In schools, we have limited time. Teachers feel rushed to get everything accomplished by the end of the year. How can we decide what to cut from our teaching practices? As I read Chapter 2 of Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6, I thought about this question. Chapter 2 is about using literature first as readers and then as writers to make connections, build a large collection of writing ideas, and as a mentor text for writing style. The chapter offers many great mentor texts for different purposes. It is a great resource to use while planning read alouds and writer's workshop mini lessons. While the text was very informative and full of useful ideas, it made me nervous because we do not have enough time for reading instruction(or any subject) to do all of the lessons and read alouds that I want to share with my students! In my future classroom I will have to be able to justify why we spend so much time doing read alouds, especially in upper elementary school. One quote I can keep in m back pocket is from Carol Gay (as cited in Dorfman and Cappelli, 2017, p. 38):
Reading aloud is inseparably linked with learning to write. If elementary school teachers fail to read aloud to their students often, regularly, and for reasonably long periods of time, those students are going to be severely handicapped in learning to write." (1976, p. 87).
Sharing stories, providing scaffolding for generating writing ideas, and working through the writing process with my future students is something I really look forward to in my classroom. It is a time for them to share, be creative, and grow.
References
Dorfman, L. R. & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts : teaching writing through children’s literature, k-6. Portland, Maine : Stenhouse Publishers.
Gay, Carol. 1976. "Reading Aloud and Learning to Write." The Elementary School Journal. 77:87-93