Developing fluent writers

Fluency in writing, as in reading, should be a goal of every reading program. Writing practice enhances reading proficiency, and vice versa.

• Encourage early readers to use inventive spelling as they write.
• Have learners practice writing whole words, phrases, and sentences as they hear them.
• Have learners write often, using the vocabulary found in their reading. They could
  • prepare a summary or outline of what they have read
  • retell in writing a story they have heard or read
  • write captions for pictures they have drawn to illustrate a story they have heard or read (beginning readers)
  • write in a journal about what they have read, or
  • write in the same genre and on the same topic as the material they have read.
• Provide a good model for learners by writing while they observe. They need to see you write fluently and correctly.
• Use activities that encourage and develop writing fluency.

• Adams 1990:95-104

• Task module: Developing fluent writers, by Anne Klaassens (contributor), Martha A. Lane (contributor), Delle P. Matthews (contributor), and Trudy K. Stewart (contributor)
• In task module: Developing literacy skills, by Martha A. Lane (contributor), Delle P. Matthews (contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), Anne Klaassens (editor), and Trudy K. Stewart (editor, contributor)
• In task module: Teaching people to read and write, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler)
• In task module: Implementing a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler)
• In modular book: Implement a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler) and Leah B. Walter (compiler)
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 22 October 1999

© 1999 SIL International