readingacademicsuccess.pbworks.comreadingacademicsuccess.pbworks.com/f/R&WAC.docx · Web viewTaking Across the Curriculum Seriously: Designing a. Learning, Reading, Writing, and Math

Taking Across the Curriculum Seriously

Taking Across the Curriculum Seriously:

Designing a Learning,Reading, Writing, and Math

Across the Curriculum Program

Dan Kesterson

Designing a Learning, Reading, Writing, Math Across the Curriculum Program

Integrating

Learning, Reading, Writing,

and Math Across the Curriculu

m

Learning =

Dendrite

Growth

Develop Competence in Area of Inquiry = 1. deep foundation of factual knowledge, 2. understand ideas in a conceptual framework, 3. organize knowledge for retrieval and application.

To Learn

To Communic

ate

Rules of Consolid

ation

Cognitive

Strategies

Internal Dialogu

e

Organize

Information

Writing in the

Disciplines

To Learn

In all Undergra

duate CoursesWriting

Across the

Curriculum

Discipline Writing

Conventions

Explain to

Oneself

Explain to

Others

Learning

Reading

Writing

Math

Reading to Learn

Math

Writing to Learn

Math

To Learn

Increase Math

Content Across

the Curricul

um

Develop Faculty

Capacity for

Teaching Math in Context

Student Understanding of

Value and Importan

ce

Student Ability to Use Simple Math

Skills

Write to Elaborat

e

1

1


Table of Contents

Introduction - 6The Most Bang for the Buck in Future Directions - 11

PART 1: Designing an Across the Curriculum Program - 12

PART 1: Designing Across the Curriculum Program - 13Why the need for a comprehensive design? - 13Learning Across the Curriculum and Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum - 13

PART 1, SECTION 1: Learning to Learn - 15Role of Learning in Across the Curriculum Activities - 15Rules for How the brain Learns Naturally and Rules of Consolidation Learning is Physiological – Growing New Dendrites - 15Learning/Forgetting – Re-absorption of Newly Grown Dendrites - 16The Rules of Consolidation Work On Many Levels - 17More on Re-exposure to Information in Which the Learner - 18 Elaborates about What They are LearningReading to Learn - 18Internal Dialogue Questions _- 18Writing to Learn - 18Competence in an area of inquiry - 19

PART 1, SECTION 2: Reading and Writing to Learn _ 19Reading to Learn Conceptual Framework - 19

Concept: Develop a Deep Foundation of Factual KnowledgeConcept: Understand Facts and Ideas in a the Context of a Conceptual Framework - 19Concept: Organize Knowledge in Ways that Facilitate Retrieval and Application - 19

Reading in the Disciplines (RID) - 20Concept: Reading in the Disciplines – 20

Writing Across the Curriculum: An Introduction -20Writing to Learn (WTL) - 20Writing in the Disciplines (WID) -20Integrated Reading and Writing to Learn Activities - 21

PART 1, Section 3: Learning, Reading and Writing Academic Support - 21Integrated Learning Centers - 21Referral and Feedback Procedures for Early Alert Academic Referral The Use of Technology - 22

PART 1, Section 4: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines - 22Reading in the Discipline (RID) - 22Writing in the Disciplines (WID) - 23

PART 1, Section 5, Professional Development - 24Develop ongoing, organized, and consistent professional development for paired and team-teach developmental courses


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and/or skills courses with freshmen survey courses. - 24Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development on the role of learning in across the curriculum activates. - 24Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development for learning, reading, writing, and math in the disciplines for program courses. - 24Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development for learning, reading, writing, and math in the disciplines for program courses. - 24

PART 2 - NOTES: Understanding Resistance to Across the Curriculum ProgramsResistance to Across the Curriculum - 26Students should be proficient writers upon matriculating to the university level - 27Writing-intensive course require instructors to sacrifice valuable content instruction for writing instruction, - 27Instructors who teach with writing must have expertise in the specifics of grammar and usage. - 27Other Resistances - 27Personal Choices (Faculty) (Academic Freedom - 28More Harm Than Good – Careful PrePlanning - 28Avoid the “Training Model,” “Conversion Model,” and “Problem-Solution Model” - 29Model for WAC Programs: The Faculty Dialogue Model - 30Meeting Faculty Needs -30

PART 3 - NOTES: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Integrating Across the Curriculum - 32

Defining a Conceptual Framework - 33Aligning Activities with Content Instruction - 33

The Complexity of Across the Curriculum Instruction - 33Purpose of Writing - 34Basic Principles of Writing Across the Curriculum - 34

Where Should Across the Curriculum Be Situated - 35Overview of Content of Across the Curriculum - 38

Brief Overview of Concepts for Learning Across the Curriculum - 39Brief Overview of Concepts for Reading Across the Curriculum - 40Brief Overview of Concepts for Writing Across the Curriculum - 42Brief Overview of Concepts for Math Across the Curriculum - 43

A common Core of Learning, Reading, writing and Math Activities - 44Three Key Human Learning Research Findings - 45Internal Dialogue and Rules for Consolidation - 50Shared Philosophy of Reading and Writing – 5 0Meeting Ground of Reading and Writing Instruction - 50From the Research and Literature - 51

Research on Connections Between Reading and Writing - 51

PART 4 - NOTES: Learning Across the Curriculum - 53Learning Across the Curriculum - 53

The Five Rules for How the Brain Learns Naturally - 54


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Understanding How Learning Occurs - 55How the Brain Learns Naturally - 55

Learning = New Dendrite Growth - 59Role of Prior Knowledge - 60

Forgetting and Strengthening Newly Grown Dendrites - 61

PART 5 - NOTES: Reading to Learn - 62Why is Reading Important in the Content Areas - 63Reading to Learn - 64

Moving Information to Long-Term Memory - 64The Rules of Consolidation: Remembering What Was Read - 65 Core Cognitive Strategies - 66Inquiry Questions for Internal Dialogue - 67Writing to Learn and Internal Dialogue - 67

Integrating Reading and Writing Through Internal Dialogue - 67Metacognition - 70

Metacognition Defined 70Metacognition Not Instinctive – Must be Learned - 70

Developing Internal Dialogue – Slow Down - 71Organization and Conceptual Frameworks - 72

Conceptual Framework Defined - 71Mind Mapping - 72

Teaching Content Knowledge and Reading Strategies in Tandem - 72

PART 6 - NOTES: Writing to Learn - 73Premises for Writing Across the Curriculum - 74Differences Between Writing to Learn and Writing to Communicate - 75Writing to Learn Defined - 75

