1. Learning to Compose and
Write Messages
Reading Recovery
Spring 2012
Let’s take a “walk”
through “writing!”

2. Teacher’s Role – Get the child to
compose and write his own stories.
Writing is about:
*Composing
*Building a known body of words
*Shifting from simple sentences at first to
more complex sentences
*Using a variety of ways to structure
sentences and packing more interest into
the message

3. Composing a message is not a
matter of copying words or
stories….
I like to ride
It’s about…… my bike in
the yard!
*Going from ideas in the head,
*to spoken words,
*to printed messages,
*and finding out that you can reconstruct
those messages.

4. Teacher’s job is to…
*Choose which words the child will work on and
which words she will contribute because she
judges that they are too challenging for the
child at a particular time.
Student’s job is to…
*Write all that he can independently.

5. The student’s composed message should
be his OWN and it should stem from
genuine conversation between the child
and the teacher.
If we keep a note of the longest sentence
we have heard the child use, we can update
it when a longer one comes along. Length
of utterance is a reliable indicator of
growth in early oral language skills.

6. During the course of a series of lessons, a child learns to
bring together…
*the ideas
*the message (which must be his own)
*the search for ways to record it
*the monitoring of the message production
*and the reading of what he has recorded.

7. However……to get there, the teacher has to work with
what the child already knows in order to build on his
strengths. What may seem to be a casual
conversation between child and adult is actually an
example of a highly skilled adult moving a child
through his zone of proximal development through
questioning, telling, directing, demonstrating, praising,
and confirming moves.
Teachers make deliberate teaching decisions that
increase accessibility to the task while supporting the
child’s performance.
There is no relaxation of the challenges posed and the
teacher is constantly moving to what can be
considered as the outer limits of the zone of proximal
development.

8. Break Time
What is a reliable indicator of
growth in early oral language
skills?

9. Teachers can prompt the child to search
his reading knowledge by linking back to
previous writing or to a text. The child
must understand that reading and writing
contributes to each other.

10. Writing Lesson
*Use a practice page and an unlined message page
turned sideways.
*Use bright felt pens to motivate writing.
*Other opportunities for writing should include
whiteboards, blackboards, magnetic letters, etc.
*Practice page has many uses such as: Elkonin
boxes, giving words a “go,” practice words for
fluency, teacher demonstration of words, etc. It
provides a record of many teacher-child
interactions that occur.

11. The child must…
compose the message and feel some
ownership of it!
Procedure for eliciting a story:
*Have a thought of discussion before the lesson.
*Have a short but genuine conversation with the student that
captures his attention and interest.
*After the conversation, ask the child to formulate the message.
*Do not alter the child’s sentence. If the child needs to work on
grammar issues, be sure to use correct use of language while in
conversation with the child. In later lessons, the teacher may
suggest how a sentence might have some more ideas or be changed in
structure BUT only if the child can manage the change. If
not……back off!

12. Continued… Procedures for eliciting a story…
*The teacher should record the message and immediately begin
thinking which words can provide teaching moments.
*In early lessons, the teacher may have the child repeat the
message in order to have a clear memory of the sentence.
*In later lessons, the child may be composing two or three
sentences while writing faster and without much assistance.
*Toward the end of the lessons, the practice page will begin to
be less filled as the child will be writing on the run.

13. Before writing…
from time to time… invite the child to reread a previous written
message.
As the child writes…
*The child will write what he can independently.
*The teacher writes into the story what she judges to be to hard.
*The teacher selects from the child’s composed message each day
two or three words that offer challenge to the child for learning
how to hear and record sounds in words. This action will lessen as
the child learns to write on the run.
*The teacher may also select high-frequency words in which to help
the child remember such as “they” or “why.”
*The teacher will ask the child the repeat the writing of a new word
on the working page again and again. This procedure could also be
done on the chalkboard, in the sand, on the whiteboard, etc.

14. Break Time
What will the child be doing when it is
evident that the practice page is being
used less?

15. Extend the child’s writing
vocabulary…
*Make the task easy for the child!!!
*Ensure the child knows a lot about the letters in the words you
select for attention.
*It’s a good idea not to teach words that look very similar close
together in time.
*Letters in words have to be written in the correct order.
*Be aware of other words that can made from the word you select.
*Keep in mind the complexity of the task for the child at all times.
*The teacher needs to constantly seek out links to the child’s known
in order to build new knowledge.

