SMALL GROUP WRITING INSTRUCTION:

USING WRITING TO COMPREHEND AND RESPOND

TO INFORMATIONAL TEXT
Michigan State University
Linda Borton

TE 848
Perrien
April 2017
Small Group Writing Instruction:
Using Writing to Comprehend and Respond to Informational Text
Introduction
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Writing is a powerful tool for individuals to express their ideas and opinions. For
students, it is a necessary life skill to aid them in their future endeavors and careers. Writing
provides many purposes such as maintaining communication with family and acquaintances,
influencing others in ideas, learning and sharing information, and improving reading skills
(Graham & Harris, 2013). Students need writing skills to function and communicate in society.
Within a school context, students can greatly benefit in writing instruction to better express their
ideas and creativity, but also exhibit their understanding of content on different topics. While
writing and reading are not the same, writing can help students learn and relate content to help
them become better readers. Providing opportunities for students to respond to text or write to
learn about text can be a dynamic way for students to grow in their learning. Increasing how
much students write can lead to better reading comprehension and how well students
comprehend text (Graham & Harris, 2013, p. 6).
Writing has proven to be a catalyst for creativity and a vehicle for communicating
understanding. Although there are benefits to writing, schools face challenges in writing
instruction. Some challenges include teachers that feel they are not prepared to teach writing,
having little time allotted for writing instruction, and a narrow focus types of writing to teach
students. Gilbert and Grahams (2010) research sample of 97 surveyed teachers found two out
of every three teachers reported they received minimal to no preparation to teach writing from
the education courses they took during college (p. 503). This evidence suggests undergraduate
programs are not providing practical approaches to teach teachers important tools to aid in their
instruction.
Along with teachers feeling ill-prepared to teach effective lessons, there is a short amount
of time in the day to focus on writing. Gilbert & Graham (2010) reported on average, schools
only use 20 - 45 minutes of the school day on writing or writing instruction. Additionally, within
the minimal time focused on writing, classrooms are more focused on narrative pieces and do not
explore the many other genres of writing (Applebee & Langer, 1983). The exploration of
different genres and the resources available to teach different genres is lacking. There has been a
growing stress on using informational books in elementary schools over the past decade, but
little research on information writing development to support teachers efforts in writing
(Donovan & Smolkin, 2011). Consequently, inquiries showed teachers who lacked confidence
in their instruction feel pressured to create their own writing curricula in response to schools not
providing resources (Gilbert & Graham, 2010). Teachers feeling ill-equipped to teach writing
skills effectively, a meager focus on writing during the school day and shallow exploration to
different types of writing are significant challenges to writing instruction in schools.
The challenges to support effective writing opportunities are also present at my school.
My position is to see students grow specifically in reading fluency, reading comprehension, and
foundational math skills. Writing has not been a main focus since the founding of our school and
in the fourth year of its genesis the administration and staff are starting to see the writing deficits
as state scores come back low. Students I work with are at least one grade level behind and their
writing skills are just as undeveloped when making initial observations. Our school has not
adopted a writing curriculum and just uses resources from various outlets to create writing units
loosely guided by Common Core expectations. Focusing on integrating writing into reading
comprehension is one attempt to address some of these challenges.
At first, my teaching and planning approach to reading and writing was
compartmentalized as two separate teachings. I was challenged by Applebee & Langers (1983)
approach that focused on integrating new learning with natural ways students can express
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themselves. This process of learning to read and write becomes intertwined. Reading and
writing can support the learning of the other (Schatzberg-Smith, 1987). Understanding the
connection between reading and writing allows a less intimidating approach to writing for an
experienced reading teacher. There are increasing claims that writing plays a crucial part in the
development of abstract and high level thinking and in helping students apply these skills to
understand subject matter (Rosaen, 1990, p. 419). With research stating the benefits to writing
supporting reading comprehension there should be ways to allow writing opportunities in reading
instruction. Effective comprehension activities build upon students initial interpretations
through writing or discussion activities (Applebee & Langer, 1983). Knowing the value of
connecting reading and writing, I wanted to try and find a way I could implement writing in my
small group reading instruction.
My plan was to start with my students current reading goals and incorporate writing
opportunities for students to show their knowledge. Previously, plans for my reading lessons
were focused on fluency, comprehension and word work. With only the limited amount of time I
see my small groups, comprehension understanding was usually verbally discussed and
comprehension checks were given in a multiple choice assessment. To create writing
opportunities, I planned to use non-fiction texts I already use in my sessions as a springboard for
writing instruction. I chose specific reading strategies my small group would focus on and
modeled how to communicate understanding through writing. Comprehension skills I chose
were eliciting prior knowledge, identifying main idea and details, and comparing and contrasting
topics in text. Instead of using prescribed formal assessments I checked understanding by using
the writing activities we did in our sessions.

