Reading- Writing Connections -Research and Reflection

I have worked in Liana Ketriuk’s Grade 4 classroom at Cairnlea Park Primary School numerous times over the past two years and have witnessed the growth of her students as well as Liana’s teaching during that time. She recently presented a lesson that demonstrated her clear understanding of the important relationship reading and writing shares.

Liana began the lesson with a discussion aimed at activating prior knowledge. What does the word home mean to you? Turn and talk.’  Students then shared some of their responses with the whole class. She followed this by reading aloud from Libby Hathorn’s thought provoking picture-story book, ‘Way Home.’ The book highlights a young boy’s struggle to provide sanctuary to a wild, stray cat. Set in a city, the story provides the reader with graphic evidence surrounding the plight of the homeless.

Liana encouraged talk and discussion among her students at the conclusion of the reading. In the discussion that followed Liana devoted time to clarifying the use of idiomatic language (a feature of this text) and the use of the referent pronoun through out the text.
What can you infer about the main character?
Has your concept of home changed? How? Tell your partner.

Liana asked her students to spend a few minutes recording their thoughts in their literature journals. She followed this reflective writing by inviting students to participate in a silent share. Each student displayed their journal entries on their tables. The class walked the room silently reading each others words.

Students were asked to return to their journals and continue writing. The follow up responses provided clear evidence that insights had deepened Exposure to a broad range of views had clearly impacted on the writing that ensued.

To further deepen student awareness of this social issue, Liana provided her students with additional opportunities to broaden their world knowledge by presenting a series of enlarged photographs depicting aspects of homelessness around the world. Students were provided with post it notes and as they inspected the photographs they wrote personal responses to the scenes on display. They posed questions, and pondered ways to overcome these situations. Following this, they returned to their journals and continued capturing their thoughts, ideas, and observations. To conclude the lesson, the class gathered and students shared personal reflections, and new understandings. For me, it was interesting to see the writing develop greater depth as the lesson unfolded.


This was a lesson rich in opportunities to read, write, think, discuss and learn.  Students were engaged in learning that further developed their word knowledge, as well as their world knowledge. Liana strengthened the reading-writing links for her students through mindful teaching and thorough preparation.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Fisher6 December 2013 at 08:33

    Terrific lesson.

    Alan -- I was hoping to try this lesson with a 4/5/6 composite group next week. It is a small group of 10 children. I was wondering about the final part of the lesson, involving the photos -- what sort of prompts did the teacher use to encourage students to write about these images? Was the focus on what home meant for these people, or on what issues the children felt the pictures demonstrated, and how these issues could be addressed by a community? I can see in the images posted on your article that the teacher provided a brief blurb sheet underneath each picture -- what sort of things did that piece of paper say?

    I was planning on showing a few different images -- one or two of homeless people with their meager posessions, another with a decidedly middle-class family in their home and one of a super-rich person/family in a mansion.

    Would you have any suggestions for questioning or changes about how to approach this final part of the activity to sum up the learning/exploration of the lesson in a meaningful way?

    PS: Jonathan from Wyndham Park Primary School here -- hello!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not eve...
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers...
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intentio...
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to...
Read more

Exploring Themes in Poetry With Emerging Writers

Image
There is so much more to poetry than haiku and acrostics. Yet, so many young poets never get to experience the rich breadth of poetry beyond these highly structured forms. Why? Primarily, it’s about their teachers comfort levels with poetry. We often teach to what we know, meaning that being adventurous and taking young poets into new realms is not part of the poetic landscape for many. This sells young poets and poetry itself short. Last week I had the pleasure to again work with a group of young poets from Derrimut Primary School grade 5/6 in Melbourne’s west. We have been exploring patterns and repetition in poetry. We have explored personification as a literary device to develop the writing of poetry. We delved into the idea of writing through a mask to provide inanimate and animate entities with a voice. They told stories in words from their own perspective. On this occasion we again went to the edges and began to explore poetry through themes. We discussed a range ...
Read more