over twenty years as an educator I have believed the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model, first articulated by Margaret Gallagher and P. David Pearson in 1983, alongside a workshop approach are ideal ways to impart literacy instruction. Yet, over the last ten years, I have come to disagree with the notion that all instruction must begin with teacher modeling.

This grappling propelled me to write the article, “Must Must All Good Instruction Begin With Teacher Modeling: Reconceptualizing the To-With-By of Gradual Release,” reenvisioning the Gradual Release Model and how balanced literacy structures as well as minilessons may be used to support students in leading their own literacy work. I have seen my role as a teacher shift from modeling first to coaching and scaffolding as needed while implicitly exposing children to nuances of upcoming minilessons. On the heels of the 2017 NCTE annual convention themed “The First Chapter,” I found resonance in Vicki Vinton’s words: “[as] literacy educators, we were leaving an old story behind and embarking on a new one.”

The first chapter of my quest began with a question for all of us as educators. Instead of instruction always moving from a sequence of “to” (I do, you watch) → “with” (I do, you help → you do, I help) → “by” (you do, I watch), how could we help our students live the concepts they will be transferring to their own writing in workshop through “with” balanced literacy components? I can tell you, it has been a game changer for me as well as my colleagues to immerse and collaborate with our students in upcoming writing genres, skills, and strategies.

Immersion to support self-directed writers unfolds as children participate in rich discussions around mentor texts as well as rehearsing and drawing/writing about shared-class experiences. During the immersion phase, we can gauge our students’ current understandings and provide just enough scaffolding so that they can transfer the work to independence with ease. P. David Pearson states in his coda to Comprehension Going Forward: Where We Are and What’s Next, “It is a ‘Goldilocks’ phenomenon — not too much, not too little, but just the right amount.”

This shift in thinking is desperately needed. Teachers feel constrained by a culture that too often sees balanced literacy components as isolated structures that must be implemented in prescribed ways. I am asking fellow educators to stretch the boundaries of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model and components of balanced literacy. We can maximize student voice through collaborative immersion experiences around big ideas tied to content, structures, and transferrable strategies through flexibly selecting components that nurture this work. I want to help teachers reconceive selected components of balanced literacy as flexible structures that can serve the larger goal of building students’ voice, identity, and agency.

Assessment-based planning is at the core of this model. The balanced literacy approach is characterized by explicit skill-based instruction alongside making meaning of authentic texts.  Through various modalities, teachers implement well-planned comprehensive literacy instruction that reflects students’ needs, relevancy, standards and cross-content connections.

Teachers model by reading or writing to the students (and thinking alongside) within the following structures:

Teachers read or write with the students within the following structures:

Reading and writing is done by the students, independently within the following structures (with teachers observation and conferring):

Phonological Awareness content must be explicitly taught through whole, small group and/or one-on-one instruction. It is critical that this explicit instruction is also transferred and applied throughout the day within other balanced literacy structures, especially during independent reading and writing to support understanding and creating rich texts.