Integrating the teaching of reading and writing: Process, genre and craft.

1. Mentor Texts for Process, genre and craftby Laurie StowellSan Marcos Writing ProjectCal State San Marcoslstowell@csusm.edu

2. “Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrow from one another. The instruction we find is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others and it becomes the property of all.”-Voltaire

3.   “Bees ransack flowers here and flowers there; but they make their own honey, which is entirely theirs and no longer thyme or marjoram. Similarly the boy will transform his borrowing, he will confound their forms so that the end-product is entirely his…”  -Michel de Montaigne

4. Integrating the teaching of reading and writing:Process, genre and craft.

5. Reading and writing processes: Readers and writers: Prepare by: Setting goals, setting purposes, planning, previewing, questioning, forming hypotheses, engaging prior knowledge and experiences, establishing a stance, perspective and making choices Make Meaning by: Using resources, making connections (to self, other texts, the world), identifying patterns or organizational structures, selecting details, reflecting, organizing ideas, adjusting rate, rereading, visualizing, summarizing, elaborating, discussing, taking risks, and validating predictions or hypotheses. Refine by: Monitoring for meaning, revising ideas, negotiating, problem solving, reflecting, paraphrasing, self correcting, making adjustments and sharing and discussing with others.

6. Correlational research on reading and writing • Those who read well also write well and those who read poorly also write poorly. The best consistent predictors of writing quality were reading ability and language scores. This was true across grade levels. • Numerous studies repeatedly indicate that reading experiences (how much and how often) definitely contribute to writing performance. • Good writers engage in more leisure time reading than poor readers • Poor writers tended to have less reading experience • Good writers in grades 9 and 12 did more voluntary reading than poor writers and also tended to be female • Superior writers in grade 12 had more extensive reading experiences than average writers • In young children it was found that the use of compound and complex sentences increased as the level of reading comprehension increased. There is also a significant correlation between sentence maturity and reading achievement. • The type and amount of reading to which writers are exposed may influence their choice of topic, genre, writing style, and vocabulary, as well as affecting the values they hold regarding writing and heightening their understanding of the author's craft.

7. Reading and writing relationship • In young children it was found that the use of compound and complex sentences increased as the level of reading comprehension increased. There is also a significant correlation between sentence maturity and reading achievement. • The type and amount of reading to which writers are exposed may influence their choice of topic, genre, writing style, and vocabulary, as well as affecting the values they hold regarding writing and heightening their understanding of the author's craft.

8. Literature vs. basal readers • DeFord's studies (among others) found that students in a literature based classroom (as opposed to a basal reader class) had a higher percentage of well formed stories, tended to write about classroom experiences (while others wrote about personal or family related topics) and produced a wider variety of literary forms. Children who use basal reader series that had stilted language and format tended to produce writing that was also stilted in language and format. • Three studies show that additional reading may be as good as, or better than grammar study in improving writing. Students who studied only literature wrote better compositions than students who studied only formal, traditional grammar. However there are some studies that refute some of this. Nothing in isolation is that good. The point is to amass a wide repertoire of strategies to draw on.

9. What writing does: “Watching, noticing and thinking deeply will help them be better writers but it will also help them be better scientists, sociologists, historians, mathematicians, and on and on. Watching, noticing and listening-reading the world is what smart people do. All of the work teachers have been doing with writer’s notebooks and lifebooks and journals is in support of this goal. Over time, we want students to develop more and more ways of finding important ideas to bring to their writing desks.” - Ray, K.W. (2001) The writing workshop: working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts).

10. How books teach writers: * Explicitly *the book tells what writers do *”Copying” * Implicitly *Borrowing and Improvising: the language of literature, language patterns, literary format, traditional literary elements, i.e. characterization, plot, setting, tone, theme and style. *Mentor texts (Calkins)

11. Explicit borrowing I loved my friend I like my friend He went away from me But she went away There’s nothing more to say There’s nothing to say. The poem ends the poem ends Soft as it began soft as it began I loved my friend I like my friend. -Langston Hughes - Gabby (3rd grade)

