Learning Blog #8

This post refers to a reading from:

Richardson, J., Morgan, R., & Fleener, C. (2011). Reading to learn in the content areas. (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

 

Chapter 8: Writing to Learn in the Content Areas 

 



When teaching students how to write, I do believe that the teacher must differentiate the way that she asks the students to write.  She must change WHAT the students are writing about once in a while. This works to keep the students engaged because they are writing about different things, and it also works to broaden their horizons on other issues and/or topics. For example: If a student is working on a research project, that student has to look up information about their topic in order to write about it. This student is broadening his or her brain by finding information about a topic. Although I remember dreading research projects in high school and preferred to write about a topic of my choice, research projects do teach students to take accountability for their own knowledge and understandings. A teacher can also use authentic writing to attract the student's attention to a research paper. The teacher can ask the students to write to a person or company about an issue or topic.  This student may become more engaged in the process when writing to a real audience. While promoting authentic writing within a classroom, the teacher does not have to have students write papers. They can create brochures, letters, blogs, wiki's, and podcasts. This would be a fun and entertaining way for a student to write. Authentic writing can incorporate technology (computers as a writing tool) and works across the curriculum.  

A method from this chapter that I love and will use in my future classroom is brain writing.  This is where students get into small groups and generate ideas.  The students "respond to a topic, write down their ideas and then exchange and add to one another's lists."  This is a great method because the students are reading what their peers have written and deciding on what their peers have not covered. Once they add to the list, the owner of the paper has new ideas and can even create more ideas from their peers ideas. 

Poetry could be a great way to get students writing.  A teacher could bring in a bag of objects and have the students write about an object within her bag.  This way the students do not have to spend time picking the "perfect topic."  They can all write about the same thing and then share what they have written.  I really love the biopoem method.  This requires very little work on the students part. This biopoem has the students see rhythm and think about how the words were pieced together just so.