Reading into writing

Shared reading into writingPGCE FT - Week 4

Objectives

• To understand how talk and reading are integral to the writing process

• To appreciate the complexity of the writing process

• To consider the place of purposeful activities for writing

Talk to Text

‘It is through language, especially spoken language,

that teachers teach and children learn’.

(Alexander 2004, p2)

KS2 English SATs results (2009)

Achieving Level 4 or above• English 81% (85% for girls, 76% for boys)• Reading 86% (89% for girls, 83% for boys)• Writing 67% (74% for girls, 60% for boys)

• Increase of 1% in English, up 2% in reading, no change in writing from 2007, but girls’ performance in writing down by 2%

The teacher’s role

“The aim is not to impart knowledge about language but to develop each child’s individual writing voice.

Having something to say – and knowing that whatever it is will be valued by the reader is the first

step to effective communication in writing.”

Mary Hilton (2001)

Writing as a tool for thinking?

Writing as art?

Writing communication?

Writing as record?

Writing as design?

Writing as personal response?

Writing as…..?

An unresolved dilemma?• Composition (author)

• Getting ideas, selecting words, grammar

• Transcription (secretary)• Physical effort of writing, spelling,

capitalisation, punctuation, paragraphs, legibility

Smith (1982)

PLANNING

GENERATING

ORGANIZING

GOAL SETTING

REVIEWING

EVALUATING

REVISINGa.word levelb.sentence levelc.discourse level

Metacognition – Declarative and Procedural

THE WRITER’S LONG TERM MEMORY

Knowledge of TopicKnowledge of AudienceStored Writing plans

Modification of the Hayes-Flower Model for beginning and developing writing. (Berninger and Swanson, 1994)

TRANSLATING

Affect Social Context

Motivation

WRITING PROCESSES

(Advanced)

THE WRITER’S WORKING MEMORY

Hold knowledge retrieved from LTM while planning , translating and revising.

(Post –translating)

On-line plannin

g

Off-line

planning1.Text generation

a. Word levelb. Sentence

levelc. Discourse

level2. Transcription

(Idea generating)

A writing process?• Reading

• Ideas

• Drafting

• Writing

• Evaluating

• Re-drafting

• Outcome

‘…turning verbal thought into text is a demanding task…’

Hayes and Flower, 1980, p. 39

Why?

Rho

na S

tain

thor

p &

Naf

isa

Rau

f

Talk to Text

• Process talk to support idea generation and communicative intent (Idea generation)

• Presentational talk to support text generation and linguistic choices. (Write Alouds)

• Reflective talk to develop metacognitive knowledge and communicative awareness. (Reflection)

• The challenge: time versus pace

‘The reader in the writer’

“Reading aloud seemed to be a particularly helpful way of foregrounding the tunes and rhythms of a text in a way that subsequently influenced writing.”

“It seems unlikely that there can be any fundamental writing development without reading development and vice versa. Progress in one is intimately related to and dependent on progress in the other.”

Barrs & Cork (2001)

Reading supports writing

“Just as exposure to print is essential for reading, so it is for writing. Children who have a wide experience of story form find it easier to reproduce coherent narratives.” (p.61)

Flynn & Stainthorp (2006)

What do you need to know?

• That writing is made up of compositional and transcriptional elements

• That the two elements need to be understood and approached in different ways

• That you need to consider the kinds of writing activities you plan for

• That there is a language needed about writing

Things you may see/hear in school

• Grammar for Writing (document)• Read/Write Inc. (scheme)• Big Writing (approach)• VCOP (linked to Ros Wilson’s Big Writing)• Pie Corbett - Storymaking, talk for writing• Text, sentence, word level• Teachers as Writers

What do you want to be?

A writing teacher or a teacher of writing?Bearne (2002)