Related Research
Writing opportunities allow students to share their understanding and can better prepare
students to extend what they are learning. Graham and Harris (2013) state, writing enhances
students learning as well as their ability to read effectively (p. 3). In classrooms today there is a
large emphasis on reading comprehension instruction, but there is a lack of understanding of how
to use writing as a tool for students to grow in their understanding of text. These skills of
interpretation and providing evidence in claims can be molded in writing instruction. When
writing in response to text the goal is to scaffold instruction so students begin to verbalize big
ideas and then provide rationale for their thinking based on evidence in images, text, and their
own world intertextual understandings (Cummins & Quiroa, 2012). If students are able to write
about material they read, then they can visually record, analyze, connect, personalize and
manipulate information in a text.
In order to help students progress in their writing, there needs to be more intention in
planning that provides students with opportunities to write. Students need to be reminded
writing is a way to reformulate and extend their knowledge or to engage in higher-order thinking
about the subject matter. Teachers need to give these opportunities and make sure writing serves
an important purpose (Rosaen, 1990).

Pedagogy
When introducing writing to my small group, I was intentional about stating the skills we
were using and the purpose for why we were practicing the skill. I shared we were going to
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continue to read our informational texts, but use writing as a way to share our ideas, thoughts,
and reactions to the text.
Previous to this project, I planned my lessons on nonfiction text comprehension. In my
sessions I normally focused on nonfiction text because many students had not shown mastery in
this area based on standardized testing and classroom observations. The texts picked were alpha-
leveled by grade level. Texts were chosen on grade level content topics and student interest.
Within the comprehension component of the lessons, we read through the leveled text and
focused on a reading skill or strategy that would aid students in their understanding. With the
short allotted time, much of the informal assessment done during the lesson was taken through
observation and discussion.
To provide opportunities for the three students in the group to engage in writing, I
planned out 13 semiweekly (Seven weeks) sessions of our times together. The sessions
continued to cater to learning comprehension skills, but offered ways they can respond to text or
communicate their understanding of text through writing (Appendix A). In my planning I
recalled Rosaens (1990) thoughts on writing instruction. She shared that writing should be
explicit and also allow students to explore the development of their ideas. Rosaen (1900) also
shared teachers must be flexible and agile in their teaching as students have emerging needs.
Being able to change instruction based on the response students have to the lesson is an
important factor that affects the quality of the writing process.
Schatzberg-Smith (1987) reported three areas of writing which can be used to develop
reading ability. Those areas are: (1) writing to improve comprehension and retention of text; (2)
instruction on text structure; and (3) development of prior knowledge and schema. Our first
writing opportunity was a small introduction into writing. The activity shared students prior
knowledge on a topic we were reading about. I had students record their background knowledge
about plants, which connected to the next text we would be reading about. Students shared their
thoughts and were eager to write on our large KWL (What do we know, what do we want to
know, what did we learn?) anchor chart (Appendix B). Lassonde and Richards (2013) state,
whether a student is responding to a writing task or creating an original text, she will have to
begin by thinking about what she knows and how she feels about the topic (p. 205). This
activity showed me what my students knew about the topic and also what questions they were
thinking about as we started to read the text. It also gave me a visual of how they organize their
thoughts and formulate their sentences to communicate their knowledge. As we continued to
read the text we answered questions and added more questions to our group chart.
The next skill I wanted to work on was identifying the main idea and supporting details.
Focusing on the overall main idea of the text is difficult because we can only read so much in our
session time. Therefore, I chose to focus on finding the main idea and supporting details of each
subsection within the text. While we had discussed main idea and supporting details in previous
sessions, I knew it was important to scaffold students into adding another layer of understanding
by recording these main idea and details in their graphic organizers. I tried the approach of
giving students a graphic organizer and provided students with partial information. The
students initial task was to fill out the information using teacher modeling and the partial
information example (Chang, Sung, & Chen, 2002, p. 339). The first section in the graphic
organizer was partially filled out for them and as a group we discussed the reasoning for the
main idea and supporting details. I continued to model the next two sections of text repeating the
thoughts and reasoning for finding the main idea and supporting details. This modeling was to
help students recognize the important aspects of the text and disregard the repetitive and
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unimportant ideas of the text (Shanahan, 2013). For the next two sections, I had students record
what they thought the main idea and details were and share with the group. Finally, for the last
section I had students fill out the main idea and supporting details independently.
The last skill I chose to focus on was comparing and contrasting two different topics.
Grade level standards in reading and writing emphasize that students should be able to compare
and contrast two sets of ideas. We have read many different texts on different animals since the
beginning of the school year. My students keep their texts inside of their session folder and for
this assignment I had them choose two animals we have read about to compare and contrast.
Since this activity touches on many deficits students have in writing, I knew it would need
scaffolding. Smith & Okolo (2010) explain deficits in writing include writing with respect to
knowledge. Struggling writers are less knowledgeable about text structure organization, know
fewer strategies for accomplishing writing tasks and know less about regarding the topics about
which they are asked to write(students have) impoverished linguistic knowledge (and are)
insensitive to audience needs (Smith & Okolo, 2010, p. 263). Thinking about those obstacles, I
planned to break apart the final piece I was hoping to see from this group. We started with
students choosing which animals they wanted to write about. I shared how I decided on my two
animals based on my understanding of what I read about them and my interest in reading and
writing about them. After students chose their topics, we used a Top Hat graphic organizer to
list off the items that were similar and different about them. As I listed off my ideas, I reminded
students we were just writing down ideas and not focusing formulating complete sentences.
Students then reviewed their texts, picked their animals, and listed off their ideas to fill out the
graphic organizer. Smith & Okolo (2010) explain that graphic organizers are an evidenced-
based practice and can be integrated across academic tiers of learning. It is an effective tool for
students to organize their thoughts in the prewriting stage. After completing pre-writing
strategies, we discussed the structure of our writing to include an introduction, a paragraph
sharing the differences between our animals, a paragraph sharing the similarities of our animals,
and a concluding paragraph. Before starting the introduction, we spent time talking about how to
start our introductions with an interesting hook to lure readers into reading our pieces. Then,
we referred back to our discussions about main ideas. We discussed when writing introductions
we wanted to be very broad and general. In our next sessions, we talked about being detailed
and specific in our differences and similarities of our animals. For our conclusion, we reviewed
our introduction discussion and added reflective thoughts to tie our ideas together. In our final
sessions, we did mini-lessons on editing. Students peer-edited the pieces and revised their
pieces. In the last session students wrote their final copy.

