Teaching Writing and the Reading-Writing Connection by Janet Simon

Teaching Writing and the Reading-Writing Connection

This entails the identification of the ways to which Reading and Writing can be intertwined. There were three (3) steps to which we looked at.


The first step step to which we focused on was Examining the Writing Styles and Impact on the Reader. For this step, we utilized different books at the kindergarten to grade one level. We identified techniques to which a writer may utilize when writing books to accommodate their intended audience. this could be through the use of rhymes, puns (play on words), use simple vocabulary, build suspense, utilize repetition or appeal to various interests. It is important to not however that when writing, firstly, the smaller the age the writer caters for, the more limited the author will be in writing and secondly, the writer is not confined to using only one style of writing.


The second stage was the use of Exemplary/Mentor texts to Teach Writing. This aspect i found to be interesting because after analyzing the book to which I had, I realized that the book could have been utilized to teach a Literacy Hour lesson. This was possible because within the book, topics which could have been taught were, sight/picture reading, nouns, capitalization, punctuation, voice, rhymes, sight words, story analysis, Direct and Indirect Speech and Predicting (DRA and DRTA). The transfer of learning was also evident given that students could relate the moral taught in the story to their everyday lives, whether in the school or home environment. As a result, i have realized the importance of integrating texts into the Language Arts classroom as it can be used to teach areas such as Reading, Writing, Grammar and Mechanics, Spelling and Vocabulary.


The third aspect was Sharing Pieces of Writing with Peers, Discussing the impact on the Reader. This entailed the planning of writing to ensure that the audience are engaged in some way or another. In this aspect, we as a class, identified the different parts that a narrative piece contained. These aspects included Dialogue (stories are told in the first person), setting. characters, plot (problem, rising action, climax and a resolution). We were then given some writing time to Start a Narrative piece for our portfolio. it is important to not that when writing, the audience is always the primary focus while the purpose for writing may be to entertain, inspire or to teach a lesson or moral.

The fourth stage looked at Teachers Writing for different Purposes and Audiences. In this section we had the opportunity to share the pieces which we started in the previous section and subsequently finished at our convenience. In sharing, we analyzed each piece for the Impact (How does the piece make one feel), its Influence (Does the piece change behavior, attitude or thought towards a particular subject?), Morals taught (Is there a lesson which the story taught?) and Styles used (What techniques did the writer utilize to capture the interest of the audience?). As a result, we took the time to identify purposes for writing which included writing to entertain, inform, educate, report, advertise/promote and to persuade. We then switched focus to the type of Audiences which included (From General to Specific) General Audience- Parents, Adults, Teachers, Children (Teens, Pre-teens (grade 5-6), child (Grade 3-4), Toddler (Kindergarten-Grade 2)). It is important to note that firstly, the Purpose of the piece determines the complexity of the content for the piece while secondly, the complexity of the Language is determined by the word choice and sentence structure of the piece.


By going through this unit, I was afforded the opportunity to reflect on my teaching of Language Arts instruction prior to my teacher training experience and i realized that in comparison to what I have now learnt, I did a very poor job in regards to the integration and effective use of  literature in my classroom as  i was heavily reliant on text books. I believe this too was attributed to the difficulty for me in identifying age appropriate texts for the students to read. However, I now know that I could also engage in constructing these texts as the teacher where the unavailability of texts are evident. I am now of the view that as an instructor of Language Arts Education, I can better provide opportunities for the use and effective integration of age appropriate literature within my language Arts classroom