1. WRITING AS A LEARNING TOOL: INCORPORATING STUDENT-LED RESPONSE AND FEEDBACK INTO THE CURRICULUM Miranda Sin I Ma Fall 2014, October 22 CTLE Workshop

2. Objectives 1. Exploring the possibility of incorporating writing as a learning tool in courses across the curriculum at UM 2. Looking into the different ways to design big and small writing tasks to help students learn 3. Re-conceptualizing the use of peer review

3. Learning to write

4. Writing to learn

5. Critical thinking

6. Writing to learning #1: Self-discovery Guided free-writing  What kinds of writing tasks/assignments do you give your students? What are the purposes of giving these tasks?

7. Why “writing-to-learn”? Or why not? Peter Elbow: Encourages Ss to read the course readings Encourages Ss to learn actively Raises Ss’s awareness on their own understanding of the material taught through their own language Helps T learn about Ss’s understanding and reaction to the material taught Prevents Ss from experiencing pressure that they tend to get from doing high stakes writing Helps Ss improve the quality of their high stakes writing Allows Ss to pay attention to the content rather than the mechanics of their writing Elbow, P (1997). “High stakes and low stakes in assigning and responding to writing.” Bryan Goodwin (2014) “Writing may help students develop their critical thinking skills, but writing does not necessary teach critical thinking. In fact, the best way to help students learn critical thinking may be to actually teach it.” Goodwin, B (2014). Research says/teaching critical thinking to teach writing

8. Discussion questions  Do you think writing is an effective tool for learning?  What are some challenges we encounter when promoting “writing-to-learn” in our classes at UM?

9. Solutions?

10. Make a mark on your 2 nd continuum

11. Designing “writing-to-learn” tasks Smaller tasks Chunk and chew/”Stop and Jot” (Topping & McManus, 2002) Quick Writes/Free Writes Learning Logs (Klein, 2008) Admit/exit slips Think-write-pair-share The muddiest point Email/tweet teacher Focused writing (What? So what? Now What?) Writing to learn (2012). Capacity Building Series Bigger tasks Political Science  Staged writing using postscript (Cavdar & Doe, 2012) Biology  Collaborative essay instead of quizzes (Quitadamo & Kurtiz, 2007) Writing for projects (contextualized) Academic Essays

12. How do I use writing as a learning tool? Smaller-scale Ask students to:  Free write  Keep a log (using Moodle database) /a journal  Admin/exit slips  Write about the learning process  Write about their peer’s work Bigger-scale Ask students to:  Write for projects  Engage in staged academic writing  Engage in contextualized writing assignments

13. Make a mark on your 3rd continuum

14. Having students assess each other Using peer review

15. Example of peer review guided questions (beginners)  Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classroom. : The University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 2002)

16. Example of peer review guided questions (advanced)  Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classroom. : The University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 2002)

17. Problematizing the use of a peer review question sheet  A pre-determined list of questions that is not generated by the students.  The peer review (analytic) activity is turned into a task (form-filling) activity where students are accessed not on their ability to engage with the text but their ability to find answers to given questions.

18. Re-conceptualizing peer review  How do we train students to do peer review without the guide sheet? Focus on the process, not the product of the peer review activity

19. Your contribution: plan and share!  Based on what has been discussed so far, draft a plan on how you will design a “writing-to-learn” task for a specific concept in one of your lessons. Communication English Language Health Sciences Computer & Information Science Social Work University Life Education Accounting & Information Management

20. Make a mark on your 4th continuum

21. Wrapping-up  Post-workshop free-writing  Action plan

22. References  Cavdar, G., & Doe, S. (2012). Learning through writing: Teaching critical thinking skills in writing assignments. The Teacher, 45(2), 298-306.  Goodwin, B. (2014). Research says/Teach critical thinking to teach writing. Education Leadership, 71(7), 78-80.  Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classroom. : The University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 2002)  Quitadamo, I., & Kurtz, M. (2007). Learning to improve: Using writing to increase critical thinking performance in General Education Biology. Life Science Education, 6(140-154).  Writing to learn. (2012). Capacity Building Series, 25, 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_WritingtoL earn.pdf

23. Questions/comments? Thank you! Miranda Sin I Ma (mirandama@umac.mo) Senior Instructor, English Language Centre Coordinator, English Writing & Communication Centre Faculty Coordinator, Centre for Teaching & Learning Enhancement