My Comprehensive Balanced Literacy Program

Within A 2nd Grade Classroom

Andy Young
Lesley University
Literacy: The Integration of the Language Arts
Gwen Blumberg
March 12, 2009
Question: What will a comprehensive balanced literacy program look
like in your 2nd grade classroom?

That is an excellent question and one that I have given

considerable thought to during my studies and preparation for
becoming a full-time 2nd grade teacher. The ability to read, write, and
communicate effectively is fundamental for success in life and,
accordingly, must be the primary focus of early childhood education. I
believe, and many experts will agree, that there are four major pillars
of an effective and comprehensive literacy program:
• Reading aloud to children
• Shared reading and interactive writing with the entire class
• Guided reading and writer’s workshop within small groups or as
individuals
• Independent reading and writing.
In my classroom, each of these four components will include
exercises and activities that will focus on daily word study, will provide
student choice, will be appropriately modeled, will be collaborative, will
be well-organized, will become part of a daily routine, will be based on
student need, will include numerous diverse forms of student
assessment and reading resources, will ensure that communication is
continually provided to each child’s parents/guardians, and will ensure
that these evolving reading and writing skills will be consistently
integrated across all subject-matter areas. Above all, I will create a
safe environment built on trust that will challenge my students to
strive for greatness, encourage an inquiry-based approach to learning,
and promote risk taking.
Now, I’m sure you are saying to yourself, “that sounds great, but
how exactly are you going to create such an environment and what will
it look like?” Let me explain in detail what my classroom in your school
will look like. Before the school year has even begun, I intend to reach
out to the students and parents of my students to provide my
expectations for the upcoming year. Within my communication and

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accompanying brochure, I will emphasize the importance that will be
placed on literacy within my classroom and will provide specific
examples of what will be taught at school. I will also include my
expectations for the parents and the significant role they play in their
child’s development process. I will use Regie Routman’s brochure from
her book Conversations (Appendix A-2) as a template. In doing so, I
hope to immediately empower the parents to take ownership and
become actively involved in their child’s learning progress and feel
connected to the work done at school.
On day one, minute one of the school year I will begin modeling
our daily literacy program along with my expectations for each student
and the purpose of my instruction. By establishing a routine from that
initial introduction, the children will quickly become comfortable with
this schedule and know what is expected of them. Each child will be
made aware of the classroom library that is available to them and the
book sign-out process. This extensive library will contain picture books,
trade books, chapter books, big books, magazines, poetry, anthologies,
and fiction and non-fiction books. I will level each of our class’s
supplemental books accordingly and place them in bins marked for
each guided reading level. Within my library will also be anchor books
and basals that will be used as the basis of whole-class instruction for
the week’s theme. Upon determining each child’s reading level (which I
will discuss further when I talk about my formal assessment
techniques), students may select a book within their appropriate bin,
be given an anchor book, or may ask for a recommendation of me or
other students. Each morning all students will begin the first twenty
minutes of each day in sustained silent reading (SSR). During this
independent reading time, I may read silently to model proper reading
techniques or move around the room listening to each student reading
softly while assessing their reading abilities and strategies. I will be
paying close attention to specific skills that should be addressed in

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guided or shared reading exercises. Meanwhile, every day students will
record what they have read in their reading journals. These reading
journals will contain a full list of books read and the dates complete.
I will review these journals and schedule teacher-led or student-
led conferences once a new book has been completed. I, or another
group member using the questions created during our shared writing
exercises, will conduct these interviews with children that have
completed books during the previous day’s independent reading time
to, initially, check for comprehension and to answer any lingering
questions. Later in the year, student interviews will be characterized
more as “book talks” or conversations in which a student provides a
review of the book and determines whether or not to recommend that
others read it.
Each day, following the independent reading time, our class will
meet in our whole-class area of the room to review the morning
message posted at the front of the class. We will then have a 10
minute conversation as a group about the day’s message; its words, its
meaning, and its value to the class. Some of the activities I can
perform with the morning message include covering parts of words,
drawing pictures to represent words while asking the children to
interpret the missing word, work on spelling, grammar or punctuation,
celebrate special events, and asking my students to fill-in-the-blanks.
These exercises will quickly allow me to assess my student’s reading
abilities and comprehension skills such as using context cues to derive
meaning and their ability to self-monitor.
Following the morning message exercise, I will demonstrate my
passion of reading with the students by reading aloud to them. In
addition to teacher-led reading, guest readers will also be involved in
this process as I will encourage school administrators, parents, and
other school staff or older students to participate in oral reading. This
will truly reinforce the notion that our school is an extended family and

