Reading and Writing

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Reading and Writing

• By
• Ximena Schneider

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Reading Next and Writing Next
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The reading and writing report from the Alliance
for Excellent Education by Giana Biancarosa and
Catherine Snow research on literacy for
adolescent students has made some recommendations
to improve literacy in adolescences.
Carnegie Foundation's Reading Next and
Writing Next
The Study
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Recommendations For Reading

• 1. Direct, explicit comprehension
• 2. Effective instructional principles embedded in
  content
• 3. Motivation and self-directed learning
• 4. Text-based collaborative learning,
• 5. Strategic tutoring
• 6. Diverse texts
• 7. Intensive writing
• 8. A technology component
• 9. Ongoing formative assessment of students
• 10. Extended time for literacy
• 11. Professional development
• 12. Ongoing summative assessment of students and
  programs
• 13. Teacher teams
• 14. Leadership
• 15. A comprehensive and coordinated literacy
  program

• This report
• provides
• fifteen
• elements
• designed at
• improving
• middle and
• high school
• literacy

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Recommendations 1 and 2

• 1 Effective comprehension instruction requires
  purposeful and explicit teaching
• A teacher needs to
• know what the students cognitive needs
• to be clear
• needs to have a purpose
• provide scaffolded instruction in research-tested
  strategies
• to model the strategy and to allow students to
  use them

• 2 Effective reading instruction embedded in
  content
• A teacher needs to
• Provide interactions that support the
  understanding of all the subjects
• uses a range of techniques of specific texts
• is clear about the types of texts
• provides discussions
• provides writing in response to reading

Strategies Previewing the text and
predicting Chunking the text Read Aloud and think
aloud Review, retelling, summarizing Graphic
sources, organizers (graphic organizers),
visual images Attending to text structure
Discussions Student-led discussions Balanced
level of questions Blooms Taxonomy
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Recommendations 3 and 4

• 3 Motivation and self-directed learning
• Effective reading comprehension instruction
  starts with motivation and attitude
• A teacher needs to
• help the student to become aware of their unique
  learning strengths
• show motivation her/himself
• provide the students with opportunities to choose
  reading materials/type
• provide opportunities for success
• emphasize progress rather than performance
• allow students to have some control over the
  choices of text

• 4 Effective reading instruction offers
  Text-based collaborative learning
• A teacher needs to
• provide a rage of concepts and techniques for
  enhancing the value of student-student
  interaction
• promote reading across the curriculum
• encourage small group participation
• promote interaction beyond discussion
• encourage decentralized learning

Builders of motivation Presence of different
genres Books with different levels of reading
difficulty Goal to enjoy and learn rather than
a grade Independent reading time
Collaborative learning Positive interdependence
what helps one helps all Individual
accountability Processing group interaction
time, number of members in a group Heterogeneous
and homogeneous grouping
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Recommendations 5 and 6

• 5 Strategic tutoring
• Needs to
• provide students with intense individualized
  reading, writing, and content instruction as
• Tutoring needs to
• provide Intense and individualize instruction
• focus on specific area of reading (within the 5)
• be offered during the school day

• 6 Effective reading instruction offers a
  diversity of texts
• A teacher needs to
• provide a rage of concepts and techniques for
  enhancing the value of student-student
  interaction
• promote reading across the curriculum
• encourage small group participation
• promote interaction beyond discussion
• encourage decentralized learning

Five areas of reading instruction Phonemic
awareness Decoding Fluency Vocabulary
Comprehension
Weave a web of connections within lessons, across
lessons, and to students lives in and out of
school.
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Recommendations 7 and 8

• 7 Effective reading instruction offers
  Intensive writing
• Reading to Writing activities
• Dialogue journals
• Debate
• Thematic units
• Writing to Reading activities
• Writing as a pre-reading activity
• Writing during reading activity
• Writing as a post reading activity

• 8 A technology component
• Needs to use
• Technology as both an instructional tool and an
  instructional topic
• Technology as a facilitator of literacy and a
  medium of literacy
• Needs to be use in different way or stages of
  literacy
• Computer applications for instruction
• supplementary applications to used along with
  other forms of instruction and stand-alone
  applications that are used by students with
  minimal teacher input

The connection Reading and writing are natural
partners One cannot be done without the other
Writers write so their work can be read
Software packages and Internet can
provide literacy instruction to support a
self-paced, stand-alone reading and writing
environment Game /interactive activities are
mediums of learning and entertainment
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Recommendations 9 and 10

