Etextbook 978 0132837798 Literacy For The 21st Century A Balanced Approach

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Literacy for the 21st Century
L i t e r a c y f o r t h e 21 s t C e n t u r y
A Balanced Approach
G a i l E . To m p k i n s
Sixth Edition
Tompkins
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Sixth Edition
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ISBN 978-1-29204-154-4
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9 781292 041544
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In this chapter, you’ll read
about the reading and
writing processes. These
two essential processes
both have five stages, with
similar activities at each stage. As you read this
vignette, notice how Mrs. Goodman uses the five
stages of the reading process as her students Ron explored some of the themes of the
participate in a literature focus unit on The story:
Giver. Try to pick out the stages: prereading,
reading, responding, exploring, and applying. Starving. Jonas has memories of food. But
he’s still hungry. At least he’s free. Food is
safe. Freedom is surprises. Before Jonas was
starved for colors, memories and choice. Choice. To do what you want. To be all you can be. He
won’t starve.
Alicia thought about a lesson her mother taught her as she wrote:
As Jonas fled from the community he lost his memories so that they would go back to the people
there. Would they learn from them? Or would life go on just the same? That’s the question. I think
you have to do it yourself if you are going to learn. That’s what my mom says. Somebody else can’t
do it for you.
Tomas wrote about the Christmas connection at the end of the story:
It was Christmas. Jonas and Gabe came to the town at Christmas. Why did Lois Lowry do that? I
think Gabe is like the baby Jesus. It’s like a rebirth—they’re being born again. His old community
didn’t go to church. Maybe they didn’t believe in God. Now Jonas will be a Christian and the people
in the church will welcome them. Gabe is sort of like Jesus because people tried to release Jesus.
During their grand conversations, students talk about many of the same points they raise in
their journal entries. The story fascinates them—at first they think about how simple and safe life
would be, but then they think about all the things they take for granted that they’d have to give up
to live in Jonas’s ordered society. They talk about bravery and making choices, and they applaud
Jonas’s decision to flee with Gabriel. They also wonder if Jonas and Gabe survive.
The students collect “important” words from the story for the word wall. After reading the
fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters, they add these words to the word wall displayed in the classroom:
relinquish bikeports regulated infraction

invariably gravitating rehabilitation stirrings
serene chastisement assignment reprieve
Sometimes students choose unfamiliar or long words, but they also choose words such as assign-
ment that are important to the story. Students refer to the word wall when they’re writing. Later
during the unit, Mrs. Goodman teaches a minilesson about root words using some of these words.
As students read the book, Mrs. Goodman teaches a series of minilessons about reading strat-
egies. After students read about colors in the story, for example, she teaches a minilesson on visu-
alizing. She rereads excerpts about Jonas being selected to be the next Receiver and asks students
to create a picture of the scene in their minds. She asks them to focus on the sights, sounds, smells,
and feelings, and she talks about how important it is for readers to bring a story to life in their
minds. Then students draw pictures of their visualizations and share them in small groups.
3
The Reading and Writing Processes
Another minilesson focuses on literary opposites. Mrs. Goodman explains that authors often
introduce conflict and develop themes by using contrasts or opposites. She asks students to think
of opposites in The Giver; she suggests safe—danger and freedom—imprisoned. The students offer
these opposites:
alive—released families—family units

choice—no choice memories—no memories
color—black and white rules—anarchy
conform—do your own thing stirrings—the pill
Mrs. Goodman asks students to think about how the opposites relate to the story and how Lois
Lowry made them explicit in The Giver. Students talk about how the community seemed safe at
the beginning of the story, but chapter by chapter, Lowry uncovered the community’s shortcom-
ings. They also talk about themes of the story reflected in these opposites.
After they finish reading The Giver, the students have a read-around in which they select and
read aloud favorite passages. Then students make a quilt to probe the story’s themes: Each student
prepares a paper quilt square with an illustration and several sentences of text. One quilt square is
A Quilt Square
4
shown on the previous page. The students decide to use the colors white, gray, and black to rep-
resent the sameness of Jonas’s community, red because it was the first color Jonas saw, and a color-
ful center to represent Elsewhere.
Students also choose projects to work on individually or in small groups. One student makes
a book box with objects related to the story, and two others read Hailstones and Halibut Bones
(O’Neill, 1990), a collection of color poetry, and write their own color poems. One student makes
an open-mind portrait of Jonas to show his thoughts the night he decided to escape with Gabe.
Some students form literature circles to read Gathering Blue (2006a) and The Messenger (2006c),
two related books by Lois Lowry. Others write about their own memories. They use the writing
process to draft, refine, and publish their writing, and they share their published pieces as a cul-
minating activity at the end of the unit.
T he reading process that Mrs. Goodman uses represents a significant shift

in thinking about what students do as they read. She understands that
readers construct meaning as they negotiate the texts they’re reading, and
that they use their background experiences and knowledge of written language as they
read. She knows that it’s quite common for two students to read the same book and
come away with different interpretations because meaning doesn’t exist on the pages
of a book; instead, comprehension is created through the interaction between readers
and the texts they’re reading. This individualized view of readers’ interpretations
reflects Rosenblatt’s transactional theory (2004).
The reading process involves a series of stages during which readers comprehend
the text. The term text refers to all reading materials—stories, maps, newspapers,
cereal boxes, textbooks, email, and so on; it’s not limited to basal reading textbooks.
The writing process is a similar recursive process involving a variety of activities as
students gather and organize ideas, write rough drafts, revise and edit the drafts, and,
finally, publish their writings. Students learn to use the writing process to craft and
refine their compositions—autobiographies, stories, reports, poems, and essays.
The Reading Process

Reading is a constructive process of creating meaning that involves the
reader, the text, and the purpose within social and cultural contexts. The goal is com-
prehension, understanding the text and being able to use it for the intended purpose.
Readers don’t simply look at the words on a page and grasp the meaning; rather, it’s a
complex process involving these essential components:
Phonemic Awareness and Phonics. Students use their knowledge about the
phonological system, including how to manipulate sounds in spoken words and
apply phoneme-grapheme correspondences and phonics rules, as they read. They
develop these abilities through phonemic awareness and phonics instruction in the
primary grades.
Word Identification. Students recognize common or high-frequency words
automatically and use their knowledge of phonics and word parts to decode unfa-
miliar words. Until students can recognize most of the words they’re reading,
they’re slow, word-by-word readers.
5
Figure 1 The Reading Process
stage 1: Prereading stage 3: Responding

● activate or build background knowledge and ● Write in reading logs.
related vocabulary. ● Participate in grand conversations or other
● Think about the genre. discussions.

● set purposes.
stage 4: Exploring
● introduce key academic vocabulary words. ● Reread all or part of the text.
● Make predictions. ● Learn new vocabulary words.
● Preview the text. ● Participate in minilessons.
stage 2: Reading ● examine genre, other text features, or the
● Read independently or with a partner. writer’s craft.

● Read with classmates using shared or guided ● Learn about the author.
reading. ● collect memorable quotes.
● Listen to the teacher read aloud.

stage 5: Applying
● Read the entire text or specific sections, ● construct projects.
depending on purpose. ● Read related books.
● apply reading strategies and skills. ● Use information in thematic units.
● examine illustrations, charts, and diagrams. ● Reflect on the reading experience.
Fluency. Students become fluent readers once they recognize most words auto-
matically and read quickly and with expression. This is a milestone because stu-
dents have limited cognitive resources to devote to reading, and beginning readers
use most of this energy to decode words. Fluent readers, in contrast, devote most
of their cognitive resources to comprehension.
Vocabulary. Students think about the meaning of words they’re reading, choos-
ing appropriate meanings, recognizing figurative uses, and relating them to their
background knowledge. Knowing the meaning of words influences comprehension
because it’s difficult to understand when the words being read don’t make sense.
Comprehension. Students use a combination of reader and text factors to under-
stand what they’re reading. They predict, connect, monitor, repair, and use other
comprehension strategies as well as their knowledge of genres, organizational
patterns, and literary devices to create meaning.
These components are supported by scientifically based reading research (National
Reading Panel, 2000).
Teachers use the reading process to involve students in activities to teach, prac-
tice, and apply these components. The reading process is organized into five stages:
prereading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying. This process is used, no
matter which instructional program teachers choose, even though some activities at
each stage differ. Figure 1 summarizes the reading process.
Stage 1: Prereading
The reading process begins before readers open a book. The first stage, prereading,
occurs as readers prepare to read. In the vignette, Mrs. Goodman built her students’
background knowledge and stimulated their interest in The Giver as they talked about
6
how wonderful life would be in a “perfect” world. As readers get ready to read, they
activate background knowledge, set purposes, and make plans for reading.
Activating Background Knowledge. Students have both general and specific

