I agree! When I was in school we had separate classes too. REading, writing and arithmetic. What you said about having children read back to others to see how it makes sense reminds me of the classic game of drawing a bizarre shape and giving it to someone- and it is then their job to relay verbally only to another how to duplicate this bizarre shape. Our words are valuable- but mean different to everyone.
Hi Kathleen - I also really liked the video of the fourth grade teacher who read aloud to his students and had them focus on the authors specific word choice. I like this whole idea of talking about the "author's craft" and focusing on the author's motivation for writing. By doing this we are telling students that writing has a purpose and it's not just something we do in school to pass time.
Ashley and you have both mentioned that reading and writing where taught as separate classes and now are taught as a whole. I wonder if we can take it one stage further and teach both as part of a "communications" class with all the other types of senses that people use to convey messages. The infamous one being the first impression.
I see this lot in the soccer programs. If a team turns up well dressed and warm up as a squad, watch out!
Absolutely...reading fosters writing and writing fosters reading. In my work with kindergarteners last year and first graders this year who are doing writing workshop, I could see the relationship in action. As the students were read to, they were given ideas about what to write about. As the students were able to write words, they were then able to read them. It's a very exciting process to observe. I'm glad you liked the videos. :)
I agree! When I was in school we had separate classes too. REading, writing and arithmetic. What you said about having children read back to others to see how it makes sense reminds me of the classic game of drawing a bizarre shape and giving it to someone- and it is then their job to relay verbally only to another how to duplicate this bizarre shape. Our words are valuable- but mean different to everyone.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathleen - I also really liked the video of the fourth grade teacher who read aloud to his students and had them focus on the authors specific word choice. I like this whole idea of talking about the "author's craft" and focusing on the author's motivation for writing. By doing this we are telling students that writing has a purpose and it's not just something we do in school to pass time.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathleen
ReplyDeleteAshley and you have both mentioned that reading and writing where taught as separate classes and now are taught as a whole. I wonder if we can take it one stage further and teach both as part of a "communications" class with all the other types of senses that people use to convey messages. The infamous one being the first impression.
I see this lot in the soccer programs. If a team turns up well dressed and warm up as a squad, watch out!
Absolutely...reading fosters writing and writing fosters reading. In my work with kindergarteners last year and first graders this year who are doing writing workshop, I could see the relationship in action. As the students were read to, they were given ideas about what to write about. As the students were able to write words, they were then able to read them. It's a very exciting process to observe.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the videos. :)