write more to learn more

WRITE MORE TO LEARN MORE!

UNCW Conference for Teachers of Writing

Angela Peery, Ed. D.

Additional Materials

Under the Authentic Literacy link at drangelapeery.com

On my Dr. Angela Peery Facebook page

Follow me on Slideshare.net

Email: drangelapeery@gmail.com

BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO…

WHY HAVE ALL STUDENTS ENGAGE?

Author and educator Mike Schmoker says this in his book Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning:“The lesson to be learned from the last 30 years should be this: We will never educate all students until we appreciate the value of time and stop preventing them from engaging in… immense amounts of reading, discussion, and writing. These are the indispensable and primary means of acquiring content knowledge and intellectual skills.”

WHY HAVE ALL STUDENTS ENGAGE?

Donovan Walling, in Writing for Understanding: Strategies to Increase Content Learning is right when he says:“Writing increases understanding in all content areas, whether math or science, social studies or foreign language, art or music, or physical education. And you don’t have to be a writing teacher in order to use writing as an instructional tool any more than you need to be a computer programmer to use a computer or an auto mechanic to drive a car.”

WHY HAVE ALL STUDENTS ENGAGE?From Applebee and Langer, Writing Instruction in America’s Schools: What Existing Data Tell Us

Overall, since 1971, student literacy achievement has been holding steady. Using achievement level standards developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the National Commission on Writing (2003) points out that while most students have mastered the basics, few can create prose that is “precise, engaging, and coherent” (p. 16), approximately equivalent to what NAEP calls “proficient.”

Graham and Hebert have made the argument quite eloquently in Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading:“The financial and social costs of poor literacy have been well documented… The consequences of poor reading and writing skills not only threaten the well-being of individual Americans, but the country as a whole. Globalization and technological advances have changed the nature of the workplace. Reading and writing are now essential skills in most white- and blue-collar jobs. Ensuring that adolescents become skilled readers and writers is not merely an option for America, it is an absolute necessity.”

ENGAGEMENT

STRATEGIES THAT HEIGHTEN ENGAGEMENTThink-ink-pair-shareAlphabet brainstormingPass the paper

Alphabet brainstormi

ng:You try it!

ALPHABET BRAINSTORMINGA N

B O

C P

D Q

E RF S

G T

H U

I V

J W

K X

L Y

M Z

ALPHABET BRAINSTORMING: PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Air N

Breathe Oxygen

Chlorophyll Plants

D Q

E RF Sunlight

G T

H U

I V

J W

K X

L Y

M Z

ALPHABET BRAINSTORMING: FRACTIONS

Add Numerator

B O

Common denominator Parts

D Q

E RFactors Subtract

Greatest common factor T

H U

I V

J Whole

K X

L Y

M Z

ALPHABOXESA B C D E F G H I J K L M

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

What applications do you see for alphabet brainstorming?

CRITICAL THINKING

STRATEGIES THAT SUPPORT CRITICAL THINKINGCriss-cross writingSix-word textTwenty ways to look at itTriple responseQuad notes

CRISS-CROSS WRITINGFiction Nonfiction Poetry

Definition Based on fact, truth

Defining features

May be realistic or historically accurate

LinesLine breaksStanzas

Examples that we have studied

To Kill a Mockingbird

Writers we have studied

Harper Lee Jon Krakauer Nikki Giovanni

SIX-WORD TEXTCan serve as a summary of contentCan be used to state the theme of a literary work

Can be adapted to fit many needs and subjects

Six-word text:

You try it!

STRATEGIES THAT SUPPORT CRITICAL THINKINGCriss-cross writingSix-word textTwenty ways to look at it*Triple response*Quad notes*

STRATEGIES THAT HELP WRITERS REFINE THEIR

CRAFT

STRATEGIES THAT HELP WRITERS REFINE THEIR CRAFTRoving revisionsMaking appositives

PLANNING FOR INSTRUCTION

HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD AND HELP WRITERS

GROW?

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

Pat Conroy