Very late to the party. Balanced Lit is at least ten years old and has already been judged a fraud by real educators (like me). There’s very little balance.Lip service is paid to phonics and reading matter is student chosen based on levels. The teacher needs to be very familiar with any number of works if she is to assess and guide the reader. That’s functionally impossible, so teacher assessment and input is also functionally impossible.
Here’s why this article got written now. An excellent teacher in Brooklyn, who prefers to use Sing, Spell, Read, Write, sent me this note last week:
“...just got out of a meeting with my supervisor who said, We like balanced approaches. I hate that argument, have to think of a snappy reply to that stupidity. The basal readers call themselves balanced.”
Clearly a damsel in distress. I wanted to provide the sort of snappy reply that would make the supervisor have a rude awakening.