Capitalize on the Reading Writing Connection

"I've found written summaries are too demanding for most students before grade 4. In kindergarten through grade 3, I focus on retelling, oral summary, and shared-writing summary of texts we've read together." (pg. 128)

I wonder what others think of this. It seems like we ask students to write summaries and the quality is low. Shared writing opportunities is a necessity if we want students to write comprehensive summaries.

I did a shared writing experience the other day in a second grade classroom that seemed to work really well. I laminated "who, what, when, where, why, and how" cards. I wrote the a very basic paragraph on a piece of chart paper. The students worked in pairs and I gave each pair one of the question cards. Their job was to ask me a question using those question cards so that we could add more "detail" to our writing. The powerful thing was when we were finished, I asked those questions about my story so the students could see the connection between the reading and writing process. Later that day, I used the same cards during a guided reading lesson, helping students understand that strategic readers ask themselves questions as they read. It was powerful. I have attached the question cards on my blog if you are interested in trying this strategy.

Here is a reading/writing connection site.