A workshop about teaching reading and writing strategies, based on Carole Booth Olson's Reading and Writing Connection.

3. Today’s Plan
0 Introductions
0 Document sharing
0 A word about learning theories
0 The reading/writing connection
0 Making cognitive strategies visible
0 Non fiction reading ENC/7
0 Teaching academic writing skills
0 Types of essays
0 Differentiating writing skills: 5, 6, 7
0 Bringing it all together: Literature circles

4. Document Sharing

5. Who are your influences?

6. Theories of Learning
Learning is…
0 INDIVIDUAL
0 SOCIAL
0 AFFECTIVE
0 PROGRESSIVE
0 COGNITIVE
CMK’s personal
learning web

7. Be the book?
0 How can we help
students BE there as
readers and writers of
English?
0 How can we cultivate
competence and
confidence?

8. The Reading/Writing Connection
0 Reading and writing
traditionally thought of as
opposites:
0 Reading = reception,
decoding, deciphering.
0 Writing = production,
encoding, encrypting.
0 In fact, complementary
processes: SIMILAR
COGNITIVE STRATEGIES

9. Making Meaning: Cognitive
Strategies at Work
What do mature, engaged and experienced readers and writers
DO when they make meaning?

10. Active Engagment
0 Constructing meaning from and with texts.
0 Active, not passive
0 Productive, not receptive

11. Recursive
0 Go back to go forward
0 ”Mull and stew”
0 Reconnect
0 Clarify
0 Refine

12. Interaction and Negotiation
0 Project themselves into the role of their PERCEIVED COUNTERPART

13. Strategic
0 Select appropriate strategies
0 Learn to internalize and regulate cognitive and
metacognitive processes

14. Make invisible strategies visible
Demonstrate what experienced readers
and writers do.

15. Tool kit
0 Planning and goal setting
0 Tapping prior knowledge
0 Making predictions
0 Introducing the author
0 Constructing the gist
0 Making connections
0 Adopting alignment
0 Monitoring
0 Analysing author’s craft
0 Clarifying
0 Further reading
0 Predicting
0 Evaluating

16. ”The Voice You Hear When
You Read Silently”
is not silent, it is a speaking-
out-loud voice in your head; it is *spoken*,
a voice is *saying* it
as you read. It's the writer's words,
of course, in a literary sense
his or her "voice" but the sound
of that voice is the sound of *your* voice.
Not the sound your friends know
or the sound of a tape played back
but your voice
caught in the dark cathedral
of your skull, your voice heard
by an internal ear informed by internal abstracts
and what you know by feeling,
having felt. It is your voice
saying, for example, the word "barn"
that the writer wrote
but the "barn" you say
is a barn you know or knew. The voice
in your head, speaking as you read,
never says anything neutrally- some people
hated the barn they knew,
some people love the barn they know
so you hear the word loaded
and a sensory constellation
is lit: horse-gnawed stalls,
hayloft, black heat tape wrapping
a water pipe, a slippery
spilled *chirr* of oats from a split sack,
the bony, filthy haunches of cows...
And "barn" is only a noun- no verb
or subject has entered into the sentence yet!
The voice you hear when you read to yourself
is the clearest voice: you speak it
speaking to you.
~~-Thomas Lux
(Source: ”The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently”
from New and Selected Poems, 1975-1995 by Thomas
Lux. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997)

17. Making cognitive strategies visible
0 Partner 1 “The Sculptor”: Make a
playdough figure of your choice.
While you are constructing it, try
to say EVERYTHING that comes
into your head about the process.
Don’t just try to explain how to
make the figure, but also give voice
to your reflections, ideas,
decisions, choices etc.
0 Partner 2 “The Recorder”: Write
down as many of the sculptor’s
think-aloud statements as you can.
0 Now, switch places. Make one
more animal, and record one more
set of think-alouds.
0 Be prepared to discuss and analyse
your think-alouds back in the
larger group.

