The Williamsville Central School District 5-8 balanced literacy approach provides students with daily opportunities to engage in reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities.  Students participate in read alouds, guided reading, book clubs, independent reading, and systematic spelling.  In addition, they engage in  guided writing, writing workshop, and independent writing.  Research investigations incorporate the use of a variety of reading and writing skills as learning tools to gain information and communicate understanding. These components comprise the balanced literacy instructional framework.