Transcript Ways with Words - DiagnosisFall2010

Ways with Words:
Strategies for Improving Student
Writing
Presented by Meredith Mallouk
Ways With Words: Strategies
for Improving Student Writing
• “Reading and writing are separate but
intimately related processes. … when
writers read, they notice aspects of
text that then become possibilities for
their own writing…writers develop
insights into the craft that produced
the book. They notice interesting
words or ways language is put together
to communicate feelings or help the
reader form images. When writers
write, they remember their reading and
use in their own writing what they have
noticed about other texts.”
My Mama Had A Dancing Heart
by Libba Moore Gray
Ways With Words:
Choral Reading
• Reread the text – star the parts
where you think the writing is best
• “Find the part where the words are most
striking to you. Striking might mean the
words are so beautiful that they just melt in
your mouth. Striking might mean you like
the beat of the words, or the order of the
words surprises you in some way. Striking
could mean the words are so simple and yet
so right. Striking means you want to read
those words again and again. You like the
way they sound”
Katie Wood Ray, 1999
Ways With Words:
Choral Reading
• Reread the parts you identified as
best
• Find the part of all those parts that
is the most striking to you
– If this part is more than fifteen words ,
select bits and pieces that bring it down
to fifteen words
Ways With Words:
Choral Reading
• Share this striking part with yourself
– Read it aloud quietly so that only you can
hear it
– Try reading it several different ways
until you find the way that best conveys
the sound and meaning of the piece
Ways With Words:
Choral Reading
“We are going to read our selected parts
into the circle, one right after another so
that it sounds as if we are reading one
continuous text. I hope the best thing
happens. I hope several people have
chosen the same part so we have a
repeating refrain in our performance”
Katie Wood Ray, 1999
Ways With Words:
Why Choral Reading?
“The wise teacher of writing will use the
powerful resource of oral language to
help the struggling writer build a bridge
to written language”
Strickland, Ganske, Monroe, 2002
Ways With Words:
Why Choral Reading?
• “The benefits of being a writer who reads
aloud are as great or greater than being a
writer who listens to read alouds.”
• Choral reading gets students thinking
about the writing in a text
• Forces them to listen – develops the sound
of good writing in their heads
Katie Wood Ray, 1999
Ways With Words:
Poetry
• “When you immerse your students in rich,
lively poetry, you introduce them to intense ,
concise, skillfully crafted language. They
learn how authors convey a maximum amount
of thought and feeling in the fewest,
carefully chosen words… In particular,
poetry:
– Enables students to appreciate the sound and
imagery of language
– Enriches students’ lives as they discover
words, sound, and rhythm in unique, creative
ways
– Captures the essence of meaning in the sparest
of language
Fountas & Pinnell, 2001
Ways With Words: Additional
Lesson Ideas
• Primary/Intermediate Activities
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Student Word Cans
“Walking the Wall”
Repeating a Word *
The Repeating Line *
Writing Through a Mask *
“Cracking Open” General Words *
Using Stronger Verbs **
Ways With Words: Additional
Lesson Ideas
• Intermediate/ Secondary Activities
– Create your own poetry
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• Holiday/ theme based
• Change audience
“Cracking Open” General Words *
Using Stronger Verbs **
Experimenting With Irony *
Experimenting With Symbolism *
Read to Write Strategy: Try Ten *
Ways With Words: The
Craft of Writing
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Close-Echo Effect
Re-Say
Striking Adjectives/ Verbs/ Adverbs
Out-of-Place Adjectives
Make-Your-Own Words
Katie Wood Ray, 1999
Ways With Words: Resources
• Buckner, Aimee. Notebook Know-How: Strategies For
the Writers’ Notebook. Portland Maine: Stenhouse
Publishers, 2005.
• Fletcher, Ralph and Joann Portalupi. Craft Lessons:
Teaching Writing K-8. Portland Maine: Stenhouse
Publishers, 1998
• Fletcher, Ralph and Joann Portalupi. Nonfiction Craft
Lessons: Teaching Information Writing K-8. Portland,
Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2001.
Ways With Words:
Resources
• Fountas, Irene C. and Gay Su Pinnell. Guiding
Readers and Writers Grades 3-6: Teaching
Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001.
• Graves, Michael F., and Susan Watts-taffe. "For
the love of words: fostering word consciousness in
young readers." The Reading Teacher 62.3
(2008): 185-93. Print.
Ways With Words:
Resources
• Ray, Katie Wood. Wondrous Words: Writers and
Writing in the Elementary Classroom. Urbana,
Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English,
1999.
• Strickland, Dorothy S., Kathy Ganske, and Joanne K.
Monroe. Supporting Struggling Readers and
Writers: Strategies for Classroom Intervention 36. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2002
• Rickards, Debbie, and Shirl Hawes. "Connecting
reading and writing through authors's craft." The
Reading Teacher 60.4 (2006/2007): 370-72. Print.