This post is part III in a series of four articles about ways to supplement and expand “standard” writing activities in coursebooks. This continues on from last week's articles (Part I: Sharing and presenting writing and Part II: Enhancing written language development), and the article today focuses on some ideas for drawing on existing reading texts to apply a variety of linked or follow-up writing activities.
3. From Reading to Writing
Generally speaking, children who read a lot tend to become better at writing than students who read less. Also, the more you write using positive models, the better you become at writing for specific situations and purposes. The activities below document some ways reading texts can facilitate effective additional writing practice by serving as models or a basis for adaptation, extension or response. These activities can be used with example texts in existing textbooks, or with a range of teacher/student-selected reading texts from other sources.
3.1. New Topic Please! Choose any given text that has a clear topic and simple organization. After reading the text with the students, ask them to re-write it so that it focuses instead on a closely related (but new) topic.
As an example, consider a simple academic text presenting famous fantasy stories. The students could be asked to re-write this so that it is about science fiction stories instead. A real-world reading text featuring a movie review could become the basis of a re-write to produce a review for a different movie.
Many (if not most) of the sentence structures and examples in the original reading will transfer easily to the new topic. Those that don’t will need to be excluded or adapted in some way. In the first case, students are getting practice with well-modeled sentences and can see which may have broader application in more of their writing. In the latter case (sentences that need to be changed or removed), the students are developing an awareness of sentences that have highly specific applications as opposed to more general ones, and learning to make better judgments about which to use in their own writing.
This activity also potentially creates some confidence in the students (particularly if they initially have problems coming up with extended ideas of their own at the topic, main ideas and details levels). Through doing this kind of copy-and-adapt style of writing, they are also naturally being exposed to appropriate organization and written expression using good writing models that are also appropriate for their reading level.
3.2. More details needed!
Choose any given text that has a clear topic and simple organization where main ideas are presented clearly. Read the text with the students and point out how the topic was introduced and then explored through a couple of main ideas. Then point out the supporting details that are used to flesh out the main idea of each paragraph.
The students could now be asked to add more details to one or more of the existing body paragraphs or sections to make it more extensive. This may mean asking students to do a little research on their own if they are not entirely familiar with the topic and main idea at hand, so it may be a better option to stick to using very general input texts the students are likely to be able to add more details or examples to without having to guess or research too much.
As an example for how a real-world text could be adapted in this way, consider a brochure about climbing tours on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The students could choose new details of their own to be included in the “Tour includes” or “We provide you with” sections provided in the original text. They might also like to add some more conditions for taking the tours, working from the examples already given.
The challenge here will be to choose the right kind of content and the right place to insert it without disrupting the existing flow of information in the original text. Students may also need to consider their sentence style and grammar in order to make their new information “fit”. In this sort of activity, the students are getting as much practice and awareness of reading as they are writing, with positive effects on both abilities.
3.3. Write on!
Choose any given text that has a clear topic and simple organization where main ideas are presented clearly. Read the text with the students and point out how the topic was introduced and then explored through a couple of main ideas.
Now ask the students to write out the existing text and at the end add a new body paragraph exploring a new main idea that is still related to the overall topic and adds to or extends the ideas already presented. This kind of activity can be adapted for additional effect and practice according to what stage of writing the students are at. If they are learning how to develop body paragraphs related to an overall topic, this is ideal extra practice. If they are working on conclusions and the reading passage doesn’t seem to have one, they could try adding one of their own.
Consider a couple of examples:
For a reading passage that featured Aesop's fables, students could be asked to add a short description of another Aesop’s Fable to supplement the ones already presented in the text and transform the overall text so that it has well developed body paragraphs with headings.
Perhaps a main reading text presents an introduction about comic book heroes and then two body paragraphs talking about Spider Man and Storm. The students could write this out and then add another heading and paragraph to describe a comic book hero of their own choosing (or creation). Through careful teaching, the students’ attention can also be drawn to the format of the existing paragraphs (basically giving a background for each hero, their special abilities and what makes each unique) so that it can become a guiding model for the paragraph they themselves add.
At higher levels, students could even be encouraged to make additional paragraphs for existing reading passages that turn the overall text into compare/contrast or argumentative essays.
3.4. Read and Respond A
The idea behind this activity is that the students will use an input reading text as an impetus to write something to or for a person involved in or related to the topic of the text. This could mean writing an email to the writer of the article and asking additional questions the student may be curious about. It could involve a letter to a newspaper or magazine commenting on an issue or information from a reading text that the student feels interested in for some reason. It might mean writing to a person, place or organization mentioned in the reading text itself.
As an example, consider a unit that features an article about Pluto being designated a dwarf planet instead of a regular planet. A student might like to write an email to the astronomers who made the decision about Pluto and either support or protest against it based on their own feelings or opinion. Alternatively, they might like to write a letter to the local newspaper, quoting parts of the original article and presenting their own opinion in response to it.
As another example, a text focussing on Mayan civilization could become the impetus for the students to write an email to a tour agency where they state where they want to go and what they want to do based on a planned tour of central America.
This is similar to the read-and-respond activity outlined in 3.4 above, but in this case the students could be directed to respond to essays or stories featured as examples in writing skills textbooks (or the writing section of a general coursebook). This is different from responding to commercial or academic texts in a reading series, as it is in some ways “writers responding to writers”.
For an opinion essay, for instance, the students may be asked to write to the person who wrote the essay example in the textbook and say what they did or didn't agree with in the piece, and then explain why. If the text was a personal email example, the students could pretend to be the recipient and role play to produce a response.
This kind of activity broadens and clarifies the relevance of the various input and model texts presented in writing sections in coursebooks, and facilitates more interaction-based writing. It also often provides a clearer, more practical reason for writing than some practice sections in coursebooks can accomplish on their own.
Do you have any of your own suggestions or ideas for ways writing can be generated from reading texts? Please, do post ‘em in the comments section that follows! If you liked the activity ideas presented here, check back here later this week for the next post in this series (Part IV), which explores activities ideas related to journal writing.