background knowledge (Braunger & Lewis, 2006). General knowledge is world
knowledge, what students have acquired through life experiences and learning in their
home communities and at school, and specific knowledge is literary knowledge, what
students need to read and comprehend a text. Literary knowledge includes informa-
tion about reading, genres, and text structures. Students activate their world and liter-
ary background knowledge in this stage. They think about the title of a book, look at
the book cover and inside illustrations, and read the first paragraph to trigger this
activation.
When students don’t have enough background knowledge to read a text, teachers
build their knowledge base. They build knowledge about reading by teaching reading
strategies and skills; knowledge about genres by examining the structure of the genre
and explaining how reading varies according to genre; knowledge about a topic by
providing a text set of books for students to read, engaging students in discussions,
sharing artifacts, and introducing key vocabulary words. It’s not enough just to build
students’ knowledge about the topic; literary knowledge is also essential!
Setting Purposes. The purpose guides students’ reading. It provides motivation

and direction for reading, as well as a mechanism for students to monitor their read-
ing to see if they’re fulfilling their purpose. Sustaining a single purpose while students
read the text is more effective than presenting students with a series of purposes
(Blanton, Wood, & Moorman, 1990). Sometimes teachers set purposes for reading,
and sometimes students set their own purposes. In literature focus units and basal
reading textbooks, teachers usually explain how students are expected to read and
what they’ll do after reading. In contrast, students set their own purposes for reading
during literature circles and reading workshop; they choose texts that are intrinsically
interesting or that explain something they want to learn more about. As students
develop as readers, they become more effective at choosing books and setting their
own purposes.
Planning for Reading. Once students activate their background knowledge and
identify their purpose for reading, they take their first look at the text and plan for
reading. Students vary how they make plans according to the type of selection
they’re preparing to read. For stories, they make predictions about the characters
and events in the story. They often base their predictions on the book’s title or the
cover illustration. If they’ve read other stories by the same author or in the same
genre, students also use this information in making their predictions. Sometimes
students share their predictions orally, and at other times, they write predictions in
their reading logs.
When students are preparing to read nonfiction books and content-area textbook
chapters, they preview the selection by flipping through the pages and noting section
headings, illustrations, and diagrams. Sometimes they examine the table of contents
to see how the book is organized, or they consult the index to locate specific informa-
tion they want to read. They also notice highlighted terminology that’s unfamiliar to
them. To help students plan, teachers often use anticipation guides and prereading
plans.
7
Stage 2: Reading
Students read the book or other selection in the reading stage. Outside of school,
most people usually read silently and independently, but in the classroom, teachers
and students use five types of reading:
Independent reading
Partner reading
Guided reading
Shared reading
Reading aloud to students
Different types vary in the amount of teacher scaffolding: Teachers provide very little
support during independent reading, and the most support as they read aloud to stu-
dents. As they decide which type of reading to use, teachers consider the purpose for
reading, students’ reading levels, and the number of available copies of the text.
Independent Reading. When students read independently, they read silently by

themselves, for their own purposes, and at their own pace. It’s essential that the books
students select are at their reading level. Primary grade students often read the fea-
tured selection independently during literature focus units, but this is often after
they’ve already read the selection once or twice with the teacher’s assistance. In the
upper grades, many students read chapter books independently, but less capable read-
ers may not be able to read the featured book independently. Students also indepen-
dently read related books from the text set as part of these units.
During reading workshop, students read independently; even first graders can
participate by rereading familiar books as well as new books at their reading level.
Because students choose the books they want to read, they need to learn how to
choose books at an appropriate level of difficulty.
Independent reading is an important part of a balanced reading program because
it’s the most authentic type of reading. It’s the way students develop a love of reading
and come to think of themselves as readers. The reading selection, however, must be
at an appropriate level of difficulty so that students can read it independently; other-
wise, teachers use another type of reading to scaffold students and make it possible for
them to be successful.
Partner Reading. Students read or reread a selection with a classmate or sometimes

with an older student (Friedland & Truesdell, 2004). Partner reading is an enjoyable
social activity, and students can often read selections together that neither one could
read individually. It’s a good alternative to independent reading, and by working to-
gether, students are often able to figure out unfamiliar words and talk out comprehen-
sion problems.
As teachers introduce partner reading, they demonstrate how to read with a partner
and how to support each other as they read. Students take turns reading aloud to each
other or read in unison. They often stop and help each other identify an unfamiliar word
or take a minute or two at the end of each page to talk about what they’ve read. Partner
reading provides the practice that beginning readers need to become fluent; it’s also an
effective way to work with students with special learning needs and English learners.
However, unless the teacher has explained the technique and taught students how to
work collaboratively, partner reading often deteriorates into the stronger of the two
partners reading aloud to the other student, but that isn’t the intention of the technique.
8
Guided Reading. Teachers use guided reading to work with groups of four or five
students who read at the same level. They use books that students can read at their
instructional level, with approximately 90–94% accuracy, and they support students’
reading and their use of reading strategies (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996; Richardson,
2009). Students do the actual reading themselves, although the teacher may read aloud
to get them started on the first page or two. Young children often murmur the words
softly as they read, which helps the teacher keep track of students’ reading and
the strategies they’re using. Older, more fluent readers usually read silently during
guided reading.
Guided reading lessons usually last 25 to 30 minutes. When the students arrive
for the small-group lesson, they often reread, either individually or with a buddy,
familiar books used in previous lessons. For the new guided reading lesson, students
read books that they haven’t read before. Beginning readers usually read small picture
books in one sitting, but older students who are reading longer chapter books take
several days to a week or two to read their books (Allen, 2000).
Teachers observe students as they read during guided reading lessons. They
spend a few minutes observing each reader, sitting either in front of or beside the
student. They watch for evidence of strategy use and confirm the student’s attempts
to identify words and solve reading problems. Teachers take notes about their obser-
vations and use the information to decide which minilessons to teach and which
books to choose for students to read.
Shared Reading. Teachers use shared reading to read aloud books and other texts
that children can’t read independently (Holdaway, 1979). Often primary grade teach-
ers use big books so that both small groups and whole-class groups can see the text and
read along. Teachers model what fluent readers do as they involve students in enjoy-
able reading activities (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). After reading the text several times,
teachers use it to teach phonics concepts and high-frequency words. Students can also
read small versions of the book independently or with buddies and use the text’s
pattern or structure for writing activities.
Shared reading is most often used in the primary grades. Teachers read aloud
books that are appropriate for children’s interest level but too difficult for them to
read themselves. Shared reading differs from reading aloud because children see the
text as the teacher reads. Children often join in the reading of predictable refrains and
rhyming words, and after listening to the text read several times, they often remember
enough of it to read along with the teacher.
Shared reading is also used with older students to read novels when the books are
too difficult to read independently (Allen, 2002). Teachers distribute copies to every-
one, and students follow along as the teacher reads aloud. Sometimes students take
turns reading sections aloud, but the goal is not for everyone to have a turn reading.
Students who take turns reading must be fluent enough to keep the reading meaning-
ful. Often the teacher begins reading, and when a student wants to take over the read-
ing, he or she begins reading aloud with the teacher; then the teacher drops off and
the student continues reading. After a paragraph or a page, another student joins in
and the first student drops off. Many teachers call this technique “popcorn reading.”
Reading Aloud to Students. Teachers use the interactive read-aloud procedure as

they read aloud books that are developmentally appropriate but written above stu-
dents’ reading levels (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004). As they read, teachers
engage students in activities rather than postponing student involvement until after
9
reading; students become active participants, for example, as they make predictions,
repeat refrains, ask questions, identify big ideas, and make connections. In addition,
when teachers read aloud, they model what good readers do and how good readers use
reading strategies (Cappellini, 2005). Reading aloud also provides an opportunity for
teachers to think aloud about their use of reading strategies.
Read-alouds are an important component of literacy instruction at all grade lev-
els, not just for young children who can’t read many books on their own (Allen, 2000).
Teachers read books aloud during literature focus units, reading and writing work-
shop, and thematic units. There are many benefits of reading aloud: introducing
vocabulary, modeling comprehension strategies, and increasing students’ motivation,
for instance (Rasinski, 2003).
The types of reading are compared in Figure 2. In the vignette at the beginning of
this chapter, Mrs. Goodman used a combination of these approaches. She used shared
reading as she read aloud the first chapter of The Giver, with students following along
in their own copies. Later, students read together in small groups, with a partner, or
independently. As teachers plan their instructional programs, they include reading
aloud to students, teacher-led student reading, and independent reading each day.
Figure 2 Types of Reading

