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Annenberg's 28 minute video about writing across the curriculum

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Annenberg's 28 minute video about writing across the curriculum

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You 'll see elementary teachers weave writing into math, history, and science. The writing workshop is the basic structure for each writing experience.

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Session 8: Writing Across the Curriculum: Video 15: Writing Across the Curriculum

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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum

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Elementary students talk about writing in science.

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Steve has been working hard at incorporating writing across the curriculum for years. His website is filled with ideas and sound advicel

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Teaching That Makes Sense offers tools, training, and technology support for K-12 schools in reading, writing, math, test preparation, and assessment.

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Several of us were curious about what research suggested about the role of writing in developing understanding. This padlet was our early attempt to gather resources to look at our inquiry question.

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Try this link if the handout doesn't come through: https://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00972/chapter2.pdf

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Thanks to Lisa Gilby for this work.

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This power point was used to introduce secondary school teachers to the writing-to-learn strategy.

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Curious about universities have to say about writing across the curriculum?

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Curious about universities have to say about writing across the curriculum?

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Check out this video from San Francisco State about writing across the curriculum, including writing in the disciplines. Be prepared for acronym after acronym.

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This video explores the ideology behind WAC and WID at SF State. WAC (writing across the curriculum) and WID (writing in the disciplines) refer to a national movement in higher education, where writing receives curricular or pedagogical attention from faculty outside an English composition program.

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The controversial author Norman Mailer said, "I don't know what I think until I write it down." Joan Didion perhaps said it better in this way, "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." Donald Murray, a pioneer of the writing process, stated, "...all writers 'are compelled to write to see what their words tell them."

There is an amazing power to learn when you read what you have written. When we write to learn, we analyze, we revise, we organize, we rewrite, we evaluate and so on until what is written is what we want to communicate. These are all higher order thinking skills that we aspire to achieve in the classroom setting. The way it works for me is that I start with an idea and write it down. Then, if I get stuck, I play with it (sometimes like a cat with a dead mouse); I add to it, take away from it and shift it until it makes sense to me. Sometimes I have to let it sit for a while. One of my students said she lets it "marinate." Thinking is hard work. Writing to learn is hard thinking.

Learning From What You Write

Perhaps the first level of writing to learn has already been discussed in my post on critical reading. This happens when students read the stellar works of authors and try to understand not only what was written, but also the implications from what messages are being portrayed by the words choices, style, tone and organization of the text. What better way to clarify understanding than to use writing to enhance learning! Michael Schmoker affirms that a great way to write to learn is reading with "pen in hand," ready to jot down notes in the margins (or on a note pad if you have an aversion to writing in books) in order to capture the things we want to remember: corollary thoughts, disagreements, questions, things to look up for more research, evidence, words we do not understand, references, or more. As I've mentioned before, a way to use writing to enhance learning and thinking is Cornell Notes. Overall, however, it is not specifically the writing that helps the learning.

Though writing is an active learning endeavor, not passive as in listening, the act of writing involves more of the entire body in the process and thus will increase the likelihood of learning. What makes writing to learn powerful is the process of reading, thinking, writing, rereading, and rewriting that occurs over time.

Writing to learn is more than just putting words on the page for someone else to read. The focus has to be on what the writer gets out of the process of writing -- not just the reader. The process of writing to learn clarifies perspectives and crystallizes jewels of personal beliefs. The final product of the writing to learn process is a summation of the thinking and learning that occurred. Writing to learn crosses all content areas. For example, writing about the process of an experiment; what the student hoped to learn, the analysis and what was learned from the conclusion, is all writing to learn. Writing about the experience of solving a difficult mathematical problem, or making connections to disparate historical events can also be writing to learn.

In the Classroom

Students begin to write to learn by laboriously reading what others have written and then mimicking their style and methods in their own writing. As the students get more sophisticated in their writing and learning, then they will be able to reflect on their learning -- what was learned, and what was not learned; how it was learned and perhaps why.

For very advanced learners, the ultimate writing to learn will be the arrival at reflexiveness. This is when a student challenges his or her own writing and learning by asking the hard questions: Why do I believe this? What evidence do I have? Does this demonstrate a bias? What fallacies in thinking am I succumbing to? According to sociologist and author Carol Kingdon, reflexivity is acknowledging the writer's own standpoint or theoretical perspective.

What's the difference between reflexivity and reflectivity? Reflectivity only requires the writer to review what has happened, and perhaps analyze it to arrive at some understanding, point of view or course of action. Reflexivity requires the writer to reflect and then determine what effect he himself has on the thinking and writing. This includes evaluating his own personal character, and beliefs and then involves assessing the effects of who the writer is.

For example, students reading the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, are exposed to prejudice in a number of different forms. Reflective writing would be to put themselves in the shoes of Scout or Atticus, or Boo and discover what their own responses would be. Reflexive writing would take that one step more. It would require the students to identify their sympathies, biases and their own prejudices and identify how these affect their personal analysis of the book.

