Chris M. Anson North Carolina State University Writing to Learn, Learning to Write: Strategies for Enhanced Courses and Curricula Qatar University May

Chris M. AnsonNorth Carolina State University

Writing to Learn, Learning to Write:Strategies for Enhanced Courses and Curricula

Qatar UniversityMay 1, 2007

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Goals

• To explore new ways to use writing in the service of learning and improved abilities

• To consider an instructional model that ties design and assessment to learning goals

• To share ideas for incorporating low-stakes, learning-based assignments in all courses

Your turn…

Please spend 2-3 minutes writing about the following question:

• Why do teachers generally find it hard to assign a lot of writing in their courses?

• Why is it generally hard for students to do those writing assignments?

A Writing Continuum

Low stakes/informal high stakes/formal

Journals Microthemes Term Papers

Reading Logs Response Papers Reports

Reflections Summaries Formal Essays

Minute papers Mini-cases Documented Papers

Blogs Problem Analyses Reviews

Wiki contributions

Allison’s First Reflection

I guess like most people I think of therapy as something has caused a problem and the problem has to be fixed. Say a person gets into an accident and hurts their back, then therapy helps them to cope with the injury. Or a mental problem needs to be dealt with. For this assignment I learned about three separate types of therapy: occupational, physical, and speech. Each type requires special training and deals with only some types of problems or injuries. They have somewhat different goals. The goals of occupational therapy is to help rehabilitate people from injuries so they can . . . .

Rasheeda’s Reflection

Incarcerated women allowed to live with their young children if their (woman’s) crime was not child-abuse related. In a way this seems humane to me, esp. b/c women who have young children shouldn’t be denied the right to nurture them (we talk about rehabilitation), plus the children have a right to be with their mothers. I wonder what it means for the kids though to be in a sort of prison. Is there any research on that. Plus the state has to pay more. But maybe in less high security prisons it could work. The idea seems kinda neat. I want to see what else I can find about it. It seems smart to me.



Reflection: Nursing

http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/disciplines/eng309/nursing/journals.htm

A page from Kimilla’s learning log ---------->

Jim’s Learning Log Entry

The really neat thing I liked about the Thursday lecture was she told us the mechanisms of epiboly. I was wondering how sheets of cells move. Well, it seems that the octodermal cells put out little pilipodia which attach to the vitelline membrane and then contract. This continues until the ectoderm completely covers the yolk. Aha! Then one of the layers is the ectoderm. Dumb-de-dumb-dumb-dumb! Okay, so what’s the second layer? Possibly mesoderm? Yeah. How about endoderm? I don’t think so because the endoderm is the first to form from invagination at the primitive streak. The endoderm displaces the hypoblast according to Abbott (although the book doesn’t take his point of view--it says that the endoderm is formed on top of the hypoblast). Regardless, the endoderm is completely formed by the time the mesoderm is invaginated. Therefore, it’s probably mesoderm and ectoderm! I need to find out for sure.

http://jac.gsu.edu/jac/8/Articles/12.htm

Writing and Football*

Imagine becoming successful by:

• Playing only in high-stakes games• Never practicing• Never being allowed to make mistakes without consequences• Learning only from calls by referees• Rarely working with other players• Being advised to look at professionals on TV• Playing infrequently

*Substitute your own activity (piano, track and field, etc.)

Writing and Football

Yet look at the dominant model of writing in education:

• Playing in Writing only high-stakes games papers• Never practicing• Never being allowed to make mistakes without

consequences• Learning only from calls by referees corrections by

teachers• Rarely working with other players writers• Being advised to look at the writing of professionals on TV• Playing Writing infrequently

Quick but More Complex Assignments

low stakes/informal high stakes/formal

Journals Microthemes Term Papers

Freewrites Response Papers Reports

Reflections Summaries Formal Essays

Reading Logs Mini-cases Documented Papers

Study Questions Problem Analyses Reviews

Middle of the Continuum

• Assignments are still primarily informal (done in one sitting, no extensive revision or rehearsal).

• Certain constraints on learning, critical thinking, or disciplinary practice are highlighted and expected.

• There may be more guidelines for format, structure, presentation, etc.

Connections

• (Start of thread) History: Changes in the medium from vinyl to tapes to CDs

• (End of thread) Strategic Recommendations: Modify distribution channel so that risk takers (artists and production companies) are appropriately compensated.

• (Create connections) 1. Industry forces 2. Marketing practices 3. Threats/opportunities

based on http://whitman.syr.edu/

Teach It to Know It: Plant Genetics

Prepare a 10 minute presentation and handout for 3rd graders, explaining how DNA is replicated/transcribed/ translated. Use words and concepts a 9-year old would understand. Include: why the process is important, how it takes place, and what is the result.

