Guided Reading and Basals

Balanced literacy is a useful tool to guide literacy instruction in the classroom. Its components and stages encourage students to develop literacy skills in a variety of ways. Basal reading programs can be coupled with a balanced literacy approach in the classroom. I agree with Avalos et al's discussion of how grade level texts can incorporate a vast quantity of material and resources to help teachers use guided reading instruction. These texts benefit all students because they can be individualized with structured lesson formats and built-in assessments. Although there are many benefits to using basals in the classroom, I have noticed that their effectiveness depends on how and when the teacher chooses to incorporate them.

I have noticed that it's much easier to introduce key concepts like vocabulary or phonemic awareness skills since there is a built-in repetition to the lesson plans. However, simply relying on basals for whole class instruction does not meet the individual needs of students. I prefer the use of basals in the classroom when it is coupled with a more individualized, small group guided reading instruction. This way the structured, useful components of basals can be built upon during smaller group time, like in literacy centers.