e d i t o r s ’ m e s s aDiane
g e | Teaching
Students to
Read like
Writers
Promotes
Lapp, Douglas
Fisher,
and
Nancy
Frey Writing Growth
EDITORS ’ MESSAGE
page
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Teaching Students to Read like
Writers Promotes Writing Growth
W
hen engaging with an exciting
novel, a motivating poem, or
an interesting informational
article, do you ever find that in addition
to being enthralled by the content you
often return to the text to muse about
the craft used by the author to convey the
information or tell the story? This happens to us often, and these are always the
pieces we find most interesting; they are
often the ones we encourage others to
read. These are the pieces that intrigue us
because of the information or story being
shared and the author’s way of relaying it.
As skilled readers, we all read like writers who
in turn consider the crafting techniques used by
other writers. We like to look at the language and
consider why the author used particular words
in particular ways. We consider the facts being
shared or the way the story unfolds. We deliberate on the clues we’ve been given to guess the
ending and wonder about what details and clues
were left out. We reread to visualize the images
the author is painting for us and just how this is
affecting our interpretation. We like to consider
the types of sentences that are being used; are
they short and choppy or long and flowing? It’s
interesting to think about how different sentence
constructions influence understanding and emotion So too is it interesting to consider punctuation. How are dashes, colons, and periods used
to create connections between and among ideas?
Teaching students to discern the author’s
intentionality in crafting a text supports their
development as both readers and writers. At the
conclusion of reading, students who are becoming good writers should be able to explain what
the text says as well as how the story was told or
the information was conveyed. They should consider whether they are compelled to invite others
to read it, and if not—why not? An examination
of the how of the text supports writers having a
tool bag full of ways to share their own ideas.
The three themes of the articles in this issue
center around the importance of teachers believing they have the knowledge and skills as writers
to empower their students as writers; the power
of mentor texts of all types to introduce wellcrafted writing; and the role that revision plays
in producing a text that others will want to read.
Each of the articles provides ideas and examples
of how to build writing engagement, stamina,
and expertise. They furnish explicit examples
that will help teachers across the disciplines feel
more secure about how to teach writing.
Believe You Can!
Teachers tell us that they are sometimes unsure
about how to provide writing experiences that
motivate their students to become writers. Deborah Dean, Melissa Heaton, Sarah Orme, and
Gary Woodward attempt to quell this insecurity
by discussing how the practices they learned in
a summer writing institute empowered them as
writers and also as teachers of writing. Becoming
writers themselves changed the way they teach
their students to write. They advise others to
Copyright © 2015 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.
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write more as a way to better understand how to
teach students how to write.
Hannah Dostal and Rachael Gabriel address
the insecurity felt by many teachers regarding
their writing knowledge and offer ideas designed
to support powerful writing instruction. Couple this with the wonderfully detailed, practical
step-by-step suggestions and examples shared by
Vicky Giouroukakis and Maureen Connolly and
you’ll be ready to support teaching students to
write well-crafted arguments.
For those who think writing is a lonely task,
Latrise Johnson and Elizabeth Eubanks describe a project they created to support preservice teachers in developing their writing craft.
The project is so well articulated that it can be
instantly implemented by others seeking a new
approach to essay writing.
Ryan Rish and Kristine Pytash share the
reflections of preservice teachers who engaged
in a project designed to help them learn how
to support students becoming writers. Key to
this development was that writing was related
to students’ identities, and that they learned to
consider audiences and were motivated by using
multimodal composition. The ideas shared can
be revisited across grades and disciplines. After
reading these articles you will have lots of ideas
to support you as a teacher of writing.
Share Powerful Models
Jaime Norris explains that expert teachers of
writing give students choice about writing topics.
She cautions, however, that choice isn’t all that’s
needed. Teachers must teach students to write
by showing and sharing powerful mentor texts
and then studying how each was crafted. Mentor texts, at the forefront of instruction, provide
possible models of how to convey an experience,
present an argument, or provide information.
Mentor texts furnish young writers with insights
about the techniques and language skilled authors use. They are often reexamined as writers
initially imitate and then perfect their own styles.
Stephen Crawley illustrates one way to
motivate students to become strong writers by
inviting them to share their voices through multimodal masterpieces. He explains how he and
his students moved from crafting paper-and-pencil opinion pieces to viewing and creating multimodal digital compositions. He shares ideas for
incorporating digital writing experiences across
disciplines.
Kelly Chandler-Olcott also taught a group of
students how to look at the writers’ techniques,
catalog them in their digital writing notebooks
where they noted features, collected their insights
and questions and writing samples, crafted, and
finally evaluated their texts. Doing so stretched
students’ insights regarding themselves as writers
and strengthened their craft.
Molly Harville and her colleague Misha
Franks used postmodern picture books as mentor
texts in sixth grade to teach students to analyze
structure and become empowered to work within
this genre. As noted in their article, students need
lots of exposure to powerful texts before they can
be expected to write them.
Teach Writing and Revising as
Partners
Revision is much more than correcting grammar and punctuation. Yet the thought of revision
is often met with an “Ugh” because the focus is
on the effort involved to do so, rather than developing a precise and polished text that others
will want to read. Katherine Batchelor showcases
how to make revision an exciting experience,
rather than a painful one, by involving students
in a blended learning experience that integrates
multiple literacies via digital transmediation and
science flash fiction.
Middle school teacher Shirley Cowles also
describes how she gets her students to see beyond
what many view as the drudgery of revision. She
does this by teaching revision as only one feature
of producing a final draft to convey one’s voice in
ways that keep the reader engaged.
Laura Kelly illustrates that the power of
written literacy crosses the disciplines as she describes a history teacher’s effort to support revision through peer feedback in his classroom.
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The details of these experiences are so explicitly
shared that readers will be able to implement this
meaningful revision process.
Revision is hard work that becomes more
satisfying when each piece of writing has an intended audience in mind. When this audience
is comprised of authentic readers, say Denise
Morgan, Leslie Benko, Valerie Long, and Gayle
Hauptman, student writers are more willing to
revise. They portray revisions as a natural process
of writing by describing a unit of study shared
with seventh graders. What resulted was a shift
in mindset among these middle schoolers as they
realized that revision was a significant feature of
one’s writing craft. The practical tools of revision
that students learned helped them understand
the power of and need for revision.
Regardless of your knowledge about how to
craft instruction that results in your students becoming powerful writers, we believe the articles
in this issue of Voices offer many new powerful
ideas to support your endeavors. Be sure to remind your students to follow this advice that
William Faulkner gave in a statement at the University of Mississippi in 1947:
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Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics,
good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the
master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s
good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the
window.
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