Writing is an important skill that will follow you throughout your life. As a college student I understand the pressure associated with writing to produce a final document. I like the concept of writing to learn because the writer is writing to process information and to organize thoughts. I think that this is an important strategy that will help student learn about themselves and how they learn. This type of writing is also beneficial to the teacher because the teacher can see what students know or do not know about a topic. The article talked about reading and writing working together to help students. Reading a passage does not say that a child understood the material but if the child writes about the passage the teacher would have a greater chance of identifying comprehension problems. The strategy that I liked the most was the quick write. I think that it is a good way to starts students thinking about the upcoming topic or tapping into their background knowledge. In the chapter it talked about using prompts to generate writings. Last semester I saw a teacher use this technique during bell ringer work. Every day she had a new or old topic on the board. The students would write down what they knew or learned about the topic in their journals. The teacher would walk around and read some of the writing and ask individual students about their writings. At the end of the chapter it talked about teachers getting a glimpse inside the child’s mind and the thinking process my question is how can teachers create rubrics and checklist that allow the child to process information as well as meet the requirements?
I agree with you completely Lawanda. Pressure is put on students to devise a flawless paper when writing should be a learning experience. If writing for pleasure is obtained in earlier grades then I believe the stress of writing will reduce as students progress to more complex, structured, writing intensive courses. I am going to take a stab in the dark about your question. I think that the prompts that you give your students are the checklist. As long as your students are addressing the prompt questions then you assessment should be a breeze. Just keep in mind that this should be an informal assessment.
ReplyDeleteHi Lawanda, funny, I just got out of a meeting with a student discussing her dissertation writing, which is one of those "assignments" that, as you say, creates "pressure associated with writing to produce a final document." No doubt there are times when real life requires an attention to detail, but I appreciate your following comment, "I like the concept of writing to learn because the writer is writing to process information and to organize thoughts." Writing can be used in a myriad of ways, some that are informal and allow for risk and meaning-making. To get at your ending question, we'll experience checklists and rubrics, so hang on to that question and let me know what you think when you experience them for our writing projects toward the end of the semester. Rubrics and checklists can look just about any way you want them to. Dr B
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