Transcript WRITING IN THE MIDDLE GRADES

Beth Morton Christian, Ed.D.
Tennessee State University
“Low stakes writing helps students involve
themselves more in the ideas or subject matter of
a course. It helps them find their own language for
the issues of the course; they stumble into their
own analogies and metaphors for academic
concepts. Theorists are fond of saying that
learning a discipline means learning a discourse.
That is, students don’t know a field until they can
write and talk about what is in the textbook and
the lectures in their own lingo, in their informal
home or personal language” (Elbow, 1997, P. 7)
Writing and the Content-Area
Teachers
 “Writing is powerful means for learning because the
more students manipulate content, the more likely to
remember and understand the content.”
(Vacca & Vacca, 2008)
When students write about
content area, they:
-select and organize words to represent what they have
learned/read
-relate, organize, connect ideas in the text
-create systematic relationships between words,
sentences, paragraphs, etc…
-draw on prior knowledge, background, and purposes
for reading
-build interrelationships between ideas
-helps students to think about to think critically
The value of writing activities:
 Students can not remain passive learners when
engaged in writing activities related to content
 Writing activities demand participation by every
student, not just those who volunteer
 Writing activities quickly demonstrate whether
students understand a topic
Some Guidelines:
 Writing in the classroom should be frequent and
varied
 Every writing does not have to be graded
 Writing activities can be short and non-threatening
 Writing activities should have a real and immediate
audience (the audience should be more than simply
the teacher)
 Publish and Celebrate your students’ writings
 Writing does not always have to be an essay or a
summary…
My Writing Territories:
(Atwell, 1995)
 Writing territories are potential subjects or topics that
you could write about:
 My writing territories:
 My students’ territories:
 Ex. Short stories, essays, resumes, recipes, notes,
letters, checks, lists, emails, applications, poems etc.
Forms of Writing
Poems
Letters
Posters
Brochures
Short Stories
Recipes
Telegrams
Time Capsule
lists
Word
problems
Children’s
books
Cartoons
Complaints
Editorials
Abstracts
Eulogies
Directions
Instructional
Manuals
News articles
Jokes
Guess
Who/What
Descriptions
Commercials
Scripts
Reading and Writing as a
Constructive Process
 Reading and writing are separate, but overlapping
processes that provide ways for the construction of
meaning.
 Just like reading, writing is a process
-Prewriting
-Writing
-Post-writing
Pre-reading Writing Activities:
 Motivate
 Help to focus attention
 Help them draw on relevant knowledge and
experiences
 Set purpose for reading
Writing Assignments
 Effective writing assignments are essential
-
-
(e.g., bad assignments yield bad writing)
Set purpose
Topic or Possible Topics related to Content
Audience (who will read or hear writing)
Possible modes or formats (e.g., essay, letter, poem,
etc.)
Writing Assignments should
include:
 Length
 Level of polish (first draft, second, edited, revised, etc.)
 Format
 Focus on grammar, mechanics, spelling
 Method of evaluation (include rubric)
Writing Activities
 Learning Logs
 Quickwrites
 Microthemes
 Response Journals
 Double-Entry Journals
 Response
 Biopoem
 Admit/Exit Slips
 SQ3R
 RAFT
 SPAWN
SQ3R (Reading/Writing Activity)
 Survey text: Skim reading assignment for headings and
subheadings.
 Question: Turn the headings into the question (Write
them down leaving space for answers)
 Read: Read to find the answer to the question
 Recite or Write: Discuss the response with a
partner…see if you agree. Write the answer under the
question
 Review: Review your questions and answers
Learning Logs

Notebooks that students keep in order to record, ideas, questions,
and reactions to what they’ve read, observed, or listened to in class

