Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies

PROMOTING THINKING AND CONTENT LEARNING THROUGH WRITING

A research paper presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course TEACHING READING AND WRITING IN THE CONTENT AREAS

by Kathleen F. Bienes March 09, 2011

Table of Contents

Table of Contents..........................................................................................................ii Introduction..................................................................................................................1 Writing in the Content Areas........................................................................................2 Writing as a Product............................................................................................2 Writing as a Process............................................................................................3 Writing and Thinking...................................................................................................3 Writing and Content Learning......................................................................................4 Writing Strategies that Promote Thinking and Learning..............................................5 ABC List.............................................................................................................5 Anticipation Guide..............................................................................................6 Biopoem..............................................................................................................7 Learning Log.......................................................................................................8 Figure 2. Learning log sample...................................................................8 Sentence Synthesis..............................................................................................9 Conclusion....................................................................................................................9 References..................................................................................................................10

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Introduction Writing is an important skill that each student must learn and acquire. The question, however is, Do we teach our students to write? Do we even give them enough opportunities to write? Maybe yes, but I believe most of the time we do not. As a matter of fact, students in the content areas have a hard time when faced with subject matter tasks that involve literacy (Misulis, 2009). Somehow, teaching writing is something that we leave for English or language teachers to take care of. It seems as if subject teachers would hardly benefit from taking time to teach such skill or integrate writing activities in the lesson, when there is just so much subject content to be covered within a certain period of time. Yet, I believe, we all want our students to develop thinking skills and study strategies to better learn the content of our respective subject areas. Having said this, writing then, can play a very important role in developing students thinking and learning in the content areas for its benefits are not only limited within the scope of effective written communication. Its importance also lies in its capacity to promote better comprehension of the lesson and higher order thinking skills among students (Baker et al., 2008; Cooter & Flynt, 1996). Keeping in mind the above statement, this paper endeavors to explore some issues in teaching and/or integrating writing in the content areas and some concerns related to it, and highlight the relationship between writing and thinking, and writing with content learning. This paper will also suggest a number of writing activities and/or strategies that incorporate writing to help teachers in any content area teach writing effectivelynot only to improve students writing skills, but more so to help them enhance their thinking skills while providing opportunities to learn the subject matter at the same time.

Writing in the Content Areas It is undeniable that most, if not all, subject teachers desire to have all their students learn about concepts particular to their content areas and help them succeed in the subject. However, except for English or language classes, most would agree with me that only a few teachers would deliberately teach writing in their specific subject areas. However, understanding and comprehension of any content information is tied to certain literacy skills like writing (Knipper & Duggan, 2006). Yet, even with this knowledge, Rief (2007) speaks out her concern that in the last few years, the focus on the development of literacy skills among learners has emphasized reading to the extent of neglecting writing. Somehow, it seems that teachers forget that a person can read without writing, but he cannot write without reading (Rief, 2007, p. 199). It can be deduced then that writing and reading must go hand in hand. This only proves that writing is necessary, not only in language classes, but across the curriculum (Ediger, 2006; Knipper & Duggan, 2006).

Writing as a Product In most schools, writing is often product-orienteda term paper or research project at the end of the course. This approach to writing only makes students gather as much information as they can about a certain topic, and report the information gathered in a one-shot paper that is awarded a one-time grade based on subjective and objective assessments made by the teacher (Cooter & Flynt, 1996, p. 223). In this type of writing, students have the tendency to procrastinate and put off writing until the last minute. Because of this, it is very likely that the written work students produce have errors in mechanics, composition, and organization (Cooter & Flynt, 1996). This practice then, is

unlikely to give students a chance to revise and rewrite for the improvement of their writing skills.

Writing as a Process As opposed to the product-oriented type of writing practice, the writing approach that highlights the writing process allows student writers to go through a process of brainstorming ideas, researching the topic thoroughly, organizing information and ideas, . . . until the message has been out just right (Cooter & Flynt, 1996, p. 224). This process helps students have a deeper understanding of their topic, and own their writing, unlike to what they tend to feel toward their writing activity in the product-oriented approach. This process writing approach (Cooter & Flynt, 1996) often undergoes stages of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and sharing or publishing. This does not mean however, that students should always undergo all these stages in their writing, but it is important that they experience the several stages mentioned in one of their writing or another.

Writing and Thinking Writing and thinking are two activities that are closely intertwined. Rief (2007) even takes it further by defining writing as thinking. She explains that writing is one way of representing and communicating our thinking to others . . . to inform and negotiate our understandings and misunderstandings of ourselves and the world in which we live (Rief, 2007, p. 191).

