writing about reading
Writing About Reading
What do I do on the "write" days noted at the end of a round?
At the end of each round (week), each play includes a “Write” day. On these days, you’ll turn to the Readers Write fundamental in your Playbook to teach a write-about-reading skill. This mini-lesson will be delivered during the time you would teach your comprehension mini-lesson. It’s all about showing the students how to put the type of thinking you’ve been teaching them about all week into a grade-level appropriate written product. [NOTE: Grade-level skills are scaffolded. Not all grades will complete entire Readers Write fundamental skills.]
Why is "Readers Write" a fundamental?
Just like Reader Voices, Readers Write is a fundamental because it’s going to take all year to teach students the necessary skills to communicate their thinking in a written response. Rather than spiraling through the skills, Readers Write builds and scaffolds the skills to support students as they learn to communicate their comprehension in a constructed response or an extended response.
Is there an order to the "Readers Write" lessons?
The Readers Write fundamental follows a scaffolded order, offering 19 skills to teach, one at a time, throughout the year. Grades K-12 won’t follow the entire scaffold. [An explanation video regarding grade-level skills is included with the digital resources.] The skill scaffold is built with grade-level expectations in mind.
How do I transition to the "Readers Write" lesson each week?
At the end of each round, the “Write” icon reminds you that it’s time for a writing-about-reading mini-lesson. After teaching students all week about how readers think a certain way, now you want to show them how to put that kind of thinking in writing. You could call it “WAR” day–Writing-About-Reading day. Once the rhythm is established, students will know what you mean when you tell them it’s W.A.R. day.
What text do I use to model the writing lesson?
During a W.A.R. day mini-lesson, you’ll use the text and thinking from earlier in the week. That allows you to keep the mini-lesson short and succinct. There’s no time for new text and explanation. Because of this, you’ll want to take pictures or keep chart paper that shows the journey of thinking for each day’s mini-lesson of that play’s round. You’ll use that thinking to model for the students what it looks like to take that thinking as a reader and put it into a written response.