Writing about Reading

We generally think of writing and reading as two discrete language processes, but doing so overlooks the important relationship they have to each other. Asking students to write about their reading provides at least two fundamental benefits. First, those writings become an indicator of what students have learned from the texts. And second, those writings enable students to make meaning of those texts.

For starters, short writing activities (and I emphasize short, especially for those who work with struggling students), can be a good indicator of what students have understood of the text. It isn’t the only or even the best indicator. But, it is a good indicator none-the-less. It can be as simple as a “quick write” in student notebooks, or perhaps a more developed, formal essay. The writings (depending on the prompt and the essay requirements) can indicate if they are reading for “gist” or “meaning”, or whether the student is capable of inference and evaluation. With the help of carefully chosen prompts, you can even help students to read beyond the text to make comments about how it is structured or even what it might be missing. Student writings can help teachers assess the general needs of individual students and entire classes.

Secondly, writing prompts enable students to make deeper meaning of texts. When teachers provide writing prompts before readings, they help students to determine what might be important in that text. Writing opportunities also encourage students to return to texts to re-read, and possibly re-think their understandings. They also reinforce the practice of supporting their own claims with specific evidence from the text, which again generally means going back into the text.

This month’s newsletter is dedicated to a series of writing activities that can help students interact with texts. They are all generally quick and low-maintenance (meaning they don’t require much time to set-up or assess). While many of these activities have been around for awhile, I have taken them from Frey and Fisher’s Rigorous Reading as well as NCTE’s Read, Write, Think.

Read the entire newsletter here.