TYPE sTRENGTHs LiMiTATioNs
independent Reading ● students develop responsibility. ● students may not choose texts that they
students read a text on their own without ● students learn to select texts. can read independently.
teacher scaffolding. ● The experience is authentic. ● Teacher has little involvement
or control.
Partner Reading ● students collaborate and assist each ● one student may simply read to the
Two students take turns as they read a text other. other.
together. ● students become more fluent readers. ● Teacher has little involvement or
● students talk to develop control.
comprehension.
Guided Reading ● Teacher teaches reading strategies and ● Multiple copies of texts at the appro-
Teacher supports students as they apply skills. priate reading level are needed.
reading strategies and skills to read ● Teacher provides scaffolding. ● Teacher controls the reading
a text. ● Teacher monitors students’ reading. experience.
shared Reading ● Teacher teaches concepts about print. ● Big books or a class set of books are
Teacher reads aloud while students follow ● Teacher models fluent reading and needed.
along using a big book or individual copies. reading strategies. ● Text may not be appropriate for all
● students become a community students.
of readers.
Reading Aloud to students ● students have access to books they can’t ● students have no opportunity to read.
Teacher reads aloud and provides oppor- read themselves. ● students may not be interested in the
tunities for students to be actively ● Teacher models fluent reading and text.
involved in the experience. reading strategies.
● students build background knowledge
and vocabulary.
10
Stage 3: Responding
Students respond to what they’ve read and continue to negotiate the meaning after
reading. This stage reflects Rosenblatt’s (2005) transactional theory. Two ways that
students make tentative and exploratory comments immediately after reading are by
writing in reading logs and participating in grand conversations or other discussions.
Writing in Reading Logs. Students write and draw their thoughts and feelings
about the books they’re reading in reading logs. As students write about what they’ve
read, they unravel their thinking and, at the same time, elaborate on and clarify their
responses. Students usually write in reading logs when they’re reading stories and
poems; sometimes they also write in reading logs when they’re reading nonfiction
books, but during thematic units, they make notes of important information or draw
charts and diagrams in learning logs.
Students usually make reading logs by stapling together 10 to 12 sheets of paper.
They decorate the covers, keeping with the theme of the book, and write entries after
reading. Sometimes students choose topics for their entries, and sometimes teachers
pose questions to guide students’ thinking about their reading. Teachers monitor
students’ entries, reading and often responding to them. These journals are learning
tools, so teachers rarely correct students’ spellings; instead, they focus their responses
on the ideas, but they expect students to spell the characters’ names and high-
frequency words accurately. At the end of the unit, teachers review students’ work and
often grade the reading logs based on whether students completed all the entries and
on the quality of the ideas expressed in them.
Participating in Discussions. Students also talk about the text with classmates in
grand conversations about stories and poems and in discussions about nonfiction
books and chapters in content-area textbooks. Peterson and Eeds (2007) explain that
in grand conversations, students share their personal responses and tell what they liked
about the text. After sharing personal reactions, they shift the focus to “puzzle over
what the author has written and . . . share what it is they find revealed” (p. 61). Often
students make connections between the text and their own lives or between the text
and other literature they’ve read. If they’re reading a chapter book, they also make
predictions about what might happen in the next chapter.
Teachers often share their ideas in grand conversations, but they act as interested
participants, not leaders. The talk is primarily among the students, but teachers ask
questions regarding things they’re genuinely interested in learning more about and
share information in response to questions that students ask. In the past, many discus-
sions have been “gentle inquisitions” during which students recited answers to factual
questions that teachers asked to determine whether students read an assignment.
Although teachers can still judge whether students have read the assignment, the
focus in grand conversations is on clarifying and deepening students’ understanding
of the story they’ve read.
Teachers and students also have discussions after reading nonfiction books and
chapters in content-area textbooks. Students talk about what interested them and
what they learned about the topic, but teachers also focus students’ attention on the
big ideas, ask clarifying questions, share information, and reread brief excerpts to
explore an idea.
These discussions can be held with the whole class or with small groups. Young
children usually meet as a class, but older students often prefer to talk in small groups.
11
When students meet as a class, there’s a feeling of community, and the teacher can be
part of the group. Small groups offer more opportunities for students to share their
interpretations, but fewer viewpoints are expressed in each group, and teachers must
move around, spending only a few minutes with each group. Teachers often compro-
mise by having students begin their discussions in small groups and then come
together as a class so that the groups can share what they discussed.
Stage 4: Exploring
Students go back into the text to examine it more analytically. This stage is more
teacher directed than the others; it reflects the teacher-centered theory. Students
reread the selection or excerpts from it, examine the writer’s craft, and focus on words
and sentences from the selection. Teachers also teach minilessons on strategies.
Rereading the Selection. As students reread the text, they think again about what
they’ve read. Each time they reread a selection, students benefit in specific ways
(Yaden, 1988): They deepen their comprehension as they move beyond their initial
focus on the events of a story or the big ideas in a nonfiction book to understanding
the theme of the story or the relationships among the big ideas in a nonfiction text.
Examining the Writer’s Craft. Teachers plan exploring activities to focus stu-
dents’ attention on the genres, text structures, and literary devices that authors use.
Students use story boards made from illustrations cut from picture books to sequence
the events in the story, and make graphic organizers to highlight the plot, characters,
and other elements of story structure. Another way students learn about the structure
of stories is by writing books based on the selection they’ve read. In sequels, students
tell what happens to the characters after the story ends.
Teachers share information about the author and introduce other books by the
same author. Sometimes students read several books by an author and make compari-
sons among them. To focus on literary devices, students often reread excerpts to
locate examples of onomatopoeia, similes and metaphors, and other types of figurative
language.
Focusing on Words and Sentences. Teachers and students add “important” words
to the word wall posted in the classroom. Students refer to it when they write and use
the words for word-study activities, including drawing word clusters and posters to
highlight particular words, doing word sorts to categorize words, and completing
semantic feature analysis charts to examine relationships between words.
Students also locate “important” sentences in books they read; these sentences
are worthy of examination because they contain figurative language, employ an inter-
esting sentence structure, express a theme, or illustrate a character trait. Students
often copy the sentences onto sentence strips to display in the classroom. Sometimes
students copy the sentences in their reading logs and use them to begin their entries.
Teaching Minilessons. Teachers present minilessons on procedures, concepts,

strategies, and skills (Angelillo, 2008). They introduce the topic and make connections
between the topic and examples in the featured selection students have read. In the
vignette, Mrs. Goodman presented minilessons on visualizing and literary opposites
using examples from The Giver.
12
Stage 5: Applying
Readers extend their comprehension, reflect on their understanding, and value the
reading experience in this final stage. Often they create projects to apply what they’ve
learned, and these projects take many forms, including stories, slide shows, posters,
readers theatre performances, essays, and podcast presentations. Project ideas are
listed in Figure 3. Usually students choose which project they want to do and work
independently, with a classmate, or in a small group, but sometimes the class decides
to work together on a project. In Mrs. Goodman’s class, for example, some students
wrote color poems while classmates read other books by Lois Lowry or wrote about
memories.
Figure 3 Application Projects
Visual Projects
● design a graphic organizer or model about a book.
● create a collage to represent the theme of a book.
● Prepare illustrations of a story’s events to make clothesline props to use in retelling the story.
● Make a book box and fill it with objects and pictures representing a book.
● construct a paper quilt about a book.
● create an open-mind portrait to probe one character’s thoughts.
Writing Projects
● Rewrite a story from a different point of view.
● Write another episode or a sequel for a book.
● Write simulated letters from one character to another.
● create a found poem using words and phrases from a book.
● Write a poem on a topic related to a book.
● Keep a simulated journal from one character’s viewpoint.
● Write an essay to examine the book’s theme or a controversial issue.
● create a multigenre project about a book.
Talk and Drama Projects

● Perform a readers theatre presentation of an excerpt from a book.
● create a choral reading using an excerpt from a book and have classmates read it.
● Write a script and present a play based on a book.
● dress as a book character and sit on the “hot seat” to answer classmates’ questions.
● Present a rap, song, or poem about a book.
Digital Projects
● Write a blog about a book.
● investigate an author’s website and share information from it with classmates.
● create a multimodal project about the book using text, images, and sounds.
● search the Web for information on a topic related to the book and share the results with classmates.
● create a podcast presentation about the book.
● create or complete a WebQuest about the book.
social Action Projects

● Write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper on a topic related to a book.
● get involved in a community project related to a book.
13
The Writing Process

