Guidelines for Making Reading-Writing Conections

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Guidelines for Making Reading-Writing Conections

• Timothy Shanahan
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• shanahan_at_uic.edu
• www.shanahanonliteracy.com

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Writing The Neglected R

• Of the 3 Rs, writing has been accorded the
  least attention
• Notion has been that reading is a widely needed
  skill, but that writing is an elite skill
• The National Reading Panel did not examine
  writing research (though it considered reviewing
  it)

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According to the National Commission on Writing

• More than 90 of mid-career professionals
  indicate that writing is important in their work
• Writing is essential for success in higher
  education, yet more than 50 of college freshmen
  have serious writing problems
• Fewer than 30 of elementary and high school
  students meet NAEPs writing proficiency standards

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National Assessment
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According to NAEP

• Students can write, but they cannot produce
  writing at high levels of skill, maturity, and
  sophistication
• Few students can produce precise, engaging, and
  coherent prose
• Fewer than a quarter can write convincing,
  elaborated responses with compelling language

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Reading-Writing Relationships

• Given the high profile of reading, writing must
  be considered relative reading
• Writing and reading depend on a common core of
  knowledge
• Writing requires deeper processing than reading
• But how can reading and writing be best combined
  for efficiency and effectiveness?

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Research Sources

• Shanahan, T. (2008). Relations among oral
  language, reading, and writing development. In C.
  A. MacArthur, S. Graham, J. Fitzgerald (Eds.),
  Handbook of Writing Research (pp. 171-186). New
  York Guilford Press.
• Tierney, R. J., Shanahan, T. (1991). Research
  on the reading-writing relationship
  Interactions, transactions, and outcomes. In R.
  Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson
  (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp.
  246-280). New York Longman.

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Principle 1 Teach both reading and writing

• Statistical analyses show that the relationships
  between reading and writing are bidirectional
• To fully exploit the relationships, reading and
  writing BOTH must be taught
• Writing instruction and practice daily and of
  sufficient duration to develop quality writers

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• To maximize literacy learning and to take
  advantage of the relationships across reading and
  writing it is essential to teach both reading and
  writing
• Since every school stresses reading my emphasis
  here is on adding writing to the equation
• The next several slides are about what we know
  about the teaching of writing

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Status of writing instruction

• Unfortunately, writing is not being taught
• NCLB did not require it
• State curricula do include writing, but without
  much emphasis
• Efforts like Reading First downplayed the role of
  writing to protect the place of reading in the
  school day

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Chicago Reading Framework

• 2-3 hours of daily instruction in literacy
• Word knowledge (phonological awareness, letters,
  phonics, sight vocabulary, spelling, meaning
  vocabulary)
• Fluency (accuracy, rate, expression)
• Reading comprehension (important information,
  genre/text structure, strategies)
• Writing

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The P3A Writing Curriculum
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Research Review

• Best review of writing instruction research in
  the past 20 years
• Graham, S., Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis
  of writing instruction for adolescent students.
  Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 445476.

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Graham Perin Review

• Synthesized results from 123 experimental and
  quasi-experimental studies of writing instruction
  grades 4-12
• Studies covered 11 different approaches to the
  teaching of writing
• Quality of writing was the outcome measure

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Approaches Process-Writing

• Extended writing opportunities
• Writing for real audiences
• Engaging in the writing process
• High levels of student interaction and ownership
• Personalized individual feedback and (perhaps)
  some systematic instruction

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Explicit Instruction
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Scaffolding
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Alternative Models
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Graham Perin Results
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Graham Perin Results (cont.)

• Process writing had moderate effect on student
  writing in grades 4-6 when teachers received
  professional development, and no effects in
  grades 7-12
• Though grammar instruction was not effective in
  any study, it was the control group treatment in
  all but one of the studies in this set
• Strategy instruction was effective across all
  grade levels, but biggest effects on struggling
  students

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Graham Perin Results (cont.)

