Writing‐to‐Learn Basic Principles. • Writing‐to‐learn activities are different from
writing activities designed to teach students “professional” writing styles and ...
Writing‐to‐Learn Basic Principles
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Writing‐to‐learn activities are different from writing activities designed to teach students “professional” writing styles and genres. Consequently, writing‐to‐learn activities ought to be assigned differently, written differently, and read and evaluated differently. “Risk‐free” is the hallmark of good writing‐to‐learning activities. Students need to feel free to make a mess—but to make it as thoroughly, faithfully, and energetically as they can. Corollary: “correctness” is no more important to students in writing‐to‐learn than it was for Thomas Edison in the 3.5 million notebook pages the produced during this career (during which he was awarded 1,093 patents—despite the fact that his notebooks are anything but “correct”) Writing‐to‐learn activities need not be read and evaluated obsessively. Writing‐to‐learn activities can be used for a variety of purposes. To help students teach themselves—to enable them to assimilate knowledge To facilitate informal communication among the class community—to enable “check‐ins” on how learning is going in the course To provide opportunities for students to help one another Writing to learn activities should be integrated into important coursework—not “add on” or “busywork”.
General Principles for Creating Good Writing‐to‐Learn Assignments
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Articulate the desired learning and thinking precisely: “The purpose of this assignments is for your to apply spectrum analysis techniques to a specific star you chose to study” (astronomy); “Describe a Jungian archetype present in your favorite TV show” (psychology); “Paraphrase the key assertion in Chapter 3”. Provide genre and format constraints: “Write one coherent paragraph”; “In one page, do two things, find the earliest definition of a key word in the poem and assess that meaning’s relevant to the poem as a whole” (English). Consider grading writing assignments using a portfolio system, point system, or “check +, check‐“ system. You could also use “primary trait” scoring, grading the paper only how successfully the student accomplished the learning asked for in the prompt. Make assignments short and able to be completed and graded quickly. Place assignments strategically in the curriculum to accomplish a specific goal. Collect the assignments but don’t grade them formally; if you comment, comment on content rather than sentence errors. Where appropriate, have students collaborate on assignments or share work they’ve completed. Don’t read and comment on everything.
From “Writing for learning and growth,” by S.L. Miller., 2006, Sonoma State University Writing Center. Retrieved February 7, 2007, from http://sonoma.edu/programs/writingcenter/pdf_files/assignmentsforlearning.pdf
