Helping Students Own Their Reading And Writing Through Modeling

The teachers I highlight on my blog provide their students with access to a variety of texts, their histories, and new learning. Today, I celebrate Pat, a primary classroom teacher from Ohio. Each month, she invites 5 families to do a quick write with their children in an effort to increase writing as a model at home. The children choose the topics and facilitate the writing in the provided jounrals. Pat understands that children are influenced by what they see around them.

Something to think about

What opportunities do you create that encourage parents and students to read and write together?

1. Reading survey: encourage families to write the title and brief description of the kinds of reading and writing that occur in their home: newspaper articles, mail, instructions, etc.

2. Ask parents to write the title and brief description of the kinds of reading and writing that occur at their workplace on any given day: memos, blueprints, signs, instructions. Create a bulletin board of this kind of environmental print.

3.When sending home books or articles, include a bookmark that says: Read to me; Read with me; or Listen to me read; depending on which situation is most appropriate.

4. Send home an article about a science topic or current events. Ask families to read it together and send a joint statement back to the classroom to be shared.

5. Create moon journals. (see the recommended reading list)

Recommended reading

• Moon Journals: Writing, Art, and Inquiry Through Focused Nature Study by Joni Chancer and Gina Rester-Zodrow (Heinemann)
• Other People's Words The Cycle of Low Literacy by Victoria Purcell-Gates (Heinemann)
• Classroom Interviews A World of Learning by Paula Rogovin (Heinemann)