Writing to Learn (WID) - 76Writing Across the Disciplines (WID - 76

Brief Introduction to Current Theories of Writing - 76Writing to Learn from the Literature - 77A Quick Note About Accessing Writing to Learn Activities - 79Benefits of Writing to Learn - 80Strategies - 80

Strategies for Starting Class - 80Strategies for ending Class - 81

PART 7 - NOTES: Math Across the Curriculum - 82WHY? - 83Math Literacy Defined - 83Integrating Procedures for Learning, Reading, Math and Writing Across the Curriculum - 84

Conceptual Framework for Learning - 84Math Concepts and Learning Objectives - 84Integrated Reading Activities - 84Integrated Writing Activities - 84Integrated Math Activities -84

PART 8 – NOTES: Academic Support - 85Integrating Across the Curriculum with Technology - 85


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AdvisorTrac and TutorTrac - 85

PART 9 - NOTES: Integrating Learning, Reading, Writing, and Math Across the Curriculum - 87Reading and Writing as Intermediate Stages of Learning and Transfer - 88

Intermediate Stages -88Intermediate Stages for Developmental Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum - 88

Learning and Transfer - 89How Can Reading and Writing Enhance Learning and Transfer - 89Foundation of General Education Competencies - 90

Reading and Writing to Learn Across the Curriculum Basics - 92Learning, Reading, Writing Connection Across the Curriculum - 92

PART 10 - NOTES - Reading and Writing in the Disciplines - 95Reading in the Disciplines - 96

Generic Reading Strategies - 96Discipline Specific Reading Strategies - 96Common Characteristics of Large Comprehensive Textbooks - 96

Features of Inconsiderate History Texts - 97Writing in the Disciplines - 97

Writing in the Disciplines from the Literature - 97

PART 11 – NOTES: Planning a Math Across the Curriculum Lesson (Example: Calculating GPA in GE 100 or GE 101) - 99Math Across the Curriculum Goals - 100Typical Integrating Across the Curriculum Questions Instructors Must Answer 101

APPENDIX - 113

Appendix A Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum - 114Appendix B Classroom Assessment Techniques - 118

Introduction

This whitepaper paper below (my notes) is a collection from the literature and research on learning, reading, writing, and math across the curriculum from a wide range of sources, which provide insight into issues for developing an across the curriculum program. The compilation of notes is primarily for myself as I need to catch up on the literature on across the curriculum efforts. The goal of this effort is to explore the interdependence of learning, learning how to read, write and solve math problems to begin developing an integrated learning, reading,


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writing and math across the curriculum program which focuses on producing literate college graduates. This entails integrating skill development across the curriculum in developmental courses, credit skills courses, and content courses.

The literature and research clearly illustrate the confusion, misconceptions, and disagreements about what constitutes “across the curriculum” activities in postsecondary education. The literature documents that students have not learned how to use reading, writing and math to learn (foundational) and that students are graduating college without having developed the literacy skills to begin their careers.

State of the NationLearning SkillsThe main failure documented by retention studies is that college students in huge numbers simply do not know how to take control of their learning by using cognitive strategies and habits of mind for learning which result in competence in an area of inquiry. That is, their learning is very surface. They have not developed the cognitive skills for using reading or writing to learn. The literature also confirms that developmental and content faculty as a whole have not kept up with the research on how the brain learns naturally and therefore focus on class activities that limit reading and writing to communication and forgo activities that foster learning which is foundational for communication.

Literacy Skills“Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That's not saying much for the remainder.” (Rogers 2008)

“Only thirty-five percent of recent college graduates passed the National Adult Literacy Exam.” (Hersh, 2006)

“Less than 50 percent of recent college graduates are proficient in math and reading, according to a report by the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC.” (2006)

There have been many efforts to reduce these problems in higher education over the past fifty years. Most notable have been the “across the curriculum” efforts – reading across the curriculum, writing across the curriculum, and math across the curriculum. For the most part these efforts have been isolated and compartmentalized into either reading, writing or math activities with little focus on the interdependence of the cognitive processes in these areas. For example, when integration occurred it looked more like assigning readings that were then the information basis for writing activities or solving problems with little effort to ensure that learning had occurred while reading or that the students’ cognitive skills for learning while reading were honed during the readings. Another example is the failure to recognize the potential for comprehending, organizing,


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clarifying that writing can bring to the processes in reading and math. Huge preconceptions form when literacy skills are taught in isolation and the skills are not integrated.

The primary goal of this handbook is to provide an overview of the literature and research on learning, reading, writing and math across the curriculum.

The secondary goal is to consider an organizing strategy for developing a Learning, Reading, Writing and Math Across the Curriculum (LRWMAC) program within the college to support the following two goals:

to provide professional development opportunities for faculty to acquaint them with LRWMAC philosophy and strategies

to provide individual and small professional development and ongoing support for faculty members as they experiment with new strategies and ideas in their courses

How are College Graduates Faring? “Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food. Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers. More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.” (Associated Press, 2006)

Reading “College graduates are reading less and less well. Thirty-nine percent of college freshmen report doing no pleasure reading whatsoever. Another 20% report reading for pleasure less than an hour a week. The percentages are almost the same for college seniors. Among college graduates, only 31% were proficient in reading prose in 2003; in 1992, 40% were proficient in reading prose.Think this is just about people not reading novels and poems anymore? Think again. The more people read, the better readers, writers and learners they become; the less they read, the less well they are able to read, write and learn.” (Turner, 2007)

“Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That's not saying much for the remainder.” (Rogers 2008)

Writing“Virtually every study within and outside the academy acknowledges we are not doing as well as we should. It was recently reported, for example, that only thirty-five percent of recent college graduates passed the


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National Adult Literacy Exam, a low standard indeed but worse yet, a decline from college graduates ten years ago.” (Hersh, 2006)

Math“Less than 50 percent of recent college graduates are proficient in math and reading, according to a report by the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC.” (2006)

“A survey examined college and university students nearing the end of their degree programs. The students did the worst on matters involving math, according to the study.Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.” (Associated Press, 2006)

“(It) is obvious: some colleges have such low academic standards that students who enter with feeble skills can make it through to graduation without improving them. We see among college graduates, 31 percent achieve proficiency in prose and quantitative literacy and 25 percent in document. However, both prose and document literacy registered substantial declines compared with the 1992 data, which were 40 percent and 37 percent respectively. Two conclusions appear warranted from that. First, a college education does improve literacy for a lot of students, but second, it isn’t doing so as much as it used to. Finally, the fact that such relatively small percentages of college graduates reach the “proficient” level is depressing. Our whole educational system consumes a tremendous amount of time and money and achieves at best mediocre results.” (Leef, 2006)

Why Does It Matter?Without these literacy skills, information is amassed and knowledge fails to be constructed, greatly reducing the chances of retrieval and application – critical thinking stagnates.

