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Strategic Reading, a popular tool for helping adolescent readers comprehend difficult text, is also instrumental in guiding beginning and intermediate-level readers. The nine strategies that Geof
Hewitt introduces are more than just “reading strategies”! They are thinking strategies that enhance problem-solving skills in all disciplines. When they are taught in the early grades, they become habits of mind by the time students reach their teenage years, but it’s never too late to learn these nine strategies. In his interactive presentations, Hewitt brings humor and a clear link to the reading-writing connection that fortifies development of comprehension skills.
Geof Hewitt, Co-director of the Vermont Adolescent Literacy and Learning Initiative, has led reading workshops in Vermont’s K-12 classrooms, in Vermont’s correctional facilities, and with teenage parents. In addition, he has offered reading-instruction workshops for teachers and given keynote speeches across the U.S. and in Canada.
He bases his work on the nine reading strategies outlined in Reading to Learn, a 140 page guide to teaching reading in the content areas that he helped write and edit. (Free download at: http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/pgm_curriculum/literacy/reading/reading_to_learn.html). A book-discussion leader with the Vermont Humanities Council for more than twenty years, Hewitt claims that his best credential is his own use of the nine reading strategies outlined in Reading to Learn. His three other books for teachers (two from Heinemann, one from Discover Writing) have all addressed writing.
Motivating Reluctant Writers to Meet the Standards
With thirty years’ experience as a writer in the schools and twenty overlapping years developing state writing standards and national assessment tools, Geof Hewitt brings great energy, insight, and humor to this hands-on workshop. The goal is for all participants to leave with exciting ways to motivate reluctant writers and involve students of all subjects in the active pursuit of writing that exceeds state or classroom standards.
Hewitt guides educators through a series of brief classroom steps that put fire under otherwise inert pencils or fingers on a keyboard. He introduces fresh writing prompts that are sure to inspire young writers; he shares a rubric-making process that students as young as third grade can adopt; he discusses strategies and attitudes that make writing fun for everyone.
Central to Hewitt’s belief is that all of us want to express our ideas and feelings, but fear of mistakes often inhibits such expression. Exploring a variety of topics in non-threatening, daily, seven-minute quickwrites helps writers develop their own, unique voice. Given the brief time allowed, expectations of perfection are discarded, and young writers discover that they may have more to say than they can possibly write in seven minutes! This is where revision enters the picture: every ten days or so, writers can review their recent quickwrites, choosing one to expand and revise. This cycle of production builds both fluency and confidence that readily transfer to term papers, tests, and all other writing activities!
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