WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Writing Assignment for Assisting
with Literacy Achievement
This particular task may be a huge benefit for those wishing to become competent in literacy acquisition.
Directions: Student assistants can grab any part (or all) of the following writing materials for use with any student(s) to assist them with not only writing but with the unusual complexities for mentally discovering and enhancing the relationships between the four major activities of literacy acquisition: Reading, Speaking, Listening, and Writing.
Reading and listening are receptive skills. Writing and speaking are expressive skills.
Each of these four activities exists in a separate area of the brain, though they all work together symbiotically to influence each other.
Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams developed the following template showing the workings of the human brain during the literacy acquisition process:
Template by Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams from her text Beginning To Read, Thinking and Learning about Print
I decided years ago to somewhat modify this pictured approach to reflect a more detailed analysis for explaining the process I’d discovered from the students with whom I’d been working. Please see the following template entitled “How the Brain Processes Communication:
Directions on Use of Writing Assignments
I wish for all students using this section, to write (copy) the words as they appear in each sentence using the underline ( _____ ) beneath each set of words.
While doing the copying, the student(s) should speak out- loud each word as he or she writes each word.
With all of this in mind, the student will be reading, and writing, and speaking the words (as they are written), and, at the same time, listening to what he or she is saying.
This process of copying, reading, speaking, and listening utilizes all four aspects of the brain in the literacy acquisition process simultaneously, enhancing the very nature of all four aspects at the same time.
Choose which sections in this prepared Emergent Literacy text you want your student(s) to use for practice (or use your own materials). They can print or write in script (their own personal style or preference; it does not matter).
Spend a few minutes or longer every day doing this activity. It may seem worthless and boring, but its benefits are huge.
Think about it: all of the greatest writers in the English language over the last 4 hundred years were taught to do this activity from the age of about 5 until their teenage years in order to master the English language.
One very important note to all staff, caregivers, parents, or teachers:
Please let the student(s) know that you will be present while this writing activity is going on. Encourage the student(s) to ask for assistance if they perhaps do not know or recognize a particular word. As you tell them what the word is perhaps this will provide an opportunity for a bit of socialization, discussion, and communication as you and the student share ideas. They can then verbally repeat the word out loud and continue their work with copying.