“With lower levels of reading and writing ability, people do less well in the job market. Poor reading skills correlate heavily with lack of employment, lower wages, and fewer opportunities for advancement. And deficient readers are less likely to become active in civic and cultural life, most notably in volunteerism and voting.” (NEA chairman Gioia, 2007)

“Unless (soft skills – among them reading, writing and numeracy) are systematically practiced, they will be lost. For example, once (soft skill) courses are passed with a high A or a low C, our institutions assume that their work is done. I (Leonard) suggest that students must be given frequent opportunities to


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practice their newfound skills in other courses across the curriculum. The traditional barriers that have separated the academic disciplines must be broken down. The common professorial response that "I teach engineering or sociology, not composition or speech" must be countered. The soft skills should have a place in every collegiate classroom. If graduates leave with significant deficits in these enabling or core employability and lifelong learning skills, what can be said of the half-life value of the content knowledge recorded on their transcripts? The baccalaureate experience is flawed. In not delivering a completely competent graduate, our institutions have failed the student, his or her sponsors, future employers and the larger society. If our undergraduate students' soft skills are not purposefully developed in their baccalaureate classrooms, how can they be expected to use them effectively in the real world? Any value added by the baccalaureate has been diminished. Lacking proficiency in these soft skills, I question the graduates' ability to effectively and efficiently employ their new found and some would say fragile content knowledge in the real world. When they need to refresh it, their dated textbooks, if they still have them, will be of scant assistance in resolving novel challenges. The traditional curriculum does not intentionally prepare our graduate for life-long-learning. The traditional unexamined curriculum design assumptions do not produce the results required for lifelong employability in an expanding global economy. With the traditional emphasis on disengaged discipline silos, soft skills are more often assumed rather than validated. If the student successfully transited the content curriculum with an acceptable grade point average, they are unfortunately presumed to have the desired fundamental soft skills. A curriculum intentionally integrating these skills with content is needed to address the long-standing concern that college graduates are not ready for evolving post graduation realities.” (Leonard, 2010, Comments on Room for Improvement – Inside Higher Education,

Major Silos: College and Career Readiness Standards for Reading, Writing

“The Core Standards identify essential college- and career-ready skills and knowledge in reading, writing, and speaking and listening across the disciplines. While the English language arts classroom has often been seen as the proper site for literacy instruction, this document acknowledges that the responsibility for teaching such skills must also extend to the other content areas. Teachers in the social and natural sciences, the humanities, and mathematics need to use their content area expertise to help students acquire the discipline-specific skills necessary to comprehend challenging texts and develop deep knowledge in those fields. At the same time, English language arts teachers not only must engage their students in a rich array of literature but also must help develop their students’ ability to read complex works of nonfiction independently.


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Although reading and writing, and speaking and listening are articulated separately in the standards, these divisions are made for the sake of clarity and manageability. In reality, the processes of communication are tightly interrelated and often reciprocal. The act of reading can no more be separated from the written word than the act of listening can be from the spoken word. When reading, students demonstrate their comprehension most commonly through a spoken or written interpretation of the text. As students solve problems, share insights, and build the knowledge they need for college and career success, they draw simultaneously on their capacities to read, write, speak, and listen.” (College and Career Readiness Standards)

The Most Bang for the Buck in Future DirectionsDevelop a five-prong approach for developing an across the curriculum program around the following:


Creating an

Across the

Curriculum Program at Jeffers

on

4. Reading and

Writing in the

Disciplines

2. Reading and

Writing to

Learn

a. Content faculty identify skill(s)

needing improvement

3. Reading and

Writing Acade

mic Suppor

t

b. Referral

and feedback procedur

es for referring students

to academic support

a. Reading to Learn Foundat

ional Course

Concepts

b. Writing to Learn Foundat

ional Course

Concepts

Freshmen- Level Surve

y Cours

es

a. Practic

e the Writin

g Conventions of the

Discipline

b. Develo

p Discipl

ine Writin

g Course

s

Program-

Level Cours

es

1. Learning to Learn

Rules for

How the

Brain Learn

s

Rules of

Consolidation

5. Profession

al Developme

nt

10

10


1. Learning to Learna. Rules for how the brain Learnsb. Rules of consolidation

2. Reading, Writing, and Math to Learna. Freshmen-level survey courses

i. Reading, writing, and math to learn 3. Reading, Writing, and Math Academic Support

a. Content faculty identify skills needing improvementb. Referral and feedback procedures for referring students to

academic support4. Reading, Writing, and Math in the Disciplines

a. Freshmen-level survey courses and program-level courses5. Professional Development in Reading, Writing, and Math Across the

Curriculuma. Develop ongoing, organized, and consistent professional

development for paired and team-teach developmental courses and/or skills courses with freshmen survey courses.

b. Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development on the role of learning in across the curriculum activates.

c. Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development for learning, reading, writing, and math in the disciplines for program courses.

d. Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development for learning, reading, writing, and math in the disciplines for program courses.

e. Develop procedures for referral and feedback to academic support centers – learning, reading, writing, and math.

PART 1Designing an Across the Curriculum

Program


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PART 1: Designing Across the Curriculum Program

Part 1 introduces a five-prong approach to an across the curriculum design, which is an overview of a possible Across the Curriculum Program design (see chart above); Parts 2–11 and appendixes are support and notes about the design. Part 10 provides an example of math across the curriculum using calculating GPA in GE 100 or GE 101.Note: in the overview (PART !), math is not included as “learning, reading, and writing across the curriculum” are foundational to developing conceptual understand in math. However, math is included in the notes (PART 2-11). Everything in this section applies to math across the curriculum.

Why the need for a comprehensive design?


Creating an

Across the

Curriculum

Program at

Jefferson

4. Reading

and Writing

in the Disciplin

es

2. Reading

and Writing to Learn

a. Content faculty identify skill(s)

needing improvem

ent

3. Reading

and Writing

Academic Support

b. Referral and

feedback procedures

for referring

students to academic support

a. Reading to Learn

Foundational Course Concepts

b. Writing to Learn

Foundational Course Concepts

Freshmen-

Level Survey Courses

a. Practice

the Writing

Conventions of

the Disciplin

eb.

Develop Discipline Writing Courses

Program-Level Courses

1. Learning to Learn

Rules for

How the

Brain Learns

Rules of Consolid

ation 5. Profess

ional Development

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Most across the curriculum initiatives do not reach their potential or they slowly disintegrate. There are many reasons for the lack of success. A major reason is failure to develop a comprehensive program. Faculty are often exposed to a hodge-podge of activities and goals with no discernable consistency or conceptual framework that holds the program together. This is understandable as a survey of across the curriculum programs clearly brings to light that there is much disagreement about what constitutes an across the curriculum program and often little integration of across the curriculum activities. “Despite apparently overwhelming support, the roots of WAC remain shallow in most institutions.” (White, 1991).

