Hello everyone,
For our 4th and final week of online orientation, we would like to get you better acquainted with the idea of writing across the curriculum. We are very interested in focusing on the girls' oral and written expression in the coming years. Not only do they need the tools to be able to become great readers, but they need the tools to become successful writers. For a number of reasons, many of the girls are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to writing clearly and effectively. Writing can become a focus in all of the subjects we teach, we just have to decide how we will approach it as a faculty. We will have more time to dive deeper into this subject, but in the meantime please be sure to read Jaime's introduction on the orientation site. She has provided the questions to facilitate your discussion below. Remember that the articles were sent to you via google docs, due to their size. They are in pdf format. Thanks again for your participation and responses!
Questions for Week 4:
1. What are some of the potential challenges with teaching and
incorporating writing this way? What are some of the potential
benefits?
2. How could you include writing into the routines and routine
expectations in your classroom? Do you have any ideas after the
reading that you would like to try in your own classrooms?
3. For a teacher, presentation can make or break a lesson. How can
you adjust both your presentation and review of writing tasks so that
it strengthens student writing?
I feel very passionately about writing, so this is a long response on my part. Sorry to ramble!
ReplyDeleteI've always been someone who has liked to write -- perhaps because I am a visual kind of learner it really helps me to see my thoughts all laid out in front of me -- and so it is much easier for me to see the benefits of incorporating writing into any and all curriculum. I am especially a fan of "lowest stakes" kind of writing, I think that it is super valuable for students. I am the biggest advocate for journal writing -- I do plenty of it on my own, as my future apartment-mates will see -- and I've found in classes I have had that definitely in class journal writing that I knew wouldn't be graded or maybe wouldn't even be read by my teacher or professor was where I was able to focus the most to organize my thoughts. When students know something is going to be graded or even looked at by their teacher, they get so much more hung up on sentence structure and how clean and tidy something looks while often the first step is just to get it OUT of your brain in any form. Journal writing or free-writing at the beginning of class I think is especially nice as a way to focus students for the rest of class -- I remember a lot of classes I had in middle school and high school that happened right after lunch or recess would start with some kind of free-writing to calm everyone down. I also love journal writing as a way to get things out of my head that are preoccupying me, and so if students get to write in a journal for even 5 minutes at the beginning of a class and can get out other things that would be on their minds -- things that don't even have to do with class, things like why is so-and-so mad at me or I'm really jealous of so-and-so's new bracelets or whatever kind of stuff that drives you nuts when you're in middle school -- then students can be more focused on the things you bring up for the rest of class. I also feel like journals can be a safe space to vent and respecting the privacy of journals is very valuable -- not just because then it gives teachers less writing they have to read or grade or comment on -- but it is nice to have a place where you can write and know that no one else has to see it. I remember that my sophomore year of high school english class had one of the biggest impacts on me because we got to keep a journal that was read by our teacher but not graded, and we didn't just have to write forced reflections on Macbeth or whatever we were reading, but we could also write about personal stuff, and if there was every anything we wrote that we didn't want Ms. Seelen to read, we could just fold the page in half and she wouldn't look at it. Another reason why I think that class was such a big deal to me was something pointed out in one of the articles -- that teachers who are willing to sit down and free-write along with their students for that 5 - 15 minutes are big role models, and I remember that Ms. Seelen did that with us every time.
Part two...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, besides all of that, I found it really interesting in the articles about how what a big difference it makes how you comment on things. I definitely didn't think about the fact that comment writing is, of course, just another form of WRITING. It makes a huge difference if you just go through and cross stuff out and make easy grammar changes that the student can go through and mindlessly correct before handing in another draft versus if you write questions that force the student to figure out how to make the edits and fixes on her own. I also hadn't realized what a big difference it makes in how you ASSIGN the writing project. Of course I can remember handouts that only made the assignment seem more confusing than it initially seemed, but also that whole part with the different options -- how students will choose certain options because they seem like less work and they are (guilty as charged, I've definitely chosen assignments for that reason), or how students can choose different assignments because they love to write and want the creative option to explore the topic (the writing of the play to understand the different philosophy concepts).
Over all, I feel like writing is very valuable in every subject -- writing out simply what you learned in class definitely does help point out where you have gaps in your learning. But I can see how writing could also get in the way if it becomes too much about the writing and not enough about the subject the writing is acting as a tool to teach. For example, the bio professor who had her students write poems about bugs I thought was great, but I can also see how the students who weren't as excited about the biology would get too focused on the poems and miss the point of what they were supposed to actually be learning. I know I would do that as I like poems more than bugs any day.
