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Content Area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide
By Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman, Nancy Steineke
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Why should students “write to learn” in my class?
Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience Model People generally remember: 10 percent of what they read 20 percent of what they hear 30 percent of what they see 50 percent of what they hear and see 70 percent of what they say and write 90 percent of what they say as they do a thing
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Keep these ideas in mind…
Learners must act on information in order to understand, remember, and use it! (So note-taking is not enough!) To get learning power, kids need to grapple with ideas, transform them, and put them in their own words. We can use better discussion strategies than the whole class discussion- strategies that don’t limit a student’s air time.
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But these strategies can lead into published writing projects.
The strategies we will learn today are “Writing to Learn” strategies NOT published writing. But these strategies can lead into published writing projects. The second part of the book discusses lots of great ideas for published writing like multi-genre projects! X
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The Book’s Organization
Introduce strategy What is it When to Use it and Why Play by Play- getting started, working the room, putting the writing to work, textbook connections What Can Go Wrong Example
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Quick Write Activities- listed on page 30
Writing Break p.31 Exit Slip p.35 Admit Slip- we did this! Brainstorming Drawing and Illustrating p.48 Clustering Mapping
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The Writing Break At specific points in your lesson, you give students time to think and write. By incorporating writing breaks every minutes you can really “kick retention up a notch.” Before starting the presentation, film, activity, or in-class reading, decide when students are going to stop and write. Then decide what topics you’d like the students to explore in their writing. You can keep the prompts general. Ex: “What does this remind you of?” or “What questions do you still have?” Or your prompts could be specific. Ex: “What character’s actions surprised you the most?” or “What would you do if you faced this problem.” Putting the writing to work ideas: partner talk, call on 2-3 pairs for quick summary of comments.
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Information on the Exit Slip
Save the last 5 minutes of class and ask the kids to quickly jot down a response to the day’s lesson. Keep exit slip topics very open and simple. Ex. “What were three most important ideas we learned today.” See page 36 for other ideas! Tell the kids to use the whole time for writing. Students write informally but steadily! The goal for the teacher is to use the Exit Slips to help teach the next lesson. Exit Slips are highly diagnostic- they can tell you a lot about what they are understanding, what their misconceptions might be, and what their attitudes are toward the subject.
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Admit Slip Admit slips ask students to bring a short piece of writing to class the next day. It can be written on an index card, a learning log, or on a hand-out that looks like a ticket. Teachers use them to start the next class period. See the next slide for examples for your class:
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Admit Slip Admit Slip for : Name _______________________________Date________ List 3 writing strategies you use in your classroom. Be ready to discuss in groups!
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Admit Ticket Examples PE- write down 3 key qualities of a good team
S.S.- How would the United States have been different if the Union had lost the Civil War? English- What elements make up a good speech? Math- Find some examples of math being used in the media and explain them. Science- Some chemical reactions we have been studying also happen in your home every day. Name two and explain. Art- In autumn’s color palette, what colors complement each other the most? Describe what you notice. Spanish- write down 3 Spanish words that are used a lot in the United States. Next slide- Putting the Writing to Work
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Putting the Writing to Work: Here are some choices
The teacher collects all the admit slips, quickly scans through them, and reads one to three promising discussion starters aloud, inviting class members to chime in. The teacher finds two opposing or different takes on the topic, reads each aloud, and elicits discussion. The teacher does not collect the admit slips but simply ask volunteers to read their card aloud. The teacher shuffles the cards and passes them out randomly; students anonymously read them aloud to spur discussion.
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Going Deeper With Writing to Learn
Written Conversation p.69 Write-Around p.74 Carousel Brainstorming p.81 Double Entry Journal p.85 Nonstop Write Reflective Write KWL Teacher-Student Correspondence
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Written Conversation pages 69-73
This is the strategy that is like writing notes. Kids should correspond in the writing journals (or notebook paper) with a partner. Each student needs to sign in with their name and then he/she writes a response. Two types of written conversations: here and now type and the take away kind. See page 71. Students can respond to a poem, an article, news story, lesson…. It is excellent modeling for you to take a student partner yourself and write! Check out Sheila Newell’s adaptation to this strategy on page 72.
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Write-Around pages 74-80 In a write-around, 4-5 students (I think 4 is great) write short notes to each other about a rich, complex topic. Each student starts a letter, so at all times everyone is writing. Make sure each student “signs-in” to the conversation. Tell them their writing needs to be legible! Then they pass their journals or papers to the next student in the group. They read what the previous student has written and respond. Students will need more time as the activity continues because they will need to real all responses and then write. Students write the entire allotted time- pencils should be moving. I tell them to write in sentence form or else it looks like texting, but that is up to you. Time for writing and response could go from 2-5 minutes. The topic should be complex so that interpretation or more complex thinking skills are being used. End of activity could be when each groups shares one highlight or one thread of their discussion. See a great adaptation called the silent discussion on page 80!
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Carousel Brainstorming
Use separate sheets of chart paper for 5-6 different prompts. (If you have a smaller or larger group, you can decrease or increase the number of prompts.) Give each group a different color marker. Groups visit a station, discuss the topic written at the top of the sheet of paper, and add their own contributions. Then groups move to another station, focusing on a different topic.
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Double Entry Journal Divide the paper in 1/2 hotdog style.
Cornell Notes-Kids record two types of thinking. Left-hand go notes that outline information as students read. The right-hand is used to respond to or reflect on the information. Double-entry journals have a lot of flexibility: deepen understanding, show thinking behind a problem, compare ideas, compare characters in a story, etc… See next slide for ideas from the textbook!
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Double Entry Journal Column 1 Computations Problem Reasons for Opinion
Quote from Text Agreements Notes Observations Advantages Words Facts Column 2 Explanation of Thinking for Each Step Solution Reasons Against Proof Explanation, personal connection, … Disagreements Interpretations Inferences Disadvantages Images Feelings
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Non-Stop Write pages 92-95 For this writing piece, you want to encourage students to think about a topic before you write. This is a timed writing piece. 4-5 minutes would be a good place to start. Penny Kittle tells her students to write faster than the critic in their heads can talk. We are trying to build their writing muscles- their writing endurance.
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Reflective Write Pages 96-100
This will help our students become more conscious of what they are learning. Many of you did this relective write for student-led conference pieces! Reflection invites students to pause and take note of what they’ve learned and how they went about it. Students can reflect on: a single class discussion, a field trip, a small-group collaborative task, a lab experiment, a new algebra operation, a big month-long project. The reflection can be informal, a brief in-class jotting on a note card, or a full page.
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Other Writing Prompt Ideas
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Project Zero Idea (Harvard U.)
Name ____________________________ Date ___________________ Hour ______ See, Think, Wonder I see: I think: I wonder:
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Name ___________________________ Date _____________ Hour ___ DIRECTIONS: Please complete these two thoughts with sentences. Today I got a little smarter about I learned
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Name _________________________________ Date _______________________ Hour _____ CLAIM, SUPPORT, AND QUESTION 1. Make a claim about the topic. (A claim is an explanation or interpretation.) 2. Identify support for your claim. (Support could be from things you feel, see, and know) 3. Ask a question about the topic. What’s left hanging? What isn’t explained? What new reasons does your claim raise?
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Other Resources Artful Thinking- part of Project Zero, Harvard University and Traverse City Public Schools Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle
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