Example from a Math Class
-ask student to write an entry for each unit of study
-have them respond to open-ended probes
that are designed to give her information on their knowledge and
possible misconceptions.
1. Ask students to write about the ways that they used math over the
weekend.
1.
What have you heard about averages?
2. Who uses averages and for what?
3.
How are averages used?
Quickwrites
(one minute papers)
 Encourage students to construct meaning and to
monitor their understanding
 Give students 2 or 3 minutes to write about the topic of
their reading assignment (can occur after a discussion
of reading as well)
 Use probes and prompts to get student going: write an
interesting quotation from the reading, ask for the
main point, ask them to write down what they
remember, etc.
Microthemes
Short writing assignments that can be written on an index





card
Ask students to summarize key ideas form a reading
assignment, demonstration, experiment, or lecture in their
own words
Students feel less intimidated when they only have an index
card to fill
Students must plan carefully what they will say and how they
will say it because they receive only one index card
Options: Take up index cards, let students share their
summaries, let them ask questions about things they are
confused, share answers and questions with a neighbor while
you circulate the room
Guided-Writing Activity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
On the first day, activate students’ prior knowledge
on the topic by brainstorming and listing ideas on
an overhead or chalkboard.
Ask the class to organize and label the ideas
collectively.
Then ask the students to write individually on the
topic using this information
In preparation for the second day, have the class
read the text and revise their explanatory writing
In class on the second day, give a follow-up multiplechoice and essay exam on the text’s key ideas
Double-Entry Journal
Text
“Davy Crockett loved
to brag about things
he could lick—from
wildcats to grizzly
bears.” p. 6
Responses to Text
What does that mean?
Does that mean licks
animals with his tongue…
that’s disgusting!
I think that bragging
makes people look stupid.
When people brag, people
are not impressed. In face,
I find it extremely
annoying when people
brag.
RAFT
Writing that encourages creativity and helps students
get started
 Role of the writer- I am Vitamin D
 Audience- Your body
 Form- I will write a note on a Milk carton
 Topic- I will inform your body what I will do for it
SPAWN
 Special Powers- (if you had special powers to
change any event in the novel or text, what would it
be and why)
 Problem Solving- (if you could solve the problems
in text, what would you do and how)
 Alternative viewpoints- after hearing one viewpoint
on a topic, take the opposite view point or try to
see the issue from someone else’s perspective
 What if – (what if the story took place in another
place or another time)
 Next- (imagine what would happen next)
Reader-Response Journal Entries
 Interaction between reader and the text
 Personal meaning that the reader draws from the text (even from
content area texts)
 Not a summary
Prompts:
What aspects of the text excited you or interested you?
What are your feelings and attitudes about this aspect of the text?
What experiences have you had that help other understand why you
feel this way?
In the classroom the following should be in evidence:

the teacher modeling the writing process and
sharing his/her own written work with students

the teacher providing instruction about the
recursive nature of writing and the components of a
writing process(e.g., pre-writing, planning, drafting,
conferencing, revising, editing, sharing, publishing)

the students engaging in daily writing for a variety
of audiences and purposes and in a variety of formats

the students moving around the classroom to
accomplish their individual tasks, depending upon
where they are in their writing process

the teacher encouraging and instructing students
about how to use writing as a means of thinking,
responding, and learning (e.g., jotting notes,
creating idea webs) the teacher using brief minilessons with individuals, small groups, or the
whole class as needed to help students

review or acquire the language skills and
concepts in the context of their own writing

the students using a variety of available tools
(e.g., word walls, dictionary, thesaurus, computers,
language, word walls, etc)
 the teacher conferring regularly with individual
students about their writing, responding with
encouraging, useful suggestions and providing
assistance on a regular basis

the students engaging in conferences throughout
the writing process (e.g., during revising and editing)

the teacher and students displaying and
publishing their writing
Self-Evaluation and Peer-Conferences
Ask yourself some of these questions (or have a conference partner
ask them after reading the writing-in-progress):
• How do I feel about what I've written so far?
• What is good that I can enhance?
• Is there anything about it that concerns me, does not fit, or seems
wrong?
• What am I discovering as I write this piece?
• What surprises me? Where is it leading?
• What is my purpose?
• What is the one most important thing that I am trying to convey?
• How can I build this idea? Are there places that I wander away
from my key idea?
•
•
Who is my audience?
• What might my readers think as they read through
this piece?
• What questions will they ask?
• What will be their response to the different parts?
To the whole?
•
What might I do next?
• Would it help to try another draft ... to talk to a
peer ... to talk to the teacher ... to check a resource book
... To reread it aloud, silently, several times ... to read a
published example of this genre ... to put it aside ... to
try the idea in a new genre ... to keep on writing ...?