READING WRITING CONNECTION

The ideas around reading and writing were taught to most of us as separate entities without any real connection between them, this was a philosophy that continued for me until I entered A Level where I was first exposed to the idea that reading and writing were interconnected acts. That we read what others have wrote and that writers write in order so that they may capture the attention of prospective readers. Still then the text wasn’t seen to be as dynamic as it is to be now and I hadn’t yet fully understood the full potential of the reading –writing connection, for I saw writing and reading as solely an effort to respond to each other instead of viewing it as a potential to create new worlds that were as distinct as the original.

The ideas from this center around the ability to create student writers who are actually approaching the craft in the frame of dedicated writers rather disinterested individuals , also that students can employ basic techniques such as journaling, graphic organizers and reading logs that assist in the active cognitive process of being writers . They can also be researchers who critically approach the material through the use of what is commonly termed journalism questions (who, what, when, where, why and how) whilst reading. For instance if reading a story about tourists describing their stay in St Lucia and be critical and question the material, where did they visit , how long did they stay , why do their ideas of what appears to be interesting about our island differ from us , what race are there , what was their reason for coming to St Lucia ? All these questions should percolate the mind of the writer whilst reading in preparation of the writing project. If we are effective it is that we ensure that they are writing with a specific audience in mind, not to mimic what they have seen but to create new, distinct worlds for their readers to explore with satisfaction. Therefore reading and writing are done with a purpose, to rationalize the worlds and situations around them and to act as a sort of scaffolding for each other to help build the students’ progress

The obstacles that lay in this view of reading and writing is that it still remains a more complex ideal of an idea that can be utilized in the schools because it is still a bit abstract for us teachers who have not thought of writing and reading as being such intricate critical cognitive activities . we also like our students have not yet learnt to approach writing as a writer in the vain that we usually view language register word choice and other conventions as more important than will anyone read this , who will buy this and can I get this published, questions that actual writers engage with. The only weapon against this is the introduction of this philosophy to students and teachers at the beginning of their school journey at quite possibly the elementary level through a series of workshops and specially crafted lessons that will erase the many fallacies hat we have of reading and writing.

Planning For Writing is it possible?

As writers in the school system we have always been taught that our exam productions are the more importance pieces of writing so if I ever attempted any prewriting exercise it was during that period that I took the need to become consciously aware of the fact that I should be investing in a prewriting strategy. Now what is pre writing you may query? Prewriting is the first stage of the writing process, typically followed by drafting, revision, editing and publishing. Elements of prewriting may include planning, research, outlining, diagramming, storyboarding or clustering. but to me it is more than just that it is thinking about writing being cognizant of the fact that you are not just undertaking a random task but are actively involved in creating something new and distinct, that is uniquely you.

I used to have poor prewriting skills, I brainstormed mine you but it seemed more like a 100 meter dash than the marathon that it should have been as I always had this eagerness to write and fear that I would never be able to finish on time which had been justified from time to time especially for English centered exams. So I usually ended with pieces that though had wonderful stories and components of a good piece but were continually hampered by poor mechanics because I never took the time to revise or properly structure what I was doing because I felt that I was competing with the clock. That I feel is a problem I feel that is wrong with our English classrooms where students are expected to work against a clock in class and out of class so that their main focus becomes not the craft that they attempting to learn but rather beating the clock.

One of the strategies that I enjoyed reading about as free writing , and I would recommend us as teachers going on practice to take the opportunity at least once to utilize this in the classroom , for I suppose if I had been introduced to this whilst at high school I might have been a more competent writer myself the focus is not on mimicking proper grammar and other conventions of writing but rather getting students into the mood of writing where they can generate a central theme or idea about the topic that there writing on or on the writing craft.

Another quite reasonable and useable idea in our local classroom is that visual representation of our ideas in an organized unit that we term graphic organizers. Theses I believe would allow for the teacher to facilitate the student in becoming better organizers so that there essays and compositions don’t read like the plot of a movie that is trying to convince you of hoe smart they are with all their twists and turns and flashback when all they do is turn something that was enjoyable and simple into caricature of itself. Through the use of pre writing strategies whilst at this institution SALCC I was able to transition from a reader who wrote into a writer who wrote with a purpose in mind, who am I writing for, will these be of interest to them am I writing to shock or inform? Am I writing solely to feed my ego as a writer, do I even recognize the people on the page, am I too attached to the characters that I can’t portray them anyway but positively are all questions that floated through my head . And I believe that if we are effective as teachers who are utilizing these pre writing strategies in our Language classrooms we can have our students trained in that approach where the approach writing as a writer first and as a reader second.it is through the pre-writing stage that we first gain a sense between our reading and writing and there is also the scaffolding necessary for students to critically examine the role as a writer and the text in that they realize it is healthy for self-criticism and diagnosis of their own work.

