WRITING To LEARN

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WRITING To LEARN

• Beth Morton Christian, Ed.D.
• Tennessee State University

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• Low stakes writing helps students involve
  themselves more in the ideas or subject matter of
  a course. It helps them find their own language
  for the issues of the course they stumble into
  their own analogies and metaphors for academic
  concepts. Theorists are fond of saying that
  learning a discipline means learning a discourse.
  That is, students dont know a field until they
  can write and talk about what is in the textbook
  and the lectures in their own lingo, in their
  informal home or personal language (Elbow, 1997,
  P. 7)

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Writing and the Content-Area Teachers

• Writing is powerful means for learning because
  the more students manipulate content, the more
  likely to remember and understand the content

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When students write about content area, they

• -select and organize words to represent what they
  have learned/read
• -relate, organize, connect ideas in the text
• -create systematic relationships between words,
  sentences, paragraphs, etc
• -draw on prior knowledge, background, and
  purposes for reading
• -build interrelationships between ideas
• -helps students to think about to think
  critically

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My Writing Territories(Atwell, 1995)

• Writing territories are potential subjects or
  topics that you could write about
• My writing territories
• My students territories
• Ex. Short stories, essays, resumes, recipes,
  notes, letters, checks, lists, emails,
  applications, poems etc.

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The value of writing activities

• Students can not remain passive learners when
  engaged in writing activities related to content
• Writing activities demand participation by every
  student, not just those who volunteer
• Writing activities quickly demonstrate whether
  students understand a topic

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Some Guidelines

• Writing in the classroom should be frequent and
  varied
• Every writing does not have to be graded
• Writing activities can be short and
  non-threatening
• Writing activities should have a real and
  immediate audience (the audience should be more
  than simply the teacher)
• Publish and Celebrate your students writings
• Writing does not always have to be an essay or a
  summary

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Forms of Writing
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Reading and Writing as a Constructive Process

• Reading and writing are separate, but overlapping
  processes that provide ways for the construction
  of meaning.
• Just like reading, writing is a process
• -Prewriting
• -Writing
• -Post-writing

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Pre-reading Writing Activities

• Motivate
• Help to focus attention
• Help them draw on relevant knowledge and
  experiences
• Set purpose for reading

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Writing Assignments

• Effective writing assignments are essential
• (e.g., bad assignments yield bad writing)
• Set purpose
• Topic or Possible Topics related to Content
• Audience (who will read or hear writing)
• Possible modes or formats (e.g., essay, letter,
  poem, etc.)

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Writing Assignments should include

• Length
• Level of polish (first draft, second, edited,
  revised, etc.)
• Format
• Focus on grammar, mechanics, spelling
• Method of evaluation (include rubric)

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Writing Activities

• Guided-Writing Activity
• Learning Logs
• Quickwrites
• Double-Entry Journal
• Framed paragraphs
• Reader Response

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SQ3R (Reading/Writing Activity)

• Survey text Skim reading assignment for headings
  and subheadings.
• Question Turn the headings into the question
  (Write them down leaving space for answers)
• Read Read to find the answer to the question
• Recite or Write Discuss the response with a
  partnersee if you agree. Write the answer under
  the question
• Review Review your questions and answers

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Learning Logs

• Notebooks that students keep in order to record,
  ideas, questions, and reactions to what theyve
  read, observed, or listened to in class
• Example from a Math Class
• -ask student to write an entry for each unit of
  study
• -have them respond to open-ended probes
• that are designed to give her information on
  their knowledge and possible misconceptions.
• 1. Ask students to write about the ways that they
  used math over the weekend.
• What have you heard about averages?
• Who uses averages and for what?
• How are averages used?

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Quickwrites(one minute papers)

• Encourage students to construct meaning and to
  monitor their understanding
• Give students 2 or 3 minutes to write about the
  topic of their reading assignment (can occur
  after a discussion of reading as well)
• Use probes and prompts to get student going
  write an interesting quotation from the reading,
  ask for the main point, ask them to write down
  what they remember, etc.

