Application of balanced literacy in Turkish education: An action research with 5th grade

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficiency of balanced literacy in improving reading comprehension and written expression (composition) skills of 5th grade students in primary education. The research was designed as an action research since it aimed to put forth the application process of the balanced literacy approach.The study was conducted through the 2007-2008 education year, the spring term between 13.02.2008 and 04.06.2008 in Eskişehir Ticaret Borsası Primary School, in Turkish course with 5th grade students.The teaching application of the study was provided to the whole class. However, a total of 6 students, three girls and three boys were focused on and in the presentation of the findings, the data of these students were made use of intensively. In the study, reciprocal teaching and process approach, which balanced literacy appreciates were made use of. The data of the study were collected through ?video records?, ?semi-structured interviews?, ?reflective diaries?, ?teacher diaries?, ?reading comprehension tests?, ?composition tests?, and ?balanced literacy control forms? via quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. The analysis of the data was conducted in two phases as the analysis during data collection and the analyses after data collection. In the analysis of quantitative data, the ?SPSS for windows? package program was used. In the analysis of qualitative data a descriptive method was used. In the process of analyzing qualitative data, during the coding phase, the Nvivo8 program was used.At the end of the quantitative analysis, it was observed that students showed progress in reading comprehension skills. In the improving of reading comprehension skills, the findings which were obtained from qualitative data showed that students improved in predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing skills by making use of balanced literacy in an interactive environment.The findings obtained from quantitative data in improving writing expression skills showed that students improved in written expression skills. However, qualitative data did not support this result. While students showed improvement in the ?outer structure? dimension of written expression, in the ?inner structure? and in language and expression dimension of written expression this improvement was observed as limited compared to ?outer structure? dimension.Results from the qualitative data revealed that, during the improvement of written expression skills, the teaching writing process through balanced literacy components in an interactive teaching environment makes progress in these skills.It was observed that in the scope of balanced literacy, making good use of different assessment tools and methods related to product and process evaluation in evaluation dimension is efficient. (Using self-evaluation tools allowed the students to revise their studies and correct their mistakes.) It was observed that constructive criticism skills of students improved through peer evaluation. Students? participation in the evaluation process affected the students positively in understanding what was expected from them in the teaching and learning process and this affected the quality of learning outcomes?It was also observed that the usage of balanced literacy components in reading comprehension and written expression affected students? class participation positively. Moreover, it was seen that the interactive teaching environment helped students in improving intellectual skills.According to the findings which were obtained from the ideas of the students at the end of the school term, students showed positive attitudes towards the lesson in which the balanced literacy approach principles were used.