The writing process is a series of five stages that describe what students think
about and do as they write; the stages are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and
publishing. The labeling of the stages doesn’t mean that the writing process is a linear
series of neatly packaged categories; rather, research has shown that the process in-
volves recurring cycles, and labeling is simply an aid to identifying writing activities.
In the classroom, the stages merge and recur as students write. The key features of
each stage are listed in Figure 4.
Stage 1: Prewriting
Prewriting is the “getting ready to write” stage. The traditional notion that writers have
a topic completely thought out and ready to flow onto the page is ridiculous: If writers
wait for ideas to fully develop, they may wait forever. Instead, writers begin tentatively—
talking, reading, brainstorming—to see what they know and in what direction they want
to go. Prewriting has probably been the most neglected stage in the writing process;
however, it’s as crucial to writers as a warm-up is to athletes. Murray (1982) stated that
at least 70% of writing time should be spent in prewriting. During prewriting, students
choose a topic, consider purpose and genre, and gather and organize ideas.
Choosing a Topic. Students should choose their own topics for writing—topics that
they’re interested in and know about—so that they’ll be more engaged, but that isn’t
always possible. Sometimes teachers provide the topics, especially in connection with
literature focus units and content-area units. It’s best when teacher-selected topics are
broad enough so that students can narrow them in the way that’s best for them.
Considering Purpose and Genre. As students prepare to write, they think about
their purpose for writing: Are they writing to entertain? to inform? to persuade?
Figure 4 The Writing Process
stage 1: Prewriting ● Work at one or more revising centers.

● choose a topic. ● Make substantive changes that reflect
● consider the purpose. classmates’ feedback.
● identify the genre. ● conference with the teacher.
● engage in rehearsal activities to gather ideas.
stage 4: Editing
● Use a graphic organizer to organize ideas.
● Proofread the revised rough draft with a
stage 2: Drafting partner.

● Write a rough draft. ● Work at one or more editing centers.
● Use wide spacing to leave room for revising ● correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation,
and editing. and grammar errors.

● emphasize ideas rather than mechanical ● conference with the teacher.
correctness. stage 5: Publishing

● Mark the writing as a “rough draft.”
● Format the composition.
stage 3: Revising ● Make the final copy.
● Reread the rough draft. ● share the writing with an appropriate
● Participate in revising groups. audience.
14
Setting a purpose for writing is just as important as setting the purpose for reading,
because purpose influences decisions students make about genre. If students are writ-
ing to inform, for instance, they write reports, essays, letters or, podcast presentations.
Or, they can use several genres and create a multigenre project. Students learn about
a variety of writing genres; six are described in Figure 5. Through reading and
Figure 5 Writing Genres

GENRE PURPosE ACTiViTiEs
Descriptive students observe carefully and choose precise character sketches

Writing language as they write descriptions. They take comparisons
notice of sensory details and create comparisons descriptive essays
(metaphors and similes) to make their writing descriptive sentences
more powerful. Found poems
Expository students collect and synthesize information. alphabet books

Writing This writing is objective; reports are the most autobiographies
common type. students use expository writing directions
to give directions, sequence steps, compare one essays
thing to another, explain causes and effects, or Posters
describe problems and solutions. Reports
summaries
Journals and students write to themselves and to specific, Business letters

Letters known audiences. Their writing is personal and courtesy letters
often less formal than other genres. They share double-entry journals
news, explore new ideas, and record notes. email messages
students learn the special formatting that letters, Friendly letters
envelopes, and online messages require. Learning logs
Personal journals
Narrative Writing students retell familiar stories, develop sequels original short stories
for stories they’ve read, write stories about Personal narratives
events in their own lives, and create original Retellings of stories
stories. They include a beginning, middle, and sequels to stories
end in the narratives to develop the plot and story scripts
characters.
Narrative Writing Persuasion is winning someone to your advertisements

viewpoint or cause using appeals to logic, moral Book and movie reviews
character, and emotion. students present their Letters to the editor
position clearly and support it with examples Persuasive essays
and evidence. Persuasive letters
Poetry Writing students create word pictures and play with acrostic poems
rhyme and other stylistic devices as they create color poems
poems. Through their wordplay, students learn Free verse
that poetic language is vivid and powerful but haiku
concise and that poems can be arranged in “i am . . .” poems
different ways on a page. Poems for two voices
15
Classroom writing, students become knowledgeable about these

genres and how they’re structured (Donovan & Smolkin,
interventions
2002). Langer (1985) found that by third grade, students
respond in distinctly different ways to story- and report-
The Writing Process writing assignments; they organize the writing differently
Struggling writers need to use the writing process. Many and include varied kinds of information and elaboration.
struggling writers don’t like to write, and they avoid writing Because students are learning the distinctions between
whenever possible because they don’t know what to do various genres, it’s essential that teachers use the correct
(Christenson, 2002). One of the best ways to review the terminology and not call all writing “stories.”
writing process with struggling writers is to use interactive
writing, a procedure normally used with young children, to
demonstrate the writing process and the strategies writers
Gathering and Organizing Ideas. Students engage in
use, including organizing and revising. Because it’s a group activities to gather and organize ideas for writing during
activity, students are more willing to participate. the prewriting stage. Graves (1983) calls what writers do to
Once they’re familiar with the stages in the writing prepare for writing “rehearsal” activities. To gather ideas,
process, students apply what they’ve learned to write col- they draw pictures, brainstorm lists of words, read books,
laborative compositions. Each student drafts a paragraph do Internet research, and talk about ideas with classmates.
or short section and then moves through the writing pro- Students make graphic organizers to visually display their
cess; this way, the workload is manageable for both stu- ideas. Their choice of graphic organizer varies with the
dents and their teachers. Once students have learned to writing genre: For stories, they often use a three-part dia-
use the writing process and have developed a repertoire
gram to emphasize the beginning-middle-end structure of
of writing strategies, they’re better prepared to write
stories, and to write persuasive essays, they use a cluster
independently.
Struggling writers who don’t understand the writing
with one ray to develop each argument.
process often break the process as soon as they write a first
draft, thinking their work is finished; they don’t realize that
they need to revise and edit their writing to communicate Stage 2: Drafting
more effectively. The key to enticing struggling writers to
Students get their ideas down on paper and write a first
revise and edit is to help them develop a sense of audi-
ence. Many novice writers write primarily for themselves,
draft of their compositions in this stage. Because they
but when they want their classmates or another audience don’t start writing with their pieces already composed in
to understand their message, they begin to recognize the their minds, students begin tentatively with the ideas
importance of refining their writing. Teachers emphasize they’ve developed through prewriting activities. Their
audience by encouraging students to share their writing drafts are usually messy, reflecting the outpouring of ideas
from the author’s chair. Lots of writing and sharing are with cross-outs, lines, and arrows as they think of better
necessary before students learn to appreciate the writing ways to express ideas. Students write quickly, with little
process. concern about legible handwriting, correct spelling, and
careful use of capitalization and punctuation.
When they write rough drafts, students skip every
other line to leave space for revisions. They use arrows to
move sections of text, cross-outs to delete sections, and scissors and tape to cut apart
and rearrange text, just as adult writers do. They write on only one side of a sheet of
paper so it can be cut apart or rearranged. Wide spacing between lines is crucial. At
first, teachers make small xs on every other line of students’ papers as a reminder to
skip lines during drafting, but once they understand the importance of leaving space,
students skip lines automatically.
Students label their drafts by writing rough draft in ink at the top or by using a
ROUGH DRAFT stamp. This label indicates to the writer, other students, parents,
and administrators that the composition is a draft in which the emphasis is on con-
tent, not mechanics; it also explains why the teacher hasn’t graded the paper.
Instead of writing drafts by hand, many students, even those in kindergarten
through third grade, use computers to compose rough drafts, polish their writing,
and print out final copies. There are many benefits of using computers for word
16
processing. Students are often more motivated to write, and

