Students as Lifelong Readers and Writers

As an educator it is our duty to ensure that our children become capable and even expert readers and writers. These skills are necessary for them to become literate citizens to survive in the 21st century. They are expected to be literate in areas other that the standard print writing and it is only when they can navigate print successfully can they weave through the other types of literacies which they will face later on. The challenge thus is for us to use engaging instructional strategies to capture the interest of the disengaged as well as the students who loose interest as they go into higher grades. As such motivation becomes an intrinsic part of creating Lifelong readers and writers. It is this motivation which makes the student want to know more to develop a sense of curiosity, to want to figure out what happens next. We can change our student’s attitudes through Reading and Writing Workshops which are authentic and where students have a choice about what they read and what they choose to writer about.
The Reading workshop allows for time, where the student has extensive time to read and write. Secondly it offers the atmosphere of choice and thirdly the response, whether it is a blog or a wiki or a journal. This workshop journeys the writing and reading process and the student and teacher can monitor their progress. The reading workshop is unconventional in that the student has choice over what they read and how they will present to the class. It is more individual in nature and because students read books of their own choosing their fluency is sustained and they enjoy what they are reading. This level of self efficacy encourages them to peruse more texts and over time challenge themselves to read books about their comfort level. As an English Teacher, I have adopted this approach in my Form one class, and I have found that it allows my students to feel more comfortable to discuss what they read and when they write they have a relationship with the text they choose and the writing they produce is sustained and descriptive. They are now excited as they want to share with their peers about the exciting books they are reading.