How to Teach
Reading through Conferring in Writing Arlyne
LeSchack
Reading and writing are connected and if you think
about it we might do better in teaching literacy if we started by
teaching writing instead of reading. After all when you are writing
you are making your own marks, when you're reading you're reading
somebody else's marks. For some children at least, there's stronger
motivation to make their own marks and
to read them back.
When very small children begin to write, they spend
a good deal of the time reading back what they wrote and rereading
it again. When children try to sound out their own words to write
them they don't lose meaning in the same way that they might when
they are reading someone else's story; they already have the meaning
in their own story so if they focus on the sounds in the words there's
nothing lost.
Very young children will tell their stories in pictures
at first; we can use this opportunity to point out to children that
the pictures in their books tell part of a story as well. Using
picture clues is definitely a reading mini-lesson, and now it can
be reinforced through a writing workshop conference with a young
writer. Another important skill that you'll be teaching during reading
workshop is one to one matching. Children need to understand that
one spoken word is represented by one written word. This skill can
be supported when working with children on their own writing during
writing workshop.
Before children are even ready to write a sentence
with several words to tell their story, they can label their picture
with words. Each picture then has a word to match- another form
of one to one correspondence. After the labeling stage, you might
have the children point on the page to where they would put their
words. This very concretely helps the child move from one stage
to the next.
At the same time, we can also help the child master
the letter-sound correspondence by asking them what sounds they
hear at the beginning of the words they want to write in their stories
or labels. Once they hear the sounds and they learn that these sounds
are represented by letters, they can mark them down on their papers.
For children at this stage, it might be helpful to have an alphabet
chart in their writing folders. At the same time, you might use
a word wall for sight words that you want the children to know.
A copy of that chart can also be in their folder. These charts serve
as a scaffold for the beginning writer and of course help them as
readers as well.
Fluency has become a buzz word within the literacy
instruction world, and what better way for students to become fluent
then by having them reread their own writing. By rereading their
own writing children develop their voice and style.. It can also
help them think of new topics and clarify what they've already written.
This works for very young writers as well as for students as they
develop.
I'll continue this topic in future articles. In the
meantime, if you have comments or questions,
please contact me at aleschack@aol.com.
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