Writing to Learn

1. Writing to Learn “Writing today is not a frill for the few, but a skill for the many.”--National Commission on Writing in America’s Colleges and schools

2. Essential Questions • What is writing to learn? • Why use writing to learn? • What are some writing to learn instructional tools and strategies? • What can writing to learn tell us about student learning?

3. Learning Targets I can explain how writing to learn is a powerful tool for improving both reading and content learning. I can demonstrate this understanding in unit and lesson planning.

4. Checkmate By Alfred Tatum He taught me how to play chess when I was younger To make all the right moves The rooks, the knights, the pawns, the bishops I could castle and use my bitch my Queen to protect myself All of these thoughts flashed in my mind when the car pulled up beside us It’s 12:15 a.m. I am eighteen, sitting on the passenger’s side No where to move, no strategy I thought about learning chess when I was younger The young man in the other car lifts his hands—checker hands, TIC-TAC-TOE hands I was no match for him I thought my scholarship letter would save me—it was my next move My buddies scream first I’m hit next Checkmate—game ov . . .

5. What are the major differences? How would you include each in your instruction? Three Types of Writing Writing for authentic purposes Writing to demonstrate learning Writing to learn

6. Writing to Learn Role-Play Video

7. Writing to Learn Role-Play Video

8. How do we assess comprehension with writing to learn activities?

9. Writing to Learn

10. WRITTEN CONVERSATION

11. Reflective Journal: Write about one of the following.1. Question: How does Writing to Learn fit into your classroom? 2. Quote: “Writing in courses allows students to mediate their own ‘knowledge’ with the new knowledge which the course presents to them. Writing to learn and learning to write allows exploration of the student’s own doubts, gaps in knowledge, and gropings for the answer” -- from “Writing to Learn” by Judith Kalman and Calvin Kalman. CDTLink (a publication of the National University of Singapore. Jul 1998, Vol. 2, No. 2.3. Learning Targets: *I can explain how writing to learn is a powerful tool for improving both reading and content learning. *I can demonstrate this understanding in unit and lesson planning.

12. Bibliography Graham, S., & Hebert, M.A. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education. Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools—A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education. Kopp, B. (2010). Writing & Learning @ UW-L. Retrieved from http://www.uwlax.edu/catl/writing/assignments/writingtolearn.htm. 2 June 2010. The National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges, “The Neglected “R”: The Need for a Writing Revolution 19 (2003), available at http://www.writingcommission.org/report.html (last visited June 02, 2010) Tatum, A. (2009). Reading for their life: Rebuilding the textual lineages of African American adolescent males. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.