Useful Articles

Basic Tenets of Rigby Lieracy

1. This programme is built on the principles of balanced literacy.

It features a balanced of instructional approaches to reading and writing: modeled, shared, guided, and independent.

It fosters literacy and language growth in children as readers, writers, speakers, and listeners. It embraces the belief that good readers make better writers and good writers make better readers.

2. Skills instruction is explicit, direct, and delivered within the context of authentic literacy experiences where making meaning is the goal.

To accomplish this, word analysis and phonics are taught along with key comprehension strategies.

3. The teacher materials reflect the fact that the best teachers are the most well informed teachers.

Teachers who understand the stages of language development and how this knowledge influences good instruction are successful teachers. They know how to match children to books, how to tailor instruction to meet children's instructional levels, and how to move learners forward purposefully and systematically.

4. A wide variety of assessment tools has been included throughout all components of the programme to enable teachers to make sound evaluations of student progress.

These tools serve as multiple indicators of a child's literacy progress over time; they do not measure isolated performance for the sake of accountability.

5. The ultimate goal is to give the learner a head start on the path to becoming an independent reader and writer.

Article adapted from Rigby Literacy Teacher's Guide (2000)

Back