Yearly Archives: 2016

How can writing improve reading?

Posted on February 24, 2016 | Leave a comment

When educators combed research on the writing / reading connection in 2010, they found three writing activities which improve reading comprehension.

EPSON MFP image

  • Having students write about the stories and texts they read by writing personal responses, analyses, or interpretations; by writing summaries; by writing notes; and by answering or asking questions in writing about what they have read.
  • Having students learn about the process of writing; about how texts are structured; about how paragraphs and sentences are put together; and about how to spell.
  • Having students write  frequently.

All of these writing activities improve students’ reading. In future blogs, we will look at why these activities improve reading, and how these activities can be incorporated into a student’s schoolwork or work at home. We’ll start in the next blog with the last idea, that students should write more to improve their reading.

Meanwhile, for more information, see Writing to Read.  At this site you can read the full report, Writing to Read; evidence for how writing can improve reading by Steve Graham and Michael Hebert for the Carnegie Corp. of NY, 2010.

You might also enjoy reading Shanahan on Literacy, a blog about reading by an expert in the field. In his current blog, Dr. Shanahan comments on ideas in this report.

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Posted in complex sentence, grammar, practice reading skills, practice writing skills, research on writing, write to read better

What can we learn from the grammar part of the SAT to help with writing?

Posted on February 17, 2016 | Leave a comment

The SAT is a test used to determine whether a student is well prepared for college-level work. Part of the SAT tests students on grammar by asking students to replace poorly worded sentences with error-free ones or to pick out the erroneously used word/s from several choices.

boy writing on a window bench

The SAT uses the same kinds of errors over and over. If high school students have trouble with these kinds of errors, younger children are likely to also.   Students need direct instruction on these kinds of errors.Children are not likely to recognize these errors or know how to fix them without instruction.
Some of the errors I see on almost every SAT include:

  • Run-on sentences and sentence fragments. Often, one clause is started, but it is interrupted by a second clause and the the first clause is not finished. Or a fragment is so long it seems to be a sentence. Students need to recognize that every clause needs a subject and a verb.
  • Subject-verb agreement. This means that a singular subject should be paired with a singular verb, or a plural subject should be paired with a plural verb. For example, “Her homework is done” (both subject and verb are singular) or “Each of the children does well” (Each is the subject, so it is paired with a singular verb, does).
  • Third person singular present tense and present perfect tense verbs. Such present tense verbs usually have an “s” at the end. Some irregular present tense verbs have an “es” such as “goes” and “does.” Present perfect third person verbs use “has” as the helping verb, not “have.”
  • Pronoun-antecedent agreement. This means that when a pronoun is used, it must agree in number and in gender with the noun it replaces. For example, “I saw the girl. She [the girl] was walking toward me [I].” Problems arise when the pronoun is not near its antecedent noun or when there are intervening words (or clauses). Children who struggle with pronoun-antecedents might have inference problems. I have also encountered many ESL students who mix up “he” and “she” and “him” and “her.”
  • Verb tense problems. In general, paragraphs are written in the same verb tense, but there are good reasons to use more than one verb tense. However, the writer can’t change tenses willy-nilly.
  • Dangling participles. Sentences which start with “Hearing the door open” should be followed immediately with the person who is doing the hearing.
  • Parallel structure. This means two or more ideas in the same sentence should be worded using similar grammar. In the sentence, “I like skipping rope and to play soccer,” the sentence should be rewritten to say either “skipping rope and playing soccer” or “to skip rope and to play soccer.” These are simple examples, but the SAT usually uses examples which are more difficult to discern.
  • Each, every, any, nothing, none, everything, and anything are singular pronouns and take singular verbs. I tell students to mentally insert the word “one” after these words to remind them that these words take a singular verb.
  • Verb/prepositions pairs. Some verbs are always followed by certain prepositions. This can be hard because some verbs when used one way take one preposition, but when used another way take a different preposition. Hearing these pairings used correctly for years is enough for most students to figure them out, but for other students, these pairings must be memorized.
  • Words which sound similar. Since their meanings differ, they cannot be substituted one for the other. And some words which sound the same can be spelled differently depending on the meaning. They cannot be substituted either.
  • Apostrophes. Possessive nouns use apostrophes but possessive pronouns do not. Once children learn about apostrophes, they confuse simple plurals which don’t need apostrophes with possessive plurals. Lots of practice is needed for correct use of apostrophes to sink in.
  • Their, there, they’re; it’s, its; and too, to, two befuddle students. Like apostrophes, learning when to use these words takes lots of practice.

Why is it important to master grammar? Spell check can find some of these errors, but not all. Or it can suggest what words are probably in error without suggesting a way to fix them. You need to be able to find your errors.

But more importantly, when we write, we are trying to impress someone with our ideas. The grammar should be invisible. If grammar draws attention to itself because of errors, you have lost some of your power to impress others. For children, that could mean a lower grade on an essay, but for an adult, that could mean being rejected by a university or by a potential client.

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Posted in grammar, present perfect verbs, SAT

How to teach writing—what the research says

Posted on February 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

After analyzing 250 important research studies on how to teach writing, researchers found three constants:

  • The more time students write, the better writers they will be.
  • Writing on a computer, rather than by hand, leads to better writing.
  • Teaching grammar doesn’t help.

student thinking about what to write

Let’s look at each of these correlations with good writing.

Spending more time writing improves student writing. It’s common sense that the more time you spend honing a skill, the better you become at it. Yet research shows that after third grade, students spend little time in class writing. Why?

The more students write, the more teachers need to read, to respond to and possibly to grade. The paperwork becomes overwhelming. Teachers are unwilling to spend hours every night reading student writing.

