Writing Instruction – Page 2 – The Literacy Brain

The English language is more opaque than transparent. This makes learning how to read and write the spoken language seem more like taking a walk down a twisty, hard to navigate path that features many unmarked opportunities to walk in other directions. To better navigate the difficult path of learning how to read and write, scholars like Noah Webster simplified and organized literacy instruction. When America was separating from Britain and developing their own education system.

Webster (1790) saw that the strength of the United States was dependent on the education of its youth. He believed that language arts is the center piece of educating America’s youth. His patriotism led him to remold the education of young people. He believed that every young person, no matter their social economic status, sex, or cultural heritage should be educated.

Webster, a teacher while earning his college degree, witnessed that learning literacy was a challenge for the youth of America. Webster set out to improve the separate entities of language, both spoken and written. He simplified and regulated the spelling of words, utilizing didactical marks for punctuation; this method eased the learning of spelling and pronunciation (Webster, 1843). Webster (1843) also noted that spoken language involved the correct articulation of words utilizing an intricate team of the throat, tongue, palate, teeth, and lips. He believed that teachers should be looked upon to model correct articulation and to correct students on the spot in order to ensure correct articulation of words spoken or read.

Webster (1843) also believed that written language was a way to communicate a variety of thoughts, and to be utilized in a global sense that could be transported from place to place. Webster saw grammar as the science of organizing words together, utilizing firm rules that were seen as a model of organized language in order to communicate effectively. He developed and used a systematic, sequential, letter-based or a phonics approach to teaching reading and writing.

Educators today continue to develop instructional curriculum and tools to ease literacy instruction and student practice of literacy. During a recent webinar, I was reminded of an instructional tool that can ease the instruction and learning of spelling vowel sounds. The tool helps to bring better transparency of the English language. This chart titled, The Spelling Chart (Moats/LETRS) was developed by Dr. Lousia Moats. It is part of her literacy instructional program LETRS. The chart displays the different spellings of 19 vowels sounds, like the long ā sound can be spelled as make, rain and vein or the short sound ŭ can be spelled cup, flood and tough.

References
Moats, L. (2019). Hard words: what teachers don’t know about teaching reading and what to do about it, pg 26, the vowel spelling chart. Voyager Sopris Learning, 2019 Webinar Series
Webster, N. (1790). Collection of essays and fugitive writings on moral, historical, political and literary subjects. Boston: Fauet’s Statue.
Webster, N. (1843). An improved grammar of the English language. New York: Webster & Clark

The International Literacy Association (ILA) released their book choice list for 2018, during a literacy session at their 2018 annual conference in Austin, Texas. The session featured Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King, which was a 2017 ILA book choice. Mr. Zentner discussed how he wrote The Serpent King. It was interesting to hear how he developed the theme, the characters, the plot, and actually wrote the book. He stressed that the process of writing the book took several months. He also stressed the need for boredom or time to think. He shared that much of the book was written in his head during the pre-writing process before actually committing words to paper. Mr. Zentner came up with the theme by meshing a couple of songs that he had written while playing in a band. He allowed the characters to come alive in his head, their personality, their actions, and their verbiage. He typed the words that flowed like a river on his cell phone in just 25 days. Much of the typing took place during his lunch break and on the subway to and from work. The writing process for him seemed like a hobby or a stress release from his intense position as a prosecuting attorney. He has written two other books, Goodbye Days (2017) and Rayne Delilah Midnite Matinee (2019).

This session reminded me that as educators we should consider the following when developing writing lessons:

the importance of the pre-writing process or the foundation of the written passage
writing is a higher cognitive processing skill that needs time to process or blend and bake
importance of background knowledge or student’s natural environment
the skills needed for each genre of writing, which may be different
writing takes time; the time needed may be different for each student
the first draft usually needs editing
students need time to free write or practice getting words on the paper without the fear of being wrong
students may need to learn how to develop a topic
what are the requirements of this writing assignment
who is my target audience
collaboration may strengthen the writing process
the importance of time spent reading

ILA’s book choices for 2018 can be found at https://www.literacyworldwide.org/

Membership is not required to access the booklist.

Category: Writing Instruction

Literacy Instruction

ILA 2018 Book Choices and the Process of Writing

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