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A Step-by-Step Guide to the Writing ProcessAuthor(s): Corinne J. DreyfussSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Jan., 1987), pp. 485-486Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20199509 .
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came a problem. In order to preserve the lesson plan yet not ignore the ques tions, the teacher and students devised a system for the classroom.
They partitioned a section of the bul letin board and labeled it "What we
want to know." As students raised ques tions that were not related to the cur
rent lesson, they were encouraged to write the questions down, sign their
names, and hang the questions on the "What we want to know" board. In this
way, students' questions were recog
nized as valid and important, yet, if
they were off the topic, they were not allowed to distract from the subject of the lesson at hand.
During free time, students in the class were encouraged to go to the "What we want to know" board, select a question, and try to find an answer.
Thus, students learned to use a variety of resources in the classroom and in the learning center in pursuing the an swers to meaningful questions. Occa
sionally, students continued their quest for answers outside of school by using additional resource materials at home.
Truly exciting moments occurred in the classroom when an answer to one
of the questions was found. A child
might dash in the door before school
shouting, "I found the answer to John's
question about tornadoes!" Some children became experts in
finding and providing answers about certain topics. When a question arose about dinosaurs, for example, every one looked to Jamie, the undisputed dinosaur expert, to solve it. Michael became the resident expert about snakes and reptiles. Heidrun could an swer practically any question about
language, and so on.
Sometimes a few difficult questions would remain on the board for a week or more. When this occurred, the teacher designated a special research time when everyone in the class would concentrate on finding the answers to those especially perplexing problems.
Resources other than textbooks and reference books were frequently con sulted. These included filmstrips, the school's science teacher, newspapers,
parents, and other community mem
bers. Occasionally, children posed sci entific questions to which answers
have not yet been found or about which clear, concise answers were im
possible to determine. This demon strated to students that there is still
much to be learned and examined in our world, that they should never feel that "everything has been discovered," and that the answers to some questions reside in the area of opinion rather than fact.
The "What we want to know" board
provided a continuous and meaningful way for students to learn that all ques tions, if asked sincerely, deserve an at
tempted answer. Students also learned about sources of authority, other than the teacher, and learned the value of
addressing questions in a collabora
tive, supportive manner.
A Step-By-Step Guide To The Writing Process
Corinne J. Dreyfuss, Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, Berwyn, Pennsylvania
Writing is best approached as a proc ess. Step by step, the child author pro ceeds from a mental picture to the actual finished draft. Illustration is an
especially important step for the pri mary aged child. Publication occurs
upon revision of the original composi tion.
Visualization is step 1 of the writing process. Have students close their
eyes. As you verbally motivate (with poem, story, or other chosen method), ask them to "form a picture" in their
minds of what you are saying. Encour
age richness of detail, creativity, even
3
The CLASSROOM Reading Teacher 485
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color. "Let your mind's eye see" is an
important phrase here. Give lots of suggestions, and en
courage children to add their own
ideas. For example: "See the snowy
day. Is it calm or blustery? Shiny, clear, and frosty or dark and gray? Feel
the wind. Hear it blow. Look at the
sky, the trees, and all around you. Are
you at your house? At school? Who is with you? What are you thinking? Hear, see, feel, even smell the picture in your mind as you use all of your senses. Seal it in and then open your
eyes." In this way, the step of visualiza
tion is the churning of ideas and the
weaving of thoughts into a rich, coher ent "picture."
Steps 2 and 3 (illustration and com
position) are interchangeable, al
though with primary aged children or
those not comfortable with writing, il lustration may come first. Here the
child transfers the mental scene to pa per, so that it "comes alive" with the
brightness and color of crayon, paint, or pastel. Again, richness of detail is the key and coherency is the goal. If the artist's scene "tells a story," how
much easier the author's task will be! With step 3 (composition), the proc
ess is the same. Here, visual detail be comes written detail. (I'd like your story to tell me all that happens in your scene. Tell what you are seeing, hear
ing, even smelling. Tie your story to
gether at the end with your feelings.) The child's written product reflects current writing skills and experience and comfort with the writing process.
Expectations will differ with each stu
dent, class, and teacher. Such expecta tions need to be made clear at the start.
Revision, rewriting, and publication (step 4) again follow individual teacher and class expectations. However, whether a composition is two senten
ces, two paragraphs, or two pages
long, the process and goal remain the same?the author follows a sequence of steps promoting originality, creativ
ity, and fun with the writing task!
Are lst-grade reading books easier than 20 years ago? Judith A. Morris and Jerry L. Johns,
DeKalb, Illinois
We hear a lot these days about school books being "dumbed down"; the crit ics say that children can't learn to read
well if they aren't given challenging material.
But are basal reading series less de
manding now than they were 20 years
ago? Apparently not, if you look at
both the cumulative vocabulary lists and the reading levels for the books used in 1st grade (preprimers, primers, and first readers).
We checked three popular basal se
ries published by Ginn & Company, Houghton-Mifflin, and Scott, Fores man in the 1960s and early 1980s. In
the later editions, there was a sizeable
increase in the vocabulary load. The
Scott, Foresman total for 1st grade, counting mastery and nonmastery words, more than doubled; the Ginn 1st year vocabulary, including basic
and decodable words, nearly tripled; there was a 50% increase in the
Houghton-Mifflin vocabulary load. Has the increased vocabulary load
pushed up the reading levels? Yes, somewhat. We applied the Spache
Readability Formula.(see Elementary School Journal, March 1953, pp. 410
13), which is appropriate for primary level materials, to passages from the
preprimers, primers, and first readers of the three series, taking 5 samples from each level in the beginning, mid
dle, and end and at one quarter and three quarters of the way through the books. The average readability levels of the 1980s basais were somewhat
higher than their 1960s counterparts.
486 The Reading Teacher January 1987
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