they tend to write longer pieces. Their writing looks neater,
and they use spell-check programs to identify and correct M ichael and his classmates are
confident writers who willingly share
misspelled words.
their rough drafts and revise
their writing. Watch Michael
Stage 3: Revising share his rough draft with Ben
in his May video clip. Next,
During the revising stage, writers refine ideas in their com-
view Michael’s February
positions. Students often break the writing process cycle as
video clip where Ms. Janusz teaches a minilesson on writ-
soon as they complete a rough draft, believing that once
ing effective endings and then conferences with Michael
they’ve jotted down their ideas, the writing task is complete.
about how he plans to end the story he’s writing. You might
Experienced writers, however, know they must turn to oth-
also check Rhiannon’s April video clip of her revising con-
ers for reactions and revise on the basis of these comments.
ference with Ms. Janusz. Because Rhiannon’s writing is a
Revision isn’t polishing; it’s meeting the needs of readers by
challenge to read, Ms. Janusz usually combines revising and
adding, substituting, deleting, and rearranging material.
editing when she works with her. Ideas are born so quickly
Revision means “seeing again,” and in this stage, writers see
in Rhiannon’s imagination that she forgets about inserting
their compositions again with the help of classmates and the
punctuation when she writes, and her abbreviated pho-
teacher. Revising consists of three activities: rereading the
netic spellings are difficult to decipher. Getting students to
rough draft, sharing the rough draft in a revising group, and
revise isn’t easy. What do you notice in these video clips to
revising on the basis of feedback.
suggest why these second graders are so successful?
Rereading the Rough Draft. After finishing the rough
draft, writers distance themselves from it for a day or two, then
reread it from a fresh perspective, as a reader might. As they
reread, students make changes—adding, substituting, deleting, and moving text—and
place question marks by sections that need work; students ask for help with these trouble In this video, you’ll see
spots in their revising groups. a teacher working with
a small group to revise
and share their writing.
Sharing in Revising Groups. Students meet in revising groups to share their com- Notice how the teacher
positions with classmates. They respond to the writer’s rough draft and suggest possible addresses each student’s
revisions. Revising groups provide a scaffold in which teachers and classmates talk about needs.
plans and strategies for writing and revising (Applebee & Langer, 1983; Calkins, 1983).
Revising groups can form spontaneously when several students have completed
drafts and are ready to share their compositions, or they can be formal groupings with
identified leaders. In some classrooms, revising groups form when four or five stu-
dents finish writing their rough drafts; students gather around a conference table or in
a corner of the classroom and take turns reading their rough drafts aloud. Classmates
in the group listen and respond, offering compliments and suggestions for revision.
Sometimes the teacher joins the revising group, but if the teacher is involved in some-
thing else, students work independently.
In other classrooms, the revising groups are assigned; students get together when
all students in the group have completed their rough drafts and are ready to share
their writing. Sometimes the teacher participates in these groups, providing feedback
along with the students. Or, the revising groups can function independently: Each is
made up of four or five students, and a list of groups and their members is posted in
the classroom. The teacher puts a star by one student’s name, and that student serves
as a group leader. The leader changes every quarter.
Making Revisions. Students make four types of changes to their rough drafts: addi-
tions, substitutions, deletions, and moves (Faigley & Witte, 1981). As they revise,
students add words, substitute sentences, delete paragraphs, and move phrases. They
17
often use a blue or red pen to cross out, draw arrows, and write in the space left
between the double-spaced lines of their rough drafts so that revisions will show
clearly; that way, teachers can see the types of revisions students make by examining
their revised rough drafts. Revisions are another gauge of students’ growth as writers.
Revising Centers. Many teachers set up centers to give students revision options:
They can talk about the ideas in their rough draft with a classmate, examine the orga-
nization of their writing, consider their word choice, or check that they’ve included all
required components in the composition. Figure 6 presents a list of revising centers.
Figure 6 Revising and Editing Centers

TYPE CENTERs ACTiViTiEs
Revising Rereading students reread their rough drafts with a partner and the partner offers compliments and asks
questions.
Word choice students choose 5–10 words in their rough drafts and look for more specific or more powerful
synonyms using a thesaurus, word walls in the classroom, or suggestions from classmates.
graphic organizers students draw a chart or diagram to illustrate the organization of their compositions, and they
make revisions if the organization isn’t effective or the writing isn’t complete.
highlighting students use highlighter pens to mark their rough drafts according to the teacher’s direction.
depending on the skills being taught, students may mark topic sentences, descriptive language, or
sensory details.
sentence combining students choose a section of their rough drafts with too many short sentences or sentence
fragments and combine sentences to improve the flow of their writing.
Editing spelling students work with a partner to proofread their writing. They locate misspelled words and consult
a dictionary to correct errors.
homophones students check their rough drafts for homophone errors (e.g., there–their–they’re), and consulting a
chart posted in the center, they correct the errors.
Punctuation students proofread their writing, checking for punctuation errors. after correcting the errors,
students highlight all punctuation marks in their compositions.
capitalization students check that each sentence begins with a capital letter, the word l is capitalized, and proper
nouns and adjectives are capitalized. after correcting the errors, students highlight all capital
letters in the compositions.
sentences students analyze the sentences in their rough drafts and categorize them as simple, compound,
complex, or fragment on a chart. Then they make any necessary changes.
18
Teachers introduce these centers as they teach their students about the writing process
and the writer’s craft, and then students work at these centers before or after partici-
pating in a revising group. Teachers usually provide a checklist of center options that
students put in their writing folders, and then they check off the centers that they
complete. Through these center activities, students develop a repertoire of revising
strategies and personalize their writing process.
Stage 4: Editing This video clip shows

Editing is putting the piece of writing into its final form. Until this stage, the focus two students engaged in
has been primarily on the content of students’ writing. Once the focus changes to editing their writing.
Observe how the students
mechanics, students polish their writing by correcting spelling mistakes and other assist each other.
mechanical errors. Mechanics are the commonly accepted conventions of written
Standard English; they consist of capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence struc-
ture, usage, and formatting considerations specific to poems, scripts, letters, and other
writing genres. The use of these commonly accepted conventions is a courtesy to
those who will read the composition.
Students are more efficient editors if they set the composition aside for a few days
before beginning to edit. After working so closely with a piece of writing during
drafting and revising, they’re too familiar with it to notice many mechanical errors;
with the distance gained by waiting a few days, students are better able to approach
editing with a fresh perspective and gather the enthusiasm necessary to finish the writ-
ing process. Then students move through two activities in the editing stage: proof-
reading to locate errors and correcting the ones they find.
Proofreading. Students proofread their compositions to locate and mark possible

errors. Proofreading is a unique type of reading in which students read word by
word, hunting for errors rather than reading for meaning. Concentrating on
mechanics is difficult because of our natural inclination to read for meaning; even
experienced proofreaders often find themselves focusing on comprehension and thus
overlooking errors that don’t inhibit meaning. It’s important, therefore, to take time
to explain proofreading to students and to demonstrate how it differs from regular
reading.
To demonstrate proofreading, teachers display a piece of writing on the white-
board and read it aloud several times, each time hunting for a particular type of error.
During each reading, they read the composition slowly, softly pronouncing each
word and touching it with a pencil or pen to focus attention on it. Teachers mark pos-
sible errors as they’re located.
Editing checklists help students focus on particular types of errors. Teachers
develop checklists with two to six items appropriate for the grade level. A first grade
checklist, for example, might have only two items—perhaps one about capital letters
at the beginning of sentences and another about periods at the end of sentences. In
contrast, a middle grade checklist might contain items such as using commas in a
series, indenting paragraphs, capitalizing proper nouns and adjectives, and spelling
homonyms correctly. Teachers revise the checklist during the school year to focus
attention on skills they’ve recently taught.
A third grader’s editing checklist is presented in the Assessment Snapshot: Editing
Checklist on the next page. The writer and a classmate work as partners to edit their com-
positions. First, they proofread their own drafts, searching for errors in each category on the
checklist, and after proofreading, they check off each item. After completing the checklist,
19
Assessment
Snapshot
Editing Checklist
ch e r ’s Note
Te a
rors in
s p o n s ib ly corrects er ll with
Cristal re afts. She works we
dr e. In
her rough oming her assistanc s; I
lc or
Tatum, we istal corrected 11 err
this pie c e , C r r nd
d s a
n ly 2 m is spelled wo
caught o ary capital letter.
ess
one unnec
students sign their names and trade checklists and drafts: Now they become editors and
complete each other’s checklist. Having both writer and editor sign the checklist helps them
to take the activity seriously.
Correcting Errors. After students proofread their compositions and locate as

many errors as they can, they use red pens to correct the errors independently or
with an editor’s assistance. Some errors are easy to correct, some require use of a
dictionary, and others involve instruction from the teacher. It’s unrealistic to expect
students to locate and correct every mechanical error in their pieces; not even
published books are always error-free! Once in a while, students may change a
correct spelling or punctuation mark and make it incorrect, but they correct far more
errors than they create.
Students also work at editing centers to identify and correct specific types of
errors; a list of editing centers is also included in Figure 6. Teachers often vary the
center activities to reflect the types of errors students are making. Students who con-
tinue to misspell common words can check for these words on a chart posted in the
center. Or, after a series of lessons on contractions or punctuation marks, for exam-
ple, one or more centers will focus on applying the newly taught skill.
Editing can end after students and their editors correct as many mechanical
errors as possible, or after students meet with the teacher for a final editing
20
conference. When mechanical correctness is crucial, this conference is important.

