MODULE 3 TASK 7: How a Balanced Literacy Program helps students

achieve language curriculum? (Assignment) DROP BOX-MARY ADEGBOYE

For this assignment, you will taking a closer look at the components of a balanced
literacy program. You are going to demonstrate your understanding and application of
the language curriculum within a balanced literacy program. You will focus on the
reading and writing strands in the language curriculum. Refer to the Balanced Literacy
Program information provided in Task 5 of this module when completing your
assignment.

Provide 3 examples of reading and/or writing learning in the classroom. Some

components of a balanced literacy program are delivered using literacy centres, where
students work in small groups or independently. Other components of a balanced
literacy program involve the whole class, such as read alouds. You may choose to focus
on any of these in your 3 examples.

You will submit the following for each of your 3 literacy examples:
1) Description of Literacy Activity 
 Grouping (e.g. whole class, pairs, literacy centres doing independent work or
group work, etc.)
 What is the teacher doing?
 What are the students doing?
 What specific reading or writing strategy/concept is the focus of the activity?
 What resources are being used?
 Indicate how the activity includes differentiated instruction
2) Identify the Grade and whether your example is for Reading or Writing (or both if
applicable)
3) Include the specific expectation being covered, using language directly from the
Ontario Language curriculum
4) Translate the expectation into a student friendly learning goal. Refer to Task 6 in this
module for a sample learning goal.

5) Generally, teachers develop success criteria with their students. For the purpose of
this assignment you are required to include success criteria for each learning goal. Refer
to Task 6 in this module for sample success criteria.
6) Feedback/Formative Assessment (how and what is the teacher doing during, before
or after the literacy activity to assess and provide students with feedback, give a specific
example)
Cross-curricular recommendations - As primary educators, we integrate other subjects
into literacy (and numeracy) wherever possible. For example, the reading taking place
may include books related to the science curriculum being taught. Include at least one
activity, which shows where you could bring in another subject area.
Complete your assignment in a table format, like the one provided in th  e the
following template -  Balanced Literacy Assignment.docx Balanced Literacy
Assignment.docx - Alternative Formats  
Eat a Rainbow Nutrition Activity
By Leah | November 2, 2016
Teach your students about nutritious eating habits with a vibrant, fun, and colorful craft! Students will
make their own food rainbows and learn the health benefits of each color group. Keep reading to find
out how to do this clever activity with your class!

We love this nutrition craft because it helps kids learn that fruits and vegetables can be just as colorful
and exciting to eat as the syrupy, sugary snacks they see on television. Students will also get a chance
to explore the health benefits of eating specific color groups of fruits and vegetables. You won't want
to pass up the opportunity to do this activity with your class! Your students will be able to make wiser
food choices when they complete this educational craft. 
 To make a food rainbow craft, you will need to have the following items on hand: 

 red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple construction paper

 glue sticks
 scissors
 pictures of fruits and vegetables in every color of the rainbow

There are several ways you can gather pictures of fruits and vegetables in the colors of the rainbow.
We chose to use images from ClipArt.com. You could also find pictures in magazines or newspaper
inserts. It's up to you whether you want to use as few as three images for each color, or as many as ten.
Keep in mind that some colors, like red and green, will be easy to find fruits and vegetables for, while
other colors, like blue and purple, may be more difficult. Finally, you can decide whether you will
provide the images for your students or have them find and cut them out themselves. This activity can
be either a take-home project for more independent grade levels or an in-class assignment for younger
learners. 
Once you decide how much time you'd like to spend on this craft and how you will present the activity
to your students, here's what your students will need to do: 

1) Cut a half-circle shape from red construction paper. (You may want to provide tracers to help your
students with this. You can use card stock to make rainbow pieces to trace ahead of time.)

2) Cut consecutively smaller half-circles from each of the colors of construction paper. Lay them on
top of one another so they create the appearance of a rainbow. 

3) Glue the rainbow pieces together. Then, cut out and glue each fruit or vegetable image onto the
matching color of the rainbow. Spread the images out evenly over each color.