Also, many English teachers love literature and want to teach it. But they are not writers. They had little instruction in how to write when they were in school, and their teacher training didn’t focus on it. They can’t teach what they don’t know.

Composing on a computer leads to better student writing. Once a student becomes familiar with the keyboard and functions, writing on a computer goes much faster than writing by hand. You can move phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs around by swiping, cutting and pasting. Spell check indicates spelling errors, and software alerts you to grammar errors as well. A dictionary is a click away. Want to check on idioms or figures of speech? Another click away.

All this work is called revising, and as every professional writer knows, it is the key to good writing. When it becomes easy for students, they are willing to do it.

Yet most schools still ask students to write using pencil and paper. Why?

Maybe teachers believe students “cheat” when they let software provide correct spelling and grammar. How can teachers check for plagiarism if students can download someone’s writing? Or maybe teachers think that because computer technology is not available to all students, to level the playing field they should ask students to use a technology that is available, pencils and paper.

Learning grammar by diagramming sentences or by listening to distinct lessons on how to use apostrophes does not improve writing, according to the research. But teaching certain kinds of grammar, such as usage, does help. The old-fashioned kinds of grammar lessons most children have in school do not improve students’ writing.

Why? Perhaps children do not see the connection between grammar activities and writing. Correcting worksheets by adding commas or coordinating conjunctions is not the same as writing. Maybe if the students’ own writing were used to demonstrate grammar errors and solutions, the students would recognize the connection between grammar and their own writing. But that is not the way grammar is taught.

Researchers at Arizona State University and Arcadia University led by Steve Graham, who conducted this research, found few rigorous studies on the teaching of writing compared to thousands of studies on the teaching of reading. However, with the greater emphasis on writing brought on by the Common Core Standards, more research on student writing is sure to come.

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Posted in Common Core Standards, composing text on computer, practice writing skills, research on writing

RACE for better student answers to questions requiring evidence

Posted on February 3, 2016 | Leave a comment

If you are looking for a way to help students write better responses to questions about a reading selection, RACE might be the answer.  RACE is a method of responding to questions requiring evidence.  Responding to these kinds of questions is required by Common Core Standards.

RACE stands for four ideas:

  • Restate the information in the question.
  • Answer the question.
  • Cite evidence to support your answer.
  • Explain how the evidence supports your answer.

An example might help you understand this method better. Suppose a high school student has just read from her textbook about the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the actions of southern states immediately after his election.  Then she is asked to answer this question, citing information from her text:

Did Abraham Lincoln’s election as President of the US lead to the Civil War?

Restate:  Yes, Abraham Lincoln’s election as President of the US did lead to the Civil War.

Answer:  Right after his election, many states seceded and eventually attacked the US.

Cite Evidence:  According to the passage, Lincoln was elected in early November 1860 and took office in March 1861. The legislatures of seven southern states, including South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas, voted to leave the US during the winter of 1860-1861. They did this because Lincoln had a reputation as anti-slavery. In February 1861 they formed the Confederate States of America. About a month after Lincoln took office, on April 12, 1861, a US fort called Ft. Sumter was attacked by Confederates. After that attack, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina also seceded. Congress declared war on the Confederacy.  Lincoln was President a little more than a month when the Civil War began.

Explain how the evidence supports your answer: Before Lincoln was elected, the US was one country and no states had seceded. Within five months after he was elected, seven states had seceded, and then weeks later, four more states seceded, and Ft. Sumter was attacked.  The Civil War began. Lincoln’s election as president directly led to the Civil War.

Can this method be used with younger children too? Yes. Consider this third grade question:

Are fossils in the rocks on top older than fossils in the rocks on the bottom?

Restate: No, fossils in the rocks on top are not older than the fossils in the rocks on the bottom.

Answer:  Fossils on top are usually formed last and fossils on the bottom are usually formed first.

Cite evidence: Fossils are found in rocks.  These rocks form when layers of mud pile up with shells and bones stuck in the mud. The mud on the bottom becomes hard rock millions of years before the mud on the top does.

Explain how the evidence supports your answer: If you look at the Grand Canyon, the fossils in the rocks down near the river are much older than the fossils in the rocks near the top. That’s because rocks on the bottom and the fossils in them formed first. Rocks on the top and the fossils in them formed  later.

This method of answering questions requiring evidence is being taught in Georgia public schools where I live.

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Posted in answering questions in writing, Common Core Standards

Story cubes encourage imaginative story telling

Posted on January 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

The younger the student, the more using gimmicks propels learning.

Story cubes

I have found that cartoons, scenes from fairy tales and drawings of steps in a process (how to carve a pumpkin or how to draw a turkey) attract a child to write much better than if I say to a student, “Okay, today we’re going to write a story about a dog.”

So I am passing along a gimmick that might encourage your young students to write: story cubes.

Invented in Northern Ireland, Rory’s Story Cubes are cubes which can be tossed to write stories. On each cube’s surfaces are icons. The idea is to use the icons to create a story. Some of the icons include a tent, bumble bee, turtle, eye, cane, hand, magnet, castle and shooting star. Some story cubes are based on a theme, such as Batman, and include icons of Batman, the Joker, a rocket and Batman’s car.

Another way the story cubes can be used is on an app available on Apple and Android devices. By shaking the phone, the cubes are “tossed.”

The icons are deliberately simple so that they can be interpreted various ways by different story tellers. A castle tower, for example, could mean a castle, or entrapment, or royalty or a chess rook.

For more information, see http://www.storycubes.com.  You might also enjoy reading how one home schooling mother uses the cubes at http://highlysensitivehomeschooler.com/20-ways-to-use-rorys-story-cubes/.  And if you search for “story cubes” on Amazon, you will find other kinds of cubes and polyhedrons for sale.

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Posted in narrative writing

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