12. Fortunately/Unfortunately(based on the book by Remy Charlip) Once there was a new kid going to school Unfortunately he was lost. Fortunately, a friend showed him where to go. Fortunately he found a map Unfortunately, it was the wrong state. Fortunately, he got on a bus. Unfortunately, the bus broke down. Fortunately, it was across the street from the school. … by Steve, a 6th grade English learner

13. Implicit borrowing When children’s lives are filled with literature and good writing, one never knows from where they will borrow and what will become mentor texts: “In this the darkest night, in this the darkest sea, After coral was born, there came the mud-digging grub, and its child, the earth worm. There came the pointed star-fish, and the rock-grasping barnacle, and its child the oyster and its child, the mussel. There came the moss which lives in the sea, And the fern which grows on the learn. In this the darkest night There came the fish,and all the creatures of the sea. There came the lurking shark and the darting eel, moving quickly through the high weeds.” In the night still dark by Richard Lewis

14. Deanna’s “Creatures of the Night” As the night falls, a young fox runs from the cold into his warm den. A mother bat soars out of her cave on her nightly rounds of searching for food for her babies. A bright light attracts a lonely moth flying by. A frog lets out a soft croak before it dives into the ink colored pond. An owl perches above on a high branch scanning the grounds for her prey. A rat pokes his head out of the ground revealing his bright red eyes and down below on the river bottom, fish swim, swim, swim until morning comes into view. In the distance a coyote lets out a sharp and piercing howl. An opossum lurks behind a soft green bush, looking for trouble. And into this night, unknown to all the animals, the wolf stalks the forest waiting for the right moment to devour the unsuspecting. Which animal will be his next victim? A strong burst of wind rustles the leaves on the trees and startles a sleeping bird. Hours pass and slowly the sun begins to appear from beneath the horizon. And for the night creatures who have escaped the wolves clenching jar, another day dawns.

15. Elements of narrative: * Character * Setting * Plot * Tone * Language * Theme

16. Teaching writing explicitly with a book 1. Introduce the book 2. Give a focus for listening (descriptive language, character, plot development, etc.) 3. Read the book or part of a book (If students are not familiar with the book, give a brief summary beforehand) 4. Students take notes in writer’s notebooks. 5. Discuss: What did you notice? 6. Record their responses on chart or overhead

17. Elements of narrative: Character

18. There’s a boy in the girl’s bathroomby Louis Sachar Bradley Chalkers sat at his desk in the back of the room-last seat, last row. No one sat at the desk next to him. He was an island. If he could have, he would have sat in the closet. Then he could have shut the door so he wouldn’t have to listen to Mrs. Ebbel. He didn’t think she’d mind. She’d probably like it better that way too. So would the rest of the class. All in all, he thought everyone would be much happier if he sat in the closet, but, unfortunately, his desk didn’t fit. “Class,” said Mrs. Ebbel. “I would like you all to meet Jeff Fishkin. Jeff just moved here from Washington D.C., which as you know, is our nation’s capital.”… Mrs. Ebbel smiled at him. “Well, I guess we’d better find you a place to sit.” She looked around the room. “Hmmm, I don’t see anyplace except, I suppose you can sit there, at the back.” “No, not next to Bradely!” a girl in the front row exclaimed. “At least it’s better than in front of Bradley,” said the boy next to her…. “That’s right,” Bradley spoke up. “Nobody likes sitting next to me!” he smiled a strange smile. He stretched his mouth so wide, it was hard to tell whether it was a smile or a frown. As Mrs. Ebbel began the lesson, Bradley took out a pencil and a piece of paper and scribbled. He scribbled most of the morning and sometimes on the paper and sometimes on his desk. Sometimes he scribbled so hard his pencil broke. Every time that happened, he laughed. (p. 1-2)

19. *The teacher doesn’t like him *Few (if any) students like him *Troublemaker *Teacher apologizes for seating a child next to him. He sits in the last seat, last row *No one wants to sit next to him *Scribbles on desk, seemingly not paying attention What do we know about Bradley and how do we know it?