Reflection on Student Work

Prior Knowledge
To gauge the students writing skills and create a comfortable writing culture, the first
writing opportunity was done as a group. I thought this was a very low risk environment for
students to share their knowledge and have an opportunity to write with the group. At the start
of the activity, all of the students felt they had something to share in the know section of the
KWL. After I shared our purpose and modeled what I knew about plants, all hands shot up into
the air when I asked what they already knew about plants. I think part of the engagement was
because plants are a concept discussed in science in previous years. Also, students wanted to use
my fruity scented marker to add to our anchor chart. One observation I had on their
contributions was there was a variance of details in the items they shared. Gary and Brad both
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shared single less detailed facts about plants such as, some plants have stems. and Animals
eat plants. Jordan was able to share couplet statements that combined two thoughts or ideas
with a conjunction such as, Most plants need a lot of sun and water.

Main Idea and Details

When discussing sections of the text, students initially struggled with differentiating
between main ideas and supporting details. When given the last section to identify the main idea
and supporting details, Gary was unable to share the main idea of the section was about dangers
shark are facing. Instead he wrote, about that sharks should survive, which would be more
appropriate if the author was sharing details of what sharks are important to save. As a group the
students would continue to list off very specific details when asked about main idea. After
gaining some additional understanding of main idea and details, students were then struggling
with how to pick out important details verses not important details. For example, Brad, shared a
detail under the section for Baby Sharks that baby sharks were also known as mermaid purses,
which is a fun fact, but with the other information given there were other details he could have
focused on important details of baby sharks. During this activity Jordan was able to share the
main idea about why sharks were being hunted and what they need to survive. He was also able
to share examples of items they were hunted for and why they were important to keep around.

