Writing to Learn Demonstration Reflection

This past week we were asked to do a five minute Writing to Learn (WTL) demonstration. I did mine on Point of View Guides (POVGs).

 

To begin preparation for this I looked at the description of POVGs in our text book. I read about them. I found out that POVGs are used to look closer at a theme/idea/concept to get the students deeper into the text. POVGs use role play to give a situation and pose interview-like questions to which the students respond. They get students speculating and elaborating on ideas, and they are great at relating the text to the personal lives of students because there is no way for students to role play and not include their own experiences. Besides learning about POVGs for my own knowledge, I read the examples. I thought of different examples teachers could use in different content areas. I got myself comfortable with the concept behind POVGs and with trying to explain them to people who have no clue what they are (my roommates). And finally I chose a POVG I wanted to work on: “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

 

When it came to actually doing the lesson, I worked a lot on scaffolding. I had the students pair up and work with the title, discussing a time they took the road not taken. After that I handed out half sheets of paper that gave a situation and posed questions for the students to answer. They were given time to write their answers and afterwards (if we had time) we would have discussed the answers and actually read the poem. I tried to structure a slow entrance to the world of the poem, starting with the title and then moving to the main idea, before we actually read it. And I feel like that whole scaffolding worked really well.

 

I think my classmates took away that slow entrance approach. One of the Pat on the Backs said she liked how I built curiosity. I worked on getting the students personally related to the poem and I think that personal meaning really stuck. Before we began the activity I gave a bit of background knowledge of POVGs and I spoke about how versatile and adaptable this WTL activity is. I think my classmates were able to see how they would use this activity in their own content areas.

 

However, if I could do this differently I would most definitely address the modeling part. I do not know how that slipped my mind, but unfortunately I did not model this activity for the class. Next time, when scaffolding out the instruction I would make sure to interject my own examples so that the students would have an idea of where to go.

Twofold Literacy

The two pieces we read for this week’s post were chapter ten of Content Area Reading by Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz called “Studying Text” and an article by Alan M. Frager and Elizabeth A. Frye called “Focus on the Essentials of Reading Instruction.” Both readings focused on the literacy of a student in a classroom. And both took on the two different sides to literacy: one the student’s side and one the teacher’s side.

The chapter took on how students study a text. If students do not know how to study a text, then their literacy will not be the best it can be. Students need to be equipped with the right tools to tackle a text if we teachers want them to learn from the text. This chapter argues that studying texts help students “make connections and think more deeply about ideas encountered in reading” (CAR, 317). However, students need to have reasons to study the text like acquiring knowledge, organizing/summarizing/using information and ideas, etc. And texts can offer several benefits to students like reflective thinking, self-directed study, hard work, and smart work.

A student’s work is directly related to the structure of the text. Texts include two types of features that aid this process:

1. External – format features, organizational aids
2. Internal – text patterns which revolve around:

• Description = information about topic
• Sequence = putting the information into a logical sequence
• Comparison and Contrast = point out similarities/differences about topic
• Cause and Effect = show how information originates and informs other information
• Problem and Solution – show development of problem and list solutions.

These text structures are usually recognized by signal words/phrases such as: to begin with, now, as, before, however, but, as well as, because, since, therefore, etc.

Along with linguistic pieces, students can use the visual aids within texts to help study. Graphics organizers are the best examples of these visual aids because they help learners comprehend and retain textually important information. Most often these graphic organizers reflect the text patterns and more often than not they can be used to revolve around questions students either have or should be aware of. Examples of graphic organizers include: word maps, semantic webs, flowcharts, and tree diagrams (CAR, 324).

Another tool students can use to study texts are written summaries. Writing summaries is a great activity for students because it teaches the students how to discern and analyze the text structure. A great example of a writing summary activity is GRASP or guided reading and summarizing procedure. GRASP happens as follows: teacher selects a passage, students read passage silently, students recite information they believe to be important, teacher writes information on the board, students re-read passage, class discusses list and adds/subtracts information.

The last tool is note taking. Now most people are very familiar with this tool, but unfortunately most students do not know the most effective means of note taking. Note taking is all about paraphrasing, summarizing, reacting critically, questioning, and responding personally to a text. It is not about copying down word for word a definition or other important concept. Most forms of note taking happen in reading logs, T-notes, cornell notes, and text annotations.

Text annotations address four types of notes:

1. Summary – condensing of main ideas
2. Thesis – addressing what main point of piece is
3. Critical – captures reader’s response
4. Question – looking at what the student thinks after reading

If students can learn these few tricks to studying a text then their literacy will improve.

