Teacher Book Talk Tuesday: Talk Read Talk Write

It's Tuesday, so it's time for a new installment of...

I've had this wonderful professional development book ready to read since late last summer.

However, with the demands of readying a classroom, preparing curriculum, and just keeping up with responsibilities both in school and at home throughout the school year, I just hadn't gotten to it. Kathleen's weekly book talk linky was the impetus to get me going.

Here's what Amazon has to say about this book...

The Talk Read Talk Write approach helps students meet and exceed the state standards for learning in all subjects while also developing the literacy skills needed for success in the 21st century. This practical resource gives teachers (K-12) a step-by-step guide to implementing structured conversation, active reading, and high quality writing in any class. The book includes quick reference charts and graphic organizers, excerpts from actual classrooms, many example/non-example sections, sample lessons, and a discussion guide for campus book study.

The book provides a framework or strategy that teachers can share with students to help them increase their reading comprehension, not just in reading class but across content areas as well. Known as the Talk Read Talk Write (TRTW) Strategy, it is a simple, yet rigorous method for conducting any reading lesson.

Step 1 TALK to engage students' attention and activate schema, balanced between teacher and student, begins with teacher asking a question related to the soon-to-be-read content

• brief
• structured
• open-ended
• non-threatening

Step 2 READ wherein students interact with text structure and actively, independently read with a purpose (loads of strategies, graphic organizers, examples are provided)

Step 3 TALK to re-engage students with the purpose for reading and the content information and to promote sharing of content and information learned while reading.

Step 4 WRITE to generate personal thoughts or promote/defend an argument whilst following conventions/traits of good writing.

The best part about this text is that the author sticks with this ONE method and TEACHES the reader to do it. The book contains plenty of examples, visuals, and explanations (tapping into a reader's various learning styles) that readers can easily understand the TRTW framework thoroughly and feel at ease in implementing it in their own classrooms. Talk Read Talk Write is an alternative strategy to close reading and is particularly helpful for reading in the content areas. If you are an oldie, moldy teacher as I am, this strategy might remind you, as it did me, of the ancient DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity) approach to reading, only it goes one better with the addition of written response. If you are interested in reading this text, you can click HERE to find out how to obtain a copy.

Be sure to stop by Kathleen's blog, Kidpeople Classroom, to see what books she is talking about this week. Better yet, why not add a book talk of your own!