Cara Mulcahy Department of Reading and Language Arts Kim Nardi Teacher Candidate SPRING LEARNING COLLOQUIUM WRITING STRATEGIES

RDG 412: Literacy in the Elementary School This course is taken the semester before student teaching. It is the third reading course students in Elementary Education are required to take. There is a strong focus on the Language Arts

Write-Into-The-Day Journal I was introduced to this strategy by the Central Connecticut State University Writing Project Each day of the summer institute began with a “write-into-the-day” prompt. The “write-into-the-day journal” embeds writing into the course structure.

The write into the day journal served two purposes in RDG 412 To reflect on content. To generate ideas for writing.

Advantages of Journal Writing It integrates active learning with cognitive strategies which allows students to “organize learning contents into a coherent structure and integrate new information with existing knowledge” enabling understanding and retention (Nückles et al., 2010). It reinforces metacognition (Nückles et al., 2010). It provides a means to explore and make sense of ideas and experiences. It allows for short writing assignments which are less intimidating and allow the writer a better chance of finding his or her voice (Kittle & Graves, 2005).

Prompts During the first half of the semester students received prompts related to course content. The purpose of the prompts was to engage students in write-to- learn activities whereby students reflected upon course readings and course content. As Nückles et al. (2010) state a learning journal “is an opportunity to apply beneficial cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies in order to deepen and expand the newly acquired knowledge” (p. 238).

Prompts During the second half of the semester students were given prompts that helped generated ideas and topics for writing. The write-into-the-day journals also demonstrated the advantages of keeping a writer’s notebook. A writer’s notebook is a low-risk, high-comfort place for students to write, develop ideas, and express their ideas and words (Fletcher & Portalupi, 2001; Rief, 2003).

Quick Writes “can be used as a way to uncover or generate ideas worth writing about” (Graves & Kittle, 2005, p. 2). “stimulate students thinking” (Rief, 2003, p. 8). help students and teachers “find their voices and develop their confidence, as they discover that they have important things to say” (2003, Rief, p.8).

Content Related Prompts Think of your own developmental path as a reader and writer. What are your early memories and experiences of reading and writing? How has that influenced who you are today as a reader and writer? Do you consider yourself a reader? A writer? What was one of the most important points Harste makes in his article and what was one thing that surprised you in his article? Respond to the quote…. Explain how your understanding of literacy has developed since the beginning of the semester. Discuss the connection between the language arts and literacy instruction, and between ideology and literacy instruction.

Writing Prompts to Generate Writing Ideas What stories do your hands tell? Trace around your hand and fill it in with memories that are connected to your hands. List five books that are important to you. Choose one and write about how it has affected your life. Bring in three artifacts that are important to your life. Explain what each one is and why it is important to you. Make a list of the 11 best moments in your life. Make a list of the 7 worst moments in your life. Write about one of the moments listed above.

Think of your own developmental path as a reader and writer.

What stories do your hands tell? Trace around your hand and fill t in with memories that are connected to your hands.

Group Poem

Outcomes Content area prompts allowed students the opportunity to write their thoughts before engaging in a whole class discussion. Generated some good class discussions around the course readings. Provided me with insights into student learning and understanding.

Outcomes Introduced students to a variety of activities to help their future students develop writing topics. Allowed students identify a topic they wanted to write about for their personal piece. It seems the majority of the pieces were personal narratives.

Future Thoughts Write-to-learn prompts should allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the readings and to reflect and elaborate upon their thoughts about the reading. Allow for a fading away of the write-to-learn prompts as the semester progresses. Allow for more student choice when developing prompts that generate writing ideas.