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| back | | LS teachers talk about reading and writing | | | The Lower School Parents’ Association heard a presentation on Tuesday from teachers who have participated in the Columbia University Reading and Writing Project. The GFA teachers are able to attend the summer workshops at Columbia’s Teachers College through Annual Giving Funds, and have participated for several years, establishing a collaboration over time that has allowed the program to become deeply rooted in GFA’s Lower School.
The teachers, Ann Cotter, Amy Colbert and Erin Thorkilsen, gave examples of the strategies they’ve adopted and the way they connect their teaching from grade to grade as the children grow. “We have concrete ways to teach our students how to talk, think and write well about the books they’ve read,” Mrs. Cotter said. “In addition, we’re giving them ways to develop stamina for writing. When you ask children to write, they often say they have no idea what to write about. We’re giving them step by step strategies to identify subjects and find the heart of their stories.”
Mrs. Colbert described the one-on-one conversations that take place in the classroom around a book they’re reading. “First we get them to turn and face each other to begin the conversation. One child reads from a note he or she has made on the reading, and the other child responds by agreeing, disagreeing or adding to the point. Over time, it becomes second nature for them to have a back-and-forth conversation, expanding on each other’s thoughts.”
Fourth grade teacher Ms. Thorkilsen talked about teaching her students to write personal essays. “What I love about the program,” she said, “is that it really teaches kids how to think. We give them tools such as envisioning, inferring, retelling and predicting that help them push their thinking deeper and deeper. We’re interested not just in reading that they’re happy, but in knowing why they’re happy and what it means. Over the year, we watch the students work hard to express themselves and become deep thinkers in the process.”
The presentation was punctuated by a favorite quote from the program, “To be a good writer you must lead a wide awake life.”
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