Writing To Learn Cirriculum

                It is my opinion that effective teachers ought to utilize literature in all subject areas, so as to encourage students to improve upon their literacy skills and deepen their level of understanding the concepts taught in all subjects. It is no doubt that writing is a part of our everyday lives, whether professionally or educationally. Writing is often done with the intention of communicating, but it is obvious to experienced teachers and on lookers alike that students will think more creatively and be able to identify easier with topics that they chose to write about. There are many “writing to learn” strategies that I was introduced to in my reading comprehension course, which I found to be extremely beneficial in supporting students learning the steps and sequences included in the reading, writing, and reflecting processes. While reading comprehension is extremely important to a student’s achievement, being able to then write in their own words what they have learned is equally as important.

                Undeniably, there are many brilliant strategies that can be used to scaffold students’ learning the writing process. There was a reading comprehension strategy that I actually had the pleasure of utilizing with a student once. The story pyramid was the strategy that I chose to introduce to the student and it was somewhat of a pre-made story frame that guided his thinking about the story he was reading. The student was able to successfully formulate questions, recall main ideas, and clarify parts of the story using the pyramid. After completing the pyramid, the student wrote a summary using the key words that he had chosen by means of following the sequence of the lesson. I chose this exercise to guide the student step by step through the reading thought process, which begins before reading ever occurs and continues on afterwards. The reason that I mention this strategy is because I feel it taught the student how to enhance their thoughts through the use of writing, as well as taught them how to properly, sequentially, and creatively put their ideas into writing. These types of lessons help students discover their role as a reader and thinker, which ultimately improves their metacognition.  

                This supports my feelings about providing rubrics and checklist to students to use as a guide when writing. Checklists also assist the teacher in honing in on each individual student’s progress and assessing their level of comprehension. Writing is one of the main ways that students can prepare themselves to study, clarify, and recall information about a topic. A single writing activity may possibly be used to target many of a student’s needs, including the need to activate prior knowledge and make new connections with material, compare and contrast ideas, highlight main ideas, and take notes to study using spaced repetition. This being said, teachers should use technology, poetry, and other incentives that will continually maintain the interest of their students, especially those that may be struggling. The many ways that students may draw on writing in order to learn is never-ending. Teachers should evaluate assigned writings so as to facilitate assessments that will be evidence of the student’s level of understanding. Above all, writing is advantageous to both students and teachers alike and should be employed in all subject areas as the multifaceted and precious gateway tool that it is.