• 9 On going assessment for students
• Pre-during-post assessments
• Running records (keep track of progress)
• Results need to be accessible to those who work
  with the kids
• Make results (data) meaningful and have a purpose
  for testing
• Focus on one area of reading at the time
• Reading fluency accuracy, rate, prosody
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension (It must require students to
  demonstrate their level of reading comprehension
  by completing some task)

• 10 Extended time for reading
• Reading instruction and practice needs to happen
  throughout the day
• At least 2 to 4 hours of instruction connected to
  the Language Arts
• Time needs to be spend connecting reading and
  writing
• Reading time needs to be meaningful quantity not
  always equals quality
• Make time for reading

Assessment should be meaningful Use data
to Promote learning Plan strategically, to
individualize teaching/learning Provide evidence
to support decisions as to where to focus
resources and teaching.
I Have No Time I have no time to dream a dream Or
think a splendid thought. . . . .. I need time
to read!
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Recommendations 11 and 12

• 11 Professional Development
• Teachers should
• have on going professional development
• be offered to everyone that works directly with
  the students
• should use data from research studies
• attend inservice of specific and non-specific
  content areas (to sharpen cross-curriculum
  instruction)
• seek professional development that is tied to the
  school, district, and state goals (curriculum and
  standards) for student achievement
• Reflect on students need to seek the right
  inservice

• 12 Ongoing summative Assessment of Students and
  Programs
• Summative assessments
• are typically used to evaluate the effectiveness
  of instructional programs and services at the end
  of an academic year or at a pre-determined time
• determine each student's ability
• are used to identify instructional areas that
  need additional attention
• are used to determine if students have mastered
  specific abilities

Professional development can promote a positive
school environment, Improve individual teacher
skills, team work, and student achievement.
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Recommendations 13 and 14

• 13 Teacher teams
• Teams need
• to be properly fashioned and managed
• to be diverse (strengths, abilities, experience,
  expertise)
• need to distribute obligations and resources
• to last for prolonged period of time (to grow
  effectively into productive teams)
• to have accountability as a team
• to have informative assessments
• to report to principal/supervisor

• 14 Leadership
• Entitles
• a principal and staff with a collective vision
• a principal and commitment and enthusiasm
• a school with a defined mission statement, a
  vision and goals and objectives
• a principal with knowledge of students strengths
  and learning needs
• teachers who are capable to assume a leadership
  role in teams or committees

Two (or more) heads are better than one!
Leadership is not magnetic personalitythat can
just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making
friends and influencing peoplethat is flattery.
Leadership is lifting a person's vision to
higher sights, the raising of a person's
performance to a higher standard, the building
of a personality beyond its normal
limitations. Peter F. Drucker
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Recommendation 15

• 15 A comprehensive and Coordinated Literacy
  Program
• A program that
• requires teachers to work and coordinate
  instruction
• encourages interdisciplinary teams
• promotes reading and writing teachers support and
  help content-area teachers
• teachers to share writing and reading skills to
  support other subjects
• reaches or initiates collaborations with
  our-of-school organizations
• displays motivation, enthusiasm, commitments to
  learning and reflects these to the students

The achievements of an organization are the
results of the combined effort of each
individual. Vincent Lombardi
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One cannot be done without the other!Reading and
Writing
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(No Transcript)
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Reading
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(No Transcript)
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Recommendations For Writing

• This report
• provides
• eleven
• elements
• designed at
• improving
• middle and
• high school
• literacy

• Writing Strategies
• Summarization
• Collaborative Writing
• 4. Specific Product Goals
• Word Processing
• Sentence-Combining
• Prewriting
• Inquiry Activities
• Process Writing Approach
• Study of Models
• Writing for content learning

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Recommendations 1 and 2

• 2 Summarization
• Students need to learn to express their reading
  in a shorter version
• The summary captures all the most important parts
  of the original (passage, story, article), but
  expresses them in a shorter version

• 1 Teaching Explicit Writing Strategies
• Intensive instruction should focus on the
  following
• Writing strategies
• Knowledge of the elements of genres
• Self-regulation strategies