However, it is not only up to the student. The second reading, the article “Focus on the Essentials of Reading Instruction,” addresses the teacher’s side of literacy in a classroom. Frager and Frye provide a rubric for teachers and evaluates how teachers are addressing literacy. They believe that there is a gap in between education classes where literacy is crucial to instruction and student teaching where literacy is optional. Their grades range from F to A just like any other rubric and are explained as follows:

F = Teacher reads entire text aloud or uses round robin reading techniques. Teachers focus on reading for information and ignores reading for meaning.

C = Teachers assign students to read texts silently and then immediately asks questions about what they read. This is problematic because either the books assigned are too difficult/too easy and the students do not know how to read to generate good answers to any questions the teacher might ask.

B = Teacher designs B-D-A reading activities (Before-During-After) to motivate students, activate prior knowledge, introduce new vocabulary, and develop awareness of questions/issues/debates.

B+ = Teacher is gradually releasing responsibility to the students.

A = Teacher continues to build on principles of good reading instruction, pushes personal meaning, and has high-quality discussion.

A+ = Teacher engages in critical literacy which means they are mindful of students’ lives, have a broad definition of text, ask provocative discussion questions, and encourage opportunities to reflect.

Getting Their Interest

This week’s reading was centered around student motivation and even though the idea for the chapter seemed to be a common sense sort of thing – it still is vitally important for every classroom, especially when student’s attention spans are harder to direct. But I feel like this is more than just getting the students to pay attention and do the reading. It is getting the students interested in doing the reading, interested in learning which is like a teacher’s highest goal that never seems to ever be reached. I feel like I had a lot of teachers that just gave up on trying to get us interested in learning and instead just sloughed through the same process day after day, unit after unit, just making sure we covered the content required in the curriculum.

 

How do we change this? How do we motivate students to read? To learn?

 

Our text, Content Area Reading by Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz, brought up an interesting point about self-efficacy. According to the text, self-efficacy is having a can-do attitude when thinking about applying your skills to learning, believing you can actually learn. I guess I never thought about that going through my schooling. Now it stands out as one of those flashing light bulb ideas that scream pay attention to me! And depending on when you come into the student’s schooling – you can have a huge impact on their self-efficacy (CAR, 169).

 

I plan on teaching high school so my main concern will be getting the students interested in the material. Motivation is key. And as the reading pointed out – self-efficacy and motivation go hand in hand: “if students believe, for example, that they have a good chance to succeed at a reading task, they are likely to exhibit a willingness to engage in reading and to complete the task” (CAR, 170). This motivation is increased when the student feels that the text relates directly to his or her life. So moral of the story is to make things relevant! Any chance you get – relate the text to the lives of the students, to today’s world, to something the students will know and relate with, anything (CAR, 170-173).

 

The text gave a few examples for increasing motivation in the classroom:

• Story Impressions – I found these to be really cool (maybe that is just the creative writer in me) but to do this the teacher hands out worksheets divided into two columns. In the first column the teacher lists words/phrases/concepts related to the text the students are about to read, and in the second column the teacher leaves space for the students to then write what they think is going to happen in the story/what their impression of the story is so far based whatever is in the first column (CAR, 173-175). (This idea is brilliant and I sort of can’t wait to use it and see if it works.)
• Problematic Perspectives – put the students in a role of one of the characters in the text they are about to read and pose the problem that character is going to face. Let the students imagine how they would solve the problem. Let them discuss with the other students. Get them involved in the story through the role-play (CAR, 176-178).
• Guided Imagery – this to me seems like guided mediation and might not work for every student, but it should help students invoke visuals of the text they are reading by getting them into the world, the time period, the feeling of the environment. It helps explore concepts and fosters discussion. It is another way to look at the problem perspective activity by having them imagine themselves working through the problem (CAR, 179-180).

 

Another important element of motivating students to read is prediction making. According to the text, “prediction strategies activate thought about the content before reading” and that the students need to use what they already know to make “educated guesses” about the text they are going to read (CAR, 180).

Two prediction making activities are:

1. Anticipation Guides – a list of statements with a wide range of ideas/meanings to which students must respond (CAR, 183-184).
2. Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IPEC) – the teacher selects a passage to be used as introduction to a text, summarize it for students, have them Imagine the scene while paying attention to the senses, have the students Elaborate on their initial responses with a class discussion, have the students Predict what they think will happen throughout the rest of the text, and then have them Confirm what they imagined/elaborated/predicted during and after reading (CAR, 184-186).

 

The final push of this chapter was to get students asking their own questions. If they ask their own questions it usually means they want to find the answers. This can be helped along by you asking them questions that are answered by their own questions. For example, ask them what they want to learn about a character, about a scene, about the motivations behind a plot. Getting them to generate their own questions will help raise motivation to discover the answers. Then of course, if they raise questions that don’t get answered, after reading discuss them (CAR, 187-191).