To give you a head-start on colorful food items you might want to use, we'll share the fruits and
vegetables we used in our own version: 

Red: watermelon, apple, red pepper, tomato, raspberry, pomegranate, cherry, red potato, strawberry,
and red onion

Orange: orange, orange bell pepper, peach, mango, cantaloupe, clementine, squash, carrot, potato, and
apricot

Yellow: yellow pear, papaya, corn, banana, pineapple, string bean, lemon, yellow apple, yellow bell
pepper, grapefruit

Green: snap peas, broccoli, green apple, lettuce, green pear, kiwi, spinach, cucumber, zucchini, and
celery

Blue: blueberries, elderberries, currants, and black grapes

Purple: eggplant, plum, purple onion, red grapes, cabbage, and purple bell pepper

Once your students have made their food rainbows, you can teach them about the health benefits of
each color. We've provided a quick summary of these health benefits below, but a quick Internet search
will allow you to be as in-depth or general in your presentation of this information as you want. 
In addition to the craft and teaching portions of this activity, you could always challenge your students
to bring one colored fruit or vegetable on the day you do the activity, or even a different colored food
item for every day of the week. They can eat this item at snack time or during lunch, and you may want
to even give bonus points if they rise to the challenge. 

What do you think of this nutrition-themed activity? Do you think we need more health-related
activities in the classroom? Please leave us your feedback in the comments section below.

If you'd like more nutrition resources for your classroom, check out the Super Teacher Worksheets
Nutrition Page for inspiration, ideas, and learning material! 
INTRODUCTION
Balanced Literacy It is a comprehensive program of language arts acquisition. It contains all of the components
necessary for students to master written and oral communication
balanced literacy provides and cultivates the skills of reading, writing, thinking, Balanced Literacy 8 speaking
and listening for all students .while recognizing and respecting their cultural, ethnic and academic diversity.

Some children are strong visual learners and·can·see a word once or twice and remember it forever. Other
children are better auditory learners and can easily hear and blend sounds to figure out lots of words. Some
children need a lot of structure and guidance; other children are very self-directed and learn best when they can
choose topics about which they want to read and write. Some children like stories and fanciful tales; others
want to read and write about non-fiction - things that really happened. It is important for educators and literacy
professionals to recognize the reality of individual differences and the fact that all children do not learn in the
same way.

Teachers who know students individually provide many kinds of support, enabling students to move to
higher levels of reading and literacy development.

A balanced reading program includes:

▪ Knowing students individually.
▪ Balancing both direct and indirect
instruction.
▪ Balancing instructional activities including skills emphasis and meaning emphasis

Assessment Tools
Conferencing Assistive Technologies
Reading Learning Logs
samples Portfolios
Visual cues
Assessment Tools: Oral reading samples,
Teacher observations
Writing samples Spelling samples

Long Range Goal

▪Students must be proficient as readers, writers, and speakers to be successful, contributing adults and
lifelong learners with Literature

▪Use Books That Really Generate Response!

Learning Objectives:

Key Themes
GROUP A Group B

Group C Group D
Nutrition and Health.
Learning to make and enjoy healthy food selections early in life can greatly impact long-term Health.
Canada’s Food Guide provides an easy framework for healthy eating through the use of a colorful rainbow
used to demonstrate the four food groups (Vegetables and Fruit, Grain Products, Milk and Alternatives and
Meat and Alternatives). Just as different colors make up a rainbow, different food groups are the basis for
healthy eating. Healthy eating is the overall pattern of foods eaten, and not only one food, one meal or one
day’s meals. Canada’s Food Guide describes both the amount (quantity) and type (quality) of food people
need as part of a healthy eating pattern. The eating pattern provided by Canada’s Food Guide promotes
overall health by ensuring that nutrient needs are met each day, and by helping reduce the risk of obesity
and other nutrition related diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure, bones (joints)
degeneration.

The lesson will be designed with objectives of empowering students with the significance of cultivating
healthy nutritional habits and understanding the related complications of .......The instructional approaches
are built upon Balanced Literacy Program for Grade 2 students following the curriculum standards and
assessments to evaluate learning outcomes. The inclusive instructional strategies will be implemented in the
classroom with interconnectedness with real life applications with the intention of building community of
critical and creative readers and writers with problem solving skills. The inclusive instructional platforms is
primarily integrated to scaffold struggling students(ELL, ESL, SPED and other Learning deficiencies) that
require additional support and guides in successfully achieving the intended learning expectations.

The assessments will include varying possibilities of teacher observations, oral reading samples,
writing(persuasive) projects samples, spelling samples, portfolios, journal profiling updates, and other
inclusive formats (conferencing, interviewing, multiple choice quiz etc). Students will b assessed on regular
basis with formative feedbacks as well as summative feedbacks providing direction to the Teacher for
whole class, small group discussions as well as Independent Instruction.

