Chapter 8 Writing to Learn in the Content Areas

Chapter 8 Writing to Learn in the Content Areas, addresses one of the most complex areas of teaching for me personally.  I know it is going to sound horrible but I hate teaching writing.

In Chapter 8 it states the importance of being a good writer and how writing is the most complex communication process within the communicative arts.

As i read more into the chapter it discussed how writing is view as a way of discovering rather than for testing. The chapter discusses many strategies that teachers can use along with reading comprehension.  The symmetry between writing and reading comprehension helps develop academic success.

There are a few concepts that I found to be interesting and even usable within the classroom. The first example provided was a warm-up with student generated questions. I began to think about a few weeks ago when the students and I were talking and I asked the students to write down something they wanted to know about as it pertains to the sun. I received some really good questions from this investigative session. One student wrote how many miles is the Earth from the Sun. Not knowing what do do with this question, I did research with the students and answered it for them. I could of applied other strategies and made this simple question more meaningful.

Another strategy that can be used that I liked from this chapter was the written conversation where students are armed with 1 sheet of paper and 1 pencil or pen. Students use the paper to make predictions, draw inferences, make personal connections, ask questions or detect things that deviate from the norm. I think this strategy would be an awesome collaborative writing project.

As the chapter moved on I gained a better understanding for writing. I know now that I don't always have to "grade" the end product. BUT that students do better when they know someone is going to read their writing. I also learned that there is a time for teaching students how to write for testing and teaching them how to write for metacognitive development.

As I have always desired, I will continue to take professional development classes that offer suggestions and strategies for writing. But I feel it is important that I find formal training classes to help me conquer writing. It is my weakest subject, but because I want my students to do well, it is important that I work at getting better at it.

What's your weakest subject? How do you conquer your fears? And how do you use/ or predict you will using writing in your classroom?

In the article, You can't learn from books you can't read, author Richard Allington talks about the "one size fits all" approach that our students are experiencing. Not only do our students have textbooks that are out of date but they also have books that are not revelant to what is happening in today's world. I often find my students unable to make connections regarding some of the things that they read.

As all the the new SOL requirements and the push to increase rigor is constantly discussed and pushed we are not taking the advice that Allington addresses in the article. "...students will be more successful at new tasks when the tasks they face are closely targeted to their academic skills, developmental stage, and the resources they bring to that task and when families and schools structure tasks in ways that provide appropriate levels of challenge and support".

I wonder how others feel about teaching to a students level. I know that typically in small group instruction the teacher "groups" students by reading level and typically spends about 20 minutes with the students. I would think an ideal situation would be allowing students to be grouped and then rotate to a classroom for the full 90 minutes and work on different activities that are at their level. This would be right in line with Allington's suggestion of individualized instruction.

So how will you provide your reader with individualized instruction that allows them to be a successful reader?

Chapter 6 Moving beyond the textbook

Chapter 6-Moving beyond the Traditional Textbook and Transmission Methods, was the most exciting read so far. As it discussed how the days of using a traditional textbook are outdated and a disservice to students, it gave many interesting tips on what teachers can do to support communication using a multimodal platform.

Typically, I struggle with background knowledge within the classroom. I have developed this mindset (that I am aware of) that even if the student know something, it isn't going to hurt them for me to tell them again. But in reading the section of chapter 6 about the use of a cloze I began to realize that I could use that as a tool for background knowledge! I adore the ideal of taking a passage and deleting the 10th word and having the students fill it in! This week in science we will be learning about the water cycle. I looped with my students from last year to this year and I feel that the cloze would give me a clear understanding of what the students still know and areas that we may need to focus on again to guarantee full comprehension of the water cycle. I am going to edit a passage and try this technique this week. I'm curious if it will change the way the lesson go.

Has anyone ever used the cloze method in their classroom?

I admit the cloze method made me think about Mad-libs that I did as a young child. I began to think about actually using this as a lesson for fun friday. I would take a mad-lib give it to the students and let them create their own mad lib. When the students are done, perhaps have them change what they wrote to make a paragraph that is more sensible.

I think using the cloze for my mid and upper ability groups would be interesting. However, for my lower level learners, as per the text, I might do a small group setting and use the maze to help eliminate frustration.  Guaranteeing the students that this is not a graded assignment would be beneficial and offer a no pressure assessment of prior knowledge. I could do this for the upcoming weeks lesson and then plan accordingly to what I learn from the students responses.

This chapter gave me a new prespective on the Lexile scoring that Norfolk Public Schools uses. I like that using the Lexile score helps lower level students pick material to read that would truly benefit their learning. However, for at or above level learners it could be paired with Fry, checklist, and a common sense approach. The technique of having students turn to the middle of a book and use the rule of 5 to determine if a text is at their level or not helps the student take responsibility for their learning.

Does anyone currently run into problems with this approach?

I do have concerns in regards to the students being responsible.

I am researching if our school uses A-Z reading. A-Z has leveled readers that would allow students to read the same subject matter but the level of reading. A-Z combined with their Lexile level would help me group students accordingly.

In regards to technology in the classroom, I would love if we had access to a blog site that the students could access. I think it would be an excellent tool to use for reflection. Students' could blog about the subject and even use the internet to do more research. I know that my student's love using computers but I don't often use them in a capacity that they could be used in. How do you use technology in your classroom?

In closing, I agree that students must have many different approaches to learning about a certain subject. For the upcoming year, I will begin to look at the pacing guide and how I can tie all subject areas into what we may be learning. This chapter gave me the idea that the water-cycle (science) and probability (math) could be tied together, creating a symmetry between the two concepts. This chapter was the most interesting read of the book thus far.

**Update..I did a little experiment on my nephew who goes to my school. I gave him an at level book and a paper pencil test. He scored a 71% then I asked him to go to AR and take an AR test on the book..Can you believe he scored a 100% and took the vocabulary test as well??!!** He's much better at using technology to test than he is at paper/pencil. Do you think we have conditioned today's children to depend on technology too much or too little?