Writing to learn engages students in recording information, making connections, and exploring ideas without necessarily publishing a formal piece. It allows students to reflect on what they've learned and accomplished, and look toward the future. Quickwrites and dialogue journals are forms of reflective writing that help students organize their thoughts and make personal connections without worrying about conventions. When students write to reflect, they think deeply about concepts and ideas by linking new information to prior knowledge and responding critically or personally.

1. Writing To Learn

2. Writing To Learn… Engages students in recording information Making connections Exploring ideas without necessarily publishing a formal writing piece Allows for reflection See what they’ve learned See what they’ve accomplished Look to the future

3. Four Attitudes of Content Area Writing (Scarborough 2001) Does not have to be graded Does not have to be a finished product Can be a stepping stone to more formal writing Provides a way to interact with a literary work or content materials in order to gain greater understanding

4. Student Benefits of Writing To Learn Organize and clarify thoughts Find out what they know and don’t know Make personal connections to the content Generate new ideas, thoughts and observations Hypothesize without the fear of being wrong Reflect on own thought process Summarize what they have learned Open a channel of communication with others

5. Teacher Benefits of Writing To Learn Assess prior and subsequent knowledge Assess how students organize and express ideas Communicate with students one-on-one Provide individual learning supports that allow students to develop writing-to-learn skills

6. Reasons To Write! Inform Persuade Entertain Reflect

7. Writing To Inform When you are writing to inform, you are sharing what you know about a topic or subject with another person. When you write to inform, you want to do the following: Think about what the person you are writing to already knows about the topic. Think about what the person you are writing to needs to learn about the topic or subject. Put your information in logical order. Use examples, definitions, and descriptions to make the information clear to your reader.

8. Writing To Persuade When you write to persuade, you want to convince someone else to do or think the way you do. When you write to persuade you want to do the following: Decide what your position or stand is on the topic or subject. Think of the reasons for that stand or position. Think about the possible position or stand of the person you are writing to. Organize the reasons for your position or stand. Invite your reader to understand and share your position or stand.

9. Writing To Entertain When you write to entertain, it is usually creative, or includes humor – it’s meant to bring a smile to the reader’s face. When you write to entertain, you want to do the following: Open your story in an interesting or different way Be sure your writing remains clear, precise, lively and interesting Work out an interesting theme before you write Use precise sensory description Never describe for the sake… of describing

10. Writing to Reflect When you write to reflect, you explore, clarify, and think deeply about the concepts and ideas encountered in reading. When you write to reflect, you do the following: Think using background knowledge Use a different language to communicate what you have learned Construct your own meaning of the learned material and transcribe it to paper Link new information with prior knowledge by sharing analogies Respond critically or personally to what you are reading or learning

11. What Is Reflective Writing? It is not necessarily the publishing of a formal writing piece Students engage in: Recording information Making connections Exploring ideas Allowing for reflection Students see what they have learned and accomplished as well as look to the future

12. Quickwrites As a Form of Reflective Writing What are Quickwrites? A form of impromptu writing that is an unpolished piece in which the writer responds to a stimulus. The stimulus can be a literary piece, content article, experiment, problem or scenario. Use to help students quickly put ideas, understandings and learnings down on paper.

13. Quickwrites cont. Why use Quickwrites? Provides students with a means of quickly representing their thinking. Most important is simply responding to the prompt in a personal way without regard to conventions.

14. Types of Quickwrites Journal Writing Dialogue Journals Double Entry Journals Constructed Response Extended Response Refer to the “Tutorials” in module 5 for a video segment depicting Dialogue Journals

15. Journal Quickwrites Cognitive Activities in Journal Entries (things to put in your journal) Observations : describing what is visible, summarizing and interpreting details, or recalling key ideas Questioning : formulating and recording personal doubts, points of confusion, validity of information, and/or how things are done Speculation : free to wonder about the meaning of events, issues, facts, readings, interpretations, problems and solutions Self-Awareness : become conscious about what they stand for and how they are different from others Digression : departs from the subject to connect to something that “comes to mind” Synthesis : Organize ideas and find relations and connections between topics

16. To Do!! Quickwrite Passport Task Use a blog to do a Quickwrite Prompt(s) should be tied to a content area Time limit should be 3-5 minutes Encourage students to respond to each other’s blog Be prepared to supply the URL or show your blog in order to validate your passport

17. Dialogue Boards As Writing To Learn This assessment focuses on students interacting with the prompt and/or each other. It can be used: As on-going data gathering activity Ex: What genres of literature have your read this year? What reading strategy did you use with today’s assignment? To activate prior knowledge and experiences What are you a science/math/social studies etc. “expert” at? Explain a time you experienced prejudice. For dialogue between students based on opinion statements Do you think it is ever right for people to disobey authority? Explain your reasoning. Should all endangered animals be saved?

18. Dialogue Boards cont… As a reflection on learning State one or two facts that you did not know about your topic before beginning your I-search report. Retell the process for adding fractions with unlike denominators. To assess what students know about a topic What do you know about photosynthesis? What is the difference between a fact and an opinion? To make a connection to the theme of the unit Respond to the theme: Facing A Challenge Respond to the topic: Change

19. Format of Dialogue Boards Interactive Focused on one activity or prompt Meant to encourage participation by all Publishes opinions or thoughts without acknowledging the author

20. Creating A Dialogue Board Refer to the Podcast under “Tutorials”

21. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Asking students to think at higher levels, beyond simple recall, is an excellent way to stimulate students’ thought processes. Different types of questions require us to use different kinds or different levels of thinking. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, human thinking skills can be broken down into six categories.

22. To Think About… As you review the Revised Bloom’s tutorial, consider how the levels of thinking align with the GLCE’s in your content area. The hyperlink under the “Tutorial” section of Module 5 gives an in-depth explanation of the revisions to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

23. Congratulations! You have completed the overview of Writing to Learn. Remember to… check the Passport Tasks to be completed for certification use the resources and tutorials available under Module 5