20. How does the reader learn about character? •Description: physical, emotional or mental •Interior monologue: character expresses thoughts, feelings, fears, etc. •Observed by others: other characters observe (and may comment on) behaviors, mental state, etc. •Actions •How the character interacts or responds to others

21. Stories with fully developed main characters: Jesse Autobiography of my dead brother by W.D. Myers Bud Bud, not buddy by P. C. Curtis Birdy Catherine called Birdy by K. Cushman Lucy The ballad of Lucy Whipple by K. Cushman Little Willy Stone Fox by J. Gardiner Holden Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Steve Monster by W. D. Myers Sarah Sarah plain and tall by P. MacLachlan Esperanza Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan Junior The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian T.J. Jones Whale Talk by C. Crutcher Maniac Maniac McGee by J. Spinelli Cassie Roll of thunder hear my cry by M. Taylor Moon Shadow Dragonwings by L. Yep

22. What stories and books in your reading curriculum could be used as models for strong character development?

23. Elements of narrative Setting

24. Owl Moonby Jane Yolen It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling. There was no wind. The trees stood still as giant statues. And the moon was so bright the sky seemed to shine. Somewhere behind us a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad song. I cold hear it through the woolen cap Pa had pulled down over my ears. A farm dog answered the train, and then a second dog joined in. They sang out, trains and dogs, for a real long time. And when their voices faded away it was as quiet as a dream. We walked on toward the woods, Pa and I. Our feet crunched over the crisp snow and little gray footprints followed us. Pa made a long shadow, but mine was short and round. I had to run after him every now and then to keep up, and my short, round shadow bumped after me. But I never called out. If you go owling you have to be quiet, that’s what Pa always says.

25. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer • “The constant whooshing of the rain and wind across the roof wouldn’t fade into the background. I pulled the faded old quilt over my head and later added the pillow too. But I couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight, when the rain finally settled into a quieter drizzle. • Thick fog was all I could see out my window in the morning and I could feel the claustrophobia creeping up on me. You could never see the sky here, it was like a cage.” (p. 11)

26. How do we learn about setting? *Description of what a place looks like * Description through the other senses *What characters tell the reader * Focus on smaller details to build a bigger picture *Description of a feeling that a time or place give a reader

27. Try this: Think of a place (or a time and place in your past) you like to go for a visit, vacation, occasionally to have a moment to yourself or daily. Using one of the techniques the authors mentioned use, describe that place by using the senses, building it from small details, the feeling the place gives you or a combination of techniques. If it helps to sketch it out first, try that.

28. Stories with integral settings: * Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit *City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau *Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George *From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweilerby E.L. Konigsburg *The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald *To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee * Twilight by Stephanie Meyer *The invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik *Hatchet by Gary Paulsen *Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson *Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo * Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

29. What stories and books in your reading curriculum have strong settings that could be used as models?

30. Effective Leads *Typical (It was a day at the end of July.) * Action * Dialogue *Interior monologue *A surprise * Reaction *Drop reader into middle of story and go back later to tell beginning.

31. Wringerby Jerry Spinelli He did not not want to be a wringer. This was one of the first things he had learned about himself. He could not have said exactly when he learned it, but it was very early. And more than early, it was deep inside. N the stomach, like hunger. But different from hunger, different and worse. Because it was always there. Hunger came only sometimes, such as just before dinner or on long rides in the car. Then, quickly, it was gone the moment it was fed. But this thing, there was no way to feed it. Well, one way perhaps, but that was unthinkable. So it was never gone. In fact, gone was something it could not be, for he could not escape it any more than he could escape himself. The best he could do was forget it. Sometimes he did so, for minutes, hours, maybe even for a day or two. But this thing did not like to be forgotten. Like air escaping a punctured tire, it would spread out from his stomach and be everywhere. Inside and outside, up and down, day and night, just beyond the foot of his bed, in his sock drawer, on the porch steps, at the edges of the lips of other boys, in the sudden flutter from a bush that he ad come too close to. Everywhere. This thing, this not wanting to be a wringer, did it ever knock him from his bike? Untie his sneaker lace? Call him a name? Stand up and fight? No. It did nothing. It was simply, merely there, a whisper of featherwings, reminding him of the moment he dreaded above all others, the moment when the not wanting to be a wringer wold turn into becoming one. (p. 3-4)

32. Seven Brave Womenby Betsy Hearne In the old days, history marked time by the wars that men fought. The United States began with the Revolutionary War. Then there was the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. But there are other ways to tell time. My mother does not believe that wars should be fought at all. She says history should be her story too, and she tells stories about all the women in our family who made history by not fighting in wars.