Comparing and Contrasting

During the pre-writing activities students were able to identify and list some details and
similarities of their animals. Gary had the most difficult time formulating his ideas of the
differences between his animals. He chose to focus on two items which compared the habitats of
the animals and if the animals had a tail or not. Brad and Jordan were both able to list off
important ways their animals were similar and different. Brad used physical characteristics,
habitat location and what the animals ate. Jordan used physical characteristics, type of animals,
habitat location and human interaction to compare and contrast his animals. Each of their items
planted a seed of idea of what they could use to describe what was different or similar in their
pieces.
In the structure of their drafts all students decided to start off their pieces with a question.
The rest of their introductions shared the purpose of their writing. In the two body paragraphs
they were supposed to share commonalities and differences in their animals. Among the three
students I concentrated on, Gary had the most trouble with structure. For his second paragraph
he focused on how different cheetahs are from bears. In his third paragraph, he focused on how
bears are different from cheetahs, which explained the differences, but omitted facts on how they
are the same. Brad and Jordan were both able to separate their two paragraphs with one being
about the similarities and another being about the differences. In both paragraphs students were
able to pull in facts listed on their graphic organizers to help them. In Brads piece, there were
very detailed pieces of information about the differences. Brad used descriptive words to add to
his comparisons such as bushy, small, long and little. In sentence structure Brad also
started to show his development of going from a just facts in his graphic organizer to a fact
list such as, Their both fast. He even created couplet sentences to form his paragraphs and
combined two fact list sentences, They both have fur and live in the woods (Donovan &
Smolkin, 2011). Jordan was able to give lots of variety of list and couplet sentences. He was
also able to communicate a topic sentence at the end of the paragraphs describing if he was
sharing similarities or differences between the animals. The overall flow of the ending was a
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little abrupt for all of the students, but they were able to restate their purpose for writing. Jordan
was even able to bring some voice into his piece stating, Never get near a shark!.
For starting out with implementing writing into our groups I was highly impressed by
their effort and skills of communicating their thoughts on the topics we read about. I was also
very proud of the effort they put into reading the text, pulling information from the text and using
writing to communicate what they knew about the topic, their reaction to the text, and what they
learned from reading the text.

Student Reflections
Overall, I think students were excited to be able to try out another way of communicating
their ideas. These students were very creative and able to express their thoughts in their writing.
I was pleasantly surprised none of the students were unmotivated to write. Through all of the
sessions, they were eager to try their best and write as much as they could. Even my student who
took longer to write and express his ideas was ready to write.
Students really enjoyed expressing their prior knowledge of plants. There was a sense of
excitement because they would be getting to participate in a different way in group. They were
also excited to use the scented markers to write down their ideas. Many students took pride and
ownership of their ideas. The environment was very low risk and students began to bring
freedom in writing whatever came to mind on the topic of plants. We were able to comfortably
discuss their ideas and students were eager to put their thoughts onto the anchor chart.
The group was very excited to read about sharks and excitement carried over into
recording the main idea and details for the sections we read about. Students really responded to
unique facts they learned about sharks. These facts brought up good conversation about what
details are important and support the main idea verses which are just fun facts. The students also
responded well to the graphic organizer. One student shared he knew what the next section
would be about when following the flow of the graphic organizer. Students were excited they
knew the direction we were going in our reading and writing. They also were getting into a
rhythm of thinking about how they could synthesize their main idea and details. After reading a
section, students would quickly raise their hand knowing my next question would be about
sharing the main idea and supporting details.
For the comparison activity, students really enjoyed the freedom of picking two animals
they had read about previously. When allowing a choice in the writing, students seemed more
engaged with what they were writing about. The graphic organizer in their drafting stages was
helpful in organizing their ideas when listing out similarities and differences.

Conclusion
As developmental educators we can help students successfully compete in the academic
mainstream if we integrate writing with reading instruction (Schatzberg-Smith, 1987, p. 55).
Through researching about writing instruction in schools today, I found writing is a neglected
area of the school day. Some challenges teachers face are feeling unprepared to teach writing,
having little time to teach, and only having resources to focus on a few types of writing. The
causes for the neglect can range from the inadequacies in teaching programs to the concentrated
focus on reading and math proficiency. With the large benefits of writing, schools should
continue to revisit ways writing can be incorporated into the school day and offer resources to
support writing instruction. The benefits in writing can be academic and social. In an academic
stance, it can create a deeper understanding and reflection of learning. In a social aspect, writing
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can foster a medium of expressing unique ideas or contrary opinions. In my personal case,
bringing writing into my sessions allowed me to see the potential my students had in
communicating their learnings and knowledge. While instructional writing may be intimidating,
there is a higher necessity in giving students opportunities to respond to their reading. The
opportunities to write gave my students a chance to represent themselves and their learnings in a
different way. I was encouraged and surprise of the writing abilities I did not know my students
had. As Bomer (2012) shared it is the hidden beauty in student writing that will help you feel
excited by what your students know and can do (p. 8). Throughout this exploration, I have been
energized by my students capabilities and have learned more about their individuality as
learners.