18. I think I’m going to make one of those elephants with the big ears like Dumbo. Let’s see, I’ll need
to break this up into three pieces for the head, body, and tail. Whoops, I forgot the trunk, so four
pieces. I wonder why elephants are called pachyderms. Derm means skin. Hmm. Maybe it
means thick skin. Geez. This guy is looking more like Micke Mouse than Dumbo. Better try again
PGS TPK
PGS
TPK
V
M
C
RM
RM
V
AQ
MP/FI

19. What cognitive strategies did you use?
0 Planning and Goal Setting- PGS
0 Tapping Prior Knowledge- TPK
0 Asking Questions- AQ
0 Making Predictions- MP
0 Constructing the Gist- CG
0 Visualizing- V
0 Making Connections- MC
0 Summarizing- S
0 Adopting an Alignment- AA
0 Forming Interpretations- FI
0 Monitoring- M
0 Analysing Author’s Craft- AAC
0 Clarifying Understanding- CI
0 Revising Meaning- RM
0 Reflecting and Relating- RR
0 Evaluating- E

20. Metacognition: Thinking
about Thinking
COGNITIVE PROCESSES
0 Reflect on
0 Select
0 Monitor
0 Regulate
Example: EN7/C non-
fiction reading seminars

21. So what if students are
reading less?
0 Kids reading less
0 More use of IT
0 Is deep, prolonged reading
losing its relevance?
0 Is it dangerous to simply
let them ”browse and
sample”?
See Costanzo, R. ”So What if
Students are Reading Less” The
Globe and Mail 25 October,
2012

22. In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are
tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.
I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of
typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.
Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is great cargo, and some of it is
heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.
But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy
figure.
A stillness greatens, in which
The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a
bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.
I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash
And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the
door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark
And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,
And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,
It lifted off from the chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.
It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.
Source: ”The Writer” by Richard Wilbur.

24. Make cognitive strategies visible
Demonstrate what experienced
writers do.

25. ”Play the whole range”
Sensory/
Descriptive
Narrative/
Imagination
Practical/
Informative
Analytical/
Expository
Journal entry Anecdote Learning log Single-paragraph
analysis
Descriptions Memoir ”How to”
instructions
Editorial
Character sketch Eyewitness
account
Recipes Speech
Nature writing Historical fiction Class notes Book review
Monologue Comic Business letter Analytical essay
Poems Short story Newspaper article Persuasive essay
Travel brochure Play script Application Research essay
Reflective essay Observational
essay
Expository essay
Narrative poem Accident report Analytical report

26. Essential Elements:

27. Essential Elements: The
Outline

28. Essential Elements:
Paragraph Structure

29. Essential Elements: Essay
Structure

30. Essential elements: Register
Informal Formal

31. Essential elements: Source
Criticism and Citation

32. Writing at VRG: EN5
0 JOURNALLING
0 (Sentence writing)
0 Paragraph writing (topic,
supporting, concluding sentences)
0 Introduce the idea of the essay,
examples and types
0 Structure of an academic essay:
Introduction, thesis, body,
conclusion ”red thread”
0 Register
0 Plagiarism and citation techniques
0 Literary analysis essay
0 Literature circle writing
0 Formal research essay

33. Writing at VRG: EN6
0 Journalling
0 Formal argumentative essay
0 Source criticism
0 Register
0 Citation techniques
0 More advanced literary analysis
(historical criticism) essays
0 Literature circle writing

34. Writing at VRG: EN7
0 Journalling
0 Source criticism
0 Register
0 University application essay
0 Citation techniques
0 Report writing
0 Project abstract
0 Non-fiction reading analysis
0 Literature circle writing
0 More advanced literary analysis
(20th century literary criticism)
essays

35. Traffic Light Assessment
0 Red= STOP!
Grammatical/structural
error.
0 Yellow= CAUTION!
You are not making sense,
something is unclear.
0 Green= GO!
This is great writing! Nice
word choice! Good
connection!

36. Differentiating Writing 5,6,C
0 NOS sector Human Rights essays
0 EN5
0 EN6
0 ENC
0 Rubric ENC

37. Literature Circles
0 Student-centred
0 Choice
0 Multiple intelligences
0 Constructive
0 Connective
0 Ongoing assessment
(portfolios)
0 Short, regular reading and
writing assignments
0 Formative and summative

38. Literature Circles
0 Groups of 4-5
0 Regular meetings
0 Online portfolio
0 Rotating roles
0 Wordsmith
0 Discussion director
0 Literary luminary
0 Connector
0 Illustrator
0 Character analyst
0 Historian/Journalist

39. Literature Circle: Final project ideas
0 Online multimedia
”ZINE” (magazine)
0 DG Zine
0 DG Zine 2
0 Critical in-class essay
0 Creative group oral
presentation
0 Statue ”freeze”