What does a balanced literacy program look like?

First off, balanced literacy doesn’t mean a ‘little bit of this and little bit of that’ – it is not teaching an eclectic mix of reading strategies! It means teaching the five essential elements of reading. It is important to remember the following three points:

Fidelity – choose a method of teaching and stick to it! For example, stick to our phoneme sequence and ensure that everyone in the school knows it and plans from it
Systematically – teaching sequences should be planned. Content scope and sequence documents are the best way to achieve this. Here is our scope and sequence
Explicitly – teachers should actually teach! A good start is to share learning intentions and success criteria with children. These make it clear what children are expected to learn and how to be successful

What educators and the media need to recognise is that the phonics is only one of five elements that contribute to a balanced reading program.

**At Get Reading Right the Fab Five of reading forms the core of our balanced reading program:**

Phonemic Awareness
The ability to hear, focus on and manipulate phonemes in a spoken word. Having good phonemic awareness is the strongest indicator of future reading success.
Synthetic Phonics
Phonic knowledge gives children the tools to crack the reading code so that fluency and comprehension follow. It’s pretty simple really, if children can’t read the words on a page, they can’t get the meaning! Synthetic phonics is the most effective method to get all children reading – why? Because it’s systematic, helping children master the code from the simple to the complex; it’s quick and it ensures success. Read more about synthetic phonics.
Vocabulary Knowledge
Teachers can do a lot to enrich vocabulary by simply reading to children and encouraging parents to do the same. When using a synthetic phonics approach, we discuss the meaning of new words and use this as an opportunity to expand vocabulary knowledge.
Reading Fluency
We don’t want ‘c-a-t’ we want automatic word recognition which leads to fluency. When children read with speed, accuracy and expression, they are more likely to comprehend and remember the content, than if they read with difficulty.
Comprehension
To make meaning from texts. Using background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge to create sensory images and then to understand what is read. Without good comprehension, all learning, in all subjects, is affected. Synthetic phonics gives children the skills to crack the reading code. Just like a systematic, synthetic phonics program, comprehension should be taught systematically and explicitly.

Read the Get Reading Right Curriculum Director, Jo-Anne Dooner’s article in Teacher Magazine discussing what a balanced reading program really looks like.