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Writing
What
is Content Area Writing? | Writing to Learn
| Writing to Demonstrate Knowledge
What is Content
Area Writing?
Writing
is an active process of creation, discovery, reflection, and reinforcement.
Writing in the content areas helps students to learn and construct
knowledge: to acquire, synthesize, and analyze information as they
make sense of key ideas. Writing is also a key element in representing
knowledge.
The
following basic tenets guide writing instruction in the content
areas:
- Each
discipline has its own conventions of language use and style,
and these conventions must be taught to students.
- Writing
tasks should be rooted deeply in meaningful content.
- Students
should have an opportunity to engage in the writing process, which
includes planning and revising across multiple drafts.
- Students
should write for authentic audiences and purposes, exercising
some choice over their topics, as relevant.
- Students
should be given opportunities to collaborate with others (teacher
or peers), incorporate feedback, and reflect upon their work.
- Students
should have a chance to write frequently and regularly.
- Students
should know in advance the criteria that will be used to assess
their writing.
Writing
to Learn
In
this section of Literacy Matters, we organize the Sites That Matter
under two categories: writing to learn and writing to demonstrate
knowledge. When students are writing to learn, their attention focuses
more on ideas than on "correctness." Writing to learn
emphasizes what is said (new ideas and concepts) rather than how
it is said (correct spelling, grammar, and usage). Often, less structured
and more informal writing to learn can take forms such as journals,
summaries, responses to oral or written questions, free writing,
and notes.
Writing
to Demonstrate Knowledge
When
writing to demonstrate knowledge, students convey what they have
learned, how they have synthesized information, and what new understandings
they have constructed. They need to make their knowledge understandable
to an audience for a specific purpose. Some common examples of ways
in which students can write to demonstrate knowledge include writing
expository texts, reports, essays that deal with particular questions
or problems, and letters (e.g., to the editor); doing creative writing;
and writing for web sites and projects.
Sites
That Matter
Check
out the sites below for more information on content writing.
Writing
to Learn | Writing to Demonstrate Knowledge
| Lesson Plans
Writing
to Learn
Best
Practices for Effective Writing Instruction
The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory offers a list
of effective writing practices and principles.
www.ncrel.org/engauge/resource/techno/whatworks/sec2.htm
Using Writing to Teach Course Content
This overview article defines the difference between formal and
informal writing activities and includes sample activities such
as freewrite and quickwrite, double entry journals, quick questions,
and a number of informal, write-to-learn, low-stakes writing assignments.
mwp01.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/TA%201-01%20workshop%20A.pdf
Ideas
for Journals
This site provides an overview of the purpose of journals, journal
starters, and ideas for journals.
www.engl.niu.edu/wac/journals.html
Journal
Writing Every Day: Teachers Say It Really Works!
Education World offers this middle school article on the benefits
of journal writing.
www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr144.shtml
Writing
to Demonstrate Knowledge
Expository
Writing
Web English Teacher provides a list of links to various online expository
writing sites. This site is a good place to begin.
www.webenglishteacher.com/expwriting.html
Expository
Sample Prompts and Online Prompt Resources
This site offers a set of links for using writing prompts for different
purposes.
www.bham.wednet.edu/departments/currdept/asmtoff/
MSExpWrite/ExposPromptSampler.html
The
NETWORK Inc. Collins Writing Program
This is the home page for the respected John Collins Writing Program,
which is a model of a program on writing-to-learn and writing across
the curriculum. It has four elements at its core: Cumulative Writing
Folder, Oral Reading, Focus Correction, and Practicing Editing Skills
on Past Papers.
www.collinseducationassociates.com/
Collins_Writing_Program.htm
An
Overview of the Expository Mode
This overview of expository writing includes purposes, organizational
structures, and modes of expository writing, as well as samples
of students writing in different forms.
www.bham.wednet.edu/departments/currdept/
asmtoff/MSExpWrite/ExposModeDescription.html
Information
about Expository Writing
This site offers basic information about expository writing, organizational
patterns, sample graphic organizers, and a rationale for teaching
organizational patterns.
www.stanford.edu/~arnetha/expowrite/info.html
Lesson
Plans
Writing
to Learn with Learning Logs
Teaching Today gives samples of learning log activities for classroom
use, including
Pause To Write in Learning Logs, Listening Response, Write Extended
Definitions in Learning Logs, Learning Log Swap, and a downloadable
Learning Response Activity.
www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/weeklytips.phtml/54
Writing-To-Learn
/ Writing-To-Think Activities that don't drown the teacher in paper
This site provides short before and after writing activities, dialogues,
double entry journals, and many journal ideas.
emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/writing/WTL-WTTideas.htm
Sample
Writing Assignments
This site offers assignments for encouraging learning and demonstrating
knowledge. Although the site was written for older students, the
creative ideas are very adaptable.
www.ferris.edu/htmls/academics/wac/sample.htm#top
Using
Ungraded Writing to Improve Students' Learning
This site contains brief tips on using writing to help focus a class
discussion and understand content.
www.salemstate.edu/wac/learn.html
Skills
and Strategies /Expository Writing
This site from Scholastic has reproducible and interactive activities
and lesson plans on expository writing in topics from across the
curriculum.
teacher.scholastic.com/ilp/index.asp?SubjectID
=1&SubheadID=4&TopicID=26
Five
Lessons for 7th and 8th Graders
This site provides five lessons with simple expository writing activities:
Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, Explain to a Time Traveler
How to Make a Phone Call, Write Your Favorite Things, Create a Table,
Uncover the Purpose of a Web Site.
www.ebstc.org/TechLit/lesson.html
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