These activities support and extend oral language development and help students connect oral to written language. Students engage in comprehension activities which include both explicit and implicit instructions in appropriate skills and strategies in order to evaluate, synthesize, analyze, connect, infer and inquire. Students engage in activities to develop concepts and vocabulary in order to build knowledge and read increasingly complex texts. Students read both orally and silently from a variety of high-quality fiction and nonfiction texts at both independent and instructional levels across the curriculum, including, as often as possible, texts in the students' first language. Students write to support and extend their knowledge of the structure of language, and construct meaning.
Students engage in a variety of assessment activities.
Assessments include periodic standardized tests, when appropriate, and ongoing informal evaluations that assist in determining the students abilities and needs, as well as, the effectiveness of instruction. Examples of informal assessment include self-monitoring, teacher observation of both oral and silent reading, student portfolios, and conferences with parents. Ideally second language learners are assessed in the language in which they are most proficient. The following assumptions guide the delivery of balanced reading instruction. Instruction includes information on how to use the structure of language and how to construct meaning from various texts.