Teachers proofread the composition with the student, and they identify and make the
remaining corrections together, or the teacher makes checkmarks in the margin to
note errors for the student to correct independently.
Stage 5: Publishing
Students bring their compositions to life by writing final copies and by sharing them
orally with an appropriate audience. When they share their writing with real audi-
ences of classmates, other students, parents, and the community, students come to
think of themselves as authors. Publication is powerful: Students are motivated not
only to continue writing but also to improve the quality of their writing through
revising and editing (Weber, 2002).
Making Books. A popular way for students to publish their writing is by making
books. Simple booklets can be made by folding a sheet of paper into quarters, like a
greeting card. Students write the title on the front and use the three remaining sides
for their composition. They can also construct booklets by stapling sheets of writing
paper together and adding covers made out of construction paper. Sheets of wallpaper
cut from old sample books also make sturdy covers. These stapled booklets can be cut
into various shapes, too. Students can make more sophisticated books by covering
cardboard covers with contact paper, wallpaper samples, or cloth. Pages are sewn or
stapled together, and the first and last pages (endpapers) are glued to the cardboard
covers to hold the book together.
New Literacies could help colleagues integrate the laptops into their instruc-
Laptops for Writing tional programs and provide technical assistance.
Researchers reported a positive link between laptop use and
Technology has the potential to support writing instruction the quality of students’ writing (Silvernail & Gritter, 2007). Eighth
through word processing, spell-check programs, multimedia soft- graders’ writing, as measured by the Maine Educational Assessment
ware, and the Internet (Karchmer-Klein, 2007). One exciting pro- (MEA), the state’s standardized assessment, improved s ignificantly
gram is Maine’s middle school laptop program. All seventh and after the laptop program was implemented. MEA writing scores
eighth graders were given laptops as part of a 5-year program to from 2000 show that 29% of eighth graders met the state’s writing
get them ready for 21st-century literacy demands, and teachers proficiency standard, but in 2005, 41% did! The researchers found
learned to use laptops to teach writing. Students used Apple that the way laptops were used influenced writing achievement.
iBook computers with AirPort wireless networking, Internet Students who reported using their laptops at each stage in the writ-
access, and Web browsers. Software included AppleWorks, email, ing process received the highest test scores, and those who said
iMovie, iPhoto, and NoteShare. Students could take their laptops they hadn’t used the laptops earned the lowest scores. Silvernail
home in the evenings, on weekends, and on school vacations. and Gritter interviewed students and teachers about the program;
Teachers participated in professional development programs they found that more than 70% of students believed that laptops
to learn more about the writing process and teaching writing with improved their writing. The students reported doing more writing,
digital tools. The Maine Writing Project’s Literacy Through Tech- working more quickly, and self-correcting a higher number of
nology Team trained Teacher Leaders at each school site so they errors. Teachers’ perceptions were similar.
21
Sharing Writing. One of the best ways for students to share their writing is to sit in
a special chair in the classroom called the author’s chair and read their writing aloud to
classmates. Afterward, classmates ask questions, offer compliments, and celebrate the
completion of the writing project. Sharing writing is a social activity that helps writers
develop sensitivity to audiences and confidence in themselves as authors. Beyond just
providing the opportunity for students to share writing, teachers need to teach stu-
dents how to make appropriate comments as they respond to their classmates’ writing.
Teachers also serve as a model for responding to students’ writing without dominating
the sharing.
Here are other ways for students to share their writing:
Read it to parents and siblings
Share it at a back-to-school event
Place it in the class or school library
Read it to students in other classes
Display it as a mobile or on a poster
Contribute it to a class anthology
Post it on the class website or wiki
Submit it to the school’s literary magazine
Display it at a school or community event
Send it to a children’s literary magazine
Submit it to an online literary magazine
The best literary magazines for students are Stone Soup and Skipping Stones. Stone
Soup is a magazine of writing and artwork for children ages 8–13. This prestigious maga-
zine seeks children’s stories and poems. At its website (http://www.stonesoup.com),
students can download a sample issue and listen to authors reading their own writing.
Subscription information is available there as well as directions for submitting stu-
dents’ writing. Skipping Stones is an international magazine for children ages 8–16 that
accepts stories, articles, photos, cartoons, letters, and drawings. This award-winning
publication focuses on global interdependence, celebrates cultural and environmental
richness, and provides a forum for children from around the world to share ideas and
experiences. To read excerpts from the current issue and to get information about
subscribing and submitting writing to Skipping Stones, go to the magazine’s website
(http://www.skippingstones.org). Many teachers subscribe to these magazines and use
the writings as models when they’re teaching writing. Other literary magazines worth
considering are Magic Dragon (http://www.magicdragonmagazine.com) and New
Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams (http://www.newmoon.org). Too
often, literary magazines are labors of love rather than viable financial ventures, so
even highly esteemed and popular magazines go out of business. Students should
always check that a literary magazine is still accepting submissions before sending
their writing.
GO DIGITAL! Online Publication Sites. The Internet offers unlimited

opportunities for students to display their writing online, share it with a
global audience, and receive authentic feedback from readers (McNabb, 2006). When
students create multimodal projects that incorporate audio, video, animation, and
graphics, electronic publication is essential so that readers can fully experience them.
Students are using new literacies when they implement multimodal technologies to
express their ideas and engage in online communication (Labbo, 2005).
22
These online publication sites are some of the best for students:
Amazing Kids Magazine (http://www.amazing-kids.org). This website posts
K–8 students’ stories and poems, but it’s geared primarily toward grades 4–8. In
addition, the site has a Writer’s Corner with useful information for student writers.
Cyberkids (http://www.cyberkids.com). This site publishes original writing by
7- to 14-year-olds, including multimodal stories.
Kids Write (http://www.kalwriters.com/kidswwwrite). On the homepage,
click on Links to be connected to Kids Write. Students’ stories and poems are
published in this eZine that’s divided into areas for 5- to 8-year-olds, 9- to
12-year-olds, and 13- to 16-year-olds.
Poetry Zone (http://poetryzone.woodshed.co.uk). This British website posts
students’ poetry in the Poetry Gallery and provides other resources for teachers.
Stories From the Web (http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org). This website,
divided into preschool–grade 1, grades 2–5, and grades 6–8 areas, accepts submis-
sions of students’ stories, play scripts, poems, raps, and songs.
Students can also use Internet search engines to locate new eZines. It’s inevitable that
some online publication websites will shut down, but others will spring up to take
their place.
Each electronic magazine posts its own submission information that students
should read and follow. Most eZines specify that students’ submissions must be origi-
nal, and that writing dealing with violent or offensive topics or employing inappro-
priate language won’t be published. Students usually aren’t paid for their writing.
Submissions must be ready for posting; it’s naïve to assume that an editor will format
students’ writing or correct mechanical errors. Students usually complete an online
information sheet and email their writing to the eZine’s website, and parents must
submit a statement giving permission.
Students can also display their writing on the class website or wiki for others to
read and respond to in guest books, blogs, and email messages (Weber, 2002). Even
first graders can access, read, and respond to writing posted on their class website
(McGowan, 2005)! ■
The Writer’s Craft

Specific techniques that writers use to capture readers’ attention and convey meaning
are referred to as the writer’s craft. Establishing a clear voice, incorporating a useful
organization, choosing precise words, and fashioning effective sentences are often
mentioned as essential components of the writer’s craft. Nearly 20 years ago,
researchers at Education Northwest identified six writer’s craft techniques, which
they called traits: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.
Later presentation was added as the seventh trait, but these qualities are still referred to
as “the six traits” or “the six traits plus one.” Two of the researchers who developed
the six traits—Ruth Culham (2003, 2005, 2010) and Vicki Spandel (2008, 2009)—
continue to design instruction and assessment procedures and share them with teach-
ers. Students learn to incorporate these traits into their writing:
Ideas. The ideas are the heart of a composition—the message and its meaning.
Students pick an interesting idea and then narrow and develop it using main ideas
23
and details. They choose an idea during prewriting and develop it as they draft and
revise their writing. This trait includes these components:
Choosing a topic
Focusing the topic
Identifying the genre
Developing the topic
Students know that they’ve developed their ideas effectively when readers keep
reading because the ideas are compelling.
Organization. The organization is the skeleton of the composition. Students
hook the reader in the beginning, identify the purpose, present ideas logically,
provide transitions between ideas, and end with a satisfying conclusion so that the
important questions are answered. Organization includes these components:
Crafting the lead
Structuring the composition
Providing transitions between ideas
Ending with a satisfying conclusion
Students need to know how to organize their writing and learn ways to make their
structure clear and logical for readers. It’s during prewriting that they organize
their ideas, and they follow their plans as they draft.
Voice. The writer’s distinctive style is known as voice; it’s what breathes life into
a piece of writing. Culham (2003) calls voice “the writer’s music coming out
through the words” (p. 102). This trait includes these components:
Choosing personally meaningful topics
Writing with knowledge and passion
Adopting a tone
Writers’ personalities emerge through these components. During the drafting and
revising stages, students create voice in their writing through the words they use,
the sentences they craft, and the tone they adopt.
Word Choice. Careful word choice makes the meaning clear and the composi-
tion more interesting to read. As they craft their pieces, students learn to choose
lively verbs and specific nouns, adjectives, and adverbs; create word pictures; and
use idiomatic expressions. The goal is to find a fresh, original way to express the
message while being concise. This trait links ideas with voice (Spandel, 2009). It
includes these components:
Painting a picture with words
Choosing precise words
Energizing writing with strong verbs
Playing with words
Students focus on word choice as they draft and revise their writing.
Sentence Fluency. Sentence fluency is the rhythm and flow of language. Stu-
dents vary the length and structure of their writing so that it has a natural cadence
and is easy to read aloud. This trait includes these components:
Achieving a rhythmic flow
Constructing effective sentences
24
Varying sentence patterns

