After Reading Activities

After reading activities should integrate students, elaborate on the text, and students should be able to apply what they have read. Integration requires talking and writing about the information and elaboration requires the student to dig deeper and expand upon the text. Writing  is the act of constructing meaning while transacting with text, this is the same as reading. Students should write to make sense of what they are reading. Writing stimulates deep processing and organizes thoughts. It can also prompt insight and develop concepts. Students should grow in their writing proficiency through during reading exercises. Model how you want your students to write. To help students, use a process approach such as pre-writing, drafting, and revising. There are three types of writing. The first is informal. These are quick writes and easy to administer. Some examples are learning logs, admission or exit slips, one-minute quiz, and reflective writing. The second is creative writing. Creating writing allows students to use their imagination. Some examples are sense poems, biopoems, and cinquains. The third type of writing is formal writing. Some examples are KWL and an I-chart. I will probably use all three types of writing in my PE class. I favor informal writing because they are easy to administer and a gym is not a typical classroom setting. Exit slips are great in PE and can easily be implemented at the end of every lesson. Technology is easy to use in all three writing techniques. Online learning logs would be very cool for an upper level PE class. Formal writing can be done on fitness profiles or data based on fitness or nutrition. Creative writing can be used to create poems about a student's favorite sport or one on a famous athlete. I understand the importance of reading and writing in the classroom and will do my best to make that apparent in my PE class.