At Western Suburbs State Special School students are supported in their learning through a balanced literacy approach to literacy instruction based on the Four Blocks Framework. The Four Blocks Literacy is a balanced literacy approach developed for conventional students and adapted for students with disabilities It was developed on the belief that all students can and will engage with reading when provided with planned opportunities, specific purposes, sufficient time and high expectations.
The concept of “A Balanced Literacy Diet” embraces exposure and practice with all aspects of literacy on a daily basis. It involves reading to and with early readers, providing opportunities for them to read by themselves, writing for and with students and providing opportunities to write by themselves. For our early readers, it also requires explicit teaching of all letters and sounds, with conventional learners working on their word knowledge.