 

The biggest take-away from reading this is to really get the emphasis off yourself as a teacher and what you want to talk about or explore, and instead focus on the students and what they want to talk about and explore within regards to a text. Motivate them to read, and they might find what you wanted to bring up.

What to Consider When Planning a Lesson and Writing to Learn Activities

The two chapters we read for this week’s post dealt with planning lessons and different Writing to Learn activities. At first I did not understand why these two chapters went together, but as I read further I realized how integral Writing to Learn activities are in lesson plans. But before I get to Writing to Learn activities, it is important to go over what to consider when planning a lesson.

So with lesson plans, teachers need to look at how students are going to learn during their lessons. Teachers can use something called instructional scaffolding which helps students learn how to learn from texts. It involves the teacher modeling how to read texts, what to look for in texts – basically everything necessary to know of how to use texts to their best degree and then letting the students go for it. This type of instruction is better for the students with the use of explicit instruction which not only teaches students what strategies to use to learn the content, but also the why, how, and when to use those strategies.

The key components of explicit instruction are:

• Awareness and Explanation – tell students about the strategy and why you are using it for this particular activity
• Modeling and Demonstration – walk through the strategies step by step and model it for the students
• Guided Practice – let the students practice the strategies and assess them afterwards for what problems they ran into/what went well/etc.
• Application – let them know when to use this strategy and make sure they keep it as a useful skill

Once teachers know how their students will learn during their lessons, then they can get to planning their lessons.

Questions to consider when planning lessons are:

• Standards – What local/state/national standards are being addressed?
• Instructional Goals – What do you want the students to know by the end of the lesson?
• Eessential Questions – What are the big questions that will prompt good discussion/thought?
• Instructional Strategies and Activities – What are you going to do during the lesson, instructional?
• Materials and Resources – What do you need to gather before the lesson that your students will be using?
• New Literacies – What technology can you bring in that will help aid the lesson?
• Assessment – How will you assess what your students learned?

A great summation of a few of these questions is called B-D-A instructional framework. This B-D-A system looks at what a teacher does during, before, and after reading. A closer explanation of B-D-A:

• B – establish the purpose of reading the text, motivate the readers to read the text, build any prior knowledge needed for the text, introduce key vocabulary and concepts needed in order to understand the text, and provide direction for reading for meaning
• D – guide an active search for meaning in the text and help the students learn how to read texts in order to get the most meaning out of them
• A – extend and elaborate upon ideas found in the text and encourage students to talk about meanings they found

Now that we know a little bit more on lesson planning we can look into more instructional activities and mostly – Writing To Learn activities. Writing to Learn (WTL) are short, informal writings that are centered on exploring ideas and clarifying thoughts about certain concepts found in reading.

But in order to use WTL effectively, the students (and you) need to know why writing is so closely linked to reading. There are two main umbrella connections: composing processes – both construct meaning, both involve purpose and working with ideas, both deal with audiences, etc. , exploration/motivation/clarification – reading provides meaning while writing helps students figure out what that meaning is.

The chapter we read provided five WTL activities:

• Microthemes – mini essays that work on synthesizing, analyzing, summarizing, and taking a stand on a text
• POVGs – point of view guides that are responses to questions posed like an interview, encourages speculation, inferential thinking, and elaboration using role-play, gets students’ own experiences involved in the writing process
• Unsent Letters – uses imagination, interpretation, and evaluation of texts, connects reader’s thoughts to specific audiences
• Biopoems – synthesizing a large text into a small poetic format, a structured reflection of a text
• Admit/Exit Slips – allows teacher to check where students are before or after a lesson

Besides these five WTL activities there are also academic journals. Academic journals help students to log their ideas and feelings on certain topics in readings as well as their own personal lives. It creates a personal connection between the student and what they are reading. There are three types of academic journals: response journals – feelings/thoughts recorded as students interact with texts, double-entry journals – dual entry records that are conceptually related, learning logs – records of learning as it happens in the lesson.

I personally love the academic journal route for WTL. I remember my freshman year of high school, my English teacher gave us journal prompts every day that were either directly related to whatever we were learning that day or were just fascinating questions he wanted us to think about. When I first decided to become a teacher I knew I wanted to use these in my classrooms so I was really excited to read about them and learn that they are actually effective for the whole class and not just the one random student (me).

I think that any opportunity teachers have to get their students writing informally is one they should jump at because there are so many benefits to writing that mostly go unnoticed. I know it is a change from how we learned in “the good old days,” but I think this is one change we really need to push for.