Breaking the rules
Students develop sentence fluency as they draft, revise, and edit their writing.
Conventions. The conventions are spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and
grammar. In the editing stage, students proofread their compositions and correct
spelling and grammar errors to make the writing easier to read. This trait includes
these components:
Spelling words conventionally
Paragraphing accurately
Punctuating effectively
Capitalizing correctly
Applying Standard English grammar and usage rules
Students who have a good grasp of these conventions correct most errors during
editing to make their compositions “reader ready” (Culham, 2010, p. 261).
Presentation. Presentation focuses on making the final copy look good. Students
use titles, headings, and white space to emphasize their purpose, and they inte-
grate the words and illustrations and make clear the connections between them.
This trait includes these components:
Adding text features
Arranging words and illustrations on the page
Using legible handwriting
Using word processing effectively
This trait is important during the publishing stage because the way the text is
formatted enhances readers’ ability to understand the message.
As students study the six traits, they internalize what good writers do. They learn to
recognize good writing, develop a vocabulary for talking about writing, become bet-
ter able to evaluate their own writing, and acquire strategies for improving the quality
of their writing.
Teachers use minilessons, mentor texts, and guided practice activities to teach
one or more components of each trait, and then students apply what they’ve learned
in their own writing. Fletcher (2010) recommends teaching students about the writ-
er’s craft because it energizes their writing. The Booklist: The Six Traits on the next
page is a compilation of mentor texts that teachers use in teaching the six traits.
Reading and Writing Are

Reciprocal Processes
Reading and writing are reciprocal; they’re both constructive, meaning-
making processes. Researchers have found that reading leads to better writing, and
writing has the same effect on reading (Spivey, 1997). Not surprisingly, they’ve also
learned that integrating instruction improves both reading and writing (Tierney &
Shanahan, 1991). It’s possible that students use the same type of thinking for both
reading and writing (Braunger & Lewis, 2006).
25
Booklist
The Six Traits
Trait Books
Ideas Baylor, B. (1995). I’m charge of celebrations. New York: Aladdin Books. PMU
Moss, T. (1998). I want to be. New York: Puffin Books. PM
Van Allsburg, C. (1996). The mysteries of Harris Burdick. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. MU
Wyeth, S. D. (2002). Something beautiful. New York: Dragonfly Books. PMU
Organization Brown, M. W. (2006). Another important book. New York: Harper Trophy. PM
Fanelli, S. (2007). My map book. New York: Walker. PM
Fleischman, P. (2004). Seedfolks. New York: Harper Trophy. MU
Ryan, P. M. (2001). Mice and beans. New York: Scholastic. PM
Voice Browne, A. (2001). Voices in the park. New York: Dorling Kindersley. PM
Hesse, K. (2005). Witness. New York: Scholastic. U
Ives, D. (2005). Scrib. New York: HarperCollins. MU
Raschka, C. (2007). Yo! Yes? New York: Scholastic. P
Word Choice Barrett, J. (2001). Things that are the most in the world. New York: Aladdin Books. PM
Leedy, L., & Street, P. (2003). There’s a frog in my throat! 440 animal sayings a little bird told me. New York:
Holiday House. PMU
Scieszka, J. (2001). Baloney (Henry P.). New York: Viking. M
Shannon, G. (1999). Tomorrow’s alphabet. New York: Harper Trophy. PM
Sentence Fluency Aylesworth, J. (1995). Old black fly. New York: Henry Holt. P
Grimes, N. (2002). My man blue. New York: Puffin Books. M
Grossman, B. (1998). My little sister ate one hare. New York: Dragonfly Books. PM
Locker, T. (2003). Cloud dance. San Diego: Voyager. M
Mechanics Holm, J. L. (2007). Middle school is worse than meatloaf: A year told through stuff. New York: Atheneum. U
Pattison, D. (2003). The journey of Oliver K. Woodman. San Diego: Harcourt Brace. M
Pulver, R. (2003). Punctuation takes a vacation. New York: Holiday House. PMU
Truss, L. (2006). Eats, shoots & leaves: Why commas really do make a difference! New York: Putnam. M
P = primary grades (K–2); M = middle grades (3–5); U = upper grades (6–8)
Comparing the Two Processes

The reading and writing processes have comparable activities at each stage (Butler &
Turbill, 1984). A comparison of the two processes is shown in Figure 7. For example,
notice the similarities between the activities in the third stage of reading and writ-
ing—responding and revising, respectively. Fitzgerald (1989) analyzed these two ac-
tivities and concluded that they draw on similar reader-writer-text interactions. Simi-
lar analyses can also be made for the other stages.
Tierney (1983) explains that reading and writing involve concurrent, complex
transactions between writers as readers and readers as writers. It seems natural that
writers read other authors’ books for ideas and to learn about organizing their writ-
ing, and they also read and reread their own writing as they revise to communicate
more effectively. The quality of these reading experiences seems closely tied to
26
success in writing. Thinking of readers as writers may be more difficult, but readers
participate in many of the same activities that writers use—activating background
knowledge, setting purposes, determining importance, monitoring, repairing, and
evaluating.
Classroom Connections
Many classroom activities integrate reading and writing. Making connections between
reading and writing is a natural part of classroom life. Students read and then write or
Figure 7 A Comparison of the Reading and Writing Processes

WHAT READERs Do WHAT WRiTERs Do
stage 1 Prereading Prewriting

Readers use knowledge about Writers use knowledge about
● the topic ● the topic
● reading ● writing
● genres ● genres
● cueing systems ● cueing systems
stage 2 Reading Drafting

Readers Writers
● use word-identification strategies ● use writing strategies
● use comprehension strategies ● use meaning-making strategies
● monitor reading ● monitor writing
● create meaning ● create meaning
stage 3 Responding Revising

Readers Writers
● respond to the text ● respond to the text
● deepen meaning ● deepen meaning
● clarify misunderstandings ● clarify misunderstandings
● expand ideas ● expand ideas
stage 4 Exploring Editing

Readers Writers
● examine words and literary language ● identify and correct mechanical errors
● explore structural elements ● review paragraph and sentence structure
● compare the text to others
stage 5 Applying Publishing

Readers Writers
● create projects ● make the final copy of their compositions
● share projects with classmates ● share their compositions with genuine
● reflect on the reading process audiences

