Memory Writing: Considering the Learner’s Preferences While Generating Writing Ideas

1. Memory Writing: Considering the Learner’s Preferences While Generating Writing Ideas Renae Garrett 6th Grade Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher Bear Creek Intermediate School Keller, Texas renae.garrett@kellerisd.net

2. Rationale • Our best writing comes from what we experience • Allowing student choice in how to generate their writing ideas • Teaching the student how to generate ideas for themselves for future writing • Considering the learning preferences of the writer • Powerful memories make powerful stories

3. 6th Grade TEKS-(Middle 4-8)Listening/Speaking & Reading • 6.4 Listening/speaking/culture. (A)  connect his/her own experiences, information, insights, and ideas with experiences of others through speaking and listening (4-8); • 6.14Reading/culture. (A)  compare text events with his/her own and other readers' experiences (4-8); (C)  articulate and discuss themes and connections that cross cultures (4-8).

4. 6th Grade TEKS- (Middle 4-8)Writing • 6.15  Writing/purposes. (A)  write to express, discover, record, develop, reflect on ideas, and to problem solve (4-8); (C)  write to inform such as to explain, describe, report, and narrate (4-8); (E)  select and use voice and style appropriate to audience and purpose (6-8); 6.18 Writing/writing process. (A)  generate ideas and plans for writing by using prewriting strategies such as brainstorming, graphic organizers, notes, and logs (4-8); (B)  develop drafts by categorizing ideas, organizing them into paragraphs, and blending paragraphs within larger units of text (4-8);

5. Learning Preferences Inventories Teacher Based Research • Learning Preference Evaluations given in my classroom every year shows that over 75%* of my own students at Bear Creek Intermediate School are Kinesthetic learners. • Less than half of my class are primarily visual or auditory learners. *Teacher Based Research--- Classroom results taken from learning styles inventories given to 146 6th grade students over a three year period.

6. Stewart, K. L., and Felicetti, L. A. (1992) • learning styles “as those ‘educational conditions under which a student is most likely to learn.’ Thus,learning styles are not really concerned with what learners learn, but rather how they prefer to learn.”

7. Robert Marzano (1998) • “In a large meta-study, it was found that graphic and tactilerepresentationsof the subject matter had noticeable effects on learning outcomes, regardless of any attempt to match them with learners' modalities.”

8. David Merrill (2000) • “Instructional strategies should first be determined on the basis of the type of content to be taught or the goals of theinstruction (the content-by-strategy interactions) and secondarily, learner styles and preferences are then used to adjust or fine-tune these fundamentallearning strategies. Finally, content-by-strategy interactions take precedence over learning-style-by-strategy interactions regardless of the instructional style or philosophy of the instructional situation.”

9. Daniel Willingham (2005) • “…cognitive science has taught us that children do differ in their abilities with different modalities, but teaching the child in his best modality doesn’t affect his educational achievement.” What matters is if the child is taught in the content’s best modality.

10. Rita Stafford and Kenneth J. Dunn; Allyn and Bacon, (1993) • Kinesthetic LearnersMost of the school population excels through kinesthetic means: touching, feeling, experiencing the material at hand. "Children enter kindergarten as kinesthetic and tactual learners, moving and touching everything as they learn. By second or third grade, some students have become visual learners. During the late elementary years some students, primarily females, become auditory learners. Yet, many adults, especially males, maintain kinesthetic and tactual strengths throughout their lives.

11. Rita Stafford and Kenneth J. Dunn; Allyn and Bacon, 1993 (cont.) • Kinesthetic learners are most successful when totally engaged with the learning activity. They acquire information fastest when participating in a science lab, drama presentation, skit, field trip, dance, or other active activity.

12. Just some quote on the internet. (But an interesting one) • There is no good understanding of learning styles as it stands. But it certainly does not follow that we all learn the same way - the senses may well work in concert, but (as someone with thick glasses, I can attest) some senses work more or less well, meaning that each individual may combine the senses differently. - Stephen Downes

13. The Memory String by Eve Bunting

14. Create a Hands-On Memory! • After reading The Memory String by Eve Bunting, look through the buttons at your table and select five buttons. • The color, shape, or texture of the chosen buttons need to create some attachment or memory for you. • In your writer’s notebook, jot down a brief description of the memory for each button. • Briefly share with your elbow partner three of your button memories. • Share with the group.

