“Writing to learn is a tool we can use to see how students are thinking and understanding what they are doing and learning in the classroom” (chapter 8 p. 155). I gained a great amount of information from the article, Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes by Knipper and Duggan and the chapter, Powerful Pens: Writing to learn with adolescents. Both of the readings dealt with writing to learn strategies. I really liked learning about the strategies that are available and ways to incorporate them into a classroom.
My favorite strategy from Knipper and Duggan’s article was the structured note taking. I don’t necessarily believe that all students need to be forced to take notes in this way; however, I think it is very important for students to learn an effective way to take notes. I do not remember any specific lesson in which I was specifically taught an effective note taking strategy. I believe this applies to many people in my generation. Effective note taking not only benefits writing to learn, but also saves class time when students are taking notes.
Something else I wanted to mention was the biopoem. When we learned about this in class and while reading the article I realized that it looked really familiar. This weekend I was going through some storage bins and I found two pieces of writing that looked just like the biopoem. One of the writings I found was an actual biopoem. The other was actually an autobiography poem. Which I remembered doing in Junior High as an ice breaker one of the first days of class. I vividly remember loving this assignment because I was able to learn about my classmates. Without being overly outgoing, I was able to see what I might have in common with these peers that I didn’t know. I realized that my teacher had probably adapted the biopoem to an autobiography poem; this realization made me start thinking about how I might adapt some of the strategies to different students.
This brings me to chapter 8 from the book which talked a lot about strategies for adolescents. This chapter brought up that writing to learn is especially important for English Language learners because it allows them to order their ideas in written form. It made me think that it must also be very important for students with reading and writing difficultly, problems with comprehension, students with special needs and learners that learn better from writing their thoughts down. One of my favorite strategies from the book was the “I AM” poem. I remember writing one of these in seventh grade. After we got our rough drafts written we were grouped according to similar interests and were able to read our poems to our groups members. I also really liked using “admit slips” or “entry slips” as writing prompts. The topics the teacher can chose from are endless, from what they learned to what they hope to learn to what they already know.
All in all, I gained a lot from both the article and the book. I think I preferred reading the article better that the article. I really am not sure why except I found the article more interesting and was able to more easily read it than the chapter. I will definitely use the strategies from both the article and the chapter in my future classrooms.
Questions about this article and/or chapter:
What are some effective ways to adapt some of these strategies for different learners or adapt them to fit a different purpose?
Where can I find different ways to effectively take notes or teach effective note taking skills?
Katie I think that the various strategies are so that you can tweek them to fit different lessons that you are trying to teach and I would think to try them all to see which fits better in your learning environment. I really liked to "I am" poem as well, but the funny thing about my experience is that we wrote these in my 11th grade english class. I believe that this writing strategy is a bit on the elementary level; however, it can be changed to fit a higher level of learners. I also agree with you about preferring to read the article because the book just kinda beats it to death. that is all.
ReplyDeleteHey Katie,
ReplyDeleteYou already have a comment, but I can't find anyone who has none, so you get another. To answer your second question, I think you are going to get those note-taking strategies from CIR 411! I would like to learn some too. My notes are always a jumbled mess. I could use some structure.
I liked your little analogy about standards and education. Good thinking! (Text to real life or something).
Hi Katie, like your opening quote, “Writing to learn is a tool we can use to see how students are thinking and understanding what they are doing and learning in the classroom” (chapter 8 p. 155). I concur, writing, just as these blog postings do, can be a tool for seeing student thinking. That said, you hit on a slew of other reasons to write: to motivate (having an audience of your peers), to build community (as in the autobio poem you did that you loved so much), and the last one I save for your first question, which is to adapt writing in ways that fit your students, ELLs included. I think you'll find this question is unraveled more and more as we go along. Dr B
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