There are many forms of assessment but writing is the primary basis upon which a child’s work will be judged and Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) made emphasis that teachers should focus on writing because reading and writing are intertwined and is used to construct meaning (pg. 338). It becomes important for teachers to teach writing because it is a form of expression of self. We learned in earlier chapters that readers construct meaning as they read likewise Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) informed that writers construct meaning as they create text (pg. 338).
Fortunately, there are a numbers of strategies for children with reading and writing problems. I agree with Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) when they made mention to the fact that children tend to enjoy writing when writing is relevant to their own lives (pg. 341). Therefore I would implement independent writing to get my students instructing them to write about themselves in the area of family, food, culture, or music. At other times I would also allow them to choose their own topics. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) referred to this strategy as an effective way to promote writing (pg. 341). Encouraging students to share their work builds self-esteem and give them confidence to want to write more. These activities also improve reading skills. They need to organize thought and think about the information they need to include in their writing. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) advised that it is important to check if thoughts are communicated properly, are the thoughts in order and if grammar and punctuations are used effectively (pg. 343). I have seen students using the teachers’ writing as help for their own work therefore I would also use model writing to promote writing. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) pointed out that as students get more knowledgeable they rely less on the teachers input (pg. 344).
To differentiate the connection of reading and writing first involves looking at the readiness and interest of students. The skill level and background information along with topics that will peak interests and increase motivation are essential to reading and writing. I would pay close attention to the topics I select for my students. I agree with Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) on their observation that students are more eager to write when they choose their own topic that is of interest to them.
Thinking about a topic to write about is not always easy, and sometimes the process of writing can end up being difficult. Jennifer Jacobson discusses strategies to overcome the struggles that young writers can encounter while writing. I was interested in her book No More “I’m Done!” Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades because I feel like as a future teacher this could be a frequent problem among students. From reading this book, I hoped that I would learn useful strategies that I could use to help students overcome their problems with writing. After reading this book, I do believe that Jacobson has provided me with plenty of methods to use. I was surprised at the depth that she goes into in her text. There is a vast amount
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for them.
Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen, eds. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. 7th ed. NewYork: Longman, 2000.
There are various ways writers can evaluate their techniques applied in writing. The genre of writing about writing can be approached in various ways – from a process paper to sharing personal experience. The elements that go into this specific genre include answers to the five most important questions who, what, where, and why they write. Anne Lamott, Junot Diaz, Kent Haruf, and Susan Sontag discuss these ideas in their individual investigations. These authors create different experiences for the reader, but these same themes emerge: fears of failing, personal feelings toward writing, and most importantly personal insight on the importance of writing and what works and does not work in their writing procedures.
Being a new teacher of English, I find the assessment of compositions to be a concept I question and struggle with on a regular basis. Having consulted several colleagues, mentors, administrators, and fellow graduate students, I have come to the conclusion that there is no easy answer to this tedious yet ever important question. While there are many inlets and outlets to this dilemma, for the sake of time I will touch on only three. While all three are very different in terms of concepts, rituals, and conducts, they all come together to one common goal - helping students express themselves in terms of writing.
The paper includes twelve research-based guidelines for supporting writing development in early childhood classrooms. The guidelines included are to build writing into your daily schedule, to accept all forms of writing, to explicitly model writing, to scaffold children’s writing, to encourage invented spelling, to make writing opportunities meaningful, to have writing materials in all centers, to display themed-related words in the writing center, to engage in group writing experience, to make writing a way to connect with families, and to use technology to support writing. This article will be useful to use for my project so that I can explain all of the ways to support writing in an early childhood
Literacy is the understanding of reading and writing. People develop this skill by learning the language and be able speak, read, write, understand. This is important because people need to be able to communicate and understand reading the text. People learn their language when they were about 2 years old. They will learn it from their family and parents. After they know how to communicate with their family, they learn how to read and write. The grammar skill develop by the time and how much they use the English language. People learn the language by reading and understand the concept. People also need to know how to write and be able to make other people to understand their text, this mean literacy skill. You learn this by know the strategy of writing and understand the text when you read something. The more you read and write, you improve the literacy skill.
6+1 Writing Assessment Traits and The Writing Process, Retrieved 23 Oct 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nwrel.org/eval/writing/spiral.pdf
Writing and reading are two essential skills that we need to have in order to succeed in any field of study that we have chosen. Without these two we would not be here, wouldn’t be writing right now and would be considered the lowest class of our society. There are different aspects of writing that each of us may, or may not, excel at. Some of us are creative enough to write short stories or even novels on fiction while others, like me, are better at writing essays. To accomplish this we have all had a person to inspire us, to drive us, to get us over the hump of confidence that we need to succeed. Still to be successful we need to count on ourselves to succeed.
There is no question that a connection between reading and writing exists. Although, to what degree does one have to be immersed into literature for it to influence students’ writing experiences? Some ideas to help formulate answers and support this connection can be found in the two following articles in which, authors address the relationship between reading and writing. In the first piece titled The Reading-Writing Connection, author Olness (2005) offers insight to this connection by assembling many teachers and researchers information on the connection between reading, writing, and the value of quality children’s literature. Olness provides examples and ideas of how to successfully join reading with writing in the classroom. In the second article titled Literary Borrowing: The Effects of Literature on Children’s Writing, Lancia (1997) investigates the frequency and diversity of the independent ways children use ideas from literature while composing. Lancia illustrates the active relationship between reading and writing through a study he conducted within his second grade classroom. Both of these articles address the strong connection that reading imposes on student compositions and how inexorably writing affects all aspects of reading and the use of language.
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
... for teachers to choose materials that will hook students and motivate them to engage in their own learning. Teachers should provide multiple learning opportunities in which stu¬dents can experience success and can begin to build confidence in their ability to read, write, and think at higher level. By connecting strategies for learning, such as searching, compre¬hending, interpreting, composing, and teaching content knowledge, students are given the opportunity to succeed in their education. These elements include: fundamental skills such as phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, and other word analysis skills that support word reading accuracy; text reading fluency; strategies for building vocabulary; strategies for understanding and using the specific textual features that distinguish different genres; and self-regulated use of reading comprehension strategies.
Although adequate writing skills are indispensable for life, leisure, and employment, quite a few students do not learn how to write effectively. Since writing is an exercise in thinking, it is important to balance the process of writing with the mechanics of writing. The areas of the brain involved in the writing task are varied yet interrelated; therefore, a student’s individual needs will determine the method of instruction they receive. Many students who have low expectations for their own academic success will not make even minimal efforts to complete a...
Two days a week in the morning, the children participate in a reading and writing block called “literacy and writing workshop.” The classroom is organized into five different levels with one group having one extra person; the levels are based on scoring of reading assessments. The groups are rotated so that each may spend 15 minutes cycles with either the teacher or Para-educator. The groups not with an instructor were to work on the “Daily-5” (explanation later) until their scheduled lesson. After the students finish their lesson, they are to fill the remainder of the workshop time working on “Daily-5.” This workshop is part of a regular routine. The students understand that after a reading a story with the teacher, they are verbally given a writing assignment. The assignment is usually to write a five sentence paragraph and color a picture related to the reading.