Reading & Writing Strategies 5

The more you read and write, the more you broaden your vocabulary and are able to articulate concepts accurately and more effectively to others. Increasing your ability to communicate also helps make you a better worker or student. Writers Gain Knowledge That Leads to Better Writing When Reading Is Taught.  Another knowledge source involves meta-knowledge about written language. Readers and writers draw on what they know about the functions and purposes of written language as well as their knowledge about how writers and readers interact. Every time we enter a text as a reader, we receive a writing lesson: how to spell, punctuate, use proper grammar, structure a sentence or paragraph, and organize a text. We also learn the many purposes writing serves and the different genres and formats it assumes to serve these varied purposes Every time we create a text as a writer, we receive a reading lesson. Evidence shows that high-quality writing instruction can improve students' reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word-solving skills. Course Overview Students are taught strategies for reading and writing primarily in their language arts classrooms. There, focus is placed on teaching specific skills to build strong readers and writers. But reading and writing are not just applied in language arts classrooms. Students need to be able to use these skills in content area classes, such as science and social studies. They need to be able to comprehend, or understand, what they read, and they need to be able to write about it in several ways. Around 30% of students in elementary grades already have trouble with basic reading and writing. These literacy problems affect performance across subject areas, and they often leave teachers wondering how to help. In this course, we will engage in a complete literacy framework as a mitigate literacy problems across content areas. In this course, you will also explore the relationship between reading and writing; strategies for developing listening and speaking skills; reading materials and methods for students with special needs; expository writing; integrating the language arts across all areas of the middle grades’ curriculum and the effect of current reading process theory on teaching practices. This course offers a rigorous curriculum that builds and challenges students' growing language arts and reading skills with more complex texts and writing structures.  Students learn how to create, support, and develop a logical flow of ideas in writing that will convey to readers a main point or message. In addition, concepts of English basics, including phonics, word origins, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar are reviewed. Course topics include:

• • Prose, Sentences, and Personal Narrative
  • Prose, Nouns, and Story Writing
  • Drama and Verbs
  • Poetry and Pronouns
  • Genres, Adjectives, and Writing to Compare
  • Historic Text, Adverbs, and Essay Writing
  • Scientific Text and Writing a Book Review
  • Technical Text, Capitalization, and Sources
  • Research, Punctuation, and Reports
  • Precise and Effective Writing