Best+Practice

__** Teaching Balanced Literacy **__

Balanced literacy is a teaching reading approach which builds student phonological awareness. Students learn decoding techniques (phonics), vocabulary and spelling to build fluency and comprehension. There are a wide variety of activities and strategies available for teachers to make balanced literacy the foundation of reading instruction while making it fun for students!

 **Educator** **R****esource****s:**

This [|Balanced Literacy website] provides some tips for teachers who are teaching reading and writing. It includes read-alouds, shared reading and interactive reading strat egies to use in the classroom.

The [|Free Reading] website provides a variety of materials that educators can use in the classroom to promote phonological awareness. Free Reading contains phonics related activities, such as identifying onsets, rimes and syllables using flash cards. Downloads are free and activities are detailed for easy use by any eager teacher.

The [|Advance Ability] website also contains a wealth of resources geared towards parents or teachers looking to help children improve phonological awareness. For example, the website contains blending games with a variety of examples of multisyllabic words for blending practice, such as "but-ter-fly." Children can practice these skills to become aware of phonemes and how they are formed to create words.  The website [|Teachnology.com] contains free printable worksheets on just about any subject imaginable. It contains worksheets that can help build grammar skills, vocabulary, and improve penmanship, to name a few. Why spend hours making them yourself when you can access these helpful resources for free!


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Balanced literacy has proven highly effective through studies and research. Teacher practices are constantly monitored to ensure that only the best teaching tools and strategies are used in American classrooms. Connecticut uses [|SRBI (Scientifically Research-Based Intervention)] to ensure that all students receive instruction that has proven to be highly effective. **

 __**Rubrics:**__

To ensure that you are giving fair and effective assessments, students must know what is expected of them. A rubric allows the teacher to grade assessments fairly and accurately based on a set scale. Also, students are aware of expectations which are outlined clearly and specifically in the rubric provided. Rubrics can be used for essay format assessments, projects, portfolios, etc. Some websites provide rubric examples and templates to make creating rubrics an easy task for teachers.

http://www.rubrics4teachers. com/ @http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/ intech/rubrics.htm