WRITING AS A LEARNING TOOL: INCORPORATING STUDENT-LED RESPONSE AND FEEDBACK INTO THE CURRICULUM

Miranda Sin I Ma

Fall 2014, October 22CTLE Workshop

Objectives

1. Exploring the possibility of incorporating writing as a learning tool in courses across the curriculum at UM

2. Looking into the different ways to design big and small writing tasks to help students learn

3. Re-conceptualizing the use of peer review

Learning to write

Writing to learn

Critical thinking

Writing to learning #1: Self-discovery

Guided free-writing What kinds of writing tasks/assignments

do you give your students? What are the purposes of giving these tasks?

Why “writing-to-learn”? Or why not?Peter Elbow:• Encourages Ss to read the course readings• Encourages Ss to learn actively• Raises Ss’s awareness on their own understanding of the material

taught through their own language• Helps T learn about Ss’s understanding and reaction to the material

taught• Prevents Ss from experiencing pressure that they tend to get from

doing high stakes writing• Helps Ss improve the quality of their high stakes writing• Allows Ss to pay attention to the content rather than the mechanics

of their writing

Elbow, P (1997). “High stakes and low stakes in assigning and responding to writing.”• Bryan Goodwin (2014)“Writing may help students develop their critical thinking skills, but writing does not necessary teach critical thinking. In fact, the best way to help students learn critical thinking may be to actually teach it.”

Goodwin, B (2014). Research says/teaching critical thinking to teach writing

Discussion questions

Do you think writing is an effective tool for learning?

What are some challenges we encounter when promoting “writing-to-learn” in our classes at UM?

Solutions?

Make a mark on your 2nd continuum

Designing “writing-to-learn” tasks

Smaller tasks

• Chunk and chew/”Stop and Jot”• (Topping & McManus, 2002)

• Quick Writes/Free Writes

• Learning Logs (Klein, 2008)

• Admit/exit slips

• Think-write-pair-share

• The muddiest point

• Email/tweet teacher

• Focused writing (What? So what? Now What?)

Writing to learn (2012). Capacity Building Series

Bigger tasks

• Political Science Staged writing using postscript (Cavdar & Doe, 2012)

• Biology Collaborative essay instead of quizzes (Quitadamo & Kurtiz, 2007)

• Writing for projects (contextualized)

• Academic Essays

How do I use writing as a learning tool?

Smaller-scaleAsk students to: Free write Keep a log (using Moodle database) /a journal Admin/exit slips Write about the learning process Write about their peer’s work

Bigger-scaleAsk students to: Write for projects Engage in staged academic writing Engage in contextualized writing assignments

Make a mark on your 3rd continuum

Having students assess each other

Using peer review

Example of peer review guided questions (beginners)

Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classroom. : The University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 2002)

Example of peer review guided questions (advanced)

Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classroom. : The University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 2002)

Problematizing the use of a peer review question sheet

A pre-determined list of questions that is not generated by the students.

The peer review (analytic) activity is turned into a task (form-filling) activity where students are accessed not on their ability to engage with the text but their ability to find answers to given questions.

Re-conceptualizing peer review

How do we train students to do peer review without the guide sheet?

Focus on the process, not the product of the peer review activity

Your contribution: plan and share!

Based on what has been discussed so far, draft a plan on how you will design a “writing-to-learn” task for a specific concept in one of your lessons.

Communication

English Language

Health Sciences

Computer & Information

Science

Social Work

University Life

Education

Accounting &

Information Manageme

nt

Make a mark on your 4th continuum

Wrapping-up

Post-workshop free-writing

Action plan

References

Cavdar, G., & Doe, S. (2012). Learning through writing: Teaching critical thinking skills in writing assignments. The Teacher, 45(2), 298-306.

Goodwin, B. (2014). Research says/Teach critical thinking to teach writing. Education Leadership, 71(7), 78-80.

Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2005). Peer response in second language writing classroom. : The University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 2002)

Quitadamo, I., & Kurtz, M. (2007). Learning to improve: Using writing to increase critical thinking performance in General Education Biology. Life Science Education, 6(140-154).

Writing to learn. (2012). Capacity Building Series, 25, 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_WritingtoLearn.pdf

Questions/comments?

Thank you!

Miranda Sin I Ma (mirandama@umac.mo)

Senior Instructor, English Language Centre

Coordinator, English Writing & Communication Centre

Faculty Coordinator, Centre for Teaching & Learning Enhancement