15. Bookmark Can Make For A Powerful Memory Piece • Create a bookmark for your writer’s notebook. • Begin some type of writing (poem, story, fable, news report) about your button memory. • Be prepared to share your writing.

16. Student Sample Wannabees

17. Using the Senses to Narrow

18. Obstacles • In getting ideas on paper, students need validation of their own memories. • As with some “hands on” activities, the object can become a problem. • Students want to begin their writing with “The green button reminds me of…

19. Elementary Ideas • Read Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge By Mem Fox • Draw pictures of their memory • Go outside and have students write down or collect items that could evoke a memory • Use blocks, or clay to create a a memory • Re enact a memory

20. Middle Ideas • Read snippets of The Giver by Lois Lowry about the Keeper and what his job entails. Students can make collages of good and bad memories. Had a mock debate about which is better to have memories (good/bad) or no memories at all. • Use brown bags to hide cotton balls soaked in smells or coffee grinds and other smells that can evoke memories to write about.

21. High School Ideas • Have students develop a power point with pictures of a shared event. The death of a student, a political/cultural event (election year, Olympics, war or terrorist act—9-11). Let student’s write about their memories from the event. Note how the memories of the same event cause different memories or responses from the students. • Have students act out a tableaux from their own memory writing. • Students can create the cover of their writer’s notebook with photos, quotes or pictures from a magazine using these images as future ideas for their writing.

22. Extending the Lesson • Have students write about a memory they have experienced in reference to a theme (love, survival, friendship, betrayal) that will be introduced in the next class novel or literature. • When making predictions about what’s coming next, ask the student to see if there is some connection to their prediction and their own experiences or memory. • Bring in drama, collages, a brush stroke lab where students are encouraged to take their learning to a more tactile level. Let them play. • Ask students if they have ideas of how to make a lesson more tactile.

23. Integrated Curriculum Ideas • Social Studies: Take objects from history (Yellow Jewish Star, Medal of Honor, piece of the Berlin Wall) and have students write from the point of view of someone in that time period. • Science: By using the same idea as above have them write about the memories of a famous inventor’s discoveries. • Math: Possibly writing a piece about how the student learned to add/subtract.

24. TEKS K-3 • 1 --  Listening/speaking/purposes: (A) determine the purpose(s) for listening such as to get information, to solve problems, and to enjoy and appreciate (K-3); • 2 -- Listening/speaking/culture: (A)  connect experiences and ideas with those of others through speaking and listening (K-3); and • (B)  compare language and oral traditions (family stories) that reflect customs, regions, and cultures (K-3). • 15 --  Writing/composition: (C)  write to record ideas and reflections (K-3);

25. TEKS 9th-12th • 2--  Writing/writing processes. (A)  use prewriting strategies to generate ideas, develop voice, and plan; • 7--  Reading/comprehension. A  establish a purpose for reading such as to discover, interpret, and enjoy; • B  draw upon his/her own background to provide connection to texts; • 8--  Reading/variety of texts. A   read to be entertained, to appreciate a writer's craft, to be informed, to take action, and to discover models to use in his/her own writing;

26. Works Cited • Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review. www.LSRC.ac.uk: Learning and Skills Research Centre. Retrieved January 15, 2008: http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/1543.pdf • Marzano, R. J. (1998). A theory-based meta-analysis of research on instruction. Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory, Aurora, CO. • Merrill, D. (2000). Instructional Strategies and Learning Styles: Which takes Precedence? In Robert Reiser and Jack Dempsey (Eds.) Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology. Prentice Hall. • Rita Stafford and Kenneth J. Dunn; Allyn and Bacon, (1993) Teaching Secondary Students Through Their Individual Learning Styles, • Stewart, K. L., & Felicetti, L. A. (1992). Learning styles of marketing majors. Educational Research Quarterly, 15(2), 15-23.

27. Resources • http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=41187 • http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/1543.pdf • http://school.familyeducation.com/intelligence/teaching-methods/38519.html • http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/writing-portfolios-in-a-high-stakes-world