16. Continued… Extend the child’s writing
vocabulary…
*The teacher’s interactions with the
child should change as lessons move
forward. In early lessons, the
teacher’s contributions are high. The
child should gradually take over the
problem-solving of new words. Elkonin
boxes will be less used as lessons
continue. The teacher’s role shifts to
monitoring the child’s performance and
begins to teach more by talking
instead of demonstration. The goal is
for the child to learn to problem solve
in order to “go it alone” back in the
classroom.

17. Ways of solving words for writing…
*As the writing changes for the child, the teacher changes what she does.
*Over time, the child accumulates a writing vocabulary. New words will be
constructed slowly.
*One essential way to get to new words is by trying to hear the sounds in
spoken words.
*Invite the child to construct a new word based on a known word that he
already knows.
*No child should be expected to work out certain features within words
without support, such as inflectional endings, silent letters, double
consonants, dropping the “e,” hard to hear consonants in clusters, using
common vowel combinations, or spelling short words with unusual spellings
such as “who” and “why.”
*Always direct the child to what they know in reading to help them with
writing!!!!

18. Usually the gain is not that the child gets a
particular word right but that he has
strengthened the range of ways of solving new
words he will use in the future.
Helpful prompts:
What could you try?
How do you think it would start?
What do you know that might help?
Do you know another word that sounds like that?
Do you know a word that starts like that?
After success in word solving…..you can use the
prompt:
How did you know it was written like that?

19. Break Time
In later lessons, the teacher’s role shifts to
monitoring the child’s performance and
begins to teach more by talking instead of
___________________.

20. Rereading the completed story…
*At first the child may need to point word by
word.
*The teacher may need to help at first, but
eventually the child will read the story
independently, monitoring the reading against
his inner knowledge of what he intended to
write.

21. When a child’s pronunciation is
unhelpful…
*Be cautious of dialect and unclear articulation.
The teacher must use appropriate language
throughout the lesson in order for the child to
hear and observe the correct language.

22. To write known words faster…
When a child shows that he knows a word…use these prompts:
*Think carefully before you start and write it here. And here.
*Look closely at it and check it.
*Do it faster. Once more.
Vary what you say as you prompt the child to repeat the production on
the whiteboard, chalkboard, finger on desktop, magnetic letters, etc.
*Try it another time. Once more.
*Check it carefully.
*Write it faster…and even faster. Can you go faster?
***The purpose is to have the child produce the word “out of his
head” in every aspect while being fluent.

23. Which words would the teacher select
for the child to learn to write…
Choose…
*words that will be used often by this child
*words needed often in writing
*words the child almost knows that need a little more practice
*words that capture things he knows but also take him into
new territory
*words that occur often in the language
After a child has a useful knowledge of high-frequency words
then a word might be selected because of its spelling pattern
that could lead the writer, by analogy, to similar words.
***The teacher will keep a weekly record of each child’s
writing vocabulary in order to link and to teach other words
based on the child’s known words.

24. Thoughtful Prompts:
If you want the child to search his reading knowledge…use the following
prompts:
*You can read a word that looks like that.
*You can read a word that starts like that.
*You can read a word that is like that.
If you want the child to search his writing vocabulary…use the following
prompts:
*Say the word aloud. Say it slowly. Is that like a word you know?
*You can say another word like that.
*Have you heard another word that starts that way?
*Have you heard another word that sounds like that?

25. Errors in written stories…
*Repeated errors strengthen brain connections and increase the chance that
the neural network will use that route again. That is why it is crucial that the
teacher intercept and to help the child to attend to detail of what he is doing.
*The teacher may chose to type the message using large font and generous
spacing.
****In later lessons, the practice page will be used less; however the teacher
will not give up demonstrations when needed. The teacher could…
*ask the child for the initial sound or cluster.
*expect the child to construct the word in sequence from beginning to end
*the teacher could tell the child about any hard bits before he makes a false
move.
*the teacher may still intervene and help with unusual words to remove the
possibility that the child might make a series of poor moves.

26. Break Time
The following are indicators of what?
*words that will be used often by this child
*words needed often in writing
*words the child almost knows that need a little more
practice
*words that capture things he knows but also take him
into new territory
*words that occur often in the language

27. Final thoughts…..on the
“walk” through “writing!”
The early intervention teacher must continually
lift the performance level of the child in order
for him/her to perform well back in the classroom
independently. Our job includes encouraging the
child to write more, with speed, fluency and
accuracy. In turn…this will contribute to faster
progress in literacy learning!

28. Clay, M. M. (2005). Literacy lessons: Designed for
individuals, part two: Teaching procedures.
NH: Heinemann