(Students produced models such as the “Pizza Model” for replication; the “Charlotte’s Web” and “Candy” model for transcription, and the “Pom Pom” and “Command” model for translation.)

Teach It to Know It: Food Science

Imagine that you have been hired by your local health department to write a brief pamphlet for public distribution that explains ways to avoid food-borne illnesses in the typical home kitchen. Choose one problem documented in the FDA industrial kitchen guidelines that is also common in home kitchens. Describe this problem and offer one or more solutions or safety guidelines. Your microtheme should be addressed to a general public audience, not specialists.

Debate on Propositions: Political Science

Proposition: “The United States can and should use all the means at its disposal to bring democracy to the Middle East.”

Readings: • Noah Feldman, After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), pp. 189-209. • Marina Ottaway, Thomas Carothers, Amy Hawthorne, and Daniel Brumberg, “Democratic Mirage in the Middle East,” Carnegie Endowment Policy 7Brief No. 20 (October 2002).

http://sophia.smith.edu/~jhymans/UpdatedUSFPsyll112503.pdf

Mini-Cases and Scenarios

You are writing a letter to the high school teacher of your son or daughter. You know that the period covered in your child's course includes what is commonly referred to as the Middle Ages and you want to be sure that your son or daughter is not taught the "flat earth error" that seems to be implied in the textbook. In your letter, describe the "error" as presented in Russell's Inventing the Flat Earth, and explain why it is important that a more accurate story be presented to the class.

http://www1.umn.edu/scitech/microtheme1.htm

Mini-Cases and Scenarios: Linguistics

We have now read the great debate between Chomsky and B. F. Skinner about the nature of language. Imagine that you’re hosting a TV debate series and Skinner and Chomsky have agreed to be guests. Formulate one or two questions that you have decided to ask these two thinkers on the show—make them ones whose “answers” you can glean from the two readings. Now create a brief dialogue in which Chomsky and Skinner provide their responses to your questions. Please do not take words from the articles verbatim; render their responses in new language based on what they would say—which you will base on what they wrote in the two articles.

Sequenced Mini-case: Immunology

At birth, Baby Joe appeared to be a normal, healthy baby boy. Both of his parents were in their late twenties and were healthy as well. At four weeks of age, Joe developed a middle-ear infection (called otitis media). [Etc.] . . . Cultures of the drainage fluid showed the presence of Haemophilus influenza, a pathogen commonly found in ear infections in infants. Starting at three months of age, Joe had four bouts of diarrhea which persisted for 3-5 days each time. [etc.] . . .

Questions

• Given the information presented above, what do you suspect is the underlying cause or causes of Joe’s health problems? Do you think the cause is genetic, environmental, or both?

• How might these health problems cause Joe’s slow weight gain (also called “failure to thrive”)?

http://www.sciencecases.org/baby_joe/baby_joe.asp

Voices: Education

Think of the following as "voices" of people in response to the Freire reading "The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom and Education and Conscientiazation." Look in them for ideas you agree or disagree with; mis-interpretations of Freire; problematic of interesting applications of his ideas; etc.

• "Look, there's this old saying, 'You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.' So Freire thinks we shouldn't be 'feeding' illiterates (or kids, for that matter) with knowledge. But how else can they be taught? In some cases, we just have to force-feed them.”

• "When Freire talks about poor illiterates being on the 'outside' of society, I agree, and this is true for the poor in the U.S. But I don't know why he would argue that we shouldn't bring them into the 'inside'. Bringing them to the inside humanizes them. I don't see why they need to understand their reality along with getting smart and getting literate. That comes later because it's a higher-order thing.” [etc.]

Dialogue Journals: Dave’s Reflection

After reading about Akinnaso’s struggle with personal literacy within a community that otherwise had a very low level of literacy, I have decided to revisit my previous log entry regarding the illiterate farming community. With new information and an actual first hand account of growing up in just such a community, I feel more prepared to discuss the issue

On the surface, Akinnaso’s account seems to support my idea that literacy within an illiterate farming community would not be necessary for its basic welfare. For example, Akinnaso describes the process by which his father tells time: “either by the nature of some shadow or, sometimes by father’s intuition” (140). On one hand, Ong might argue that this is a cognitive consequence of the father’s illiteracy, as opposed to a more “literate” manner of telling time. On the other hand, if (etc.)

