Reading & Writing Strategies 12

 Writing is a critical communication skill. Universities and employers frequently complain that writing is an underdeveloped skill. Writing provides big gains in reading comprehension and reading fluency. Writing also improves students’ reading fluency. When students must stop and think about what spelling patterns to use when they write, they are making a deeper connection in their brains about sound and spelling patterns. This deeper connection makes it easier, and faster, for students to recall those same patterns when they read. Written language is literally a secret code that someone made up to represent spoken sounds. The more students think about and practice the code in written form, the better they will be at understanding the same code in writing. Fluent readers more deeply understand that code. In this course, students will engage in a series of writing strategies to improves reading comprehension and writing skills. Students will focus on developing critical thinking skills in genre such as argumentative  and narrative writing. When students write argumentative essays, they learn how authors often lay out their arguments and evidence. Students will will develop a framework, which will help to fill in the blanks and improves comprehension. When students write narrative pieces, they develop an understanding of how authors typically lay out character development, setting, plot, problems, turning points, and resolutions. Again, students have a framework to build upon when they read others’ narrative texts.