Learning Across the Curriculum and Reading and Writing Across the CurriculumThe suggested five-prong program design this paper is recommending is developed around the fact that across the curriculum activities are based on a foundation of learning. Generally most reading and writing across the curriculum activities are divided into “reading or writing to learn” and “reading or writing in the disciplines (defined later).” The foundation for both of these categories of activities is learning. This is almost always overlooked; however, the literature and research on learning clearly show that college freshmen and many content instructors have merely a surface understanding of how learning occurs, and therefore can therefore not take full advantage of the potential depth that can be brought to across curriculum reading and writing activities. This paper is recommending that “learning across the curriculum’ should be added to any across the curriculum program. (see Part 4: Learning Across the Curriculum).

“A paradigm shift is taking hold in American Education. In its briefest form, the paradigm that has governed our colleges is this:

A college is an institution that exists to provide instruction. Subtly but profoundly we are shifting to a new paradigm:

A college is an institution that exists to produce learning. This shift changes everything.” (Tagg and Barr)

Where To StartBefore we begin, let’s look at the possible continuum for setting up a design for implementing an across the curriculum program. First, all activities are based on learning; second, reading is basic and foundational for learning; third, writing reinforces, organizes, clarifies learning within the continuum, fourth, the most logical focus for across the curriculum activities would focus on reading and writing to learn in freshmen survey classes; fifth, building on learning the next line of focus would be on reading and writing in the disciplines (program courses) where each discipline has its own unique language reading and writing conventions, format, and structure. In other words, the style, organization, and format that is acceptable in one discipline may not be at all acceptable in another; sixth faculty need ongoing, organized, and consistent professional development and faculty and students need access to academic support..


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NOTE: Reread that sentence, write it down, argue with it, reorganize it, try to clarify it; that is the purpose of this paper.

Faculty want their students to learn the content of their courses or programs. The key to faculty buy-in is that “learning to learn”, “reading to learn”, and “writing to learn” across the curriculum also have that same goal. Faculty need to understand that across the curriculum activities are not attempts to get content faculty to teach reading and writing for reading and writing instructors, but rather to use learning, reading, and writing to learn activities to help students learn in their courses. The foundation and connection among all the across the curriculum activities which give learners and instructors control over learning is understanding what the brain has to do for deep learning to occur and to provide learners the opportunities to develop neural pathways through practice that make these cognitive strategies and habits of mind automatic.

The “reading to learn/writing to learn” connection in across the curriculum activities are based on a foundation of learning. Reading and writing to learn go beyond literal comprehension and literal recapitulation of new information. Far too often in both reading, writing, and freshmen-level survey courses learning how to learn is assumed and the accumulation of information when reading or correct grammar and structure are emphasized with little thought about learning which enables the student to develop competence in an area of inquiry, clarify or to organize new information, or understand ideas in the context of a conceptual framework.

Learning to Learn (LTL) Reading to Learn (RTL) and Writing to Learn (WTL) are about helping students to learn. When integrated, learning, reading, and writing across the curriculum (LRWAC) can become the vehicle for refocusing on learning across a college.

PART 1, SECTION 1: Learning to Learn

Role of Learning in Across the Curriculum ActivitiesThe following description of what we now know about learning and an explanation of how what we know about learning plays into reading to learn and writing to learn activities.

Rules for How the brain Learns Naturally and Rules of ConsolidationLet’s begin with the first two of five Rules for How the Brain Learns Naturally and the three Rules of Consolidation:

Rules for How the Brain Learns Naturally (1) Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. (To learn new information it must be tied to prior knowledge.)(2) Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow for what is


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actively, personally, and specifically experienced and practiced. (Smilkstein)

Rules of ConsolidationThe First Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.The Second Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality.The Third Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be.

What you will read next is basically a reading and writing to learn example of an interruption of a stream of consciousness in which the rules of learning are incorporated. Imagine you have been reading about how the brain learns, and about reading and writing across the curriculum and now you are writing to clarify, organize and understand what you have read in the context of a conceptual framework – that is what reading to learn and writing to learn is all about (deep learning).

Learning is Physiological – Growing New DendritesThe first rule on how the brain learns and perhaps the most important point to understand about learning is that learning is physiological. Rule: Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. Past learning is stored in dendrites - long filaments on a brain’s cell body (neuron). New dendrites of learning grow only when new information is interconnected with prior knowledge (older related information – prior knowledge dendrites). The growth of new dendrites is learning and learning is the growth of new dendrites branching off of older dendrites of related prior knowledge. That is how meaning is constructed. For learning to occur, it is essential that the learner interconnect what they are learning to what they already know. The mental process of connecting new information with prior knowledge should begin before reading, during reading and after reading. (More elaborate explanation in Part 4)


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Learning/Forgetting – Re-absorption of Newly Grown DendritesNewly grown dendrites (learning) can be reabsorbed (forgetting) if they are not strengthened. This is where deliberate practice comes into play, This is why learners need many opportunities to practice and hone skills using cognitive strategies for reading to learn, and writing to learn.

1. On average, college students forget 25% immediately after reading a text selection and 80% within two weeks. Information that is forgotten does not become part of a deep foundation of factual knowledge necessary to become competent in an area of inquiry. If newly learned information is not used it may fail to becomes meaningful as associated dendrites are reabsorbed. Learning is not just about understanding.

2. Another physiological factor comes into play with deliberate practice. When electrical signal travels down the axon of a neuron to transmit information it helps build a layer of fat (myelin sheath) on the axon which acts as insulation and results in speeding up the electrical signal as the fat layer becomes thicker. The more an electrical signal travels down a given neural pathway the easier it is to retiree and apply the information stored on associated dendrites.


Dendrites, synapse, and neural

networks grow only from what is already there.

Axon End

BudsCell Body

Dendrites

Neurons

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Rules of Consolidation – Manipulating and moving new information from working memory to long-term memory

The First Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.The Second Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality.The Third Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be.

The Rules of Consolidation Work On Many Levels.


10

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1. Re-exposure to information strengthens dendrites (learning) and helps build thicker insulation of fat around the axon of a brain cell resulting in faster processing and retrieval.

2. Re-exposure to information in which the learner elaborates about what they are learning can be a very powerful cognitive exercise for clarifying, organizing, and understanding new ideas in the context of a conceptual framework. Elaborations are mental strategies for interconnecting new information to prior knowledge.

