Some people believe that kids in K-2nd are too young to learn the skills like critical thinking, text structure, and sentence development that are necessary to write. Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy, disagrees. She says young kids can learn to express themselves and to grow and revise their ideas through oral language and drawing.
Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy, talks about how using “mentor texts” — short pieces of literature students can read and reread for specific learning purposes — can help students become better writers.
Research shows that learning sentence combining — where students become more adept at manipulating and playing with words in sentences — is far more effective in developing syntactic awareness than is practicing traditional grammar, says Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy.
Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy, talks about how research shows that young students improve their writing and alphabet knowledge when they handwrite letters and words while simultaneously learning letter-sound correspondence.
Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy, talks about the four main stages of writing: thinking, planning, writing, and revising and the fact that the more time and effort students put into the first two stages and the last stage, the better their writing will be.
Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy, explains the two key steps students need to learn in the revision process when writing: thinking critically about what they have written and how they can make improvements and proofreading.
By reading books out loud every day, teachers introduce students to higher-level texts and new vocabulary, while modeling deeper thinking and strong discussion skills.
Award-winning author and illustrator Grace Lin talks about her mom’s secret plan to spark Grace’s interest in her own culture through Chinese fairy tales.