The Balanced Literacy Program will be composed of the essential components of Independent
Writing/Reading, Group Dynamics and Shared Reading/Writing sectioned into 3 lessons with cross-
curricula approaches to Social-emotional Learning (SEL), Science, Numeracy (Math) , Social Studies, and
Arts.
 Students will learn about
Theme Curriculum Focus Balanced Literacy Component(s)
Food and Culture Social Emotional Communication skills, Oral Communication, Critical
Learning Thinking, Vocabulary Building, Reading, Writing.
Food Choices and Health Science Critical Thinking, Vocabulary Building, Reading, Writing.
Implications
The Food Pyramid Science, Literacy, Reading, Writing, Media Literacy, Communication skills, Oral
Arts Communication
The Calorie Counter Science, Math, Media Literacy, Writing, Reading, communication, skills,
Critical Thinking, Phonics
Food Recipe Analyses Science, Math Media Literacy, Reading, Writing, Critical Thinking,
Communication skills, Vocabulary
Food Labeling Arts, Science Media Literacy, Reading, Writing, Critical Thinking,
Communication skills, Vocabulary

Invite children to bring a picture of their home to daycare. During circle time, explain to your group how a habitat
is in fact where an insect or an animal lives. Help them understand how an animal's habitat is a lot like their
home.
The second graders were allowed to lead and take ownership while I facilitated and guided the of the
learning activities during knowledge acquisition, sharing and retention processes.

The second graders were given the opportunity to interact and utilize the resource learning materials
provided at each center so they can familiarize themselves with them.

ELICIT
The second graders were encouraged to b engaged in the Balanced Literacy daily program routine of Reading, Writing,
Communication, Creative/Critical Thinking, Phonics, Vocabularly building on the learning theme Nutrition and Health.
The riddles prompted about each habitats such as
What do you understand by the term Habitat?
Why are habitats important?
What are the features that habitats must have for animals to be able to live and adapt?-Introduction of Adaptation concept
What other animals do you think can also live in the Habitat?
Social Emotional Learning

Math (Numeracy):
To build money skills in how to read $ amounts and figure numerical order.
To practice real-life skills such as menu planning and "looking for the cheapest price"

Activity I : Fruit and Veggies Scavenger Hunt (Constructing Bar Graph)

Activity II: Calorie Cunt (Addition and Subtraction-Money)

Arts

Social Studies
Round up your favorite building blocks and construction toys and

ask kids to build their favorite animal habitats! This STEM challenge

is fun for kids of all ages.

Science: Habitats
Grab a tub of plastic animals and start sorting them by habitat.

You’re bound to find at least a few that spend some of their lives in

more than one. That’s where Venn diagrams come in handy!

Literacy: Food and Nutrition books related the instructional curriculum and standards are selected
from the library are brought into the class and placed in the shared reading cabinet to be read to the
 entire class during the shared reading schedule for students to teach the students importance of having
healthy diet.

Oral Language
Understanding and speaking in oral language are fundamental to the development of reading and writing, so teachers need to
provide rich opportunities for students to communicate in the classroom. 

Selected Health and Nutrition Books

Little Critter: Good for Me and You by Mercer Mayer teaches kids how
to
have
A
a

Rhyming Story About Making Healthy Food Choices.

healthy lifestyle and have fun doing it. At school, Little Critter learns all
A Tale of Two Brothers by Brittany Andrejcin is a rhyming story about the importance of eating a balanced diet. He learns about the food
about making healthy food choices. It helps elementary students pyramid and fun exercises that will help him stay in shape. Then, Little
understand that when they eat bad foods, they are going to feel Critter shows his family how to stay fit and healthy in fun ways.
bad. When they eat good foods, they will feel good. A Tale of Two
Brothers is written to start conversations with your kids about
healthy eating.
 Why Should I Eat Well?
Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition
The book focus on concepts such as:
What Are The Nutrition Groups?
The Functions of Nutritious Foods?
What Foods contain nutrients?
What Is The Recommended Daily Allowance Kids Needed
For Healthy Growth?
How Much Calories Are Loaded In Each Food? what calories
are. Also has kid-friendly recipes!

For beginners and green-thumbed foodies, this unusually all- Provides an introduction to fruits and vegetables by using each
inclusive garden-to-kitchen cookbook is part lesson in letter of the alphabet.

gardening and part collection of healthy, delicious, kid-friendly

recipes.
Arts: Rainbow

Social Studies: Different World Cultures

Technology: 3-D Shapes

References:
http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutrition-tools-healthy-family/interactive-food-pyramid