Log Notes from Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

Vanessa's presentation:
http://prezi.com/3h24bytuvzog/integrating-poetry-into-mathematics-and-beyond/

Vanessa helped us make our own tagxedo that we will use for our NWP idea booklet cover.

Vanessa York's Research Question: Research Question: How can writing be integrated into content area instruction? As students progress from the primary grades to upper elementary school, the focus of instruction becomes increasingly more focused on content area subjects. Instruction shifts from teaching foundational reading skills to the more complex literacy skills specific to content area reading. During this time, it is critical to provide students explicit instruction and modeling of strategies that aid in the comprehension of content area text. Writing in the content areas can be a valuable tool in developing comprehension. Writing in the content areas is a way for students to demonstrate their understanding and thinking about content area concepts. It is not always an essay or research report that requires students to engage in the writing process to complete a final draft. The students engage in a variety of informal writing activities to scaffold instruction and increase student comprehension. Students are writing to learn, rather than learning to write. “Writing to learn engages students, extends thinking, deepens understanding, and energizes the meaning making process (Knipper, 2006).” Writing activities are incorporated before, during and after reading to scaffold instruction and increase student understanding. “Just as we must encourage active thinking while reading, we must help students actively process what they are learning through their writing (Teach for America, 2010)” There are many ways to include writing opportunities into daily instruction. The use of daily journals, structured note taking, admit/ exit slips, and summarizing are examples of strategies that can be used to provide informal writing opportunities. Using these strategies allows students to demonstrate their thinking and synthesize information from content area texts. Writing to learn engages students and actively involves them in their learning. It requires them to put their thinking and learning onto paper. It invites them to interact with text and become more thoughtful readers (Knipper, 2006). Writing in the content areas can be a valuable assessment tool. It allows teachers the opportunity to evaluate the depth of understanding a student possesses. It can be used to demonstrate mastery as well as provide insight into concepts the students are struggling with. Using rubrics or checklists can aid in this process by giving students clear guidelines about what their writing must include. Unfortunately, many content area teachers are reluctant to include writing because they see it as a skill taught in the Language Arts class. They are not comfortable with the idea of teaching writing and don’t feel like they have the training or background to accomplish such a task. It is critical that we change that perception and help content area teachers see that writing in the content areas can be a valuable tool in developing comprehension. Bibliography Jacobs, V. A. (2002). Reading Writing, and Understanding. Educational Leadership , 58-61. Knipper, K. J. (2006). Writing to Learn Across the curriculum: Tools for Comprehension in the Content area classes. International Reading Association , 462-470. Teach for America. (2010). Secondary Literacy. Possible Audiences for Students •Local, state, and national contest opportunities- see back for specific contests •Publishing opportunities like Young American Poetry Digest www.youngpoets.org •Book Binding through companies like StudentPublishing.com-They offer a broad variety of products from handwritten copies, student typed with hand drawn illustrations, to a new online book creation that is all digital. Books can be either a collaborative class effort or individual student books. •Thank you letters to: guest speakers, field trip hosts, bus drivers •Cards for: military service, nursing homes, firefighters, or policemen •Poems or cards for school staff members: custodial staff, cafeteria staff, office personnel, bus drivers etc. •Letters and poems to parents •Postcards for out of town family and friends •Participation in district supported online discussion forum to share learning and receive feedback from classmates and teachers. Lee County’s is blackboard. Edmoto.com is another available forum. •Penpals with other classes or the neighboring schools. Students of mixed ages especially like to write to each other. Middle or High with Elementary, etc. •Letters to authors or local newspaper columnists •Restaurant Reviews- share on school news and also send to the establishment reviewed •Publishing of a class or school newspaper •Persuasive essay to local government or business establishments •Campaigns near elections •Letters to the principal, or persuasive essay to the principal with a new idea or policy change request •Blogging •Letters to upcoming new students •Moviemaker, powerpoint, photostory, prezi.com, or any other presentation media for a broader audience outside of the classroom such as parents, businesses, and other classes •Formal requests for guest speakers •Emails or letters to authors- When students add an alternate ending, another chapter to the book, or similar task, have them email or send off the revision to the author telling them about their class assignment and sharing their work •Family Response Journals- see www.readwritethink.org •Debates on current, meaningful issues Any time, a student writes for a purpose outside of the classroom walls and for a purpose broader than the immediate grade, the task becomes more authentic and thus generally more meaningful to the student. V.York 2/2012

