Guidelines for Making Reading-Writing Conections

1. Guidelines for Making Reading-Writing Conections Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago shanahan@uic.edu www.shanahanonliteracy.com

2. Of the “3 Rs,” writing has been accorded the least attention • Notion has been that reading is a widely needed skill, but that writing is an elite skill • The National Reading Panel did not examine writing research (though it considered reviewing it) Writing: The Neglected “R”

3. More than 90% of mid-career professionals indicate that writing is important in their work • Writing is essential for success in higher education, yet more than 50% of college freshmen have serious writing problems • Fewer than 30% of elementary and high school students meet NAEP’s writing proficiency standards According to the National Commission on Writing…

4. National Assessment

5. Students can write, but they cannot produce writing at high levels of skill, maturity, and sophistication • Few students can produce precise, engaging, and coherent prose • Fewer than a quarter can write convincing, elaborated responses with compelling language According to NAEP…

6. Given the high profile of reading, writing must be considered relative reading • Writing and reading depend on a common core of knowledge • Writing requires deeper processing than reading • But how can reading and writing be best combined for efficiency and effectiveness? Reading-Writing Relationships

7. Shanahan, T. (2008). Relations among oral language, reading, and writing development. In C. A. MacArthur, S. Graham, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of Writing Research (pp. 171-186). New York: Guilford Press. Tierney, R. J., & Shanahan, T. (1991). Research on the reading-writing relationship: Interactions, transactions, and outcomes. In R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp. 246-280). New York: Longman. Research Sources

8. Statistical analyses show that the relationships between reading and writing are bidirectional • To fully exploit the relationships, reading and writing BOTH must be taught • Writing instruction and practice daily and of sufficient duration to develop quality writers Principle 1: Teach both reading and writing

9. To maximize literacy learning and to take advantage of the relationships across reading and writing it is essential to teach both reading and writing • Since every school stresses reading my emphasis here is on adding writing to the equation • The next several slides are about what we know about the teaching of writing

10. Unfortunately, writing is not being taught • NCLB did not require it • State curricula do include writing, but without much emphasis • Efforts like Reading First downplayed the role of writing to “protect” the place of reading in the school day Status of writing instruction

11. 2-3 hours of daily instruction in literacy • Word knowledge (phonological awareness, letters, phonics, sight vocabulary, spelling, meaning vocabulary) • Fluency (accuracy, rate, expression) • Reading comprehension (important information, genre/text structure, strategies) • Writing Chicago Reading Framework

12. The P3A Writing Curriculum

13. Best review of writing instruction research in the past 20 years: Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 445–476. Research Review

14. Synthesized results from 123 experimental and quasi-experimental studies of writing instruction grades 4-12 • Studies covered 11 different approaches to the teaching of writing • Quality of writing was the outcome measure Graham & Perin Review

15. Extended writing opportunities • Writing for real audiences • Engaging in the writing process • High levels of student interaction and ownership • Personalized individual feedback and (perhaps) some systematic instruction Approaches: Process-Writing

16. Explicit Instruction

17. Scaffolding

18. Alternative Models

19. Graham & Perin Results

20. Process writing had moderate effect on student writing in grades 4-6 when teachers received professional development, and no effects in grades 7-12 • Though grammar instruction was not effective in any study, it was the control group treatment in all but one of the studies in this set • Strategy instruction was effective across all grade levels, but biggest effects on struggling students Graham & Perin Results (cont.)

21. Impossible to draw meaningful conclusions on text structure instruction (too few students, results too varied, etc.) • Inquiry studies were all done at grades 7-12 and had small-to-moderate effects • All peer assistance studies had significant outcomes (grades 4-12) • Lots of unexplained variability in size of effect for word processing Graham & Perin Results (cont.)

22. Many approaches have sizable and reliable impacts on students’ writing quality (strategy teaching most effective, but many other things work, too) • Combinations might be best: explicitly teach writing strategies, involving students in peer guidance, using word processors, along with many of the other smaller-effects approaches might merit inclusion Graham & Perin Conclusions

23. Historically, instruction has treated reading as the enabling skill for writing • National Early Literacy Panel (Pre-k and K) findings • National Reading Panel (invented spelling) • Role of oral language Guideline 2: Begin early with both reading and writing

24. Because it is possible to draw benefits from combining reading and writing early on, the emphasis here is on how to facilitate early writing • The next several slides focus on how to engage even very young preschoolers in oral composition • And on the importance of encouraging kids to write early (not just compose) through “invented spelling” • The goal in these early years should be on fluency

25. Shared experience with lots of discussion (opportunity to build knowledge and to enhance oral language) • Children dictate sentences about the shared experience • Teacher transcribes the text • Teacher reads the text • Children “read” along with the teacher • Children copy and illustrate the story or article Language-Experience Approach

