Our District, at the elementary level, puts a heavy emphasis on Balanced Literacy.  I don’t think this is a mistake.  While I haven’t been in the classroom for six years, I know the value of shared reading and writing, guided reading, independand reading, etc.  Our students need to read and write to be prepared for the future.  I’m part of our Building Leadership Team (BLT), which is a group of teachers, along with the building administrator, who meet with other BLT’s from our District every other month to discuss District goals and how we can continue working to meet the needs of our students.  I wanted to be a part of this team because I feel the library needs to play a large role in the overall literacy program of a school.  I felt I could add value to the team by joining and since there was an opening this year, I was added.

Our first meeting was last week.  Our District is working with representatives affiliated with Stephanie Harvey, a nationally known literacy expert.  I have no idea how much money we are paying for this, but the District is very excited.  Over the past couple of years, our teachers have read books Harvey has written and some of our professional development is centered around her ideas.  Two consultants working for Stephanie Harvey are working with our elementary teachers.  These consultants will be visiting our District every couple of months, speaking to us, visiting classrooms, modeling lessons, and providing advice and guidance to help us along the process.  The consultant that spoke to our group is a 4th grade teacher in Salt Lake City.  She taught in a different district in Utah prior to moving to Salt Lake City this school year.  The students has worked with come from a pretty needy background, which was news to our ears.  Some teachers at my school, me included, can occasionally listen to speakers talk about how great their stuff if, while thinking “They couldn’t do that with OUR kids.”  Well, the students she’s working with come from similar backgrounds, if not worse.  Regardless, we were very impressed with the information she shared and are looking forward to implementing some of the ideas into our classrooms.

One thing, however, got me thinking.  In our Balanced Literacy model, there’s nothing about technology literacy.  Should there be?  One one hand, yes – students needs the tech skills to function in a 21st century world.  On the other hand, students who are thinkers and learners should be able to adapt, right?  When we had a few minutes of free time, I asked this teacher what kind of technology is used with her students.  She said she has an LCD projector connected to her classroom computer and she uses it frequently.  Her example of how she uses it, scared me a little.  She said she uses it to project pictures and other images onto the screen to help students gain background knowledge about something they are reading.  That was the only example she gave me.  To me, this certainly isn’t ideal technology integration.  To serve the same purpose, she could show magazine pictures – Google images isn’t much better.  It didn’t sound like there was much technology use by the students, although maybe there is and she didn’t have time to go into detail.  Maybe I’ll talk to her more the next time she visits.

What do you think? Should some level of technology be a part of Balanced Literacy?  Should it just be woven into the rest?  Please share your thoughts.