Silver Bullets, babies, and bath water: Literature response groups in a balanced literacy program
| Taking It Forward | |
| Additional Resources | |
| Philosophy | Reference page |
| Abstract | Constance Weaver on Schemata |
| Thesis Preparation | Synthesis of Guided Reading |
| Thesis Investigation | Definition of Terms |
Spiegel,
D.L. (1998). Silver bullets, babies, and bath water:
Literature response groups in a balanced literacy
program.
The Reading Teacher, 52
(2), 114-124.
Fully
informed literacy educators know better than to believe “one size fits all”
in literacy instruction. Allington
states many times in his book What Really Matters to Struggling Readers,
there is no “quick fix” in literacy education.
Yet states continue to mandate one approach to be used in place of
another.
Contrary
to mandates, research show that most literacy approaches work for some children,
but also provides clear evidence that no specific approach works for all
children. To quote the article:
“You can
teach some of the children some of the time with one program, but you can't
teach all of the children all of the time with that same program.”
Legislators
and those that call the shots continue to the misguided search for the silver
bullet. They seek the one approach
that will solve all problems for all students.
The danger in this mindset is that once again they may throw out all the
good things about one program or philosophy because it was not the program with
the magic answer to all students' needs.
To emphasize the point; just because all children did not learn to read
and write through intensive phonics approaches, does this mean that phonics
itself was and ineffective approach? We
cannot afford to throw out entire philosophies, just because it wasn't the fix
for everyone. The whole language
movement has made many important contributions to our understanding of children
and literacy. “We must not permit
our schools and teachers to be forced into ignoring those contributions as the
pendulum swings back toward the other end of the literacy development continuum
(Spiegel, p115).”
Balanced
literacy programs stop the search for the “silver bullet”.
Balanced approaches help us meet the needs of most children because, as
the title implies, such approaches are not restricted to one way of developing
literacy. Important components of
many approaches are combined in varying intensity and style, to meet the needs
of all students.
The
current debate is known today as “whole language vs. explicit strategy and
skill instruction”. A balanced
literacy program takes the best of both approaches, to incorporate into a
comprehensive curriculum. There
are, however, other important issues of balance to be integral in any good
literacy curriculum. Balance should
exist between learner-directed discoveries, instruction that is “responsive to
students' needs or interests, and teacher-directed instruction.
Balance is necessary between indirect instruction and direct or explicit
instruction; between unplanned and planned instruction; between whole-group and
small-group interactions; between student and teacher selected materials; and
between authentic assessment and standardized, norm-referenced assessment.
A review of these areas brings to mind a classroom where guided reading
is at the heart of the program, supported by teacher read alouds, choral
reading, shared reading and writing and independent reading and writing.
The
author has a clear point of definition to a balanced approach.
“A balanced approach to literacy development is a decision-making
approach through which the teacher makes thoughtful choices each day about the
best way to help each child become a better reader and writer.
It is not restrained by or reactive to a particular philosophy.
It is responsive to new issues while maintaining what research has
already shown to be effective. The
balanced approach allows a teacher to be a reflective decision maker and to fine
tune and modify what he or she is doing each day in order to meet the needs of
the individual students in his or her care.
We
are all well aware that not everyone learns in the same way.
Rather than trying to shoot each learner with the same “silver
bullet”, we need to celebrate the diversity that exists among us.
A balanced literacy program allows each teacher to select what is right
for each child and each task and to change the emphasis easily.
The flexibility empowers teachers to tailor what they do for each child
each day. As
individual children grow and change, so too does the intensity of, and method of
approach.
Research
findings, both formal and informal (teacher observation), drive a balanced
approach. The approach views the
teacher as an informed decision maker who develops a flexible program, and it is
constructed around a comprehensive view of literacy.
The approach rests on two delicate balances, there
is a balance between literature envisionment (is there a comprehensive view) and
skill/strategy instruction. The other is an instructional balance
between teacher-initiated instruction and instruction responsive to students'
needs and interests.
Characteristics
of a balanced literacy approach
|
|
·
Is built on research ·
Views teachers as informed decision makers and therefore is flexible,
“no two balanced programs are identical”.
Teachers must have a full repertoire of strategies for helping
children develop literacy and they also need to know when to implement
each strategy. ·
Is built on a comprehensive view of literacy.
A comprehensive view of literacy does not emphasize one aspect of
literacy at the expense of another. It
is balanced.
-Literacy involves both reading and writing. Advantage should be taken of the reciprocal relationship
between the two. -Reading is not just word identification, but word identification is part of reading. A reader cannot gain access to an author's intended meaning without the ability to identify most of the words the author has used. A reader must have a repertoire of word identification strategies, and phonics should be part of that repertoire.
-Readers must be able to take different stances in reading:
aesthetic (like an architect; enjoyment, thinking, feeling, the
reader reads to experience) and efferent (like the engineer; practical
use, where the reader reads to learn)
-Writers must be able to express meaningful ideas clearly.
-Writing is not just grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but those
are all part of effective writing. Mechanics
are the vehicle through which ideas are expressed.
-A comprehensive program develops lifelong readers and writers.
We want children to become hooked, and choose reading and writing
as leisure-time activities. Reading
and writing should be chosen to solve problems and as tools for gaining
and transmitting knowledge. |
In
conclusion, it is fruitless to search for the silver bullet, for the “one
size fits all fix”. We
know a lot about children and methods and about how they can interact to produce
learning. Now we need to pull our
knowledge together into a comprehensive and flexible approach, termed the
balanced approach to literacy instruction.