• Impossible to draw meaningful conclusions on text
  structure instruction (too few students, results
  too varied, etc.)
• Inquiry studies were all done at grades 7-12 and
  had small-to-moderate effects
• All peer assistance studies had significant
  outcomes (grades 4-12)
• Lots of unexplained variability in size of effect
  for word processing

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Graham Perin Conclusions

• Many approaches have sizable and reliable impacts
  on students writing quality (strategy teaching
  most effective, but many other things work, too)
• Combinations might be best explicitly teach
  writing strategies, involving students in peer
  guidance, using word processors, along with many
  of the other smaller-effects approaches might
  merit inclusion

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Guideline 2 Begin early with both reading and
writing

• Historically, instruction has treated reading as
  the enabling skill for writing
• National Early Literacy Panel (Pre-k and K)
  findings
• National Reading Panel (invented spelling)
• Role of oral language

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• Because it is possible to draw benefits from
  combining reading and writing early on, the
  emphasis here is on how to facilitate early
  writing
• The next several slides focus on how to engage
  even very young preschoolers in oral composition
• And on the importance of encouraging kids to
  write early (not just compose) through invented
  spelling
• The goal in these early years should be on
  fluency

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Language-Experience Approach

• Shared experience with lots of discussion
  (opportunity to build knowledge and to enhance
  oral language)
• Children dictate sentences about the shared
  experience
• Teacher transcribes the text
• Teacher reads the text
• Children read along with the teacher
• Children copy and illustrate the story or article

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Invented spelling Letter name

• sep taddebar bopy
• sek alls nubrs
• egliow fall grapo
• fes pan staps
• wel attept
• letl git
• scichtap adsavin
• ricet kd
• clic
• cidejches

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Invented spelling

• Stage 1 Precommunicative Spelling
• Scribbles, letter-like forms, letters, numbers to
  represent message
• May write from left-to-right, right-to-left,
  top-to-bottom, or randomly
• No understanding of phoneme-grapheme
  relationships
• May mix upper and lower case letters but
  preference is for upper case

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Invented spelling

• Stage 2 Semiphonetic Spelling
• Shows awareness of the alphabetic principle, that
  letters represent sounds
• Uses abbreviated one, two, or three letter
  spellings to represent entire words
• Child uses letter-name strategy to represent
  sounds

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Invented spelling

• Stage 3 Semiphonetic Spelling
• Represents all essential sound features
• Uses particular spellings for long and short
  vowels, plural and past tense markers, and other
  aspects of spelling
• Child chooses letters on basis of sound, but
  without regard for English letter sequences or
  other conventions

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Invented spelling

• Stage 4 Transitional Spelling
• Uses basic spelling conventions
• Begins to use morphological and visual
  information along with sounds
• May include all appropriate letters but reverse
  some
• May use alternate spellings for the same sound in
  different words, but only partially understands
  the rules
• High percentage of accurate spellings

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Invented spelling

• Stage 5 Correct Spelling
• Applies basic rules of the English spelling
  system
• Growing accuracy with silent consonants, double
  consonants before affixes
• Can recognize that a word doesnt look right
• Spells irregular spelling patterns correctly
• Can spell a large number of words

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Fluency instruction

• Difficulties in processing text as a reader or
  writing sufficient amounts as a writer
• Fluency should be an early goal
• Peter Elbows work on turning off your editor
  (limit the amount of early editing)
• Writing marathons

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Handwriting and spelling

• Research shows that young childrens writing
  quality, quantity, and motivation are limited by
  handwriting
• Some instruction in how to print or write cursive
  are beneficial to composition
• Spelling inventions are a useful process, but
  these inventions are based on student knowledge
  from reading, phonics, spelling instruction

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Guideline 3 Make reading-writing connections
explicit

• Memory tends to be function-specific
• Teaching can help students to generalize or to
  apply in other settings
• To do this instruction should highlight models of
  clear connections between reading and writing
• And instruction should encourage reflection on
  reading-writing connections

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Text structure

• Writing imitating literary models
• Select text with strong structure or style
  (pattern books work great with younger children,
  more subtlebut still clearstructures for older
  students)
• Read text to students to students
• Discuss the pattern
• Provide a structural prompt or frame
• Group writing to start out
• Read/write similar texts (process talks)