● feel success ● reflect on the writing process
● want to read again ● feel success
● want to write again
27
write and then read: They write reading log entries after reading to deepen their
understanding, for example, or they make graphic organizers to organize the infor-
mation they’re reading in a content-area textbook or nonfiction book. Similarly, they
read rough drafts aloud to make sure they flow and then read them to classmates to
get feedback on how well they’re communicating, or they use a structural pattern
from a poem they’ve read in one they’re writing. Shanahan (1988) outlined these
guidelines for connecting reading and writing so that students develop a clearer
understanding of literacy:
Involve students in daily reading and writing experiences.
Introduce the reading and writing processes in kindergarten.
Plan instruction that reflects the developmental nature of reading and writing.
Make the reading-writing connection explicit to students.
Emphasize both the processes and the products of reading and writing.
Set clear purposes for reading and writing.
Teach reading and writing through authentic literacy experiences.
It’s not enough, however, for students to see themselves as both readers and writers;
they need to grasp the relationships between the two roles and move flexibly between
them. Readers think like writers to understand the author’s purpose and viewpoint,
for instance, and writers assume alternative viewpoints as potential readers.
Literacy Strategies
Reading and writing are complex, thoughtful processes involving both strategies and
skills. Strategies represent the thinking that students do as they read and write; in
contrast, skills are quick, automatic behaviors that don’t require any thought. For
example, readers use the connecting strategy to compare a story to their own lives, the
world around them, and other books they’ve read. They’re actively thinking as they
make connections; however, noticing quotation marks that signal a character’s dia-
logue is a skill because students don’t have to think about what these punctuation
marks are signaling—they recognize their meaning automatically. The terms strategy
and skill can be confusing; sometimes they’re considered synonyms, but they’re not.
It’s important to clarify the distinctions between the two.
Strategies are deliberate, goal-directed actions (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008).
Readers and writers exercise control in choosing appropriate strategies, using them
flexibly, and monitoring their effectiveness. Strategies are linked with motivation.
Afflerbach and his colleagues explain that “strategic readers feel confident that they can
monitor and improve their own reading so they have both knowledge and motivation
to succeed” (p. 370). Strategies reflect the information processing theory. In contrast,
skills are automatic actions that occur without deliberate control or conscious aware-
ness; the emphasis is on their effortless and accurate use. Skills reflect the behavioral
theory, and they’re used in the same way, no matter the reading or writing situation.
It’s crucial that students become both strategic and skilled readers and writers.
Reading Strategies. Comprehension strategies are probably the best known type,
but readers use strategies throughout the reading process:
Decoding Strategies. Students use strategies, such as using phonic and morphe-
mic analysis, to identify unfamiliar words.
28
Word-Learning Strategies. Students apply strategies, such as analyzing word

parts, to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Comprehension Strategies. Students use strategies, such as predicting, drawing
inferences, and visualizing, to understand what they’re reading.
Study Strategies. Students apply strategies, such as taking notes and questioning,
to learn information when they’re reading content-area textbooks.
These strategies highlight the kinds of thinking that students engage in while they’re
reading.
Digital Reading Strategies. Digital texts are different than books (Castek, Bevans-
Mangelson, & Goldstone, 2006). Print materials are linear and sequential, but online
texts are a unique genre with these characteristics:
Nonlinearity. Because digital text lacks the familiar linear organization of books,
readers impose a structure that fits their needs and reconfigure the organization,
when necessary.
Multiple Modalities. Online texts are multimodal, integrating words, images,
and sound to create meaning, so readers interpret each mode and understand how
it contributes to the overall meaning.
Intertextuality. Because many related texts are available on the Internet, they
influence and shape each other. As students read these texts, they prioritize, evalu-
ate, and synthesize the information being presented.
Interactivity. Webpages often include interactive features that engage readers
and allow them to customize their searches, link to other websites, play games, and
view video clips.
Because of these features, reading online requires students to become proficient in
new ways of accessing and comprehending information.
Students learn to use these four digital reading strategies:
Navigating. Students navigate the Internet to search for and locate information.
Coauthoring. Students coauthor online texts as they impose an organization on
the information they’re reading.
Evaluating. Students evaluate the accuracy, relevance, and quality of information
on webpages.
Synthesizing. Students synthesize information from multiple texts.
Literacy in the 21st century involves more than teaching students to read books and
write using paper and pencil; it’s essential that teachers prepare their students to use
information-communication technologies successfully (Karchmer, Mallette, Kara-
Soteriou, & Leu, 2005).
Reading Skills. Students also apply skills when they’re reading. Phonics skills are
probably the best known, but, like strategies, they’re used throughout the reading
process. They can be grouped into the same categories as reading strategies:
29
Decoding Skills. Students use their knowledge of sound-symbol correspon-

dences and phonics rules to decode words.
Word-Learning Skills. Students identify synonyms, recognize metaphors,
notice capital letters signaling proper nouns and adjectives, and use other word-
learning skills.
Comprehension Skills. Students recognize details and connect them to main
ideas, separate fact and opinion, and use other comprehension skills.
Study Skills. Students use skills, including consulting an index and noticing bold-
face terms in the text, to help them locate and remember information.
Students often use these skills in connection with strategies; the big difference is that
strategies are used thoughtfully but skills are automatic.
Writing Strategies. Writing strategies are like reading strategies: They’re tools
students use deliberately to craft effective compositions. Students apply many of the
same strategies for both reading and writing, such as activating background knowl-
edge, questioning, repairing, and evaluating, and they also use some specific writing
strategies. Dean (2006) explains that using the writing process makes writers more
strategic, and writers use a variety of strategies at each stage:
Prewriting Strategies. Students use prewriting strategies, including organizing,
to develop ideas before beginning to write.
Drafting Strategies. Students apply drafting strategies, including narrowing the
topic and providing examples, to focus on ideas while writing the first draft.
Revising Strategies. Students use revising strategies, including detecting prob-
lems, elaborating ideas, and combining sentences, to communicate their ideas
more effectively.
Editing Strategies. Students apply strategies, including proofreading, to identify
and correct spelling and other mechanical errors.
Publishing Strategies. Students use strategies, including designing the layout, to
prepare their final copies and share them with classmates and other authentic
audiences.
Students use these writing strategies purposefully as they draft and refine their writing.
Writing Skills. Writing skills are knowledge-based, automatic actions that students
learn to apply during the writing process. Writers use these five types of skills:
Content Skills. Students apply skills, including topic sentences, to arrange infor-
mation into paragraphs. These skills are most important during the drafting and
revising stages.
Word Skills. Students use skills, including synonyms and metaphors, during
drafting and revising to make their writing clearer.
Sentence Skills. Students apply skills, including types of sentences, to make their
writing more interesting to read. They use these skills during drafting and revising.
Grammar Skills. Students use skills, including verb tenses and subject-verb
agreement, to correct any nonstandard English errors during editing.
30
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

Etextbook 978 0132837798 Literacy For The 21st Century A Balanced Approach

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eTextbook 978-0132837798 Literacy for

the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach

relinquish bikeports regulated infraction

alive—released families—family units

T he reading process that Mrs. Goodman uses represents a significant shift

The Reading Process

Figure 1 The Reading Process

stage 1: Prereading stage 3: Responding

related vocabulary. ● Participate in grand conversations or other

● Think about the genre. discussions.

stage 2: Reading ● examine genre, other text features, or the

● Read independently or with a partner. writer’s craft.

reading. ● collect memorable quotes.

● Listen to the teacher read aloud.

Activating Background Knowledge. Students have both general and specific

Setting Purposes. The purpose guides students’ reading. It provides motivation

Independent Reading. When students read independently, they read silently by

Partner Reading. Students read or reread a selection with a classmate or sometimes

Reading Aloud to Students. Teachers use the interactive read-aloud procedure as

Figure 2 Types of Reading

Teaching Minilessons. Teachers present minilessons on procedures, concepts,

Figure 3 Application Projects

● create a collage to represent the theme of a book.

● construct a paper quilt about a book.

● create an open-mind portrait to probe one character’s thoughts.

● Write another episode or a sequel for a book.

● Write simulated letters from one character to another.

● create a found poem using words and phrases from a book.

● Write a poem on a topic related to a book.

● Keep a simulated journal from one character’s viewpoint.

● Write an essay to examine the book’s theme or a controversial issue.

● create a multigenre project about a book.

Talk and Drama Projects

● Write a script and present a play based on a book.

● Present a rap, song, or poem about a book.

● investigate an author’s website and share information from it with classmates.

● create a podcast presentation about the book.

● create or complete a WebQuest about the book.

social Action Projects

● get involved in a community project related to a book.

The Writing Process

Figure 4 The Writing Process

stage 1: Prewriting ● Work at one or more revising centers.

stage 2: Drafting partner.

and editing. and grammar errors.

correctness. stage 5: Publishing

stage 3: Revising ● Make the final copy.

● Reread the rough draft. ● share the writing with an appropriate

● Participate in revising groups. audience.

Figure 5 Writing Genres

Descriptive students observe carefully and choose precise character sketches

Expository students collect and synthesize information. alphabet books

Journals and students write to themselves and to specific, Business letters

Narrative Writing Persuasion is winning someone to your advertisements

Classroom writing, students become knowledgeable about these

processing. Students are often more motivated to write, and

Figure 6 Revising and Editing Centers

Stage 4: Editing This video clip shows

Proofreading. Students proofread their compositions to locate and mark possible

Correcting Errors. After students proofread their compositions and locate as

conference. When mechanical correctness is crucial, this conference is important.

GO DIGITAL! Online Publication Sites. The Internet offers unlimited

The Writer’s Craft