Ready to Write...and Read

Dear Educator,

Each month when I sit down to write this newsletter, the hardest part is getting started. In this month's issue, you'll find a collection of creative ways to help young children get started on that wonderful, expressive, and sometimes intimidating writing process. I hope you enjoy these tips and resources and get some ideas you can use in your classroom this fall. Meanwhile, here's to the sun, long days, gardens, and vacations of summer. Long may it last!

Best wishes,

Rosalind Iiams, Editor
editor@primaryconcepts.com

In recent years, reading has captured the lion's share of attention in primary education, with writing sometimes getting short shrift. Yet writing is not only important in itself; it also plays a crucial role in improving reading comprehension. In the past few years, top researchers have begun developing new models of integrated reading and writing instruction. Meanwhile, teachers around the country are developing their own strategies to teach children to write to read and comprehend-and to write easily, freely, and joyfully.

Writing for Reading Comprehension. A number of studies have found that the act of writing in connection with reading increases reading comprehension. In one study of college freshmen taking a remedial reading course, students wrote for just 10 minutes a day. This writing practice resulted in improved reading comprehension and more positive attitudes about instruction and their own abilities. Writing was found to help the students see relationships and connections in what they had read. Because they had to organize their own thoughts on paper, they were better able to see how other writers had organized their ideas-and thus to comprehend what the writer was trying to say.

But this isn't just true for college students. In a 1997 study by Stahl, Heubach, and Cramond, a second-grade curriculum was revamped to focus on comprehension. The redesign included students working independently with organizational tools like story maps, plot charts, and Venn diagrams, as well as writing journal entries about what they had read. Reading comprehension improved significantly. A further study by Taylor et al. (2000) found that first grade teachers judged by their principals and peers to be most effective in educating high-poverty students to high levels of literacy were much more likely than other teachers to ask higher order questions about the text students were reading, and to emphasize writing in response to reading. These teachers did not neglect other reading strategies: they also emphasized word identification and decoding, practiced high frequency words, and coached their students on word recognition strategies during reading.

An exciting long-term study currently being carried out by James L. Collins and other researchers is testing an integrated reading and writing methodology, "Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension" (WIRC). The study will explore the effect that purposeful, integrated reading and writing instruction has on reading comprehension and writing performance. "It is my theory and experience," Collins says, "that the ability to write about texts contributes to reading comprehension, as well as benefits from it." This multi-year study is concluding soon; the results should be fascinating.

"What Should I Write About?" However important it is, writing can be intimidating to young students. Many teachers have had great success using journals to get their students started. Teachers note that journal writing feels "safe." First graders can start out using mostly illustrations, then progress over the year to writing more and more words. Journal writing also helps students improve in grammar mechanics simply because they are writing more, even when they are not consciously working on grammar.Teachers report a variety of techniques to get their students started each day in their journals. Some use personal questions written in each student's journal, a class prompt, or a quote. Besides writing about themselves, students can also use journals to record what they have read. This gives them a chance to summarize the knowledge they have acquired, and record any questions. They can also make connections between the new information they have received and prior knowledge (which they may have recorded before a lesson).

Other writing projects include class books, autobiographies, acrostic poems, and drawing and writing activities. See the links below for lots more teacher-tested resources and writing ideas.

Young writers can paste, stamp or draw their stories on these printed backgrounds, then write down the story they have created.

[Source: Primary Concepts' Stamp Your Own Stories]

July specials, online only!
Complete Story Stamping Special (4421) Regularly $45.00; Special 39.95	Primary Writing Center (1855) Regularly $99.00; Special $89.00

Do you have a writing activity your students love? Send it to us, and we'll share it with our readers next month.

Kindergarten teacher Pam Mendrick sent in this creative activity in response to last month's newsletter:

"My students' favorite activity with sight words is called Read My Mind. It is very easy to play. I choose a word from our word wall and give a clue (see example below). Next I call on one child to "read my mind" and guess what word it is. If the child is correct, they get to be the teacher and have another student "read their mind." If they are incorrect, I give another clue and call on another child. I continue giving clues until a student can "read my mind."

At the beginning of the year, I choose the words and give clues even if a child guesses the correct word. It takes a lot of time for the students to learn what a clue is.

Example: I chose the word "get." I might say, "This word begins with the sound /g/. If there is more than one /g/ sounding word, my next clue might be, "This word has 3 letters in it." If another clue is needed, I might say, "This word ends with a T." If another clue is needed, I might say, "It has the short vowel sound for E in the middle." This is a great way to help with decoding skills. It is also important to use words that are hard to decode such as, "the." The clues for this word might sound like this:

1. "This word has an 'e' at the end."
2. "This word uses 'th' at the beginning."
3. "In this word, the 'th' does NOT sound like /t/, /h/. It sounds like /th/.
4. "This word is usually found at the beginning of a sentence."
5. "Many books begin with this word."

"The children LOVE this game. I make sure to gently tease them about how I'm going to give them a word that they won't be able to guess correctly!"

Independent practice is a wonderful idea, but preparation and management of literacy centers can be daunting. We'll share ideas and resources for using literacy centers in your classroom.

When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.

—Sigmund Freud