References
Applebee, A., & Langer, J. (1983). Instructional scaffolding: reading and writing as natural
language activities. Language Arts, 60(2), 168-175. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41961447

Bomer, K. (2010). Hidden gems: Naming and teaching from the brilliance in every students
writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Chang, K., Sung, Y., & Chen, I. (2002). The effect of concept mapping to enhance text
comprehension and summarization. Journal of Experimental Education, 71, 5-23.

Correnti, R., Matsumura, L., Hamilton, L., & Wang, E. (2013). Assessing students' skills at
writing analytically in response to texts. The Elementary School Journal, 114(2), 142-
177. doi:10.1086/671936

Cummins, S., & Quiroa, R. (2012). Teaching for writing expository responses to narrative texts.
The Reading Teacher, 65(6), 381-386. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41853042

Donovan, C., & Smolkin, L. (2011). Supporting informational writing in the elementary grades.
The Reading Teacher, 64(6), 406-416. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41203424
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Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2013). Designing an Effective Writing Program. In S. Graham,
C. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction (2nd ed., pp.
3-25). New York, New York: Guilford Press.

Gilbert, J., & Graham, S. (2010). Teaching writing to elementary students in Grades 46: A
National Survey. The Elementary School Journal, 110(4), 494-518. doi:10.1086/651193

Lassonde, C., & Richards, J. C. (2013). Best practices in teaching planning for writing. In S.
Graham, C. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction (2nd
ed., pp. 193-214). New York, New York: Guilford Press.

Rosaen, C. (1990). Improving writing opportunities in elementary classrooms. The Elementary

School Journal, 90(4), 419-434. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1001939

Schatzberg-Smith, K. (1987). The reading-writing connection 1: writing to learn from text.

Research and Teaching in Developmental Education, 3(2), 52-55. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/42801747

Shanahan, T. (2013). Designing an effective writing program. In S. Graham, C. MacArthur, &

J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction (2nd ed., pp. 334-350). New
York, New York: Guilford Press.

Smith, S., & Okolo, C. (2010). Response to intervention and evidence-based practice: where
does technology fit? Learning Disability Quarterly, 33(4), 257-272. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23053229
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Appendix A
Lesson Overview
Informational Comprehension/Focus Skill Writing Opportunity
Text

Week 1 Strange Plants by Sharing previous Group writing activity

Tuesday Kira Freed knowledge and where students recorded
questions before their thoughts on anchor
reading the text chart to share their prior
knowledge of plants.

Week 1 Strange Plants by Sharing questions and Group writing activity

Thursday Kira Freed recording learned where students shared their
facts questions and learned facts
about text using writing.

Week 2 Sharks by Kira Finding the main idea Students wrote using a
Tuesday Freed and supporting details graphic organizer to
understand text and writing
structure. This also
allowed students to identify
the main idea and record
details that supported the
main idea.

Week 2 Sharks by Kira Finding the main idea Students wrote using a
Thursday Freed and supporting details graphic organizer to
understand text and writing
structure. This also
allowed students to identify
the main idea and record
details that supported the
main idea.
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Week 3 Sharks by Kira Finding the main idea Students wrote using a
Tuesday Freed and supporting details graphic organizer to
understand text and writing
structure. This also
allowed students to identify
the main idea and record
details that supported the
main idea.

Week 3 Sharks by Kira Finding the main idea Students wrote using a
Thursday Freed and supporting details graphic organizer to
understand text and writing
structure. This also
allowed students to identify
the main idea and record
details that supported the
main idea.

Week 4 Various texts Comparing and Teacher models listing out

Tuesday previously read contrasting topics ideas of similarities and on
a graphic organizer
Students picks two different
animals we read about and
list out ideas of similarities
and differences on Top
Hat graphic organizer

Week 4 Various texts Comparing and Teacher models good

Thursday previously read contrasting topics hooks using previous text
Reviewing structure and articles read.
of comparison writing Students start writing their
and starting off with a hooks to start their
hook in text comparison writing.

Week 5 Various Texts Introductory Students add on to their

Tuesday previously read paragraphs focusing introduction paragraphs.
on main ideas
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Week 5 Various Texts Finding differences of Teacher models sentence

Thursday previously read the two animals they structure and flow in
picked writing two body
Finding similarities of paragraphs. Students write
the two animals they a paragraph and list the
picked differences they found
about their animals.
Students write a paragraph
that explains the similarities
they found about their
animals.

