Writing to Learn

While teaching in the middle grades, I have learned a great deal about not only reading and writing, but also about how students learn. I realized I knew how to write and was passionate about teaching my students to do the same. But, what I really wanted and needed was a way to help them 'write to learn'. My students should be using their reading and writing to help them make better decisions, understand the content, and promote questions/reflections. They should not be sitting around listening to me talk all day about the content and turning me off like the remote control on their televisions at home. Rather, they should be critical thinkers, processing their own learning.

After racking my brain on how to do this and talking with my colleagues, I was introduced to the book Content-Area Writing, Every Teacher's Guide. What a gold mine! This book is full of teacher-friendly tools to help students 'write to learn'. It shows teachers how to let go of control and share it with the students, discusses the benefits and challenges of the process and provides wonderful examples. Since reading this book and other materials on writing to learn, I work to share this information with others. CHALLENGE: Read it, Use It, Love it! Your classroom will never be the same -- thank goodness.

Below, you will find a copy of one of my Writing to Learn presentations, a blank double-entry journal template and information about quickwrites.

http://www.slideshare.net/nubianbutterfly/portland-presentation-3790060

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30259259/Double-Entry-Journal-Blank-Template

http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/strategies/strat_quick.pdf (Quickwrite)