The connection between thinking and writing is aptly described in the following statement: If we want children to become adults who are articulate, literate, and thoughtful citizens of the world, they must learn to think deeply and widely . . . [and] commit their thinking to paper (Rief, 2007, p. 190). From this declaration, I can say that writing is far from being a passive activity. It is not just about memorizing facts to be restated in an essay-type test (Rief, 2007). Far from it, writing is an activity that promotes critical thinking skills and metacognition (Baker et al., 2008). It helps the writer think about what he/she does not know and provides avenues for reflection and in-depth thinking (Baker et al., 2008; Cooter & Flynt, 1996; Rief, 2007). In short, writing is not just merely a mode to express ones thoughts, but a channel for thinking such thoughts and arriving at certain ideas.

Writing and Content Learning Engaging students in writing does not only improve their writing skills, but also enhances their learning of the subject matter. The rationale for this is because writing has the capacity to promote better comprehension of the lesson (Baker et al., 2008; Cooter & Flynt, 1996; Knipper & Duggan, 2006). Writing is not only one way to exhibit mastery of the lesson content (Knipper & Duggan, 2006), but also an activity that enhances students understanding of the subject matter under study (Baker et al., 2008; Cooter & Flynt, 1996; Knipper & Duggan, 2006; Misulis, 2009). With the idea of writing to promote content learning, writing-to-learn strategies are starting to receive importance in content area classes. These strategies aid students in their understanding of the lesson by helping them make connections between their previous knowledge and the new information to be learned prior to their reading or lesson

discussion. Such strategies also give them support as they review and summarize what has been learned (Knipper & Duggan, 2006). Given the knowledge that writing is necessary, not only in language classes, but also across the curriculum (Ediger, 2006; Knipper & Duggan, 2006), there is really a great need to integrate writing in the content instruction. With these writing-to-learn instructional tools, there is no reason at all why content area teachers would be unwilling to incorporate writing in the teaching of their respective subject areas.

Writing Strategies that Promote Thinking and Learning There is a plethora of writing strategies that exist out there, but for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on certain writing strategies that promote thinking and aid students in their understanding of the lesson. In this paper, I will not consider writing activities that only center on enhancing students writing skills. Nonetheless, in writing to learn, I believe students indirectly acquire skills to better improve their writing. Based on my readings, I can say that writing activities designed to promote learning also hone learners thinking skills. It is my belief that learning does not take place in isolation. When students learn, it can also be an indication that they have engaged in some type of thinking. Therefore, the following strategies will not be classified into categories. The examples below, mostly taken from Knipper and Duggans (2006) article, are all writing-to-learn strategies that promote students thinking skills.

ABC List More than any strategy, this writing strategy is founded on students critical and creative thinking (Knipper & Duggan, 2006). This strategy calls for students to make an

alphabet listing of a particular topic. Because this requires for a comprehensive type of creativity and deeper understanding of the important concepts, the teacher can assign this activity into groups. After reading the text, students choose important words or phrases from the topic being studied for each letter of the alphabet. The selection process improves students critical and creative thinking and this activity can be highly motivating for them because students are given the choice and control over what they deem significant in the lesson (Knipper & Duggan, 2006).

Anticipation Guide An anticipation guide is a strategy mainly used to aid students comprehension prior to their reading of the assigned passage (Reading Rockets, n.d.). It is composed of several statements that could be used as conclusions from the story (Ruddell, 2008). These statements will guide students to focus on possible important points from the lesson, engage them in making predictions, help them make connections between their prior knowledge and the new information to be learned, and give them opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills and metacognition (Reading Rockets, n.d.; Ruddell, 2008). The writing part for this strategy in is its second phase where students are asked to reflect on their response. Their task would involve choosing one statement from the set of statements in the anticipation guide, and writing a one-paragraph or a half-page response to explain why they answer the way they did (Ruddell, 2008).

Biopoem This is an effective writing strategy to help students write across the curriculum while promoting creative and critical thinking (Knipper & Duggan, 2006), and vocabulary learning among students (Johnson, 1985), particularly in science classes that uses specialized vocabulary which are often unfamiliar to many students. Biopoems can be of several forms and patterns, but they basically promote deeper understanding of a concept, a historical figure, a plant, or animal (see Figure 1). With students who are writing their biopoems for the first time, it is necessary for the teacher to guide them through the whole process. For example, in a science class, the teacher can ask students to write vertically on their papers the name of the plant or animal they are studying, using the letters of the name as first letters of each line. The teacher then tells the students to include a fact about the certain plant/animal they are writing about in each line. Then, if it is in a higher level class (maybe, grade 5 and above), the teacher can ask students to include the scientific name of the plant/animal they are writing about.

Biopoem (Science) _____________________________ Wolves Or Canis Lupus, part of the Canidae family Vary in size, around 4 feet long Eat meat So they are called carnivores.

Figure 1. Biopoem sample.

Note: Adapted from Writing to learn science (pp. 92-103) by P. Johnson, 1985. In A. R. Gere (ed.)., Roots in the Sawdust. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Learning Log This writing strategy has several variations depending on its major purpose. Some are special kinds of journals that accompany students though units of study (Ruddell, 2008, p. 304) while others can take the form of a timeline (Cooter & Flynt, 1996). The type of learning log that I have chosen to present here is a writing strategy that makes use of structured question prompts to encourage students to write (see Figure 2). Students can use this prior to their reading of a chapter or unit, in social studies or science class maybe, in order to help them, predict what they are going to find out and learn, activate their previous knowledge, make connections, and focus their attention to important details that would come up in the course of the lesson.

