Keeping our students reading and writing while they are learning from home is of the upmost importance. But without daily, direct contact with our students, how can we keep the momentum going?
Above all else, sparking the desire and interest for literacy activities is key. Here are a few tips to get you and your students going with this work.
Start the Day by Asking, What do you plan to read today? What will you write about?
Many of you will be planning on communicating with your class via written or video communication. This might be in the form of a morning message, daily greeting, class meeting, or letter. Closing your message with the questions, What do you plan to read today? What will you write about? will give a reminder and a push to keep students in the work of reading and writing.
Highlight some student responses and share them with others in your class. This could be done through a simple format like the one below, on Google Classroom, social media platforms like Twitter, or even written on a piece of paper and shared via email or video.
Ideas grow ideas and sharing our plans will build community and hopefully spur some reading and writing with your students.
Share your Personal Plans for Reading and Writing
While everyone is sharing, take some time to talk about what you are reading and writing. For many of us, our lists will revolve around the books and writing we are doing with our own children at home. For others, we will be reading articles, blogs, and novels as well as writing messages to our students, letters to our family members, and journal entries reflecting on our current situation. Sharing the work you are engaged in during this time can help to encourage your students to read and write along with you.
If you'd like to give students an even bigger push, consider choosing texts that they might like to read and write as well. Go onto familiar websites like Newsela, Tween Tribune, Benchmark Universe, Storyline Online, etc and talk about what you are interested in reading. Show kids how you take books from your home library and preview the text (see strategy below) to help you get ready to read and encourage them to do the same. Show them your writing process and tell them how you plan to write a narrative piece like a journal entry, an informational piece based on what you learned from your reading (or exploration of a site like Ology or Wonderopolis), or how you want to write your opinion of your meal last night or the book or article you read yesterday. Show them your process and how you are going to organize your thinking. Unveiling your process will help students and parents understand the reading and writing they could be doing.
 |
| Nonfiction Strategy |
 |
| Fiction Strategy |
Celebrate! Keep Track of the Books that are Read and Texts that are Written
Keep a log of what books are being read and what texts are being written. This could be a list that is created on a Google Doc, a list you keep and share on a piece of paper, a count of the total texts read or written, or any other format you can think of. The goal is to celebrate the reading and writing you and your students are engaging in. So make it fun, keep it light, and stay connected with those that need you most.
If you have any other ideas to keep the momentum of reading and writing going in your classroom, please share! Ideas grow ideas and we are better together!
Comments
Post a Comment