Gammill: Learning the write way

This article emphasizes that the writing to learn approach can be used across subjects to help students gain different skills. Writing helps students make connections between what they have read, what they are thinking and what they got out of the article. It is said that students who use writing to learn strategies have better comprehension skills. Even though writing is an academic acceptance many teachers do not incorporate writing into other subjects. It is seen as a language arts component. In writing to learn they are not just communicating, students use writing to shape, order and represent their own experience to reach a fuller understanding. The writing process itself is similar to the speaking, thinking and learning processes. Learning this way makes students take ownership of their learning. Students are active learners through this process in which they must think and reflect critically about content. One strategy of the writing to learn process is a KWL chart or reading journals. The KWL in the chart stands for what you know, want to know and learned. This provides student the opportunity to link this to their prior knowledge, ask questions about what they are going to learn and then reflect back on what they did learn. Reading journals help student to respond to their reading. In these journals they can retain information, organize information, solve problems and make connections with math and science concepts. Writing creates a record for a student to look back on as they grow and learn more. Allowing students to respond and make connections lets them see themselves as thinkers. These strategies will prepare students for their future of decision making and personal reflection.

In my classroom students write to learn during their reading lessons. Every Tuesday they write letters to the teacher reflecting or asking questions about what they have read in their books. It is hard to incorporate too much writing to learn into our curriculum when we have so many students that have difficulty writing and much of their writing is illegible. I do think is helps the students to think deeper about their books and make connections to their prior knowledge or experiences.

As a professional I think I need to learn motivational strategies to get the student to write. There are students that are going to just sit there are tell you that they have nothing to write about or that they don’t know what to write about. How do you get these students to do what they are supposed to be doing? I also need to learn different questions to ask students to provoke deep thinking. One of the things that write to learn is supposed to accomplish is getting the students to do deeper thinking. How to do get those deep thoughts out of them?

The ideas throughout the module showed me that there are many ways to look at writing assessment it does not just have to be done by having the student turn in something to great. In the movie clips Mark White said he assessed what the students were learning as he read through what they wrote during conferences. He was able to see if the students were trying these new strategies and if they we working in their writing. I know that in my unit I don’t have to have my student turn in something in order to assess their learning. I can do this informally each day.