3. Research has shown that there are time interval in which re-exposure to information results in increased learning.

Time Interval 1: while reading Time interval 2: as you complete a reading selection Time interval 3: always within 90 minutes of encountering new

information Time interval 4: within 24 hours

Note: It takes a lot of practice before these learning processes become automatic and therefore useful. Note: there is a world of difference between writing to learn and writing to communicate or writing to demonstrate knowledge.

Writing to Learn: in order to explain the matter to oneself. Writing to Communicate: in order to express the matter to others. Impossible to explain the matter to others before the student has

explained it to herself. Course assignments generally focus on writing to communicate,

rather than on writing to learn. This focus too often fails to consider the intermediate stages of learning as it is product oriented.

More on Re-exposure to Information in Which the Learner Elaborates about What They are Learning

Reading to Learn: Reading to learn is dependent on the use or re-exposure with elaboration. Among the most powerful cognitive strategies is the use of internal dialogue to elaborate on what is being learned. For example:

Internal Dialogue Questions:1. What do I already know?2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of the concept being considered?3. How is what I am reading like or different than what I already know?4. Can I predict where this is going?5. How has the author organized the information in this reading selection and how does it relate to prior readings?

Writing to Learn: Writing to learn activities are among the most powerful elaboration strategies. First a note on some boundaries for


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writing to learn: “Writing to learn emphasizes what is said (new ideas and concepts) rather than how it is said (correct spelling, grammar, and usage). Often, less structured and more informal writing to learn can take forms such as journals, summaries, responses to oral or written questions, free writing, and notes.” (Literacy Matters).

Competence in an area of inquiryThe larger conceptual framework for across the curriculum activities is developing competence in an area of inquiry. (more later)

1: builds foundation of factual knowledge2: understand facts and ideas in context of a conceptual framework3: organize in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

PART 1, SECTION 2: Reading and Writing to Learn

Reading to Learn Conceptual Framework

Concept: Develop a Deep Foundation of Factual KnowledgeTo develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, readers have to have strategies for moving new information from working memory to long-term memory – Rules of Consolidation

Concept: Understand Facts and Ideas in a the Context of a Conceptual FrameworkA key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly. The reader must be able to recognize, and where need, construct the conceptual framework for content being learned – cognitive strategies, inquiry, and internal dialogue.

Concept: Organize Knowledge in Ways that Facilitate Retrieval and ApplicationDeveloping competence in an area of inquiry depends on developing neural networks of interconnections that facilitate retrieval and application – writing to elaborate by organizing and clarifying (reading journals, etc.), creating graphic representations of the organization of content.

Reading in the Disciplines (RID)Concept: Reading in the DisciplinesLike “writing in the disciplines”, “reading in the disciplines” has learning as its foundation which is the focus in all post secondary


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classes (see PART 1 above). Unlike writing, “reading to learn” and “reading in the disciplines” are not separated. “College textbooks have organization that reflects the logic of the discipline represented or patterns that dominate thinking in the field.” (Caverly, 1999)

This proposal supports the distinction between “writing to learn” (WTL) and “writing in the disciplines” (WID). The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has an excellent introduction to “writing across the curriculum” and the distinction between “writing to learn” and “writing in the disciplines. (see below)

Writing Across the Curriculum: An Introduction “Writing across the curriculum is a pedagogical movement that began in the 1980s. Generally, writing across the curriculum programs share the philosophy that writing instruction should happen across the academic community and throughout a student's undergraduate education. Writing across the curriculum programs also value writing as a method of learning. Finally, writing across the curriculum acknowledges the differences in writing conventions across the disciplines, and believes that students can best learn to write in their areas by practicing those discipline-specific writing conventions. WAC designated courses tend to apply one or both of the following approaches”: (Purdue Online Writing Lab)

Writing to Learn (WTL)“This pedagogical approach values writing as a method of learning. When students write reactions to information received in class or in reading, they often comprehend and retain the information better. Writing can also help students work through confusing new ideas and apply what they learn to their own lives and interests. Also, because students write more frequently, they become more comfortable with writing and are able to maintain or even improve upon their writing skills. WTL assignments are typically short and informal and can be performed either in or out of class. Examples include writing and reading journals, summaries, response papers, learning logs, problem analyses, and more.” (Purdue Online Writing Lab)

Writing in the Disciplines (WID)“This approach recognizes that each discipline has its own unique language conventions, format, and structure. In other words, the style, organization, and format that is acceptable in one discipline may not be at all acceptable in another. WID believes that to participate successfully in the academic discourse of their community, students must be taught discipline-specific conventions and should practice using these conventions. Some common WID assignments are reports, literature


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reviews, project proposals, and lab reports. WID assignments can also be combined with WTL activities to help students think through key concepts, ideas, and language of in their disciplines. “(Purdue Online Writing Lab)This Paper also supports the idea that “writing in the disciplines” is not appropriate for freshmen survey classes and the freshmen survey classes should focus on “writing to learn. “Teachers need to decide which goals are most important for them and for the students they typically teach. For instance, if you ordinarily teach a freshman-level survey course that introduces students to the field, giving students practice in the conventions of writing for that field is generally inappropriate. Rather, you would probably want to give students opportunities to write about the new, foundational concepts they're being introduced to so that you can be sure they are learning the fundamental ideas they will need to take other courses in your discipline.” (The WAC Clearinghouse)

Integrated Reading and Writing to Learn Activities

See APPENDIX A: Reading and Writing to Learn Activities

Also see APPENDIX B: Core Cognitive Strategies for Re-exposing One’s Self to Newly Learned Information – Classroom Assessment Techniques

STZ060710http://www.stoorz.com/i/osprey-exos-58-pack?z=Gosprey%20exos%2058&gclid=CKOKrfC8iqMCFUlS2goduEPzcA

PART 1, Section 3: Learning, Reading and Writing Academic SupportThis paper has so far looked at “across the curriculum” with a slant on how instruction can take advantage of learning, reading, and writing across the curriculum within content courses. This proposal strongly suggests that learning, reading, and writing should be integrated in classroom instruction. It also strongly recommends that the connection between learning, reading, and writing are so strongly interconnected that academic support centers should be integrated.

Faculty are often not experts on learning, reading, grammar, punctuation, and structure, or math; and therefore, faculty need strong support for all these areas.

Integrated Learning Centers(1) that academic support centers should be integrated for “learning, reading

and writing to learn.”Referral and Feedback Procedures for Early Alert Academic Referral

(2) that (a.) a rubric should be developed for helping content faculty identify writing problems (grammar, punctuation, structure, etc.), and that (b.)