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Microthemes

• Short writing assignments that can be written on
  an index card
• Ask students to summarize key ideas form a
  reading assignment, demonstration, experiment, or
  lecture in their own words
• Students feel less intimidated when they only
  have an index card to fill
• Students must plan carefully what they will say
  and how they will say it because they receive
  only one index card
• Options Take up index cards, let students share
  their summaries, let them ask questions about
  things they are confused, share answers and
  questions with a neighbor while you circulate the
  room

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Guided-Writing Activity

• On the first day, activate students prior
  knowledge on the topic by brainstorming and
  listing ideas on an overhead or chalkboard.
• Ask the class to organize and label the ideas
  collectively.
• Then ask the students to write individually on
  the topic using this information
• In preparation for the second day, have the class
  read the text and revise their explanatory
  writing
• In class on the second day, give a follow-up
  multiple-choice and essay exam on the texts key
  ideas
• (ex. Stress)

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Double-Entry Journal
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Dialogue Journals

• Between student and teacher
• Between student and student

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RAFT

• Writing that encourages creativity and helps
  students get started
• Role of the writer- I am a new business
• Audience- my customers
• Form- I will write a brochure
• Topic- I will inform my customers what I will do
  for them

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SPAWN

• Special Powers- (if you had special powers to
  change any event in the novel or text, what would
  it be and why)
• Problem Solving- (if you could solve the problems
  in text, what would you do and how)
• Alternative viewpoints- after hearing one
  viewpoint on a topic, take the opposite view
  point or try to see the issue from someone elses
  perspective
• What if (what if the story took place in
  another place or another time)
• Next- (imagine what would happen next)

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Reader-Response Journal Entries

• Interaction between reader and the text
• Personal meaning that the reader draws from the
  text (even from content area texts)
• Not a summary
• Prompts
• What aspects of the text excited you or
  interested you?
• What are your feelings and attitudes about this
  aspect of the text?
• What experiences have you had that help other
  understand why you feel this way?

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The Writing Process

• Although the following points describe writing
  activity in an exemplary classroom, it should be
  understood that the writing, reading, speaking,
  and listening processes are intended to be
  integrated. Several elements from each process
  should be at work in all language arts
  experiences in the classroom.

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The Writing Process

• Prewriting
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• Publishing/Sharing

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• In the classroom the following should be in
  evidence
• the teacher modeling the writing process and
  sharing his/her own written work with students
• the teacher providing instruction about the
  recursive nature of writing and the components of
  a writing process(e.g., pre-writing, planning,
  drafting, conferencing, revising, editing,
  sharing, publishing)
• the students engaging in daily writing for a
  variety of audiences and purposes and in a
  variety of formats
• the students moving around the classroom to
  accomplish their individual tasks, depending upon
  where they are in their writing process

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• the teacher encouraging and instructing students
  about how to use writing as a means of thinking,
  responding, and learning (e.g., jotting notes,
  creating idea webs) the teacher using brief
  mini-lessons with individuals, small groups, or
  the whole class as needed to help students
• review or acquire the language skills and
  concepts in the context of their own writing
• the students using a variety of available
  tools (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, computer word
  processor, language
• usage handbook, peers) to assist them during
  writing

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• the teacher conferring regularly with individual
  students about their writing, responding with
  encouraging, useful suggestions and providing
  assistance on a regular basis
• the students engaging in conferences
  throughout the writing process (e.g., during
  revising and editing)
• the teacher and students displaying and
  publishing their writing

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• Self-Evaluation and Peer-Conferences
• Ask yourself some of these questions (or have a
  conference partner ask them after reading the
  writing-in-progress)
• How do I feel about what I've written so
  far?
• What is good that I can enhance?
• Is there anything about it that concerns
  me, does not fit, or seems wrong?
• What am I discovering as I write this
  piece?
• What surprises me? Where is it leading?
• What is my purpose?
• What is the one most important thing that I
  am trying to convey?
• How can I build this idea? Are there places
  that I wander away from my key idea?

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• Who is my audience?
• What might my readers think as they read
  through this piece?
• What questions will they ask?
• What will be their response to the
  different parts? To the whole?
• What might I do next?
• Would it help to try another draft ... to
  talk to a peer ... to talk to the teacher ... to
  check a resource book ... To reread it aloud,
  silently, several times ... to read a published
  example of this genre ... to put it aside ... to
  try the idea in a new genre ... to keep on
  writing ...?

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Minilessons

• Determine your students needs for minilessons by
  evaluating their writing from various formats and
  from talking to students bout their struggles
• Devise minilessons to address the problems that
  you discover
• Minilessons may include grammar, literary
  elements, using conventions appropriately, style,
  organization, getting started, story structure,
  language use, content, etc