How To Engage Your Readers In Writing Long About Their Reading Thinking

Writing longer reading responses can be an overwhelming task for young readers--well, for any readers!

When readers are given a clear path about how to stop and jot about their thinking as they read independently, they will easily be able to move into writing longer about their reading thinking.

As students stop and jot, they are staying actively engaged and monitoring their own comprehension.

As we scan their jots, we can see what is going on inside of their head while they are reading.

Now, that’s great, but how can we take it to another level to build a bigger picture of our readers.

We can have them expand on their post-it notes! I like to call it 'writing long'.

Okay…so what does that mean?

Writing long off of your jots is about synthesizing the details and showing your comprehension of the text.

Think about this.

If you have ever participated in a book study or book club as an adult, haven’t you analyzed your thoughts while you read to dig down to a deeper meaning of the text. You were truly synthesizing the text to dig out a message and the meaning to the characters’ actions in relation to big picture of the story. Right?!

We are asking students to begin developing this skill and strategy to build their comprehension.

When I have asked students to write long off of their post its, I wanted them to write about their reading.

When I read their written work about their reading, it gives me a picture of their understanding of the text.

This provides details I can add to a student’s reading profile that I create for each reader to document how he/she comprehends text (or doesn’t comprehend it).

So, how do I get students to write long from their jots?

First, get them jotting thoughts about their reading!

✔️Identify key thoughts while reading.

✔️Select 3 best post-its reflecting strong thinking.

✔️Choose one post-it and expand on it.

✔️Repeat for the other two post-its.

✔️Review responses for unanswered questions.

🗣️BONUS: Use responses for group discussions.

Next, we nudge them to write more about each thought.

When we analyze this student response writing, we can see just how deep their thinking has gone into the text and what they did to reach that deeper meaning.

Now, on the other hand, if a student is not deeply understanding a text, we can see that, too, in the written response.

When students begin this writing long from their thinking notes, their writing may not be insightful and full of deep meanings from the text.

As teachers, we have to use this work to really get to know our readers and design lessons to move them further in their thought processing.

How do we do this? Teachers must model this kind of work while they read.

Now, I know that there are teachers that want to know what they want to write before they sit down in front of kids to model. That’s great!

However, my best lessons for writing long off of my post it notes were when I did my thinking right there in the moment…raw…unscripted.

Students got to see my mind really working in the moment of the text.

Now, I’m not advocating to go in to a classroom unplanned all the time. I am just saying that when I write long from my post its, I do that work “in the moment”, raw and unscripted.

Students will be able to understand that authentic engagement while processing text.

Teachers must be planned in everything they do, but this moment is what students need to see in order to push themselves even further.

💭🤔Just a thought...

If students...

✔️First, learn to stop and jot,

✔️Then, stretch their thinking to write long off of their post its,

🤔Wouldn’t they be set up for authentic literary response writing

Think...

👉Text Dependent Analysis

👉Extended Constructed Response

👉Analytical Reading Response

Until next time…