High and Low Stakes:
ReplyDeleteI use low-stakes writing a lot with 7th grade Religion as check-ins to see where the students really are with the material. What are they thinking that they don’t want to share with the rest of the class. I think this style is good practice for when they have to write an actual paper or essay; they know how to get their ideas out and then are hopefully able to flush them out into coherent sentences. I liked the idea of having students create a “cover letter” for high stakes writing so we can see what the process what like for them and how we can help them in the future. This would be best for 8th graders when they write their high school essays, and then their research papers. There wasn’t much mentioned about transitioning from low to high stakes writing, but I think the key part is making sure the students are checking and rereading what they have written. There have been too many times where students rush to finish what they are writing and misspell words, don’t finish a sentence, etc. When discussing responding to the students’ writing, I think the article breezed over the fact that a lot of the times students don’t take the time to read the comments that we make. They search for the grade, and I have often had students say “thank you” because of the grade that I gave them, when they didn’t see what I had to say to them. I did like the minimal, nonverbal critical response as for commenting. Again, this might be best for research papers so the students know that they are not just writing the paper to write it, but to have someone understand their thoughts and take on certain topics.
Modeling:
I never thought to use a letter as a way to seek a response but I like this form of silent conversation because it is making the students stop and think about a point that was raised by their classmate that they wouldn’t have thought of. Though I have not assigned writing a poem for a low stakes assignment, students have used this and created some pretty impressive pieces that I would not have seen in a normal writing assignment.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited to see that we are bringing more focus to writing across the curriculum. It's often a challenge to do with math and science, partly because the expectation was never there in the past. I sometime get taken aback when the girls express frustration that grammar and spelling are "graded" in math or science assignments and say "Miss, this isn't writing or English!" :)
One of my areas of focus in math is for the girls to be able to "verbalize" what they do-- basically explain their thought process in written form, whether as a test question or in a journal or reflection piece. It provides great insight into where they struggle and where they feel comfortable in a way that is not always obvious simply in their problem solving or computation.
In terms of science, I feel like we do a pretty good job with formal writing as lab reports, but not much beyond that, and I hope we can provide more opportunities there as well.
As for me personally, I'm really trying to get us as a team to put more writing into the math and science curriculum and in a variety of ways. We have introduced journals in the last year, and we are looking to expand even more. I look forward to all of the great possibilities for making this happen, and the support to have us do it well.
Its later than I wanted it to be when I got to this today so I'll only write some about my thoughts on low stakes writing and then add more tomorrow. I'm really happy to see the emphasis on writing in all disciplines. I feel like math and science appear to neglect writing even though it remains crucial to these subjects as well and can help to connect subjects across different interests and fields. It always troubled me that my friends who focused on the sciences in college had such trouble and complained so much about any class that involved writing assignments and papers. Isn't writing an essential part of all subject areas?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I would really love to incorporate a lot of low stakes writing into my classes, both as a tool to check in with students' understanding and knowledge and as an opportunity to introduce students to another form of expression. I'd like for this type of writing to be part of a routine, daily or weekly, and this is definitely an area where implementing writing of this type could be a challenge. Because it is "low stakes", I'm afraid it might frequently get skipped or pushed aside to make time for the many other things that need to be accomplished. One way I thing this could be countered is by getting the students invested in the writing so that they want to make time for it even when the teacher might want to use that time for something else.
My best experience with low stakes writing was with an English teacher I had both my freshman and senior years in high school. Every Friday she selected a poem, or occasionally a short vignette, and began the class by passing out a copy of the poem to everyone and then reading the poem aloud twice, the first time through we could read along but the second we could only listen. After the poem was read, we were given 5 minutes to write. The only requirement was the you couldn't just write about what you thought of the poem or anything analytical. It was just in response to however the poem made you feel or think about or whatever was on your mind that day. At the end of the five minutes we each had the chance to read our response aloud but you could always pass as well. The teacher also wrote along with us. I liked this exercise because it was a routine and was a chance to write without any pressure for a set period of time. The responses were never graded and were only turned in as part of a portfolio of all of our work once or twice a semester. Once in a while we would be asked to take a favourite response and develop it into something more polished. It was a chance to take a short break from the everyday class work and take a few minutes to reflect on something and express something without any pressure or expectations. Because we did this on Fridays, it was often also a release after the stress of the week.
I would love to be able to include some sort of free writing time in the classroom as well as more structured low stakes writing based on the curriculum materials. I think that because we end up having to do so much high stakes writing, it is easy to forget that writing can be fun and doesn't have to produce any finished product, it can just be for yourself.
Alright, I'm going to stop on this for now since its getting late and come back tomorrow for more on high stake writing and some more direct responses to the questions.
Since I am a super-fan of reading and writing in any capacity, I think this week's articles helped me to focus on the benefits of each different type. I tend to assume that others inherently know how to switch gears and write for different audiences, because OBVIOUSLY you wouldn't write slang words in a term paper, and you wouldn't get hung up on sentence structure in a simple journal entry. Not the case.