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Pattern writing

• Whistle, Mary, whistle,
• And you shall have a cow.
• I cant whistle, Mother,
• Because I dont know how.
• Whistle, Mary, whistle,
• And you shall have a

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Whistle, Mary, Whistle frame

• Whistle Mary, whistle,
• and you shall have a cow.
• _______ ________, ________,
• verb name verb
• and you shall have a ______.
• gift
• I cant ________, _________,
• verb name 2
• because I _________________
• rhyme reason

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Character Change Chart


Crisis Given this character change, what do
you think the author wanted you to learn?
________ _________________________________________
_______________________________ __________________
__________________________________________________
____
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Guideline 4 Emphasize content and process
relationships.

• Reading and writing share a body of underlying
  knowledge (letter-sound relationships,
  vocabulary, text structures, grammar, dependence
  on world knowledge, etc.)
• Reading and writing also rely on a collection of
  cognitive processes (recall of prior knowledge,
  prediction, revision, etc.

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Similar content/processes

• Reading
• Decoding
• Vocabulary
• Text organization
• Reading fluency
• Previewing/Predicting
• Reviewing prior knowledge
• Revising interpretations

• Writing
• Spelling
• Vocabulary/diction
• Text organization
• Writing fluency
• Planning/Prewriting
• Reviewing prior knowledge
• Revising text

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Process talks

• Process similarities tend to be analogs (they are
  similar, but not really the same)
• Process talks across reading and writing can be
  useful
• Have students reflect on how reading and writing
  are similar
• Guide them to think about their writing
  experiences during reading and their reading
  experiences during writing

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Guideline 5 Emphasize reader-writer connections

• Emphasis here is on communication
• Good reading instruction will foster author
  awareness
• Good writing instruction will foster sensitivity
  to the needs of an audience

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Author awareness

• Young children dont know about authors
• By ages 5 or 6, readers construct an egocentric
  author, but can recognize common style across
  books
• By 12 or 13, readers recognize that authors have
  intent (and can do some low level text
  interpretation)
• Still later, readers learn to use the author as
  an interpretive construct (e.g., sourcing)

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Moffetts Discourse Relations

• Reflection (diaries, logs, daybooks)
• Conversation (dialogues, notes, Twittering)
• Correspondence (letters, emails)
• Publication (reports, blogs, books)

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Guideline 5 Literacy must be learned across the
curriculum

• Reading and writing differ in various content
  areas
• Texts from different fields different in content,
  structure, language, style, density, social
  nature of discourse
• Kids need opportunities to read different kinds
  of text
• Kids need opportunities to write different kinds
  of text

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Guideline 6 Provide explicit instruction

• Modeling
• Explicit explanation of what you are doing (what,
  how, when, why)
• Scaffolded practice
• Collaborative practice
• Individual/independent practice

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• Think Sheets Ideas Section
• Directions How does Lydia Grace show strength
  during her year away? While reading, answer the
  questions with evidence from the story. These
  questions will help you to use narrative elements
  (plot, characters, and setting) to understand the
  story. The narrative elements are highlighted to
  assist you. The first one is done for you.
• 1. Page 25
• Setting

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• 2. Page 26
• Characters

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Graphic Organizer Directions You have gathered
evidence based on the narrative elements of The
Gardener. Now it is time to plan. Select the 1
or 2 pieces of evidence for each of the elements
below that you believe will help you to write an
essay to explain how Lydia Grace showed her
strength in her year away. You do not have to
use complete sentences here.
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• Extended Writing
• Directions Use the evidence you selected for
  the graphic organizer on your planning page to
  write an essay responding to the question How
  does Lydia Grace show her strength during her
  year away? You may continue writing on the next
  page.

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Some Useful Writing Resources

• Culham, R. 61 Traits of writing. New York
  Scholastic.
• Fisher, D., Frey, N. Scaffolded writing
  instruction. New York Scholastic.
• Graham, S., et al. Best practices in writing
  instruction. New York Guilford.
• Temple, C., et al. The beginnings of writing.
  Boston Allyn Bacon.

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• Timothy Shanahan
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• shanahan_at_uic.edu
• www.shanahanonliteracy.com