The purpose of these strategies are not just for fun but to ensure that our students employ them habitual and involuntary actions when they engage in the craft of writing, where background knowledge is activated so they see themselves as not writing in a vaccum as the Self - Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD preaches.Whilst the Cognitive Strategy Instruction (CSI): promotes the development of cognitive skills and processes to foster the learning of writing, it is a strategy that preaches a more independent and self reliant form of learning.

Evaluation of The Faceless Teacher 1999, Dennis Gardner

Based on the six traits of writing ‘The Faceless Teacher’ appears to be a rather fair piece of writing , though almost nearing on information overload the piece did provide stimulating sources of evidence to support his ideas and there was a consistent flow whilst reading .The organization of the piece was well constructed though there was some level of clutter felt because it was such a dense piece examining a serious issue that it was a bit too compact and could have been better organized. Gardner speaks in an almost forceful authoritarian voice that drapes over the entire piece, as if he were literally speaking to you. Alongside his rather impeccable grammar and use of the various language conventions such as punctuation, capitalization etc. he was clear and concise in the words that he chose to use which were quite appropriate for the subject and messages he aimed to convey whilst creating a rather somber mood through the woods making the piece rather good reading.

Writers Purpose in the Expository piece The Faceless Teacher 1999, by Dennis Gardner

The purpose of this piece is to illustrate how pervasive and dangerous the computer has become that it has seeped into our everyday lives as learners and warns that it shouldn’t serve as a replacement for our daily interactions with teachers. He warns of the dangers of setting young students out into a “phantom resource,” where the ideas and content spouted are done by anonymous voices and the students are faced with the choice of sink or swim dependent on the field of information they mine. He focuses on the theme of faceless teacher in that we are unaware of who is presenting the facts that many of us take in dogmatically without taking a critical eye as to their qualifications and intentions behind the information. Whereas with the teacher in the class room there is a ‘face’ behind the words , an expert that he student can validate has the expertise to speak on an issue. Students he illustrates need the warmth and interaction that takes place in the normal classroom , the jousting of natural competition and the medium of transference that is so severely lacking in the interaction with the ‘faceless teacher’.

Rhetorical Modes

Description

Purpose

Descriptive prose is used to express what a thing looks like, smells like or tastes like. In short, it

portrays how we perceive the world through our five senses (Sight, Hearing ,Smell, Touch, and

Taste).

Audience

Reader- to help create a mental picture of what is being written about.

Content

It answers the question ‘what’.

For example: What is it like? What is he/she like?

What does the food taste like?

What did he sound like?

Style

Explicit use of adjectives,

data that appeals to sensory faculties

and descriptive sequence

Voice

Description uses details that appeals to the senses

(sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch).

Organization

The organising principle of description is spatial

as it creates a virtual image in the minds of readers.

Narration

Purpose

It recounts a personal or fictional experience or tells a story. Narration is concerned with actions in a temporal sequence, with life in motion. It seeks to present an event to the reader, a sense of witnessing an action.

Audience

Reader- to recreate an incident for readers rather than to simply tell them about it.

Content

This mode answers the question of what.

For example: what happened?

Style

Apparent use of action or dynamic verbs, dialogue. The point of view if the narrator is usually first or third person narrator. It should include story conventions such as plot, setting, characters, climax and resolution.

Voice

To convey a particular mood (feeling) or to make an incident come alive,

narratives employ the use of the first person or “I” narration

and the third person or he/she/it persona.

Organization

The organization principle of narration is temporal in nature

meaning that its events are sequential.

Exposition

Purpose

This discourse is concerned with making an idea clear, analyzing a situation,

defining a term, giving instructions and the like.

Its primary function is to inform and explain.

Audience

Reader- conveys information to the reader so that a level of understanding can be achieved.

Content

This mode has the types of questions that a piece of expository may answer.

Some of these are: How does it work?

What are the constituent parts? What is its importance?

Style

The distinguishing features and style of exposition incorporates the following functions:

analysis, classification, definition, illustration, cause and effect,

comparison and contrast and analogy

Voice

In exposition, the writing is engaging and reflective of the writer’s

underlying commitment to the topic.

Organization

There is not one single method of organising exposition but rather a variety, with majority being

based on logic: analysis, clarification, definition, illustration, cause and effect, comparison and

contrast and sometimes analogy. The method chosen dictates the organization of the piece as

each method has its own distinguishing characteristics.

Argument

Purpose

An argument is an attempt to convince or persuade an audience that a claim

is true by means of appeals to reason or to emotion

Audience

Reader- It moves the readers to take an action or to form or change an opinion.

Content

Answers the question why is this so?

Style

For the presentation of evidence, arguments use facts, authoritative opinion,

and personal experience for its development whilst the rebuttal

or refuting side uses persuasion in the form of repetition,

rhetorical questions and emotional appeals.

Voice

The voice of argument has a strong and definite position on an

issue from the beginning of the piece and has enthusiasm from start to finish.

Organization

Argument is organized by way of formal elements and logic.

The formal elements include at least two claims, the first of which being the conclusion

and the other, the remaining claim or claims that are the grounds

which support or justify the conclusion