How do your students use writing to learn?

Suggested resources

Kingdon, C. "Reflexivity: Not Just a Qualitative Methodological Research Tool." (British Journal of Midwifery 13, 2005)

Schmoker, M. Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning. (ASCD, 2006)

Stewart, T. J. "Aloneness and The Complicated Selves of Donald M. Murray." (Composition Studies, 39(2), 2011)

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College Readiness: Writing to Learn | Edutopia

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The controversial author Norman Mailer said, "I don't know what I think until I write it down." Joan Didion perhaps said it better in this way, "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear."

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The Teaching Channel has several videos on writing to learn. The link to videos doesn't work on Padlet, so try going directly to this address: https://www.teachingchannel.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=writing+to+learn+strategies&commit=Search

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Videos, Teaching Strategies And Lesson Plans For Teachers: Teaching Channel

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Learn about Teaching Channel Plus for Schools & Districts

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Curious about what colleges are suggesting about writing to learn? Check out CSU's page on writing across the curriculum.

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An Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum - The WAC Clearinghouse

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Our books, journals, and resources are made available through the dedicated volunteer efforts of the large group of scholars involved with the Clearinghouse. Nonetheless, we still incur costs, such as honoraria to copy editors and designers, software and server costs, and fees associated with obtaining ISBN numbers.

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If the link below doesn't work, try this one: http://www.pinerichland.org/cms/lib07/PA01001138/Centricity/Domain/118/How_to_Write_to_Learn_Science.pdf

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from the National Writing Project

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Peter Elbow argues that students should write before they read.

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Focus on writing to learn

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Designing Engaging Writing Assignments-Writing to Learn

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Designing Engaging Writing Assignments - Writing to Learn Created by Alyssa Pratt & Laura Elmer (elmersites.wix.com/lbelmer) The third video in the digital symposium "Designing Engaging Writing Assignments" focuses on how to use writing to teach content in the college classroom (also known as "Writing to Learn").

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When we give students writing assignments, the purpose is often to share ideas and demonstrate understanding. We have students write persuasive essays to demonstrate their ability to make and support arguments, or write answers to questions that we use to assess their understanding. But, as Joan Didion explains, writing can also be a way to develop understanding.

Recently, Teaching Channel's new professional development platform, Teams, partnered with Educate Texas to create a series of videos showcasing Common Instructional Framework. From these new videos, I learned about an instructional strategy called "Writing to Learn." This technique encourages the use of low-stakes writing to allow students a chance to clarify their ideas and think critically. In this video, Andrea Culver explains how "Writing to Learn" allows students to process information without worrying about assessment or judgment.

I can attest that the low-stakes part is key. Whenever I struggle to start a writing assignment, I start with a free write - telling myself that I never have to show my writing to anyone. By taking the pressure off, I'm able to write more freely and figure out what I'm thinking. Through the very act of writing, I get clarity on my thoughts and prepare for writing a publishable piece (writing that other people will see). The same process can be used in the classroom by having students write to develop understanding in preparation for writing to demonstrate understanding.

When using "Writing to Learn," students focus on just thinking and organizing their thoughts. They don't need to worry about how incomprehensible their writing may come across - they can relax knowing that no one will evaluate this writing. Using this strategy teaches students that writing does not have to be publishable to be valuable.

Here are three ideas from Writing to Learn that you can try in your classroom today:

1) Do a warm-up writing exercise. At 1:20 in this video, Kevin Sevin has his students answer questions about the effect of birth order. By participating in this warm-up, students have a chance to activate their background knowledge and engage with the activity before discussing their ideas with their peers.

2) Engage students in active listening. When students watch a video about American music at 2:55 in this video, they write down details about each kind of music they hear. By writing as they listen, students are actively engaged in constructing meaning from the video.

3) Write about reflections. At 4:30 in this video, we see how Jamila Thomas gives her students four questions to write about at the end of class. Through writing, students are able to reflect on what they learned in class. Instead of simply acting as an exit ticket, this activity gives students a chance to process and organize information. The students share their writing with each other in a gallery walk, but because the writing is anonymously posted, the writing is still low-stakes.

Explicitly talking about this strategy with students can make them aware of how writing can be used for many purposes. By teaching writing as a way to develop understanding, you can help students learn to see writing as neither product- nor process-driven, but thinking-driven.
Lily Jones taught K/1 for seven years in Northern California. She has experience as a curriculum developer, instructional coach, teacher trainer, and is also a contributing writer for Teaching Channel.

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When we give students writing assignments, the purpose is often to share ideas and demonstrate understanding. We have students write persuasive essays to demonstrate their ability to make and support arguments, or write answers to questions that we use to assess their understanding. But, as Joan Didion explains, writing can also be a way to develop understanding.

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Doug Fisher on Writing, Not Just for the English Class

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Doug Fisher on Writing, Not Just for the English Class