Reading Like a Writer

This is my first week at the Middle TN Writing Project ISI. It’s been such a great experience and we’ve only been learning for 2 days! Yesterday we focused on authentic writing. We determined authentic writing was writing that included choice for the students and a purpose and audience.

As a first grade teacher, my list of audiences was a bit smaller than other people's. However, I think we can do some more purposeful writing this year. Here are some of my ideas: writing to parents about school progress, to past teachers, to me, to another first grade class about our content (especially math), to other teachers/staff to encourage or ask a question, to someone who can answer a burning question (maybe a scientist or an author), to celebrities (see if we get anything back!), and to field trip presenters to thank them. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Today we talked about reading like a writer. We studied a 5 step process (although I believe we only did 1-3 today…) to reading a text like a writer.

1. What do you notice the author doing in the text?

2. Why do you think the author did this? Make a theory.

3. Give the craft a name.

So we read Encounter by Jane Yolen. GREAT BOOK! Especially for older kids studying Columbus. It’s from a native child’s point of view of Columbus landing in his home. Here is our analysis of reading it like a writer.

1. What did we notice? The child used comparisons to nature throughout the story. “hair growing like bushes on their face” (not precise quoting…)

2. Why did the author do this? To develop the character of the child- he knew nature and through his eyes everything could be compared to nature.

3. Name the craft. This one was a toughie. Since there are 2 functions of the craft, both using figurative language with nature AND developing the character. I think we named it Comparison of Nature for Character’s Perspective.

We made an anchor chart with the title of the craft, a short explanation, and then listed the book and author who used it. We also listed a quotation as an example.

Here’s what I would do with a more first grade text: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

As we read more texts that contain this craft, we could add them to this list.

I can’t wait to use this with the kiddos! Some fellows suggested for first graders I copy the actual page of the book to put on the chart so they could remember it better. Also that examples we find during independent reading could be written on post-its and added to the poster.

I would love to hear about how you teach your students to read like a writer, too!