Touchstone texts in first grade support the children’s growing ability to think and talk about the stories of their lives. Texts that have topics and events to which children can easily relate are good “touchstones,” because they remind children of their own stories. After listening to these books, the children will be eager to share stories and events from their lives that the author is “waking up” in their minds. The metacognitive awareness of a sleeping story awakening and wanting to be told is very important for young writers. It answers the mystery of where stories come from and gives children access to the stories of their lives.
Touchstone texts should also be chosen to provide children with possibilities for what their own texts or books could look and sound like. Young writers compose in both pictures and text, so you should chose touchstone texts that support them in this type of composition. You may also want to choose books where the pictures and text are the result of the decision making of one person, which will more closely match what your children will be doing. For example, the book, New Shoes, Red Shoes, is a story about a young girl and her mother shopping for new shoes for a party, an experience many children will be able to relate to in some way (some may have had a similar experience or some may have ideas related to the owning or wearing of shoes). Because in New Shoes, Red Shoes, the author, Susan Rollings, tells her story primarily through her pictures with text that labels what’s in the pictures, this book is a structure young writers could imitate. As with all touchstones, this text provides accessible information for young writers and inspiration to write.
Touchstone texts are full of teaching potential. You will begin to develop your own collection of touchstone texts that will become your co-teachers in your Writing Workshop. For more about touchstone texts, see Katie Wood Ray’s books, What You Know by Heart and The Writing Workshop.
If you have technical questions about this Web site, contact Joel' Bradley-Hess at
joel_bradley-hess@dpsk12.org or 720-423-3723.
Page last updated:
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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