Commenting on Learner Writing: Language Experience Approach (LEA)

When you click each link below you will hear Kate responding to a learner’s writing as she would do in a writing group. These two pieces were produced using LEA, and Kate treats them like any other, commenting on what is well done in the piece.

When you do LEA with learners you get a chance to teach periods from the beginning. When the learner reads the story back, and copies or types it, you can make sure they notice the periods in the piece and copy them correctly. When an LEA story comes to writing group, there are no punctuation or spelling errors to trip up other learners as they look for their favourite sentence. You can take the opportunity to say, “Perfect periods. Periods help me read the story the way the writer meant me to read it.”

Kate treats writing that is written using LEA like any other, commenting on what is well done in the piece. Recall that the first of David’s writing samples from One Student’s Progress was written with Kate using LEA. We heard her respond to his writing as she would do in a writing group. When you click the video below you will hear Kate, once again, respond to a piece of writing written using LEA, commenting on what is done well.