Dialogue Journals: Jill’s Response to Dave

Dave, In your article readdressing the issue of literacy in a community your last paragraph says though literacy created some distance between Akinnaso and his family, “he was an essential member of his community through his literacy, and has since become a much stronger member of the worldwide community through his involvement in education and literary advocacy.” This whole idea you mentioned of participating or being “distanced” from a community brings to my mind a few more questions. Does literacy at times exclude people from a sense of community with those who are illiterate, and if so can there be such thing as a close knit community or family when all members are of varying literacy levels- some even completely illiterate? (response continues for a page)

Double-Entry Notebook: Poetry

From low to high doth dissolution climb, And sink from high to low,

along a scale/ Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mnelson/double1.html

I'm not sure what this means. The dictionary says that dissolution means dissolving, disintegration, decay, separation, breaking-up. Maybe he means that his mood goes up and down: his feelings can be broken up into parts?

"awful"? Maybe "full of awe"? His feelings are intense, maybe? "concord"= being in harmony. Maybe all the parts of his feelings work together. His personality is a whole made up of all the parts of his feelings.

Double Entry Notebook

Original Passage

Creative people, often characterized as "oppositional," may find their innovative ideas undervalued.

Excerpt of ResponseMaybe . . . I think it depends on the context. I also think that ordinary people in their everyday lives can come up with creative ideas that are neither undervalued nor oppositional. For example, I was pleased that I came up with the yellow post-it-notes passed around as a new way to introduce "Send-a-Problem.”

http://www.usafa.af.mil

Double-Entry Notebook: Architecture

In this type of double-entry, students are asked to do something specific with a passage, issue, etc., such as “relate,” “compare,” or “explain.” On a Time Magazine reading, a student writes the following in response to the “explain” cue: In a rapidly developing technological world where mobility and rootlessness are endemic, this movement back to basics in Architecture is reminiscent of the current trend of "country" furnishings and knickknacks. It is as though people, uneasy with a world and technology they are hard pressed to understand, are seeking the old, safe, comfortable stability of a known past. The obsession with hand crafts as opposed to computers further indicates this is a popular need. Interestingly, the most contemporary architectural examples of new buildings in the Northwest, other than houses, do not seem to reflect this material art philosophy. Colubmis Center resembles . . . [etc.]

http://writing2.richmond.edu/wac/2entrynb.html

Texts into Contexts: Crop Science

Assignment: Students explore innovations in crop science to inspire identity with the field and extend the study of genetics. They make low-stakes micropresentations (3-5 minutes; 3 PP slides) sharing recent innovations and explaining genetic processes briefly, and turn in a brief (low-stakes) written report of their informal research

EXAMPLE EXAMPLE

Study Questions: Horticulture

• What is the major goal of pruning mature trees?

• Why prune one trunk away if a double trunk has occurred?

• Are hedge sheers good to use? • What is the purpose of thinning? • Why would plants be pruned?

Provided Data Minipaper

Arrange the propositions below in a logical order, connect the individual statements with appropriate transitions, and arrive at a conclusion that is supported by your argument. Using all of the points supplied below, write a 2-page essay on the topic, “The relationship between coral and zooxanthellae.”

• Coral reefs are formed by scleractinian corals that typically occur in shallow (<60m) water.

• Hermatypic corals contain photosynthetic algae (zooxanthellae) in special membrane- bound cavities inside the cells of the gastrodermis.

• Reef corals are limited to clear water because suspended material interferes with the transmission of light.

• Over two-thirds of the metabolic requirements of corals are provided by zooxanthellae. [Etc.]

cwp.missouri.edu/resources/samples

Summary Statement, Physics

Cavendish's Experiment: We watched a video clip of a Cavendish apparatus moving on a fast-motion camera. There were two large masses and a stick that hung perfectly balanced on a string. Since the string-stick apparatus caused the device to be frictionless, it could freely rotate in any direction. The original position of the stick was random, since it hung randomly to begin the experiment. After some minutes, the tiny gravitational fields of the masses caused the stick's ends to gravitate towards the masses. They rotated towards them and then because of momentum bounced back and forth until finally coming to rest pointing directly at the masses. This is simply a tiny earth-scaled experiment to show that the gravitational constant works for all objects. Thus we know that everything gravitates towards everything else.

Maps, Webs, Trees, Other Visuals



http://trc.ucdavis.edu/jcwagner/students/SITT_maps/sitt_frs/index.htm

Maps, Webs, Trees, Other Visuals



http://trc.ucdavis.edu/jcwagner/students/SITT_maps/sitt_frs/index.htm

Lenses

For this assignment you will be finding articles on social issues written from various perspectives. You are required to compare an article written from a feminist perspective with one written from a non-feminist perspective (traditional, conservative, liberal, etc.). Some of you will compare two popular articles, some will compare two scholarly articles and some will compare a popular with a scholarly.

http://www.coloradocollege.edu/LIBRARY/Course/ID/WS110_04.html

Lenses

1. Identify a critical problem, question, or issue related to poverty, inequality or social change that has arisen for you from the program. It could be the same issue identified in part one or it could be a different question entirely. Hint: sometimes critical questions are a helpful tool for remembering issues/problems/questions you have with the readings that you might like to explore in praxis papers.

