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Write About Reading
by Lynn Noel 
Literature can be used as a springboard for a student’s own writing. After hearing or reading a story, the teacher can help students unpack the meaning of the story. Every author has a purpose to his story and students can learn how to think as a writer while they are reading. The teacher can use mini-lessons about the literature to help students understand organization, fluency or voice in a story. For example, the use of the book Punctuation Takes a Vacation (Pulver, 2004) shows students how important punctuation is in their writing and how it can affect the meaning of a story.
The use of literature to stimulate writing allows students to construct meaning from sounds and symbols and how they work together. In the book series, Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery 1908), Gilbert tells Anne that to be successful as a writer she needs to write about what she knows. Children, from an early age, are read to and gather information they hear from stories. They draw upon that information as well as from their own personal experiences to talk and, later on, write about. A first step in response to literature is for students to retell a story to someone else. They make personal connections to the story from their past experiences and memories. This leads to written retelling of the stories beginning with a simple retelling of the beginning, the middle and the ending of a story. Later on they retell stories by putting a different twist on it such as from a different characters’ perspective or in a different genre. For example, after hearing or reading some of the many versions of “Cinderella”, students write their own version of “Cinderella” using their own characters, setting and conflict.
As students get older, specific writing activities in response to their reading may include using a reading log or journal for simple note-taking to derive meaning from what they have read. They can record vocabulary that is new to them or ideas they want to explore further. They can write down related ideas for organization and understanding and can make predictions about the story as they are reading through it. Journals or logs can also be used to record student’s reactions, summaries and reflections about their reading. After peer or group discussion, students can revise their writings or make additional reflections. Thoughtful ideas or comprehension questions can be offered by the teacher to stimulate students’ written responses.
Ideas for literature response that involve writing include:
- writing a play for actors or puppets based on the story
- drawing and writing a cartoon strip
- writing a speech for a character
- writing a different ending to the story
- designing a quilt with pictures and sentences that organizes the parts of the story
- writing song lyrics that tell the story
- writing a script for a newscast
- completing an author study and writing up a report or biography about them
- designing a book jacket
- writing favorite phrases and quotes for a mobile about the story
- creating a story map
- writing newspaper-style accounts about what occurred in the story
Response to literature allows writers to experience a story again, combining it with their own experiences. Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell put it best by saying “not only do we ‘taste’ the book twice, but our initial experience is deepened, expanded, and refined as we return to the text—perhaps again and again—and push our understanding in new ways each time” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001). Writing in response to literature allows students to do just that in a variety of ways.
For additional ideas for writing in response to literature check out:
References:
- Calkins, L. (1994)
- The Art of Teaching Writing, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
- Cobine, G,
- Writing as a Response to Reading, ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication Digest #105, 1996, from http://reading.indiana.edu/ieo/digests/d105.html
- Fountas, I & Pinnell,G, (2001)
- Guiding Readers and Writers Grades 3-6 Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
- Montgomery, L (1908)
- Anne of Green Gables, London: L.C. Page & Co.
- Pulver, R. (2003)
- Punctuation Takes a Vacation, New York: Holiday House Seattle University College of Education’s Literature Circles, Written Responses, retrieved August 10, 2006, http://www.litcircles.org/WrittenResponse/writtenresponse.html This site is a resource center for the use of Literature Circles in reading/writing instruction including examples and ideas.
- Wisconsin Literacy and Education Reading Network Source (n.d.).
- WiLearns: Reading and writing as processes. Retrieved August 26, 2006, from Reading and Writing Web site: http://wilearns.state.wi.us/apps/Print.asp?ap=&cid=82
Lynn Noel
Lynn Noel, former special education teacher, first grade teacher, Title I coordinator and building technology coordinator, is an independent consultant. Among other roles and contractual arrangements with local school districts and the Indiana Dept. of Education, she is a facilitator for the Buddy project and a trainer for the BTLC.
This featured article appeared in Volume 2, Number 1 issue of the Write Connections quarterly newsletter. View other archived newsletters , a topical organization of all newsletters, or sign-up to receive notification when the next newsletters are ready to download.
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