I have started this year with a commitment to develop literacy through reading and writing. I dedicate the start of every lesson to ten minutes silent reading. Sometimes I listen to the learners read, sometimes I ask them to tell me about their reading. Read about this in my post, Inspiring a Reading Community . We also write for fifteen to twenty minutes each lesson. This writing is done in a separate book to their lesson work. It is an opportunity to explore and play with language and is a chance to write what they want to write. Read about how I set this up and where I got my inspiration in my post, Spilling Ink. Each lesson they are given the option to: - write something they need to write about - re-work or continue with something they have previously written - use the writing prompt. I provide a new writing prompt each week - and they can write a poem, a list, a story, a letter, a speech, a script - whatever they want. Some prompts I have used so far this ye...