33. What stories and novels in your reading curriculum have good leads. How about effective endings?

34. Word Choice

35. Guess who my favorite person isby Byrd Baylor She said, “Tell your favorite color.” I said, “Blue.” But she said, “See you’ve already done it wrong. In this game you can’t just say it’s blue. You have to say what kind of blue.” So I said, “All right. You know the blue on a lizard’s belly? That sudden kind of blue you see just for a second sometime-so blue that afterwards you always think you made it up?” “Sure,” she said. “I know that kind of blue.” Then she told me hers and it was brown. Maybe I looked surprised because she said, “Not many people appreciate brown but I don’t care. I do. And the one I like best is a dark reddish brown that’s good for mountains and for rocks. You see it in steep cliffs a lot.”

36. Then we chose our favorite sounds. She said hers was bees but not just one or two. She said it takes about a thousand bees buzzing in all the fields around to make the kind of loud bee sound she likes.

37. Hello Oceanby Pam Munoz Ryan I see the ocean, gray, green, blue A chameleon always changing hue. Amber seaweed, speckled sand, Bubbly waves that kiss the land, Wide open water before my eyes, Reflected in a bowl of skies, Glistening tide pools and secret nooks- I love the way the ocean looks.

38. I smell the ocean, the fresh salt wind,wafting lotions from suntanned skin.Aromas from some ancient taledisclose their news when I inhale.Reeky fish from waters deep,fragrant ore from holes dug steep.Drying kelp and musty shells-I love the way the ocean smells.

39. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie MeyerA new vampirepages 387-389415-417

40. Simile and Metaphor * Quick as a cricket by Don and Audrey Wood * “Cliché” by Eve Merriam *Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill * “Morning” by Eve Merriam *My side of the mountain by Jean Craighead George *Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson

41. Graham’s story: On an early Saturday morning, my darn alarm clock came on. The loud noise was singing “Sugar and Spice and all things nice”. My sister turned the volume up on my radio. The noise sounded like a bulldozer going through the house. I woke up very slowly and walked like a turtle to the restroom. To wake me up, I turned the faucet on and the ice cold water gushed out into the sink. I stuck my hands under the cold water. My hands started to tingle. Shivering goosebumps went up and down my spine as fast as a running rabbit. I took the water and put it on my face. My eyes were as hard to open as a stuck locker. Then all the computers turned on in my brain. It’s like little mice saying, “Mission Control, come in Mission Control, Mission control, come in. All systems are going.” I walked like a human being for once to my room. My teeth were chattering together, just like a beaver chewing a tree down.

42. Worst analogies ever written in high school • The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. • Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. • Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. • He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree • The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. • John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

43. The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object. • His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. • Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. • The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

44. Try one of these: “I remember” by Edward Montezfrom The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury“My wicked, wicked ways” by Sandra Cisneros.

45. What books, stories, poems and other texts in your reading curriculum are good examples of effective word choice: specific, sensory, appropriate, etc.?

46. Sentence Fluency

47. “I have a dream” . “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice , sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their character. I have a dream today!”

48. There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call... THE TWILIGHT ZONE

49. Voice • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson • Voices in the park by Anthony Browne • Once upon a cool motorcycle dude by Kevin O’Malley • Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger • Bull Run and Seedfolks by P. Fleishman • Out of the Dust and Witness by K. Hesse • Monster by Walter Dean Myers • True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff • The true story of the three pigs , Math Curse, Squids will be squids by Jon Scheizka and Lane Smith • The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud • Joyful Noises by Paul Fleishman

50. The Amulet of Samarkand “I hate the taste of mud. It is no fit thing for a being of air and fire. The cloying weight of earth oppresses me greatly whenever I come in contact with it. That is why I am choosy about my incarnations. Birds, good. Insects, good. Bats, okay. Things that run fast are fine. Tree dwellers are even better. Subterranean things, not good. Moles, bad.” (Bartimaeusp. 12)