This provides them with fine literature they cannot yet read for themselves, and it tunes their ears to structures of language and knowledge they cannot get through reading on their own. It allows learners to hear prose and poetry written in a variety of moods and styles of many different authors. This experience prepares them for their own encounters with a variety of styles in their own reading. The material read to the students may be related to the unit themes being studied. When students become authors themselves, they have the opportunity to become consciously aware of how functional written language is.
Writing brings written language components to a more conscious level.
Writing should be encouraged in the same languages the children are reading. It should occur daily, related to other learning experiences. Writing letters to the local newspapers, writing reactions to observations and experimentations, writing about personal experiences can all be related to themes and units. Just as everything a student reads does not have to be questioned, everything a student writes does not have to be monitored. With the teacher's aid, the students select the stories that they have written which they like best to be edited, put into final form, bound, catalogued, and placed on a classroom or school library shelf for peers to read.