What is it? Gradual release of responsibility approach to the teaching of reading. For beginning readers, this includes read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading. Balanced Literacy instruction is focused on shared reading (e.g., the teacher reads aloud to students and asks questions about the text), guided reading (e.g., students read texts at their current ability level and discuss them with the teacher in homogeneous groups), and independent reading (e.g., students self-select books to read on their own).
