Abstract
As I write this chapter in late 2003, I reflect that I cannot count the number of invitations I have received in the past few years to talk about balanced reading instruction, particularly in the elementary grades. Even more uncountable are the number of references I have seen in print in the past few years to “balanced instruction.” Plugging “balanced instruction,” “balanced teaching,” and “balanced literacy instruction,” into the data bases of the electronic booksellers, I come up with more than 20 titles on the topic. Balanced literacy instruction seems very much to be “in.” Perhaps I should feel good about that, since I wrote the first book on the topic (Pressley, 1998) and then, as I broadened my perspective on it, revised that book (Pressley, 2002), anticipating I will do so again (Pressley, 2006?). The fact of the matter is that I do not feel so good about all of the activities claiming to be about balanced instruction. There are many who are using the variations of the term, “balanced instruction,” in ways that are very different that I intended and in ways that do not inspire confidence in me that children’s literacy will be much advanced by their efforts.
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Pressley, M. (2005). Balanced Elementary Literacy Instruction in the United States: A Personal Perspective. In: Bascia, N., Cumming, A., Datnow, A., Leithwood, K., Livingstone, D. (eds) International Handbook of Educational Policy. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3201-3_33
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