Thinking, Learning, and Writing Across the Curriculum August 14 th Writing PD

1. Thinking, Learning, and Writing Across the CurriculumAugust 14thWriting PD

2. Thinking, Learning, and Writing Across the Curriculum • Year Long Professional Development Partnership between CTWP and CMS • Funded by the Department of Education and National Writing Project Grant • Leadership Team: Joel Johnson, Leah Cochran, Jason Henke, Cassandra Chapa, Teresa Newhall, Bonnie Southerland, and Dr. Lori Assaf.

3. Goals • Develop a shared and collective responsibility among all teachers to use writing as an instructional learning tool in their classroom. • Provide opportunities for teachers to become writers and to use their insight as writers to design effective writing instruction. • Reconceptualize the importance of literacy instruction in content areas that include reading and writing disciplinary-based, real world texts, and using inquiry to enhance students’ thinking and learning. 4. Identify and use multiple writing strategies to scaffold student learning. 5. Create and utilize formative assessment tools to evaluate writing and learning in the content areas. 6. Develop teacher leadership, knowledge, and expertise in writing across the curriculum. **Based on these goals, students will develop cognitive and foundational skills as outlined in the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards. ** Student achievement evaluation based on leadership team.

4. What Are We Asking of Each Teacher? • Maintain an open mind and be willing to learn and experiment with writing in your content area. • Share your learning with others, collaborate, and reflect on your teaching and your students’ learning. • Build on what you are already doing- you are an expert in your content area and your knowledge and experiences are valuable to new learning. • Identify and build on your students’ abilities, backgrounds, and strengths and take responsibility for engaging students in your classroom. • Find your own personal and professional relevance- see this as an opportunity to grow and not as an initiative forced on you. • Ask for help from your peers and the leadership team.

5. Writing is Learning …writing is best understood as a complex intellectual activity that requires students to stretch their minds, sharpen their analytical capabilities and make valid and accurate distinctions. …writing is not simply a way for students to demonstrate what they know. It is a way to help them understand what they know. At its best, writing is learning. (The neglected “R”: The need for a writing revolution, 51).

6. More Specifically… • Writing facilitates learning (Deshler, Palincsar, Biancarosa, & Nair, 2007). • Promotes critical thinking (Tierney & Shanahan, 1991; Tierney, Soter, O’Flahavan, & McGinley, 1989); • Therefore, providing students with opportunities to write is extremely important for supporting learning across the curriculum (Dahl & Farnan, 1998).

7. National and State Assessments • Despite the importance of writing, many students experience difficulty with writing. • Results from the NAEP 2007 writing test indicated that 74% and 65% of students in 8th and 12th grades, respectively, did not meet the proficiency skill level in writing (Salahu-Din, Persky, & Miller, 2008). • Nearly 1/3 of high school graduates are not ready for college‐level English composition courses (ACT, 2005). • College instructors estimate that 50% of high school graduates are not prepared for college‐level writing (Achieve, Inc. 2005).

8. National and State Assessments • The knowledge and skills required for higher education and for employment are now considered equivalent (ACT, 2006, American Diploma Project, 2004). • Writing and reading require their own dedicated instruction; what improves reading does not always improve writing (pg. 8). • Private companies spend $3.1 billion on remediation; state governments spend $221 million annually (National Commission on Writing, 2005). • One quarter of new community college students enroll in remedial writing courses (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003).

9. Why Writing In The Content Areas? • Mastery of content is demonstrated not only through reading but also through writing. Integrating writing with reading enhances comprehension (Brandenburg, 2002) because the two are reciprocal processes. • Writing to in the content areas engages students, extends thinking, deepens understanding, and energizes the meaning-making process (Newell, 2008). • According to Fordham, Wellman, and Sandman, “Considering a topic under study and then writing about it requires deeper processing” (CITE). • Writing in the content areas is an opportunity for students to recall, clarify, and question what they know about a subject and what they still wonder about with regard to that subject matter (Fisher & Frey, 2004, p. 151).

10. Written expression remains a primary means of communication in modern society, it is not surprising that students’ writing is used to assess knowledge across academic content areas (Newhall, 2006) • Consequently, students’ academic achievement often depends on the ability to write. Although some students may be able to critically analyze and draw conclusions from class activities and text, regrettably, many students have difficulty organizing ideas into comprehensible written language (Applebee, 2000) • Struggling writers will continue to face challenges as they attempt to meet future demands of education and employment (Moje, 2011). • Their lack of writing skills limits their opportunity to articulate ideas and demonstrate learning (Gunning, 2002). • Students need to write efficiently and effectively to express their ideas and fully demonstrate knowledge (Langer & Applebee, 2004).

11. Casual Writing to Discipline-Based Writing Moving from note taking, brainstorming, and mapping…..To more formal, discipline-based writing that includes the kinds of texts found in the real world. Research on real world writing, such as persuasive and argumentation, in which students examine relationships among ideas, lead students to think more deeply about material than they do in more restricted writing tasks, such as taking study notes (Langer & Applebee, 1987; Newell, 2006). The purpose of real world/discipline based writing is not simply to retain more information but to understand it differently-to think critically about it (Newell, 2006).

12. Casual/Informal Writing

13. Formal Writing

14. Discipline Based/Real World Writing

16. Why I Write… Tim Swain http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x330nt_why-i-write-final-01windows-media-v_news

18. Share!

19. Let’s look at writing in our lives • What is the difference between real world texts vs. school texts? • What are some real world texts that you encounter in your daily lives? Think about their purpose.

27. Gallery Walk • On each chart sign there is a type of writing. In your groups, brainstorm different texts that would fit under that category. • Express/Reflect • Inform and Explain • Evaluate and Judge • Inquire and Explore • Analyze and Interpret • Take and Stand and Propose a Solution Evaluative * Movie review

28. Demonstration Lesson: Science Writing and Thinking Maps http://prezi.com/ee03pnhb9p62/interference-of-waves/

29. Janet Patterson - Review of Thinking Maps and Writing

30. Break-Out Sessions Math – Jason ELA– Joël(208) Science– Cassandra (215) Elective–Teresa (Lib.) Social Studies – Leah & Bonnie(206)

31. Small Group Discussions: Thinking Maps, Writing & Performance Indicators (In demo rooms)

32. How do Thinking Maps fit in? • In what ways can thinking maps scaffold and differentiate for students? • What scaffolds do you use in your classroom right now? • How do thinking maps and writing fit into your current instruction?

33. Future PD Dates • October 8th Mentor Texts and Mentor Sentences • January 3rd or 4th Inquiry and Responding to Students’ Writing • February 18th Assessment: Content and Process • March TBA- CTWP/CMS Writing Retreat • May- TBA Share Student Writing Samples and Insights • ½ day workshops for content area teachers (TBD based on calendar) • Peer observations and coaching (TBA based on need)