26. sep taddebar bopy sek alls nubrs egliow fall grapo fes pan staps wel attept letl git scichtap adsavin ricet kd clic cidejches Invented spelling: Letter name

27. Stage 1: Precommunicative Spelling • Scribbles, letter-like forms, letters, numbers to represent message • May write from left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, or randomly • No understanding of phoneme-grapheme relationships • May mix upper and lower case letters but preference is for upper case Invented spelling

28. Stage 2: Semiphonetic Spelling • Shows awareness of the alphabetic principle, that letters represent sounds • Uses abbreviated one, two, or three letter spellings to represent entire words • Child uses letter-name strategy to represent sounds Invented spelling

29. Stage 3: Semiphonetic Spelling • Represents all essential sound features • Uses particular spellings for long and short vowels, plural and past tense markers, and other aspects of spelling • Child chooses letters on basis of sound, but without regard for English letter sequences or other conventions Invented spelling

30. Stage 4: Transitional Spelling • Uses basic spelling conventions • Begins to use morphological and visual information along with sounds • May include all appropriate letters but reverse some • May use alternate spellings for the same sound in different words, but only partially understands the rules • High percentage of accurate spellings Invented spelling

31. Stage 5: Correct Spelling • Applies basic rules of the English spelling system • Growing accuracy with silent consonants, double consonants before affixes • Can recognize that a word doesn’t look right • Spells irregular spelling patterns correctly • Can spell a large number of words Invented spelling

32. Difficulties in processing text as a reader or writing sufficient amounts as a writer • Fluency should be an early goal • Peter Elbow’s work on turning off your editor (limit the amount of early editing) • Writing marathons Fluency instruction

33. Research shows that young children’s writing quality, quantity, and motivation are limited by handwriting • Some instruction in how to print or write cursive are beneficial to composition • Spelling inventions are a useful process, but these inventions are based on student knowledge from reading, phonics, spelling instruction Handwriting and spelling

34. Memory tends to be function-specific • Teaching can help students to generalize or to apply in other settings • To do this instruction should highlight models of clear connections between reading and writing • And instruction should encourage reflection on reading-writing connections Guideline 3: Make reading-writing connections explicit

35. Writing imitating literary models • Select text with strong structure or style (pattern books work great with younger children, more subtle—but still clear–structures for older students) • Read text to students to students • Discuss the pattern • Provide a structural prompt or frame • Group writing to start out • Read/write similar texts (process talks) Text structure

36. “Whistle, Mary, whistle, And you shall have a cow.” “I can’t whistle, Mother, Because I don’t know how.” “Whistle, Mary, whistle, And you shall have a … Pattern writing

37. “Whistle Mary, whistle, and you shall have a cow.” _______ ________, ________, verb name verb and you shall have a ______.” gift I can’t ________, _________, verb name 2 because I _________________ rhyme reason Whistle, Mary, Whistle frame

39. Crisis Given this character change, what do you think the author wanted you to learn? ________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Character Change Chart

40. Reading and writing share a body of underlying knowledge (letter-sound relationships, vocabulary, text structures, grammar, dependence on world knowledge, etc.) • Reading and writing also rely on a collection of cognitive processes (recall of prior knowledge, prediction, revision, etc. Guideline 4: Emphasize content and process relationships.

41. Reading • Decoding • Vocabulary • Text organization • Reading fluency • Previewing/Predicting • Reviewing prior knowledge • Revising interpretations Writing • Spelling • Vocabulary/diction • Text organization • Writing fluency • Planning/Prewriting • Reviewing prior knowledge • Revising text Similar content/processes

42. Process similarities tend to be analogs (they are similar, but not really the same) • Process talks across reading and writing can be useful • Have students reflect on how reading and writing are similar • Guide them to think about their writing experiences during reading and their reading experiences during writing Process talks

47. Emphasis here is on communication • Good reading instruction will foster author awareness • Good writing instruction will foster sensitivity to the needs of an audience Guideline 5: Emphasize reader-writer connections

48. Young children don’t know about authors • By ages 5 or 6, readers construct an egocentric author, but can recognize common style across books • By 12 or 13, readers recognize that authors have intent (and can do some low level text interpretation) • Still later, readers learn to use the author as an interpretive construct (e.g., sourcing) Author awareness

49. Reflection (diaries, logs, daybooks) • Conversation (dialogues, notes, Twittering) • Correspondence (letters, emails) • Publication (reports, blogs, “books”) Moffett’s Discourse Relations

50. Reading and writing differ in various content areas • Texts from different fields different in content, structure, language, style, density, social nature of discourse • Kids need opportunities to read different kinds of text • Kids need opportunities to write different kinds of text Guideline 5: Literacy must be learned across the curriculum