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tight community of learners. Students may also be asked to share their
own reading with the class or to participate in shared reading with the
expert reader. Books will often be the genre read each morning but, on
occasion, I will photocopy poems that will be placed in each child’s
poetry notebook and will either read them myself on the overhead or
have one of the children read it for the class. One of Regie Routman’s
ideas, Poet of the Day, will also be included in this shared reading time.
Poets of the day are students that volunteer to read a poem for the
class after having practiced reading it beforehand. Within the read
aloud block, I will be prompting the students to make predictions,
asking students to fill in the next word, summarizing what we have
read, and rereading sentences for clarification.
In addition to spending 10-15 minutes reading aloud, 15-20
minutes will be used conducting shared reading activities that reinforce
specific reading strategies or key lessons for the day. Exercises that
may be included during the shared reading time are: word hunts,
Reader’s Theatre, separating onsets from rimes, rhyming, riddles,
developing character traits, introducing or reciting word wall words,
matching games, letter recognition and phonemic exercises, tracking
activities, brainstorming, categorizing pictures and words, creating
songs, hangman, among many others. All of these activities model the
process of thinking aloud and interacting with written text.
Upon completion of our class reading and writing, students will
be grouped according to their current reading and spelling needs and
each of the four groups will begin working on a series of reading and
spelling exercises that are displayed on the pocket chart at the front of
the room and in their individual pocket folder. On this chart will be a
series of exercises or mini-lessons, represented by symbols that the
students must work on during their 25-30 minutes at one of the four
learning centers. After the first 25-30 minute block is over, children will
rotate to the next learning center listed for that day or to their desks

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for individual seat work. During seat work, students will focus on key
topics covered in whole-class discussion through writing in their word
study notebooks, practicing sorting words, performing word hunts,
drawing and labeling pictures, cutting and pasting, and completing
speed sorts or blind sorts in pairs. Assigned reading groups will
continuously change throughout the year so that all students have
worked with each other.
My learning centers will include a listening center, a computer
center, an area for independent or group reading, writing, or artwork,
and a conference area where I can meet with students. At the listening
center students will listen to books, music, or poetry. The computer
center will have multiple computers where students will be able to play
interactive educational games or perform research for projects. The
reading, writing, and art center will have couches, chairs, tables,
manipulatives, easels, and a plethora of art supplies accessible to
students. Finally, the conference center will have a large table and
chairs at which I can meet with the groups to concentrate on specific
reading or spelling skills or to review any issues that the students may
raise to me. During this conference time, I will concentrate on the
specific needs of the group members through exercises that strengthen
skills. Some of which include: word or picture sorts (based on patterns,
sounds, meaning, categories, etc.) from Patricia Cunningham’s Making
Big Words & Making Words books, reviewing common errors on formal
assessments or in writing journals, group reading, word study games,
and reviewing word banks.
Conference time (or SSR time) will occasionally be spent
performing formal assessments such as running records, spelling
inventories, DIBELS exams, or full observation surveys of my children;
this is especially true during the beginning of the year when I need to
determine each student’s needs and their appropriate groups. These
assessments will be scored, progress will be graphed using MS Excel or

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PowerPoint, and paperwork will be filed within each child’s portfolio,
which will be available to parents during conferences. These student
portfolios will also include writing samples, significant projects
completed during the year, formal test results, documented behavior
issues during the year, and notes that I have written about the student.
Following lunch and recess time, the class will engage in
interactive or shared writing activities. During this 15 minute block
students will assemble at the front of the room and I will model proper
writing and editing techniques on the board or scribe words that
students say aloud. In addition, students may also participate in the
writing process in front of the class or on their individual whiteboards.
This whole-class writing time will also be used for activities such as
writing our monthly newsletter, building story maps, developing
questions for student-led interviews, discussing and writing about
other subjects covered the previous day (i.e. science experiments),
writing and editing a classroom story or poem, designing web charts,
brainstorming ideas for writing, reviewing and practicing the word wall
words, reviewing spelling and punctuation rules, or on mini-lessons to
develop skills such as writing with voice, developing themes, and using
descriptive words within writing.
After the mini-lesson and shared writing is complete, students
will participate in 25 minutes of writer’s workshop or independent
writing time at their own desks. At the beginning of the year I will
model the type of writing I expect from the children. Each student will
be given a journal in which they will record their daily writing. Writing
topics will often be chosen based on student interest. On the side of
each student’s desk will hang a small clipboard where the student can
write down a future writing topic. At the back of these journals I will
insert a personal word wall consisting of words the students may
struggle with or need to focus on in their writing. Journals will be
collected each week based on their color grouping and I will review and

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provide feedback in each folder nightly. Within this feedback I will also
respond to any questions asked by the student or even ask questions
of the child to be responded to before the journal is collected next
time.
While students continue to write in their journals, I will move
around the room and have meetings with specific individuals to discuss
writing samples, solidify writing strategies, brainstorm ideas, discuss
topics, or assist with spelling questions (paying special attention to
words misspelled from our word wall). Before the writing block has
ended, I will leave enough time for volunteers to read their writing
samples to the class. During this time I am emphasizing the week’s
lessons, reinforcing proper writing techniques, and celebrating each
child’s work.
In addition to time blocked specifically for reading, writing, and
spelling, literacy will continue to be emphasized within each additional
subject block throughout the day. I hope to instill my passion for
reading and writing in each of my students through fun exercises,
proper modeling, and collaboration among all class and school
members. This balanced and comprehensive approach to literacy
should provide my 2nd grade class with the necessary tools to be
successful throughout the school year as well as in future grades.
References

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words Their Way. New
Jersey: Pearson Education.

Cunningham, P. & Hall, D. (2001). Making Big Words: Multilevel, Hands-On Spelling
and Phonics Activities. New York: Good Apple.

Routman, R. (2000). Conversations: Strategies for Teaching, Learning, and Evaluating.

New Hampshire: Heinemann.