Sample Learning Log _____________________________________________________________________ Predictions What will I learn from this material? Concepts What have I learned from reading this material? Questions What dont I yet understand about this material? Personal opinion What do I think about this material?

Figure 2. Learning log sample.

Note: Adapted from Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes (p. 465), by K. J. Knipper & T. J. Duggan, 2006. The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 462-470. doi:10.1598/RT.59.5.5

Sentence Synthesis This is a teacher-directed writing activity, but nevertheless, useful in improving students understanding of the subject matter (Knipper & Duggan, 2006). In this strategy, the teacher prepares a number of keywords from the lesson, and instructs students to choose three or four keywords, and use them to construct a sentence that summarizes the main point of the lesson. The sentences students have constructed will then be shared with the whole class for discussion, and revisions can be made as needed. Teachers may also use students constructed sentences, using the same keywords, to build up and connect the new lesson with the previous one.

Conclusion Teaching writing to students is not just a job of a language teacher. All teachers are accountable for students learning and literacy; therefore, writing should be observed across the curriculum. When integrating writing in content areas, teachers must bear in mind that they are not only teaching writing skills to their students, but they are also using writing to help their students develop thinking skills, and learn the subject matter with deeper understanding. This approach is called writing to learn. In this paper, I have presented five writing-to-learn strategies, which only represent a small fraction of the existing writing strategies, to help answer the concern of many regarding the issue of how teachers can best be equipped to become advocates of literacy and learning. It has been a long-standing question whether teachers are really getting the proper training that they need to become not just teachers of their respective subject areas, but advocates of literacy. Some authors are even concerned that students

graduating to become teachers are not equipped with sufficient strategies to help them carry out their teaching instruction to promote literacy and learning among their students (Coltheart & Prior, as cited in Westwood, 2008). Indeed, this is a sad situation if it still exists until now despite of the abundant research-based writing strategies that have been designed for teachers to utilize to help students think, learn better, and become literate individuals of the society. It is my belief however, that more than strategies, the ability to promote literacy among students still lies in the teacher. It is suggested that the quality of teaching and the teachers themselves are more important than any mode of instruction or teaching strategy (Westwood, 2008, p. 10-11). With this statement, I leave you all (including myself) the challenge that Misulis (2009) gave in her article on Promoting Learning Through Content Literacy Instruction: If it is possible to use instructional strategies that help students learn subject matter more effectively while equipping them with tools that can contribute to their future independent learning of subject matter, and if this can be done manageably, thenin this age of accountability and assessmentcan we really afford not to do so? (p. 18)

References Baker, W. P., Barstack, R., Clark, D., Hull, E., Goodman, B., Kook, J., . . . Lang, M. (2008). Writing-to-learn in the inquiry-science classroom: Effective strategies from middle school science and writing teachers. Clearing House, 81(3), 105-108. Cooter, R. B., Jr., & Flynt, E. S. (1996). Teaching reading in the content areas: Developing content literacy for all students. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Ediger, M. (2006). Writing in the Mathematics curriculum. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 33(2), 120-123.

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Johnson, P. (1985). Writing to learn science. In A. R. Gere (Ed.), Roots in the sawdust (pp. 92-103). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Knipper, K. J., & Duggan, T. J. (2006). Writing to learn across the curriculum: Tools for comprehension in content area classes. The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 462-470. doi:10.1598/RT.59.5.5 Misulis, K. E. (2009). Promoting learning through content literacy instruction. American Secondary Education, 37(3), 10-19. Rief, L. (2007). Writing: Commonsense matters. In K. Beers, R. E. Probst, & L. Rief (Eds.), Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice (pp. 189-208). Potsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Anticipation guide. Retrieved March 08, 2011 from http://www .readingrockets.org/strategies/anticipation_guide Ruddell, M. R. (2008). Teaching content reading and writing (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Westwood, P. S. (2008). What teachers need to know about reading and writing difficulties. Victoria, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research Press. Retrieved from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:1mXFjNHP -9EJ:https://shop.acer.edu.au/acer-shop/shop-images/products/reading _writing_diff_sample.pdf+causes+of+writing+difficulties&hl=en&gl=ph&pid =bl&srcid=ADGEESi60ECM4K9iEU7NVwxmnQLsMbeR -YuWaV7Hz63EkOzauiLUFXB2TSNmqaTPhuGbwViqa3w_66 -yOUNr7gQKqqiO0xt37Gl0g7v27-id6pobRPM2d_dLzwqzJB3S2MqEHzMuvtzo &sig=AHIEtbQeKwkoJrAtZQDMfonil1deDFg_6g

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