More How to Teach
Reading Through Conferring in Writing Arlyne
LeSchack
It is a generally accepted theory that in reading we take in information
from three major sources: print, meaning and syntax. Print is the
letters and the sounds they represent. Meaning for young readers
is very often represented by picture. And syntax is whether or not
the text sounds right. We can help our student writers by applying
this same information to their writing. When they have trouble reading
their own print we can remind them in our conferences to let the
pictures help them with the meaning of their stories; later they
can reread to see if their stories sound right.
Another important reading strategy is using parts
from known words to read unknown words. You may already use this
when you work with word study, but you can also use it during writing
workshop conferences. As students are composing their writing you
can coach them by reminding them of words they know and how to use
that knowledge to expand to words they don't know how to read or
spell as yet. Word families are very handy in this situation. Many
children know “at” and can be prompted for words that
contain “at” such as “that.” You can do
a small group mini-lesson for students who have similar needs in
this area.
As I mentioned above, we use at least three sources
of information when we read: print, meaning, and syntax. Sometimes
students depend on one source more than the others. Students who
are always "sounding out" when they read are depending
on the visual (the print). They can be encouraged to focus on the
meaning and the syntax. Again, they know the meaning of their stories
and that can help them write the stories. Hopefully they can then
apply this knowledge when they are reading other people's writing
as well. Knowing when things sound right (syntax) can be learned
through re-reading for fluency. Meaning is served here as well.
Reading and writing are interconnected. When we teach
children to show rather than tell in their writing, they become
better writers. They also become better readers because they realize
that other authors are showing rather than telling and this helps
students learn to infer. As teachers we can connect any strategy
that we are using in reading workshop to writing workshop. That
way when we come around to confer with our young students writers
we can use individual or small group mini-lessons to reinforce both
our reading and writing teaching points. This doubles our chances
of creating literate students.
If you have comments or questions, please contact me at aleschack@aol.com.
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