Megan Hall's presentation: Megan Hall's Research Question: How to develop meaningful writing with students who have disabilities by creating a community of writers. The sounds of groans and moans fill the air as the day’s agenda is said aloud “today you will be finishing your expository essay.” Glimmers of anything, but excitement come across student’s faces as the upcoming doom settles into the room. Today they will have to write. This scenario is recurring in classrooms as students with disabilities shy away from lengthy writing; opting to complete an assignment with the least amount of words as possible. Educators, as well as myself, yearn to create a community of writers, but if students do not find writing meaningful a community of writers will be difficult to form. How does an educator foster a classroom where writers are not only welcomed, but what they write is meaningful? In order for this to happen an examination of how students with disabilities write must occur. Typically, they write what they know which in some cases is limited. Therefore creating their writing and thought process to be lacking in depth. Their pre-writing strategies are seldom used as their only goal for writing is to jot some sentences down and pray that a re-write will not be asked of them. Students with disabilities see writing as a one step process here today and gone tomorrow. Unlike other writers they rarely ponder their reader, vary sentence structure, re-read to make sure what they are writing make sense they are a one trick pony only to complete the assignment and be done with it. The task to make a meaningful community of writers seems daunting, but not impossible. For within the word impossible is I’m possible and students with disabilities can write, I have witnessed this with my own eyes. Misspelled words, punctuation errors and grammar mistakes will happen 100% of the time and this is alright. Having students with disabilities correct grammar, spelling and punctuation is great, however if all they see is themselves putting in a comma here, looking up a word there and making sure their sentence structure is correct they are going to see very little improvement to their actual writing. Focus on one aspect of writing at a time, make writing meaningful. Writing cannot be used as a form of punishment if the desired outcome is for students to feel like they are part of a writing community. Writing at first must be short and sweet with an easy destination in mind. Any way to camouflage writing may be necessary as these students are rarely fooled. A way of making writing more meaningful is to have students add depth to their essay. To make what they write a part of them. Often time’s students with a disability look at the entire essay when a revision is required of them. An entire essay is overwhelming to many people not to mention these students. Shutting down and getting into trouble sounds like a better option when they have multiple paragraphs threatening to cause harm to them. A technique that I have used in the classroom is to have students cut their essay apart into individual sentences. This way they are viewing parts of their essay and not the whole. Allow them time everyday to take a strip of their writing and edit that sentence. You may introduce students to a new way of revising/editing each day. Have them add imagery to their sentence, use descriptive words, pull out a thesaurus and change up their word choose the possibilities are endless. To enhance this editing/revising experience students can improve other students writing and in doing so the beginning of a writing community will form. The process to create meaningful writers with the goal of them forming a writing community will not occur in a day; week or month this is a process that will take time and nurturing. View this desire to create a writing community as the writing process; rarely does a writer sit down and write a perfect novel without revisiting their piece of work again and again. The same is true with creating a writing community one does not appear without effort and knowing that even though the task at hand seems impossible; for there are always possibilities within in the impossible. Sources: Dean, Deborah and Warren, Adrienne. “Informal and Shared: Writing to Create Community.” English Journal 101.4 (2012); 50-54. Graham, Steve; Harris R. Karen and Swanson H. Lee. Handbook of Learning Disabilities. New York, New York, The Guilford Press, 2003. NCTE: What We Know about Writing. National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, Illinois