Week 6 Various Texts Summarizing ideas in Teacher models creating a

Tuesday previously read conclusion paragraph concluding paragraph that
brings the piece together
and transitions to end the
piece. Students write a
paragraph and list the
similarities they found
about their animals

Week 6 Various Texts Editing Student edit and write final

Thursday previously read pieces

Week 7 Various Texts Final Piece Student write final pieces

Tuesday previously read

Appendix B
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KWL Chart

Appendix C
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Garys Writings

Main Idea & Details Top Hat Organizer

Compare & Contrast

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Appendix D
Brads Writings

Main Idea & Details Top Hat Organizer

Compare & Contrast

Appendix E
Jordans Writings

Main Idea & Details Top Hat Organizer

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Compare & Contrast

Writer's Memo
At the start of the practitioner project I was very apprehensive on deciding which area I
wanted to focus on. As I was reading the different articles about the role of writing in the
classroom, there were commonalities stating that many teachers feel ill-prepared to teach writing.
While I was exposed to theory and some practices in my undergraduate courses, I admittedly felt
anxious in tackling this project. Questions started formulating in my head about how I could
practically add writing to my fast paced lessons...Is there a way to couple what I currently do
during my lessons with a writing element? What writing skills should I implement?
As an Academic Specialist I work with small groups of 1 - 5 students and focus on
learning gaps in reading fluency and comprehension. Thinking about writing implementation, I
wanted to see effective ways of using writing as a response to text or writing to learn about a
topic.
The overall goal was to have students be able to show their understanding and practice
some skills through writing. Texts were used to support and expose ideas they would
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incorporate in their responses. In order to start I realized there would need to be lots of modeling
to support their understanding.
In the KWL activity, I had students share what they knew about a topic. I wrote the first
sentence and students added onto my anchor chart sized KWL. Students were able to share their
knowledge by writing and adding onto the know part of the chart. They used a mix of facts
and couplet sentences to describe what they knew. They were very excited to share and
contribute to our group board. This activity gave me some insight to my students writing
abilities. Students had a chance to record their thoughts instead of just sharing their answers
verbally. I also saw a sense of confidence in students when they were able to write and share
what they wrote to the group.
Determining the main idea and supporting details of a text is a standard in many grade
levels. Many of my students struggle with articulating what the main idea is in their own words.
Often they choose a detail as a main idea. To allow students to organize their thoughts and ideas
for main idea and supporting details, I thought it would be beneficial to have students record
their writing on a graphic organizer. As students were writing the main idea and details for a
section, they were able to connect the commonalities of text structure. We would either find the
main idea at the beginning or ending of each section we read. Students discussed that the main
idea is a general statement that held important details together. We also discussed how we could
verify supporting details by making sure the detail connected with what the passage was mostly
about. I saw lightbulbs slowly go on as we read the last few sections of text. When students
tried to record the main ideas and details independently two of the students were able to identify
the main idea on their own.
The most challenging activity was having students compare and contrast in an essay.
Students were excited to choose their topics, but it was difficult to aid students in synthesizing
their thoughts. The graphic organizer helped in organizing similarities between two topics, but it
was tough to lead students into strong examples of similarities and differences for their animals.
I also thought it was hard for students to formulate their sentences and encourage students to
have sentence variety. One area that students did well on was creating voice in their writing and
trying to capture the readers attention with a hook in their introductions.
In the beginning of the project I felt adding writing to my lessons would be very
daunting. However, incorporating writing was a valuable part of their learning. It was a great
formative assessment tool to see what students were understanding while we were reading the
text. In the future, it would be nice to have time to revise and confer more with students. As we
read more nonfiction topics, I will continue to give students opportunities to express their
thoughts and understandings through writing. Overall, something I would like to keep in mind
when incorporating writing into my lessons is to make sure I am clear about the purpose why we
are writing.
Every six weeks we conduct progress monitoring to see how much students have grown
using specific curriculum. I am interested to see if there is a correlation of growth with
integrating the 7 weeks of writing and reading instruction. Whatever the result of the progress
monitoring, I believe offering writing opportunities during reading instruction allows another
way for students to use and refine their voice. When reading their pieces and reflecting on their
engagement during the lessons, I felt I learned more about these students. In the future I plan to
continue to plan for writing opportunities for students to communicate what they learn.