ReplyDeleteIn the 6th grade particularly, we spent a lot of time talking about writing for the audience, whether it's for the teacher, or for each other, to advertise something, or to convince the world that their position is correct. Being able to give it a name - low or high stakes - is extraordinarily helpful, and the way that we comment on each type of assignment is critical. I am an editor at heart...it is so automatic for me to correct as I go along - every single mistake: spelling, grammar, word order, noun-verb agreement, you name it. Then I like summarizing my findings and offering suggestions on flow, organization, topic, thesis, things like that. I have been told plenty of times that this is overwhelming, and is often exactly contrary to the point of the assignment. Yet another thing that I need to work on!
As far as modeling goes, I am a HUGE fan! We need to read and write in front of the kids ALL THE TIME. They need to see us read and re-read a passage until we understand it. I stop class all the time to figure out the meaning of a word or go over a page or question that seems unclear. I love writing informal letters with the 6th graders in English (the purpose is to see what areas they are struggling with consistently, whether it's grammatical, spelling, letter format, etc. But the content is whatever the kids want to talk about!) They just get to write informally and ask questions, and we subtly gather information, without having to correct or even comment on their work, other than to respond with a letter of our own.
I'd love to spend more time talking about formal writing assignments, and possibly come up with some key elements that should be covered in each grade level, mostly because I'm bad at distinguishing a good 6th grade paper from a good 7th grade paper. What should they have mastered? Other than the topics we have covered in class.
Presentation of writing is critical; I think we need to view it as an essential part of class, one that we will take seriously. I am very serious when I explain to students that I want word vomit, or that I was them to write as much as humanly possible in 5 minutes.
The more committed we are to both high and low stakes writing, the more comfortable they will feel with it. And for these kids, lots of 2nd language learners, nothing is more important than being able to express themselves in a way that will not put them at any disadvantage down the line.
Writing!
ReplyDeleteI did really appreciate, as everyone else has said, the differentiation between high and low-stakes writing. I think that we need to be specific about the expectations for each- I know in math when we had students write through their process we got a lot of "I worked really hard and it was really interesting and I felt great when I got it right. The end." and that falls on us to be more specific and hold them more accountable.
In science we've made writing and much more specific skill to work on, and I think keeping the focus on formal writing in 8th grade but making that transition by including more "low-stakes" writing into 7th grade will set them up in a much better way to get to that formal focus.
I also think that the most beautiful incorporation of writing I saw last year were the 6th grade response journals; weekly, the students wrote PAGES AND PAGES of whatever they wanted and the teachers wrote PAGES AND PAGES back to them. I feel like every time I saw Liz Norberg she was writing to Rayla about why pink was her favorite color, too, but that freedom to express themselves in writing and be HEARD by their teachers to me is invaluable. I was really impressed by that, and I hope we can make writing a more sincere focus across the board. I loved the practical examples in some of the articles! Thanks, Jaime!
I haven't finished all of the articles yet (guilty...) but I wanted to quickly write some thoughts about the high and low-stakes writing article. As I was reading it, memories of different classes I have taken, both in high school and in college, kept coming back to me. It's kind of crazy to be thinking about how only a few months ago I was doing low-stakes writing for my college classes and how I'll soon be assigning it to my students! What is especially crazy to me is that I can identify instances of low-stakes writing in my past by how my teachers and professors responded to them. I swear that most of my teachers have read this article!
ReplyDeleteThat said, I am all for implementing regular low-stakes writing opportunities in our classrooms. I can't tell you how many times I struggled to put an idea into words in an essay, and how many times the quick journal entries or responses I did for lectures and book chapters helped me find the right words. (I almost put "write words." Oh man...) Opportunities to put whatever is in your head onto paper without the fear of teacher criticism are invaluable. I owe my confidence as a writer to these informal writing activities. I resented having to turn in weekly reading responses, only to receive a check plus or check minus. I was thinking about these exercises the wrong way. I thought of them as a way for my teacher to torture me, rather than as a way for me to take the time to see if I understood what I was learning well enough to put it into words. Writing my own thoughts and responses to something helped me immensely in retaining that information and being able to use it in other ways.
Ok. More later!
I’m so happy to see that the articles have been helpful!
ReplyDeleteWhat these articles and your responses help me to see is that ‘writing to learn’ can be both powerful and confusing. It is easy for us to assume our students know not to put texting abbreviations into a formal paper or even why we ask them to write it—to us it seems so patently obvious. Lily’s experience with what seemed pointless busy work is so easily avoided by just articulating why writing is important, what we as teachers hope to learn from our students, or how that writing will help them. Showing them our own writing process and giving clear expectations will be important. Ann’s memory of last year’s letter writing between Liz and Rayla and others’ memories of favorite teachers show that writing can be memorable and empowering. We need to tell our students why they are writing and tell them that their ideas, observations, and experiences are valuable to us.
I think Liz’s suggestion that we have clear expectations for each grade is a good one and it’s something I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this summer. We can do this through grade-wide rubrics, defined goals/skills for each grade, or even more cross grade collaboration. I’d like to do this for both high and low stakes writing. I’m looking forward to developing this together once we meet in just a few short weeks.