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.” Fountas &Pinnell, 2001

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 –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 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 Close-Echo Effect Re-Say Striking Adjectives/ Verbs/ Adverbs Out-of-Place Adjectives Make-Your-Own Words Katie Wood Ray, 1999

Buckner, Aimee. Notebook Know-How: Strategies For the Writers’ Notebook. Portland Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 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, 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, Graves, Michael F., and Susan Watts-taffe. "For the love of words: fostering word consciousness in young readers." The Reading Teacher 62.3 (2008): 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, Strickland, Dorothy S., Kathy Ganske, and Joanne K. Monroe. Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers: Strategies for Classroom Intervention 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): Print.