The
effect of writing on content learning seems to be obvious, but I had never
considered there are so many different ways to introduce writing into concept
learning. I also had not thought about
it in terms of the PAR framework. We know that writing requires us to organize
thoughts and words in a coherent manner in order to put those words and ideas
down on paper. I had not previously
considered those thoughts and ideas to be part of the preparation phase of
writing. Writing seemed to be more of an assistance and reflective activity. It
makes sense though to use writing to prepare for a lesson. Thinking about and
discussing what you already know will help, but actually writing it down
requires a different level of commitment to organization and formation of
thought. By writing our prior knowledge and what we anticipate learning, we are
forced to form clear thoughts and ideas. There are not pause words or
mid-stream changes in writing. Every sentence is one clear thought from start
to finish. I cannot see a better way to get into the frame of mind for a lesson
than this.
The
many different strategies used for assistance and reflection surprise and
intrigue me. I’ve noticed poetry mentioned many times in this book. I don’t know
if it’s because I am not especially creative or some other reason, but I always
struggled with poetry. I didn’t have any great proclivity for seeing beyond the
words on the page to the deeper meaning and I hated being asked to write poetry
because I just felt inadequate. Does anybody have any ideas for helping
students to decide what to put in their poems? How do you teach someone that
isn’t artistic to write in our most artistic form?
In the
reflection phase, I really like the RAFT strategy. It is such a good way to get
students excited about a topic that requires writing about content. Usually,
content writing consists of research papers. Students do not like writing research
papers because the form and structure is a lot of work and the form and
language used is not the way we speak and communicate in our daily lives. We
have to think about how to change our language when we write in an academic
fashion and it is painful for young students. The RAFT strategy allows students
to take on another role, where they are not simply a student writing a paper,
but they get to be a part of the content. It is more fun. It enables the use of
imagination. And finally, it can be used in absolutely any subject area. I plan
to use this strategy quite a bit when I have my own class.