Coming soon...
 

The Balanced Literacy Diet is a framework that presents literacy concepts using the familiar terminology of a healthy diet. Everyone knows that in order to grow and develop there are certain food groups we need on a daily basis. We also know it’s important to consume foods from these groups in balance and that some foods are more important at certain stages of development. Finally, we know that flavor and presentation are what make foods appealing and therefore more likely to be consumed.

The soon-to-be-launched Balanced Literacy Diet website is designed for use by teachers, school administrators, parents, and teacher educators and is organized around 15 key “food groups” for literacy. These food groups, based on what is known from research and practice, represent essential ingredients of effective literacy instruction in elementary school. The Balanced Literacy Diet website explains the importance of each of the literacy food groups and presents hundreds of “recipes for literacy,” including detailed lesson plans and downloadable materials. Many of the recipes are demonstrated with how-to videos in which different “classroom chefs” explain and present some of their favorite literacy recipes in their own personal styles.

An innovative and exciting feature of the Balanced Literacy Diet website is that it includes virtual classroom visits – through the power of virtual tour technology. These virtual tours will allow website visitors to navigate around classrooms of exemplary literacy teachers, ranging from Pre-K to 6^th grade, zooming in for a closer look at teaching materials and examples of children’s work. By clicking on “hot spots” virtual classroom visitors will be able to watch videos of teachers sharing insights and demonstrating how they set up and implement effective and engaging instruction.