Activities for Reading Writing Connection by Shameika Phipps

Activity #1

Strategy: DRTA

Time 30 minutes

 Rationale The aim of this activity is for students to define a concept that plays a key role in a text that they will read.

Preparation Find an appropriate reading passage. Factual articles, essays or textbook passages that define or classify something work well for this activity. You will need chart paper and markers.

Procedure 1. Tell students the topic or title of passage that they are going to read. Ask a question or two to get them thinking about the topic. Write some of their answers on the board.

2. Give students a sentence starter to draw out a definition of the key concept in the reading. For example, possible sentence starters on the topic of friendship are:

 • A friend always __________

• A friend never __________

• A friend is __________

Ask students to write as many possible endings to the sentences as they can.

3. Have students work in small groups to discuss their sentences and to look for similarities and differences among them. Ask each group to pool their ideas and to Write-Before-You-Read Activities write them on a large piece of chart paper. Post these lists on the classroom walls and ask each group to briefly present their ideas to the class.

 4. Read the passage.
 5. Follow up the reading with a discussion of similarities and differences between the way the text and the students defined the concept.

Activity #2

Strategy: Predicting

Time 30 minutes

Rationale :The aim of this activity is for students to preview a reading passage in order to predict its content.

Preparation: Select an appropriate reading passage.

Procedure 1. Have student’s preview the text they will be reading to get a general idea of what it is about. The following are suggestions for strategies that students can use: • Read the title and any introductory material

• Read the first paragraph

 • Read the first sentence of each paragraph

 • Read the last paragraph

2. Ask students to put the text aside and write down what they think the passage will be about or what they think will happen in the reading based on the information they got in step one. Depending on the nature of the reading and the level of the class, students could write lists of words or phrases, or they could write a paragraph.

3. Invite students to read what they have written to a classmate. Then ask for volunteers to read to the whole class. Compare predictions.

4. After reading the entire passage, students can compare their predictions with the text.

Activity III: Summarizing
 Level High Intermediate—Advanced
 Time 90 minutes

Rationale
In this activity, students identify the main ideas in a reading and use that information to
write a summary.

Preparation

1. Select a narrative or factual reading passage and have students read the passage,
completing any appropriate pre- or during-reading activities.
2. Prepare a list of guidelines for writing a summary. These guidelines could be put in a
handout, on the board, or on a large piece of chart paper. Examples of possible
guidelines are found in Appendix C.
3. (optional) Select a few examples of model summaries for students to read and
evaluate. Reading and writing textbooks are good sources for these.

Procedure
1. Have students take notes on or highlight the major ideas in a reading passage, either
while they read or after reading.

2. Monitor the students’ understanding of the reading by asking them to retell in their
own words what they can remember from the reading, first in pairs and then with the
whole class. Clarify any misconceptions or areas of confusion.

3. Ask students to work in pairs or small groups to agree on a list of the main ideas from
the reading. Have them refer to their notes or to their annotations in the text.

4. As a class, ask students to share their lists. Write their ideas on the board or on a large
piece of chart paper.

5. Discuss with students which ideas are the most important. Invite them to suggest any
details on the list that don’t contribute to the overall understanding of the text and
could be eliminated.

6. When the list of main ideas seems complete, have students work in pairs to put the
ideas in a logical order. Then, come back together as a class to organize the ideas
written on the board or chart paper in step 4.
7. Go over the guidelines for writing a summary. You may also wish to have students
work with model summaries at this point.

8. Ask students to put aside the text and to use the ideas they listed and organized to
write a paragraph summarizing the reading.

Activity IV: Open-Ended Responses
 Level Intermediate—Advanced
 Time 30 minutes

Rationale
In this activity, students write personal responses to a reading guided by open-ended
prompts. The purpose of the activity is for students to learn to react thoughtfully to a text
in order to discover ideas and extend their understanding.

Preparation
1. Select a narrative or factual reading passage that has a good chance of evoking a
response. That is, the text itself should have qualities that motivate students to write a
reaction to it. Have students read the passage, completing appropriate pre- or during reading
Activities.

2. Prepare a handout with instructions for the activity along with an open-ended
response prompt or prompts. Students may be given only one prompt to write from,
or they can be given several from which to choose. The possibilities for responding to
a reading are many. Students can be asked to respond in a perceptive (noticing) mode,
in an affective (feeling) mode, or in an associative (relating) mode (Beach 1993).

Students can:
• Explore their thoughts or feelings about the reading
• Relate the reading to their own experience
• Agree or disagree with the text
• Link texts to each other
• Raise questions about something they found confusing or didn’t understand
• Write about what they found significant
 The prompts can take any of the following forms:
• Statements (Describe what you agree with.)
• Questions (What do you agree with? What do you disagree with?)
• Unfinished sentences (I think the author is right because… I think the author
is wrong because…)

Procedure

1. Tell students that they will be writing a response to a passage they have read. Give
them the handout and explain the prompt or prompts if necessary. If there is more
than one prompt, students should choose just one. Alternatively, students could also
be given the option to write whatever they want. Invite the students to write for about
10 minutes. Ask them to put thought and care into their responses, but not to worry
overly about grammar and mechanics. The aim is to have their writing flow smoothly
as they put their thoughts on paper.

2. After writing, have students share their responses by reading them to a classmate or to
a small group.

3. Invite students to read their responses to the class as a whole. Students can be asked
to reflect on the variety of responses.

Activity V: Retelling
 Level High-Beginner—Advanced
 Time 30 minutes

Rationale
After reading a passage, students are asked to recall as much as they can of what they
read, first in speaking and then in writing. Reconstructing a reading helps students clarify
their understanding of the text and gives them practice in using the language they are
Learning.

Preparation
1. Have students read an appropriate text. A relatively short reading works best for this
activity since students will be asked to recall what they have read without referring to
the text.

2. Select keywords from the reading that students can use in retelling. Prepare a
handout with the words in random order. Alternately, put the words on the board or
on a large piece of chart paper.

Procedure
1. After reading, give students a few minutes to review the text. Tell them to remember
everything they can.

2. Go over the list of keywords to make sure students know the meanings.

3. Ask students to put aside the passage and take turns with a classmate to tell each other
in their own words what they remember from the reading. Encourage students to use
as many of the key words as they can.

4. As a class, invite volunteers to tell one thing each that they remember from the
reading. Have students refer to the text to clarify any misunderstandings or confusion.

5. Ask students to write down what they remember from the reading, using the key
words from the handout. Depending on the level of the students, they could write
phrases, sentences, or a paragraph.