2. Next, identify and outline the key features of an interpretive lens (theory) that you will use to discuss your question. You will be using this lens as your lens to analyze the question you have identified in #1 above. Your interpretive lens can come from our readings or you may want to do your own theorizing (develop your own interpretive lens). In all cases cite your sources. If you draw from our readings be very explicit about them, really use them in your paper.

http://www.hecua.org/pdfs/MUSTF06Syllabus.pdf

Web Search, Crop Science

Goal: explore innovations in crop science to inspire identity with the field and extend the study of genetics.

Assignment: Students do low-stakes micropresentations (3-5 minutes; 3 PP slides) sharing recent innovations and explaining genetic processes briefly, and turn in a brief (low-stakes) written report of their informal research

EXAMPLE EXAMPLE2

Admit & Exit Slips (1-Minute Papers)

Suppose you put a big block of ice in a bucket and then fill the bucket with water until the water level is exactly even with the edge of the bucket. The ice of course is now floating in the water. Now we will wait for several hours for the ice to melt. Which of the following will occur? (Neglect evaporation.) 1. The water level in the bucket will remain the same. 2. The water level in the bucket will drop. 3. Some water will overflow the sides of the bucket. Your task is to explain your answer in writing to a classmate who doesn't understand and who is arguing for what you consider to be the wrong answer. Explain your answer so clearly that it serves as a little textbook that will explain the physics principles involved.1

Microtheme Strategies for Developing Cognitive Skills," John C. Bean, Dean Drenk, and F.D. Lee, published in Teaching Writing in All Disciplines 12 (December 1982) in the Josey-Bass series New Directions for Teaching and Learning.


A question I had about classes, when you allocate memory for a new class object does it allocate memory for all of its methods (are they called member functions in C++) or are those just referenced one place. That's worded pretty poorly so I'll give an example.

I have a class foo with 1000 different methods (it can do a lot) and 1 int.

Now if I do something like:

foo * foo1 = new foo;foo * foo2 = new foo;...foo * foo80 = new foo;

I know it has to allocate memory for the total of 80 ints, along with whatever header information it needs. But does it also allocate however much space the instructions for those 1000 methods require 80 times or just once?


I think both the most gratifying and the most confusing points in the lecture was about not being able to put non-constant values as the

indices of an array. I was the one that used a variable as the index

in the definition of an array in last week's programming assignment. It compiled on my computer fine (in Dev-C++), then I switched to Visual Studio and I got an error in exactly Dev-C++that spot. Then I switched to a Linux machine and everything was okay again. I had a feeling something was up. It's good to know there's a programming "law" against defining a non-constant size of an array. But, why would it compile sometimes? And why is it wrong to do?

http://www.cs.umass.edu/~smucker/teaching/lecture4-one-minute-answers.txt

Invented Dialogues and Letters

Your assignment is to write a police report as an investigator of a crime caused by an insect or disease. Your job as the investigator is to write all of your findings in your report and then find your main suspect. The “being a pest” assignment does not have a definite length; however, it usually takes ½ - 1 page to create a quality police report.

The Blogging Trail: Organic Chem.

Almost everyone has seen a lightstick. A lightstick is a plastic tube with a glass vile inside it. When the tube is bent, the vial breaks allowing the chemicals to mix and react. The colorfully glowing sticks utilize a chemical process called chemiluminescence where energy is released in the form of light. The most common lightsticks use chemiluminescence with colored tubes to provide the desired color.This process is not caused by heat and may not produce heat, but the speed of reaction is still dependence on environmental heat. The colder the environment, the slower the reaction and and will glow longer.

Drexel University, http://chem241.wikispaces.com/



The Blogging Trail (Organic Chem)

Lightsticks have three parts. There are two chemicals that react to release energy which is converted to light. Usually, commercial lightsticks utilize the reaction between hydrogen peroxide and acetonitrile. When the glass vile is broken and the two chemicals are mixed, it will release enough energy to excite the electrons in the oxygen to cause the electrons to jump to a higher energy level and then fall back releasing light.Specifically, the hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the acetonitril eventually forming excited oxygen. This decomposes and releases the energy as light as can be seen stepwise above.More on chemiluminescence can be found here on ﾒ A Chemiluminescence Reaction between Hydrogen Peroxide and Acetonitrile and Its Applications. ﾓ

7/10 - These are not the chemicals used in glowsticks. Glowsticks rely on a much stronger chemiluminescent reaction. Acetonitrile has a triple bond, not double as it appears in your diagram. Also some arrows are missing in the mechanism. The last step should show conversion of singlet oxygen to the triplet ground state. This looks like a mistake in the original paper.

