**** Reminder: Reading logs are due in one week!
Also, everyone should be zeroing in on topics
for Portfolio now. *********
Writing activity: Hypothetical
situation
Jot down your ideas on the following: What
if a principal called you at home Labour Day weekend or just after New Year's Day and
said, "I need a teacher who is strong in teaching reading and writin!. First I must know what your teaching philosophy
is, and how you would teach your students. What
are some of the activities you could do to reinforce reading with writing?" What would you say? (These are questions that
are often asked in interviews!)
Lecture: How writing reinforces
reading
- Self
selected writing promotes engagement
o Sharing
writing with other students
o Teach
through mini-lessons
o Allow
children to spell unfamiliar words phonetically
o Accept
the work that students do. Do not grade first
drafts.
o From
time to time, take writing further – ask students to target certain skills and go
back to correct their drafts
o Four
steps of SSW program: Silent writing time,
uncorrected spelling, sharing their writing, and book publishing
- Learning
to produce certain types of writing – focused writing
o prompts: audience, role, topic, and type of writing
- How
reading and writing reinforce each other
o Writing
is “over” preparation for reading
o Increases
comprehension
o As
students’ writing ability improves, they transfer these skills to reading
o When
students understand how authors write, it motivates them to try it themselves
- Reading-Writing
lesson plans:
o Cover
prior knowledge or background information for the “prompt”
o Present
the prompt – should extend their comprehension of reading . For example:
Tell us what you think about the part of the story where…
o Students
discuss ideas or do more research
- Using
Writing before reading:
o As
a hook, ask students to brainstorm ideas about a new topic.
For example: write what you
know about living near the North Pole.
- Conventions
of writing
o Just
as there are reading and spelling conventions, teacher should encourage writing
conventions. Name and date on top of page, or
capitalization, proper spelling, grammar, etc.
o Instead
of “word walls” have “writing walls”.
Post writing rules for all to see. “Every
sentence should be printed clearly.” “Every
sentence keeps to the topic.” “Questions
end with a question mark.”
- Writing
across the curriculum
o Just
as above, allow students to choose what they write about a topic (facts about scorpions),
share their writing, spell phonetically, ungraded first drafts, some revision later.
o Ask
them to do focused writing in the subject
Writers Workshop -- Fiction
writing:
Today we are going to do a little workshop that I presented for
the Imagination conference two weeks ago. This
exercise is especially aimed at students who don’t believe they can write stories or
are reluctant writers.
For the full workshop, please go to:
http://www.sfu.ca/~smbarber/wrwrkshp.htm
