Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Supporting Writing Through Read-Aloud/Story Writing

     Many adults may think that teaching young children how to write does not have a large connection with reading and speaking, but they are all truly intertwined. When trying to support young writers, reading aloud to them is one of the best ways to help develop their skills. Giving children the opportunity to listen to a story being read aloud has a number of positives. They are able to really think about the story and discuss their opinions and ideas about it with the rest of the classroom. Teachers can incorporate a number of different types of discussions to stem off of read alouds as well. Story time can turn into meaningful talks about authors and illustrators, connections between different story lines, and life lessons that can accompany a story in a book. These types of skills will help children to become better writers because they will be able to think more critically about the types of stories that they are writing and to create a distinction between different levels and types of books/stories as well.
     Story writing is another activity that really allows children to get out of their writing comfort zone and create something new and original while also working on their literacy skills. There are many components to writing a good story and going through the process of creating a quality story in the classroom can assist children in critically looking at their own writing in the future. Helping children to create a strong story structure that includes solid characters and plot development will teach them to look for this in the stories that they read and give them the tools they need in order to critique someone elses story. Teaching children the various parts of stories such as setting, problems and solutions create more independent students and higher level writers. Giving students the task of describing all of the components of their stories is extremely helping in skill practice of literacy as well. It broadens their vocabulary and strengthens their imagination.

4 comments:

  1. Your first sentence is so true. Children learn to be authors as they listen to the way other people write and speak. And, when they express themselves verbally, they are basically telling their own story - acting as an author without writing the story down.

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  2. I really like what you said about strengthening a child's imagination. The concepts from "Castle in the Classroom", will help the children focus and understand what should go into the process of making a story.With this will come making a vivid image in the student's mind that will be able to transcend on to paper.

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  3. One line of your post that particularly stuck out to me was “…going through the process of creating a quality story…” It is a process, but is it actually possible to make a distinction between a book of quality and one that is not? As educators especially, it is important to view each of the child’s creations as a quality piece. I appreciate how your blog post revolves around how we can support young writers. As you mentioned, we must strive towards getting children to feel comfortable venturing outside of their “writing comfort zone.”

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  4. Making the connection between texts that are read during read aloud times and texts that are created by students is so important. Teachers can facilitate this process by reading student-created books during read aloud times. Spend as much time praising the work of a a hardworking, creative, and inventive child as you do the best-selling authors.

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