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referral and feedback procedures should be developed for guiding learners to learning centers. (example: contact Reneau Waggoner or Stacy Taylor to see the procedures developed identifying academic problems and referral and feedback procedures – JCTC-DT)

“Reflecting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Writing Across the Curriculum (celebrated in 1995), Barbara Walvoord takes a long look at WAC's past in order to assess where it should be heading ( 1996, 58-79). She looks back at WAC as an academic movement and concludes that, among other steps to be taken for the health of WAC's future, WAC Programs need to connect to Writing Centers. She writes as if WAC and Writing Centers, at least in some institutions, have gone their separate ways despite overlapping and reinforcing interests. Among the many configurations and varieties of WAC/Writing Center connections, she notes the absence of a consistent linkage. While many WAC Programs have connected in productive ways with the campus Writing Center, it is true that some WAC specialists have not perceived there to be lines of connection--a phenomenon I (Walvoord) observed first hand a few years ago. When a nationally recognized WAC specialist came to my campus, it was clear from this person's remarks and responses to questions in public forums that the person seemed well meaning but clueless as to what Writing Centers do beyond some vague sense that they repair remedial writers in some way.” (Harris)

The Use of Technology to Connect SupportAdvisorTrac, TutorTrac, and SAGE at Jefferwon were purchased as advising, learning center, and early warning management and tracking software.

Across the curriculum initiatives need to take advantage of the campus academic support centers and labs. These initiatives also need to be proactive in securing student support in a timely manner. Across the curriculum activities (learning, reading to learn, writing to learn, writing in the disciplines, and math) can be integrated into and supported by the academic support centers. Access and communication can be enhanced by technology to support these endeavors.

PART 1, Section 4: Reading and Writing in the DisciplinesWriting conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading/learning and writing discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas. This requires a very organized and consistent program of professional development for learning, reading, and writing in the disciplines.

Reading in the Disciplines (RID)“College textbooks have organization that reflects the logic of the discipline represented or patterns that dominate thinking in the field.” (Caverly, 1999) Keep in mind that reading in the disciplines is heavily dependent on the reader being able to transfer and apply what they learn. It is therefore, important that learn the cognitive strategies and habits of mind that result on the development of competence in an area of inquiry:

1: builds foundation of factual knowledge


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2: understand facts and ideas in context of a conceptual framework3: organize in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

It therefore is essential that students in the different disciplines understand the facts and ideas in the context of the conceptual framework of that discipline.Once again, Writing in the Disciplines (WID)“Institutions of higher learning have become increasingly aware that when particular disciplines become the narrow focus of study, the art of written expression can become lost. Educators believe that students, who can write well, have a greater probability of maximizing potential. Students who are unable to document what they have learned are at a definite disadvantage when it comes to retaining and applying knowledge.” (Bauers)

Writing in the Disciplines (WID)Writing in the Disciplines (WID) assignments are designed to introduce or give students practice with the language conventions of a discipline as well as with specific formats typical of a given discipline. For example, the engineering lab report includes much different information in a quite different format from the annual business report.

WID assignments are typically, but not exclusively, formal papers prepared over a few weeks or even months. The final papers adhere to format and style guidelines typical of the professional papers they are helping students learn about. Teachers comment primarily on the substance of these assignments, but teachers also expect students to meet professional standards of layout and proofreading (format and mechanical correctness).” (The WAC Clearninghouse)

Writing in the Disciplines (WID): “Writing in the disciplines is premised on the idea that students become better readers, thinkers, and learners in a discipline by working with the forms and conventions specific to it. A biology teacher might ask students to write lab reports, for example, while an art teacher might assign artists’ statements or gallery reviews. Journalistic articles, business plans, memos, and oral histories are additional examples of genres common to particular fields.” (Brewster & Klump)

Another Argument for Moving Writing in the Disciplines to Program Discipline Courses“Some compositionists have argued that because writing-in-the-disciplines research has demonstrated that research techniques and research-based writing conventions are always uniquely situated, first-year composition’s “generic” research-paper assignment has little or no carry-over value and should be abolished. Richard Larson, for example, has written that to


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include a research-paper assignment in first-year composition “is quite often to pander to the wishes of faculty in other disciplines that we spare them a responsibility that they must accept” (“The Research Paper” 816). Similarly, Stephen North argues for a model of research-writing instruction which abolishes the generic research paper in first year composition, and instead, “moves research writing away from Freshman English and toward the disciplines, where it belongs” (Sutton).

PART 1, Section 5: Professional DevelopmentProfessional Development in Reading, Writing, and Math Across the Curriculum

a. Develop ongoing, organized, and consistent professional development for paired and team-teach developmental courses and/or skills courses with freshmen survey courses.

b. Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development on the role of learning in across the curriculum activates.

c. Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development for learning, reading, writing, and math in the disciplines for program courses.

d. Develop ongoing, organized and consistent professional development for learning, reading, writing, and math in the disciplines for program courses.

e. Develop procedures for referral and feedback to academic support centers – learning, reading, writing, and math.


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ACROSS THE CURRICULUMNOTES


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PART 2 NOTES:Understanding Resistance to Across the

Curriculum Programs

Resistance To Writing Across the CurriculumThe resistances to across the curriculum that has been cited below for writing is similar for learning, reading, and math.

Resistance to Across the CurriculumFailure to understand the historical resistances of content instructors to across the curriculum programs by promoters of across the curriculum programs can greatly increase the difficulty of implementing these programs. Program initiators must be able to communicate how across the curriculum activities enhance the content course learning outcomes in response to faculty resistance. A positive first step is inclusion of content faculty in dialogue rather than pushing a program or beginning with professional development.


Creating Integrated Learning, Reading,

Writing, and Math Across

the Curriculum

Program

Resistance

Students should

already be proficient learners,

readers, & writersSacrifices

content instruction

timeFaculty have to be learning, reading, writing,

math experts

AvoidTraining

ModelConversion

Model

Problem-Solution Model

Faculty Dialog

ue ModelChanges arise

form faculty, students,

administration, other dialogue

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“Although WAC initiatives have been in place in most colleges for decades, resistance often resurfaces when post-secondary instructors discuss the inclusion of writing in disciplinary curricula:

• Students should be proficient writers upon matriculating to the university level. In the past, academic writing was widely regarded as an isolated skill that could be mastered and called into service when needed. Educators now regard advancement in writing as a life-long proposition, recognizing that different writing situations impose different demands. High school students may become familiar and able in some genres and subject areas, but will be challenged when they are confronted with new assignments and unfamiliar discourse conventions.

