4.4 allocation of adequate time for reading and writing instruction and practice
In order for kids to gain deep understanding of text, they need to be allowed to spend an adequate amount of time working with the text. New insights and perspectives can often be gained from reading a book multiple times. The same story can sometimes be used for different purposes, so this is another reason why reading a book multiple times may be beneficial. The first time reading it the student may focus on character traits and perspectives, while the second time reading it the student may focus on the author’s craft and story structure. Reading and writing take time to think about the text and interact with the text. This could mean underlining, highlighting, or questioning while reading a story. This could also mean prewriting, researching, revising, or editing while writing. Many examples should be given and modeling should be used during instruction before students are given time to practice these skills independently. Providing adequate time is essential if students are expected to create meaningful work that shows deep thinking.
The first artifact I chose is a response that I wrote after reading some books that discussed the amount of time given for reading and writing. The response describes my own thinking and how my classroom changed after reading these books and considering the impact of the time I scheduled for reading. I talk about how I would use extra time for reading and writing and how it would help kids be able to think more critically about the material and give them time to share their ideas with others in the class. The second artifact that demonstrates this idea is a discussion board post I wrote about how time should be spent during reading and writing. It describes how I would give students time to share and discuss their work as well as other things. The last artifact I included is two handouts I received in a comprehension class that I took. These artifacts are included because they show a lot of different steps that should be taken in the writing process to make it more meaningful and end up with the best work possible. You can see by looking at these handouts that it would take a lot of time to complete each of these steps. I especially like that it mentions having students discuss and share their work. All of these artifacts show that scheduling adequate time for reading and writing instruction and practice is vital to allow students to use the knowledge they have and experience text in a meaningful way.
In order for kids to gain deep understanding of text, they need to be allowed to spend an adequate amount of time working with the text. New insights and perspectives can often be gained from reading a book multiple times. The same story can sometimes be used for different purposes, so this is another reason why reading a book multiple times may be beneficial. The first time reading it the student may focus on character traits and perspectives, while the second time reading it the student may focus on the author’s craft and story structure. Reading and writing take time to think about the text and interact with the text. This could mean underlining, highlighting, or questioning while reading a story. This could also mean prewriting, researching, revising, or editing while writing. Many examples should be given and modeling should be used during instruction before students are given time to practice these skills independently. Providing adequate time is essential if students are expected to create meaningful work that shows deep thinking.
The first artifact I chose is a response that I wrote after reading some books that discussed the amount of time given for reading and writing. The response describes my own thinking and how my classroom changed after reading these books and considering the impact of the time I scheduled for reading. I talk about how I would use extra time for reading and writing and how it would help kids be able to think more critically about the material and give them time to share their ideas with others in the class. The second artifact that demonstrates this idea is a discussion board post I wrote about how time should be spent during reading and writing. It describes how I would give students time to share and discuss their work as well as other things. The last artifact I included is two handouts I received in a comprehension class that I took. These artifacts are included because they show a lot of different steps that should be taken in the writing process to make it more meaningful and end up with the best work possible. You can see by looking at these handouts that it would take a lot of time to complete each of these steps. I especially like that it mentions having students discuss and share their work. All of these artifacts show that scheduling adequate time for reading and writing instruction and practice is vital to allow students to use the knowledge they have and experience text in a meaningful way.