Entry #8: Elise Takes Center Stage!

"From Tompkins (2012) and Dymock (2007), I have developed an understanding that explicit instruction of text structure, more specifically, the elements of specific genres, can support students across their reading, writing, and their comprehension. "

~Elise Coon, Blog Entry #7

Let me tell you about my brilliant colleague and friend, Elise! Like me, she also has a blog that she uses as a tool to reflect upon and deepen her understanding of our class readings. Click here to visit her amazing blog! 

I was particularly impressed by her connections in her Blog Entry #7. Elise began by describing how authors Tierney and Pearson (1983) taught her that reading and writing are parallel processes. This opened Elise's mind to the connections between studying mentor texts and teaching writing, particularly related to the structure of narrative mentor texts. She noted that studying the text structures of different genres can improve students' reading, writing, and comprehension because reading and writing are parallel processes (see the quote detailed above). 

Story Graph from Elise's Blog

In her post, Elise discussed how story graphs and story maps could be used as tools to scaffold narrative text structure. This led me to think of MacKay, Ricks, and Young's (2017) article about the use of mentor texts. I agree with Elise, that these organizers can be useful when explicitly instructing students on the narrative text structure. However, I would expand on this and suggest that before dissecting the text, students should listen to the story just for enjoyment. As MacKay, Ricks, and Young (2017) state, “Authors do not create children’s books to be deconstructed and used as writing texts but, rather, to be read over and over again for the pleasure of reading. It is through the reading that students begin to value a book enough to be willing to look to its author as a writing mentor” (p. 177). Once students have listened to the story at least once or twice for pleasure, they can analyze the structure in depth and "read with writers' eyes" (p. 178).

Story Web from Elise's Blog

I have used similar graphic organizers when conducting interactive read alouds involving narrative texts with students at the primary level. What I have not done, though, is use these same graphic organizers as a tool for writing. I have provided graphic organizers for writing, but not like the ones Elise highlighted in her post. As Elise wrote, reading and writing are parallel processes. It would make sense to utilize the same graphic organizer for both analyzing a narrative mentor text and scaffolding the planning of students' own narrative pieces that they will write. 

I can see Elise using the story graph to model how events are put in a specific order in narrative texts to create an engaging story. After modeling this once, students may find it entertaining if Elise purposefully puts the story pieces in the wrong order based on a mentor text they read! I can imagine students giggling at their teacher's silliness. They would say "Miss Coon, that is ALL WRONG! It doesn't make any sense!" and then correct her "mistake." This would further demonstrate how important it is to consider the sequencing of events when writing narrative texts.

While thinking about these two graphic organizers, I also wondered if these could be created into laminated mats for students to use in the prewriting/brainstorming phase of the writing process. Similar to the Card Strategy we used in class, I can envision students writing or drawing the different episodes they plan to include in their narrative on index cards (Kucer & Rhodes, 1986). Then, I see them experimenting with the order of the episodes by moving the cards around the different Xs on the mat/template. I know the Card Strategy helped me brainstorm, and I think adding in the template with the story graph would provide even more scaffolding for students as they try to determine the structure and sequence of their own narrative pieces.

A big shoutout to Elise for helping me reflect further on reading and writing as parallel processes! I do not think I would have made these further connections without checking out your blog. Don't wait another moment - check out Elise's blog for more information about reading and writing!

References

Dymock, S. (2007). Comprehension strategy instruction: Teaching narrative text structure awareness. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 161–167. DOI: 10.1598/rt.61.2.6

Kucer, S. B. & Rhodes, L. K (1986). Counterpart strategies: Fine tuning language with language. The Reading Teacher, 40(2), 186-193.

MacKay, K. L., Ricks, P. H., & Young, T. A. (2017). Supporting young writers with award-winning books. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 177-187.

Tierney, R. & Pearson, P. D. (1983). Toward a composing model of reading. Language Arts, 60(5), 568-580.