ABC Brainstorming

Fill in as many letters as you can with a word or phrase explaining what you learned in Chapter 17. Then use the words or phrases to write a summary paragraph of Chapter 17.

A_________________B_________________C_________________

www.floridatechnet.org/ahs/curriculum/ biology/Ch.%2017/WS%20Ch.%2017.doc

ABC Brainstorming: Shakespeare

A All’s Well that Ends Well

As You Like It Antony and Cleopatra

G Globe Theatre ghost

(Hamlet’s dead father)

M Merchant of Venice

Midsummer Night’s Dream

S Stratford on Avon (Shakespeare’s

birthplace)

B Born in 1564

Benvolio

H Hamlet Henry N “Now is the winter of our

discontent” (Richard III)

T The Taming of the Shrew The

Tempest

C Comedy of Errors

Cymbeline Coriolanus

I “It is the east, and Juliet is the

sun” (Romeo & Juliet) Inverness

O Othello Ophelia

(Hamlet)

U

D Died in 1616

Denmark (Hamlet’s home)

J Julius Ceasar P Paris (Juliet’s set-up guy)

Prince of Tyre

V Verona

E Elsinore (Hamlet’s home) K King John King

Lear

Q Quince W Winter’s Tale

F Falstaff (Henry IV) L Love’s Labor’s Lost

London

R Richard III Romeo

and Juliet

XYZ

Your Turn . . . .

• Think about a specific learning goal you want students to accomplish in your course.

• Following the template in the handout, articulate this goal in terms of what students might experience in learning it and how it might be manifested in some work they produce.

• Now consider the 20 low-stakes strategies we’ve discussed. Try adapting one of the strategies to your learning goal(s). If none of the strategies work, invent one, or describe one that you already use.

• Share your ideas in a pair or small group.

Assessing Informal Writing

• Oral response in class (to entire class summarizing thoughts)

• Sequenced collection & evaluation• Peer response• Self-reflective evaluation• Brief marginal and end comments• Written grading sheet/checklist

Name:

1. Reading reaction #1: [ ] reflects thoughtful response/critical analysis[ ] reflects general understanding/basic summary[ ] reflects poor/hasty reading[ ] missing or turned in late

2. Freewrite, Johnson [ ] reflects thoughtful response/critical analysis article: [ ] reflects general understanding/basic summary

[ ] reflects poor or hasty reading[ ] missing or turned in late

3. Etc. . . . . . . .

Sample Informal Assessment: Nursing

Notebook Evaluation: Art History 201 Name: ____________________

1. Reflections on Plates 1-6 4 3 2 1 2. Museum visit reflection 4 3 2 13. News controversy microtheme 4 3 2 14. Reflections on form/fig. 4 3 2 1 5. “Death of Art” article 4 3 2 1 6. Reflections on “Judgment” 4 3 2 1 missing/late

Sample Informal Assessment: Art History

Write-to-Learn Checklist Name: ____________________ 1. Application of Concept #1 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø2. Microtheme #1 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø 3. Response to in-class experiment [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø4. Application of Concept #2 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø5. Microtheme #2 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø6. Microtheme #3 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø7. Application of Concept #3 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø8. Response to video [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø9. Brief synopsis of outside reading [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø10. Microtheme #4 [ ] √ [ ] √- [ ] Ø

Sample Informal Assessment: Civil Engineering

Sample Informal Assessment: Elementary Education

• The “Three” Reflection Paper: The paper scoring a 3 is thoughtful, providing a response to the question(s) that shows insightfulness and depth of understanding. This writer also provides specifics rather than generalities, perhaps in the form of examples when appropriate.

• The “Two” Reflection Paper. The paper scoring a 2 is adequate but may seem a little hastily done, without a lot of thought. Typically, this person will lack some specifics or offer mainly generalized statements.

• The “One” Reflection Paper. The paper that scores a 1 will wander in focus, be very brief and unspecific, or will show an overall lack of understanding and reflection, or will be very difficult to understand and connect to the material.

Questions and Discussion

Documents

Chris M. Anson North Carolina State University Writing to Learn, Learning to Write: Strategies for Enhanced Courses and Curricula Qatar University May