Checking for Understanding Throughout Balanced Literacy
Lisa Edwards
During the video clip, you are about to watch you will see many different examples of checking for understanding throughout the components of balanced literacy. Please use the video discussion guide to record the opportunities for checking for understanding and techniques used by the teacher.
Reading Aloud Grades 1st & 2nd
We take a journey with ELA through a 1st and 2nd Grade Read Aloud with Lisa Edwards gives helpful tips throught the read aloud.
Close Reading in Third Grade
Example of Close Reading with Third Graders while Lisa Edwards gives helpful tips throught the close reading.
Close Reading: Day 1
In this video, you’ll observe Day one of Close Reading. Close Reading is an essential component of balanced literacy particularly at grade levels 3-5. In Close Reading, you’ll teach your readers the important interaction that involves observation and interpretation between the reader and a text. It means rereading and reflecting to come to new conclusions and understandings about the ideas that a text sets out. Not just reading the text once, but reading the text multiple times to draw conclusions, interpret, analyze and infer a text’s meaning.
Close Reading should take place everyday outside of Readers Workshop and can last anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.On day one, you’ll want to orient your students to the genre of the text you’ll be studying for the week.
In this video, watch how Caitlin Schreck, rallies her students around this new text and leads them through the orientation phase.
Close Reading: Day 2
In this video, you’ll observe Day Two of Close Reading. Yesterday, Caitlin led her students through the orientation of this text, deciding that it leaned more literary nonfiction than informational. Today, she’ll revisit the same text through the lens of the subjects actions, bringing in more of a narrative lens into their close reading study. Notice how she guides students through this work and helps them to find patterns across the text, make connections between those patterns, and build new understandings and big ideas about the text.
Close Reading: Day 3
In this video, you’ll observe the third day of Close Reading. Over the past two days, Caitlin led her class in orienting themselves to literary nonfiction and rereading the text through a narrative lens to build big ideas about the subject of the article. Today, watch as she now leads her students to explore the same text through an informational lens, focusing on main ideas.
Shared Reading Day 1 ELA
This video is about Shared Reading Day 1
Shared Reading Day 2 ELA
This video is about Day 2
Shared Reading Day 3 ELA
This video is about Shared Reading Day 3
Shared Reading Day 4 ELA
This video is about Day 4
Shared Reading Day 5 ELA
4th Grade Learning Progression Strategy Group Stehlik
In this video, you’ll observe a 4th grade learning progression strategy group. For this lesson, Natalie Friday-Mitchell, the literacy coach at Stehlik Elementary, led an inquiry group around one of the major learning progression strands of Interpreting Characters, Inferring About Characters and Other Story Elements, a strand that is grounded in Fig 19D. Watch as she leads her students through this inquiry and then sets them up to try this work independently in their own books. Notice the level of student talk over teacher talk.
4th Grade Reading Strategy Group Smith Elementary
In this video, you’ll observe a 4th grade reading strategy group. For this lesson, Caitlin Schreck, a fourth grade teacher at Smith Elementary, leaned on Envisionment, one the essential skills from the end of the first bend of her current unit of study, Interpreting Characters. You’ll notice how she quickly tells kids why they’ve gathered and sets them up to do this work. Notice her ability to coach on the spot and redirect students when needed.
5th Grade Reading Strategy Group Smith EP 1
In this video, you’ll observe a 5th grade reading strategy group. For this lesson, Julia Cuthbertson, the literacy coach at Smith Elementary, tapped the power of the units of study and taught directly from the small group section in session 7 of Interpretation Book Clubs. You’ll notice how her instruction is reinforcing a part of one of the major learning progressions from the unit. You’ll also notice the way she engages students, quickly teaches the strategy, and then coaches in individually with each of the students that she meets with. This method allows her to truly evaluate where each learner stands and make the best decisions for her students’ growth. Pay close attention to how she uses the unit of study as her guide and tools she creates.
5th Grade Bookclub Meeting Stehlik
In this video, you’ll observe a 5th grade bookclub meeting. During bookclub time, you might coach particular groups in order to elevate the level of their talk and ideas. Notice how she researches the bookclub, plays proficient partner, and whispers in to enhance the quality and level of talk. Notice how she also pauses to redirect the bookclub when necessary.
Compliment Teach Conference Stehlik
In this video, you’ll observe a research decide, compliment teach conference. As you watch, notice each stage of the RDCT conference and the ways in which Natalie Friday Mitchell, the literacy coach at Stehlik Elementary, researches the reader and quickly builds trust to be able to coach the student in in her reading.
Parker Conference
This video is about Untitled Project
Guided Reading Group Level D at Smith Elementary
Guided reading is an especially powerful method for us in certain situations. For readers who are moving up a notch in text complexity, guided reading can help them grasp the main storyline of a text and the dominant language structures so they don’t get bogged down with visual demands without the support of meaning. Guided reading can help ELLs, because it is one way to scaffold their comprehension and introduce vocabulary.
Guided Reading Group Level C at Smith Elementary
In this video, you’ll observe a Level C guided reading group. For this lesson, Ms. Ashley Wilson, facilitates the group using the text We Are Monsters. You’ll notice how she quickly tells kids why they’ve gathered, previews the texts, and introduces high frequency words and sets them up for reading. Notice her ability to coach on the spot, take anecdotal notes, and redirect students when needed.
5th Grade Reading Strategy Group at Stehlik
In this video, you’ll observe a 5th grade reading strategy group. For this lesson, Natalie Friday-Mitchell, the literacy coach at Stehlik Elementary, tapped the power of the 1st unit of study and led a strategy group based on session 11 of Interpretation Book Clubs. Notice how she pulled together a bookclub to practice this essential strategy. Notice how she also leaned on the work of the read aloud to provide support during the demonstration.
Strategy Group Reading Smith Elementary
Another type of small group is a strategy group. A strategy lesson generally includes a minute or two of strategy teaching followed by time for guided practice. Usually, children in a strategy lesson are not reading the same book but are instead working on the same strategy. Often they are reading books that are roughly the same level of text complexity. What’s important is that your strategy group provide an explicit teaching point that targets a particular need you have ascertained from your work across several conferences. These groupings are flexible; you’ll need to consider not only who is in each group, but also why you’re placing them together and what and how you’ll teach them.
4th Grade Reading Strategy Group at Parker Elementary
In this video, you’ll observe a 4th grade reading strategy group. As you watch, you’ll notice how Erica Bryant, the literacy coach at Parker Elementary, leans on the power of an earlier repertoire chart and demonstrates using the class read aloud.
4th Grade Reading Strategy Group at Parker Elementary
In this video, you’ll observe a 4th grade reading strategy group. As you watch, you’ll notice how Erica Bryant, the literacy coach at Parker Elementary, clings to the structure of a small group, with a gathering statement, teaching point, teach, actively coaching two rounds with each individual student, and then finally linking the learning up for students and sending them on their way with an anecdote of their work together. Notice how she teaches through an inquiry sort to immediately engage readers in this new learning.
Emergent Storybook Reading Day 2
Emergent Storybook Reading Day 2
Emergent Storybook Reading Day 1
Emergent Storybook Reading Day 1
Guided Reading Small Group Lesson 1
Guided Reading Small Group Lesson 1