• Writing-intensive course require instructors to sacrifice valuable content instruction for writing instruction, Increasing emphasis on writing in a course can increase the degree to which students learn subject matter, which results in an increase rather than reduction in coverage. Feeling that they must “deliver” all content directly to students, instructors may discount the learning students do “on their own” when they write.

• Instructors who teach with writing must have expertise in the specifics of grammar and usage. As experts in their fields, discipline-specific instructors are well-situated to respond to student writing. They are also well situated to pose specific questions that will inspire more precise or persuasive prose, or to note they can’t make sense of a phrase or sentence that they suspect may contain errors. These “reader-based” comments may be all students need to self-correct problems, or students may be referred to other sources, such as writing handbooks (general or discipline-specific).” (University of Minnesota)

Other Resistances: “Some resistance results from student and faculty culture. Students are often upset at having to write since they don't understand why it is necessary. Faculty face the decision about critiquing not just content of the writing but the form (syntax and grammatical errors). (This results from a failure to understand how reading, writing and math to learn works – my inclusion) This often creates further tension with students, since the evaluation can become more subjective and seem too personal. As well, many faculty consider writing across the curriculum to absorb too much of their time and energy in construction of assignments and evaluation. On another level, writing across the curriculum provides a feedback to the teacher of what students thought the teacher wanted them


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to learn which can be a painful realization for the teacher (also a subjective form of teacher evaluation on this level).” (University of Michigan)

Personal Choices (Faculty)“Academic freedom is an important part of education, but it can be an obstacle when some people want others to follow their lead. Teachers take their classroom very seriously, and they are not always open to others telling them how and what to teach. Therefore, design and implementation of writing strategies can be crucial.” (Pheifer)

Do the Skills Courses Have Their House in Order?It is not uncommon for across the curriculum initiatives to be founded by developmental and first-year reading, writing, and math course instructors. These instructors become advocates for an expansive view of reading and writing across the curriculum (general education and discipline courses), yet fail to have that same expansive view of reading and writing in their own courses. One of the first steps these advocates need to do is integrate learning, reading, and writing across their own courses (built in to their curriculums) in order to become models for their advocacy for an expanded view of reading and writing across the curriculum.

More Harm Than Good – Careful PrePlanning“Despite apparently overwhelming support, the roots of WAC remain shallow in most institutions. My argument (White’s argument) in this article emerges from my experience evaluating college writing programs that have foundering WAC programs, some of them doing more harm than good. WAC programs set adrift in the curriculum, without careful monitoring and support, can be ineffective or worse. Without deep roots, the life of WAC in the state of nature can be frustrating, harmful, divisive, and short. But finding space and time for taproots to develop is a daunting task.Many administrations mistakenly believe that, after the customary enthusiastic start (often helped by grant funding), WAC will continue without much attention. It is hard to find faculty members in any field who will speak against WAC, since it embodies the ideals of active, participate inquiry, which is what most academic departments like to think they foster. But WAC places itself in opposition to what I have observed to be the dominant mode of learning in most of American higher education: the passive, detached memorization of material from lectures and textbooks, evaluated by multiple-choice tests. Even when writing occurs, it is usually defined as “telling knowledge,” repeating material from books and lectures, rather than as actively or critically handling that material. The counterforce of empty memorization (sometimes defined as “content” or “necessary coverage of material”) will destroy the WAC program unless WAC can establish deep-enough roots in the curriculum to ensure a strong position from which to conduct its continuing campaign for active learning through writing.” (White, 1991)


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Avoid the “Training Model,” “Conversion Model,” and “Problem-Solution Model”

“As you plan the initiation of your WAC program, you may unconsciously be working from models that will prove problematic. One mistake is to envision WAC as ``training” for “untrained” faculty. The terms imply that there are certain skills or procedures that you will train faculty to implement, and then they will go out and do what they have been trained to do. Also problematic is the conversion model, which assumes that faculty in other disciplines are heathen who must be converted to the Right Way. Both these models lead to the faculty bashing that I find all too frequent among writing instructors in WAC programs—the assumption that faculty in other disciplines are all content with simply delivering boring lectures to their students, not asking them to write in meaningful ways, or not working with their writing and thinking processes. There may be some such faculty on your campus, but you're not likely to get them into your workshops anyway, and if you do, they're probably not going to change. The people who are going to accept your invitation for dialogue are the people who already have a concern about thinking and writing, who have been working hard at the task of teaching, and who have much to offer as well as much to learn from others. What they need is time to think about writing and learning; resources that will help them think productively; and a supportive community to help them think, plan, and change. That's what writing instructors also need If you are a writing instructor, be ready to listen and learn from your colleagues in other disciplines as well as to share with them what you know about writing and learning.Another reason the training or conversion models won't work is that teaching methods suggested in WAC seminars may work very differently for different teachers, as has been demonstrated by studies of teachers in various disciplines who were using methods suggested to them through WAC seminars (Larger and Applebee; Marshall; Walvoord and McCarthy). The classroom teachers themselves are going to have to observe their own students and adapt what they learn in the WAC workshops to their own situations.The problem-solution model is also dangerous. There may be problems on your campus that the WAC group will define and try to address, but if WAC is seen only as a solution to a particular problem, then everyone expects that, if WAC is successful, the problem will be solved and WAC can end. On the contrary, WAC helps people grow. We could have WAC workshops for faculty on every campus every year until the end of the world, because teachers always can be helped by dialogue with colleagues; always need to keep up with new research and theory about writing, thinking, and learning; and always need help in observing and learning what methods will work best in their own classrooms.” (Valvoord)

MODELS FOR WAC PROGRAMS The Faculty Dialogue Model


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“The faculty dialogue model for starting a WAC program has these characteristics:• Initiators move as quickly as possible to include, in a workshop setting that encourages dialogue, a range of faculty colleagues from various disciplines as well as teaching assistants, students, and others who will be affected. These people have a chance to shape and to own the program from the beginning. Initiators are careful to share power and ownership.• The dialogue starts from needs and concerns that the faculty perceives and to which the faculty is willing to dedicate time and effort.• Initiators, even if they have training in rhetoric or in English literature, do not view themselves as the only “experts” or as the teachers of the group but as colleagues in a mutual exchange, where everyone learns and everyone contributes.• Changes in such areas as curriculum, school-wide assessment, and writing centers arise from the dialogue. They usually happen after, and as a result of, the initial workshop(s).• Administrators enter as participants in the dialogue, with their own kinds of insight. They also function as facilitators and as providers resources for the program. They should not be seen as dictators who select WAC participants or decide the features of the program.The goal of faculty dialogue is to explore language and learning on your campus. Faculty dialogue becomes the wellspring for changes in teaching and in other aspects such as curriculum and assessment.” (Valvoord)

“Successful WAC programs incorporate faculty and student support systems, curricular elements, and some administrative structure. Faculty development is an essential part of writing across the curriculum—almost all programs at one time or another hold workshops for faculty to discuss WAC concepts and to demonstrate techniques of assigning and evaluating student writing.” (McLeod)

Meeting Faculty Needs

Before faculty can be convinced to incorporate reading and writing across the curriculum in their courses, they need to understand how doing so can increase learning in their disciplines. Perceptions that reading and writing across the curriculum activities are merely additional content rather than tools for enhancing learning and communicating need to be dispelled.

