The Reading/Writing Connection

This is from the keynote speaker at the UCTE/LA conference at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

The Reading/Writing Connection: A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Teaching Interpretive Reading and Analytical Writing in Secondary School--Carol Booth Olson, cbolson@uci.edu

Writing analytically--many students are struggling with this because they don't get enough practice.
'Create movies of the mind'
How do we help all of our students to be there? To be strong, strategic, independent readers and writers?
Acts of mind in reading and writing (common characteristics of experienced writers and readers):

• engagement, become one/get inside the process
• visualize
• aware of process
• slow down, speed up as the task requires
• are actively engaged in constructing meaning;
  
• go back to go forward in a recursive process (being a good reader isn't a really fast, one shot deal);
• interact and negotiate with each other (reader and writer keep each other in mind);
• are motivated and self-confident;
• use skills automatically;
• access a common tool kit of cognitve strategies, including planning & setting goals, tapping prior knowledge, etc.

Need to teach students three types of knowledge:

• Declarative Knowledge
• Procedural Knowledge
• Conditional Knowledge

Reading/Writing Tool Kit (Cognitive Strategies):

• Planning and setting goals
• Tapping into Prior Knowledge
• Making predictions
• Adopting an Alignment
• Making Connections
• Evaluating
• Analyzing Author's Craft
• Summarizing
• Clarifying
• Forming Interpretations
• Monitoring
• Visualizing
• Asking questions
• Revising Meaning

Examples of a Strategic activities:

1. Bring/describe four items in your house.
2. Peers write what these items might say about you.
3. Student writes what they think these things might say to others.

Highlight reading or writing analyses:

1. yellow: plot summary/just the facts
2. green: supporting detail
3. blue: commentary/opinions

Resources:

The Reading/Writing Connection-Carol Booth Olson
You Gotta be the Book-Jeff Wilhelm
It's Never Too Late-Janet Allen