Becoming an Effective Teacher of Reading
The goal of literacy instruction is to ensure that all students achieve their full literacy potential, and in that light, chapter one introduces eight principles of balanced literacy instruction. The principles are stated in terms of what effective teachers do, and they provide the foundation for the chapters that follow.
- Principle 1: Effective teachers understand how students learn.
- Principle 2: Effective teachers support students’ use of the cueing systems.
- Principle 3: Effective teachers create a community of learners.
- Principle 4: Effective teachers adopt a balanced approach to instruction.
- Principle 5: Effective teachers scaffold students’ reading and writing.
- Principle 6: Effective teachers organize for literacy instruction.
- Principle 7: Effective teachers link instruction and assessment.
- Principle 8: Effective teachers become partners with parents.
ABC Back to School Booklet
This is an activity that can be done across the grades! Share with students some ABC books from the school or town library and tell them that they will be working together to create a Back-to-School ABC Book. Assign a letter of the alphabet to each student. Brainstorm with students possible words for each letter or allow each student to choose his or her own word. Explain that the words must be related to activities associated with school. Of course, the difficulty of the words will vary, depending on the grade level of the students. For example, A might be represented by the words art, abacus, attendance, algebra, addition, advisor, athletics, auditorium, alphabet, answer key, apple, arithmetic, announcement, award, A-V, aide, or assistant principal. Finally, have each student illustrate his or her word. Combine the pictures to create a book. Display the book in the classroom or school library. As an extra challenge, you might limit older students to choosing adjectives; no nouns allowed!