I like this quote:
"Writing is how we think our way into a subject and
make it our own."- William Zinsser, Writing to Learn
This week's readings:
- Chapter 8: Powerful Pens: Writing to Learn With Adolescents (text by Fisher and Frey)
- Knipper & Duggan Handout: ("Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes" by Kathy J. Knipper and Timothy J. Duggan).
In reading
both the chapter and the article, I was prompted to find out more on several of
the strategies mentioned. There were so
many great ideas for introducing students to “write to learn.” I was
so inspired by many of the strategies that I composed a list of resources and
attached them to the end of this posting.
If I was introduced to these strategies when I was in school, I know
that I would have been more motivated and engaged in learning and in subjects
that I did not find interesting at that time. I love the direction that the
educational system is heading and I am very excited to play a part in it.
I had not heard
of several of these strategies until this reading. The biopoem was one of the strategies that I
was not familiar with. This is a great
way for students to organize the main character’s important pieces of
information from the story or reading.
I was
surprised to read about “writing to learn in math.” Math is a subject that you typically think of
the teacher working out sample problems on the board and then students do
similar problems for homework. I liked
the idea of using book readings and then writing in your own words what was
learned in a journal entry (see resource below).
After
reading both the chapter and the article, I feel confident in teaching write to
learn strategies. Both readings provide
great ideas for use in the classroom. As
I said before, I was so motivated in learning more about these strategies that
I put together some added resources to help me in the future when I use these
in my own classroom.
Questions:
- How many writing to learn activities would be appropriate during a given week?
- Should all writing to learn activities be graded? If not, would students take the writing activities seriously?
Expanded Resources:
Chapter 8:Powerful Pens: Writing to
Learn With Adolescents
- To apply the three kinds of knowledge (declarative, procedural, and conditional; additional description at: http://www.readingquest.org/conditional.html) this site lists several "Strategies for Reading Comprehension" which can be added to the resources found in the Knipper & Duggan Handout (below): http://www.readingquest.org/strat/ (book pg. 141-144)
- Writing to Learn... Math: This is a great resource for writing about math. It offers math writing strategies and gives book ideas: http://letsplaymath.net/2007/08/21/writing-to-learn-math/ Science: Ideas for science notebooks and other subjects can be found at this site: http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/science-notebooks/ and many ideas for science and social studies at: http://pinterest.com/whiskeyjack/science/
*Prezi webpage to go with Chapter 8 of
our book: http://prezi.com/v0vq6d1qvrak/copy-of-chapter-8-powerful-pens-writing-to-learn-with-adolescents/
Knipper & Duggan
Handout: ("Writing to
learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area
classes" by Kathy J. Knipper and Timothy J. Duggan). Below are some
web resources for comprehension tools to help students in writing to learn:
- A website for word map information and templates included: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_maps/
- This is an online ABC List for student use. The site gives an example using animals then encourages students to make a list of their own and suggests trying to use words that are related to each other, like countries, sports words, space words, or friend's names.: http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111282/abclist.htm
- This website gives a definition, an example, and an online template to fill out for the student to write his/her own biopoem: http://cuip.net/~adarice/cwsite/poems/poembio.htm
- This is excellent for me, as a future teacher, to understand the strategy of sentence synthesis: http://www.english-for-students.com/SynthesisofSentences.html
- Framed paragraphs: Here is a framed paragraph template about one´s favorite animal. Teachers may print this to hand out to students: http://www.eslprintables.com/printable.asp?id=68384 Here is a template for use after reading a book or story (Framed Paragraph Outlines Character)): http://www.docstoc.com/docs/43818936/Framed-Paragraph-Outlines-%28Character%29
- A great descriptive site for learning logs: Instructional strategies online: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/logs/index.html Here is a description and a good template for a learning log: http://www.accessola.com/osla/toolkit/How/learninglogs.html
- Quick Write/Quick Draw is a literacy strategy that gives students the opportunity to reflect on their learning: This is a useable template with instructions: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1053/quick_write_draw.pdf This site has great (useable) examples for quick writes in your own classroom: http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/scholasticprofessional/authors/pdfs/rief_sample_pages_introduction.pdf A great description of quick writes: http://nrhs.nred.org/www/nred_nrhs/site/hosting/Literacy%20Website/Literacy%20Strategy%20Templates/Quick_Write__description.pdf
