Bridging the Gap Between Reading & Writing

Matt, kindergarten teacher and creator of the blog, Look at my happy rainbow!, shared this wonderful post on bridging the gap between reading and writing, and we thought we'd pass it along. Based on the teacher resource book, Literacy Beginnings, by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas, Matt talks about the twelve steps educators can use to bridge the gap, as well as, how he incorporates them into his classroom. There's lots of great practical advice, so be sure to head over and read the full post! In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at our favorite classroom ideas...

{Step #2} You can hear the individual words in a sentence.

Matt reinforces this concept using a pocket chart and individual word sentence strips to construct the morning message so that students can see this concept demonstrated visually. You might also consider writing messages, short stories, poems, etc. used in the classroom in this style...

By placing a dot under each word, students can more easily follow along/read {touching or pointing to each dot as the word is read} and visually/aurally distinguish between the different words in the sentence. A third option you might consider for reinforcing this concept is to have your kiddos construct and read bottle top sentences.

As they read, students can point to, move, tap, etc. the bottle tops, reinforcing the concept that you can see and hear each individual word in the sentence.

There are many, many more fantastic tips and activities in Matt's blog post, so be sure to head over to Look at my happy rainbow! for the full article!