Brainstorming Peer-revising Journaling
response, double-entry journals, learning
logs Gist statements Focusing on one element at a
time ideas, organization, word choice,
sentence fluency, convention, and voice Exit
Slips SRSD self-regulated strategy development
Read the article. Re-read the article. Underline
important ideas. Circle/underline key terms.
Find the main point of the article. Divide the
article into sections Write brief outline of the
article/passage/story.  Write a rough draft of
the summary Combine these steps into
paragraphs. Read it to yourself, a peer and/or
teacher 
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Recommendations 3 and 4

• 3 Collaborative Writing
• Collaborative groups draw upon the strengths of
  all their members
• One student may be stronger in one area (example
  one can be stronger in critical thinking skills,
  another may excel in organizing)
• By working in groups, students learn from each
  other while they complete assigned tasks

• 4 Specific Product Goals
• Students need attainable specific goals
• Be specific (element, trait, genre)
• Use models to attain specific goal
• Models show students what they should do, and
  avoid what they need to avoid

Students work together to plan, raft, revise,
and edit their compositions Positive
interdependence what helps one helps all
If you don't know where you are going,
youll end up someplace else. Jogi
Berra Or Alice in Wonderland found out, "If you
don't know where you're going, then any road can
take you there." 
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Recommendations 5 and 6

• 5 Word Processing
• Word processors are powerful assistants
• World Wide Web provides new ways to practice
  writing
• Word processors provide software to enhance
  writing example, Inspiration (organizing, pre
  writing, outlining skills)

• 6 Sentence Combining
• Grammar instruction should be matched to the
  purpose of the user
• Kill two birds in one shot encourage the
  students to explain how incorrect usage of the
  words/sentences or passage in the essay might
  affect the reader (writing and reading)
• When reading, point out the simple and complex
  sentences
• Ask students to find models of simple and complex
  sentences as they read

Word processing is primarily about manipulating
text Add, edit, cut and paste, move text
Working with sentences http//www.geocities.com/f
ifth_grade_tpes/sentence2.html
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Recommendations 7 and 8

• 7 Pre-writing
• Allow some time in class for students to engage
  in prewriting activities
• Response Journals (prompts)
• Dialogue Journals (interact with others and text)
• Brainstorming
• Mapping and webbing, flow charts and trees
• Free writing
• Summaries and Questioning
• Annotated Bibliographies (when using resources)
• Electronic Discussions (using technology)
• Listing Outlines (start small and simple)
• Models (see others pre-writing work)

• 8 Inquiry Activities
• Engage students in activities that target
• The development of ideas
• Analyzing
• Comparing and contrasting
• Evaluating
• Synthesizing
• Collecting data and evidence
• Reflect on observations
• Work with other subjects (cross-curriculum)

1) Why am I writing? (purpose)2) What will I
write about? (subject)3) What will I say?
(content)4) How will I say it? (voice) 5) For
whom am I writing? (audience)
Ideas Create a brochure Reporter assignment
(newspaper article) Review of literature Present
a historical event Write about science processes
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Recommendations 9 and 10

• 9 Process Writing Approach
• Encourages planning
• Encourages ownership and responsibility of ones
  writing
• Encourages dialogue with others writing
• Encourages questioning writing purpose and
  process
• Encourages self-reflection and evaluation
• Keeps in mind the different traits of writing
• Ideas
• Organization
• Word choice
• Sentence fluency
• Conventions
• voice

• 10 Study of Models
• Studying models help students understand the
  conventions
• It serves as a motivator (they want to produce
  something like it)
• Models show students way to use the critical
  elements of writing

What do I write about? Who is my audience? How
do I structure my essay? What sort of language
and voice should I use? I need to fix this, I
need to fix that. . . I can add this, I can
delete that. . . .
A good example model has twice the value of
good advice To accept good advice is but to
increase one's own ability Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
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Recommendations 11

• 11 Writing for Content Area
• All subjects should include some form of writing
• Students should write for authentic audiences and
  purposes
• Students should know in advance the criteria that
  will be used to assess their writing
• Examples
• Science research, process, analytical, compare
  and contrast, cause and effect, sequence (step by
  step) papers
• Social Studies research, cause and effect,
  compare and contrast, narrative, biographical
  papers
• P.E. how to, cause and effect, compare and
  contrast papers
• Mathematics how to paper

Since each subject (content area) has its own
conventions and style, those conventions should
be taught to students. Then, content area
teachers have the responsibility to teach reading
and writing through the content area
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Read like a writer and write like a reader!