Strengthening the Reading-Writing Connection

Students share their character planning graphic organizers: protagonist, antagonist, secondary characters

Outside, she heard the trunk of the car slam shut, one of the doors open and close. The old engine cough and choke and finally start up. —Cynthia Rylant, “Stray”

Reading those words, I can feel the sheets from my childhood bed as I lay awake listening to the grownups going about their business. It’s one of the things good readers do—make a movie in their minds out of the words they see on a page. Visualizing or envisioning images is what it’s often called because the sense of sight is the one most frequently described, though all of the other senses can also be used, sometimes to powerful effect. 

Cynthia Rylant imagined that scene, heard the sounds in her mind, translated them into words. Writing teachers everywhere urge their students to “show not tell,” and this is an excellent example of that. I then read those words, which reconstituted in my mind into the very image Rylant had in her mind. Or at least pretty close.

Sometimes there's a glitch at one end or the other. Recently, I asked students to copy into their journal a sentence they liked from the independent book they were reading and then explain why they liked the sentence. I looked over the shoulder of a student who was reading Charlotte’s Web and saw, “Templeton stuck his head up through the straw.” For some reason, the image of a drinking straw sprang into my mind and I could not think of any options. I was trying to imagine a rat sticking his head through a drinking straw and it just wasn’t working. I was baffled. I asked the student what he liked about that sentence, and he replied that he could visualize the image. So I finally had to ask, “Is this a drinking straw?” “No,” he corrected me, “it’s the straw that makes you sneeze.” Suddenly the image in my mind flipped into one that made perfect sense. 

Though my students read a lot of fiction, if I’ve ever had them write it, it’s been as a fun little project, or just a different way to explore a “what if” question. I’ve taught reading fiction but not writing fiction. This year I’m making my first foray into really teaching in a complementary way how to do what we’re observing the professionals do. To examine the process from both sides: identifying setting and showing setting, visualizing images and describing images, analyzing characters and creating characters, evaluating themes and embedding themes.

I’ve known for a long time the importance of participating in poetry creation rather than just consumption. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get it with fiction. But 6th and 7th graders seem to be getting it at a whole new level. After reading a couple of short stories earlier, this week students used graphic organizers that incorporated drawing as well as writing to plan their setting, characters, theme, and plot. They have been so engaged, planning and sharing their plans. I’m looking forward to seeing their stories come together next week.

Receiving language and producing language, receiving text and producing text, reading and writing, hearing and speaking, seeing and doing, visualizing images and showing images. It's how humans do deep learning. It's fun to see students doing it.