Why I’ve Shifted Away From Balanced Literacy

The reasons I’ve shifted away from balanced literacy is a post that’s been a long time coming.

There’s a good reason for that. It’s been a slow {and somewhat painful} journey.

You may enjoy our series on Structured Literacy Series or our Resources for Dyslexia Series.

I was heavily trained in the ways of balanced literacy. Sure, I’ve always held phonics as extremely important to reading. But there are bits and pieces of my training that I’ve also gripped tightly to that weren’t so helpful to teaching kids to read.

Today, I want to explore five reasons I’ve shifted away from balanced literacy.

Want to know more? Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to see our upcoming series!

 

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5 Reasons I’ve Shifted Away from Balanced Literacy

1. The research

One of the things I’ve always said about education is that the pendulum swings. New research comes out. Ok, now we have a new way of teaching.

Oh, look! New research. Ignore everything you’ve done for the last few years. Now, there’s something shiny and new. Rinse and repeat.

But {and this is a big but}, one of the things I’ve learned about the science of reading is that the research has been there. Honestly, it’s mostly been mostly ignored to favor balanced literacy instead.

When we use the phrase science of reading, we’re referencing a body of scientifically-based research that has been conducted over the last fifty years. Yes, you read that right. Fifty.

And using phonics readers to teach reading goes back to the 1800’s with the McGuffy readers.

 

2. The misunderstanding and misuse of three-cueing and context

Does context have a purpose in reading? Absolutely! Even good readers use context clues… but not how or when you might think!

The problem with using the three-cueing system or context clues is expressed by Blevins and many others who echo his sentiment.

Poor readers have a strategy imbalance. They tend to over-rely on one reading strategy, such as the use of context clues, to the exclusion of other strategies that might be more appropriate.” (Teaching Phonics & Word Study by Wiley Blevins, p. 14)

 

3. Practice that makes sense

Let’s say you have learners who are struggling with the concept of addition in math. So, you would teach a lesson on addition using colored counters or something hands-on, right?

If it’s time for them to practice the concept of addition, what kind of problems would you give them to work on independently? Subtraction problems? Division problems? Perhaps multiplication? No, you would give them addition problems.

The same can be said for reading. If you’re teaching lessons on short vowels and then turn around and give your learners texts to read that contain lots words like wash, car, or father, your learners aren’t practicing the skills you’ve just taught them. They need to practice text with short vowel words.

 

4. Building lifelong readers

One of the things I ask myself when I sit down to edit a child’s writing is, “Am I helping the child become a better writing or just improving this writing?” Of course, some edits may only apply to that particular writing, but my goal is to help them become a better writer overall. I want to give them instruction that they can then apply to their next piece of writing…and the next.

When we are asking our kids to look at the picture or think of what word would make sense in the story or sentence, we are giving our kids ideas for guessing the word that will only help them “read” that one book. {And I use the word “read” loosely because they’re not even looking at the word many times.}

 

When they see wash in another book, have I taught them the tools to help them read or recognize it again? Or even if I flash the word on a notecard, will they be able to decode it? Chances are, if I’m not teaching them how to look at and break apart the letters/syllables word {orthographic mapping}, the answer is a resounding no.

I don’t want to build readers that can just “read” that one book well because they have memorized it or can use the pictures to figure out unknown words. I want to build lifelong readers who have the strategies and confidence to attack the actual words in the next book they read…and the next.

 

5. Building strong spellers

One thing I know for sure. Phonics is connected to spelling. Spelling usually lags behind reading, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a proficient speller who is terrible at decoding {or reading} words.

One of the reasons many of our kids struggle to spell is that they don’t know how to read unknown words. Sure, they might make guesses at words and figure them out based on the context.

But when we ask learners to guess at words based on the pictures or what would make sense, we are asking them to look away from the word. Even if we ask them to look at the first letter and get their lips ready, we are only asking them to look at one part of the word.

And learners need to look at the word…all the letters of the word…to understand how all the sounds and all letters work together to spell the word. This is called orthographic mapping.

When we skip orthographic mapping by asking our learners to look away from the word, we are skipping the very process that allows our learners to store that word for a future reading AND a future spelling of the word.

 

From Balanced Literacy to Structured Literacy Series…

Be sure to check out all the posts in our series by clicking on the images below.

 

Enjoy teaching!
~Becky