Criteria for Selecting Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum Activities:

1. Must be able to be easily modeled by the instructor.2. Must be incorporable within regular content instruction – taking minimal

time from content instruction or can be incorporated into content instruction.

3. Must have a conceptual framework around how humans learn.


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What do content instructors want?Content instructors want strategies, which enable their students to be able to read well enough to develop competence in the content of their course, and if the students are in a program, the instructors want the students to be able to develop competence in the content of their discipline.

NOTES

PART 3 NOTESConceptual Framework

for


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Integrating Learning, Reading, Writing, and Math

Across the Curriculum

Developing a Conceptual Framework for Integrating Across the Curriculum

“A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the learner to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (Bransford). This is true both for instructor and for students.


Integrating



m

Learning =

Dendrite

Growth


To Learn

To Communic

ate

Rules of Consolid

ation

Cognitive

Strategies

Internal Dialogu

e

Organize

Information

Writing in the

Disciplines

To Learn

In all Undergra


Across the

Curriculum

Discipline Writing

Conventions

Explain to

Oneself

Explain to

Others

Learning

Reading

Writing

Math

Reading to Learn

Math

Writing to Learn

Math

To Learn

Increase Math

Content Across

the Curricul

um

Develop Faculty

Capacity for



Value and Importan

ce


Skills

Write to Elaborat

e

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Conceptual FrameworkA conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpreting information.

What are the broadly defined concepts that would make up a conceptual framework for an integrated across the curriculum program? The major concepts are learning, reading, writing, and math instruction across the curriculum and in the disciplines.

The following pages will flesh out and systematically organize the concept of across the curriculum instruction for learning, reading, writing, and math to provide a conceptual framework.

The major point is that learning, reading, writing, and math to learn and in the disciplines can not stand alone if developing literate college graduates is the goal of across the curriculum activities, which are foundational to development of general education competencies.

Aligning Activities with Content Instruction “Developing a strong across the curriculum program requires initially ensuring that content instructors understand that reading, writing and math across the curriculum or within disciplines activities foster learning of the content of their courses. For example, without the ability to read and understand, no one can become mathematically literate. Increasingly, the reverse is also true: without the ability to understand basic mathematical ideas, one cannot fully comprehend modern writing such as that which appears in the daily newspapers.” (National Research Council, 2001)

The Complexity of Across the Curriculum InstructionThe following straightforward and seemingly simple goals and principles of across the curriculum from The WAC Clearninghouse for writing illustrate the complexity of what is being asked of faculty.

Purpose of Writing to communicate information (memos, textbook evaluations, letters of

recommendation, email) to clarify thinking (when we work through an idea or problem on paper) to learn new concepts and information (taking notes on reading and

research topics) (The WAC Clearinghouse)

Basic Principles of Writing Across the CurriculumAs one response to students' lack of writing practice throughout the university curriculum, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs emerged in the 1980s. The philosophies underlying these programs generally agree on certain basic principles:


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that writing is the responsibility of the entire academic community,

that writing must be integrated across departmental boundaries, that writing instruction must be continuous during all four years

of undergraduate education, that writing promotes learning, and that only by practicing the conventions of an academic discipline

will students begin to communicate effectively within that discipline. (The WAC Clearinghouse)

NOTES

Conceptual FrameworkOverview of Literature on Where Across the Curriculum Should be Situated


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Where Should Across the Curriculum Be Situated?There are radically different points of view about where across the curriculum programs should be situated as illustrated by the following three excerpts that refer to writing across the curriculum; the excerpts have application for any of the disciplines across the curriculum

“In an article published in 1988, Catherine Blair observed of English departments that they "should have no special role in writing across the curriculum--no unique leadership role and no exclusive classes to teach--not even freshman English" (383). Entrusting English with writing across the curriculum (WAC), she asserts, stems from the belief that the "English department has a special relationship to language and is, therefore, the department that knows the most about writing--in fact, the department that owns writing" (384, her emphasis). For Blair, however, this belief has no merit. While English does own its particular brand of writing within its "particular cultural context," so does every other discipline; and no one discipline's context for language is an innately privileged one. Her conclusion is that WAC should be taken from English, which then becomes "only one of the voices," and put into the hands of many disciplines, creating what she terms a dialogic cross-curricular program.” (Waldo and Madruga)

“Reflecting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Writing Across the Curriculum (celebrated in 1995), Barbara Walvoord takes a long look at WAC's past in order to assess where it should be heading ( 1996, 58-79). She looks back


Where Should Program Be

Situated?

Integrated Academic Support Centers?

Program or

Discipline Programs?

Integrated Learning, Reading,

Writing, and Math

Programs?Combinatio

n of all of these?

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at WAC as an academic movement and concludes that, among other steps to be taken for the health of WAC's future, WAC Programs need to connect to Writing Centers. She writes as if WAC and Writing Centers, at least in some institutions, have gone their separate ways despite overlapping and reinforcing interests. Among the many configurations and varieties of WAC/Writing Center connections, she notes the absence of a consistent linkage. While many WAC Programs have connected in productive ways with the campus Writing Center, it is true that some WAC specialists have not perceived there to be lines of connection--a phenomenon I (Walvoord) observed first hand a few years ago. When a nationally recognized WAC specialist came to my campus, it was clear from this person's re marks and responses to questions in public forums that the person seemed well meaning but clueless as to what Writing Centers do beyond some vague sense that they repair remedial writers in some way.” (Harris)

“Many Writing Centers (WCs) struggle to overcome misconceptions about what WCs do and who should come to them, while Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Programs often grapple with faculty resistance to re-situating Writing in the Disciplines (WID), instead of writing being the sole responsibility of the freshman year composition (FYC) program or the English Department. WCs and WAC Programs are best situated to mediate misconceptions and resistance concerning both programs--through collaborative partnerships.” (Vaught-Alexander, 1999)

“In the ensuing cycles of attempts to improve academic writing skills, whether through cross-curricular or general composition courses, writing was still separated from disciplinary learning, thinking, and content (1991). Writing was misconceived as a generalizable and mechanical skill--a misconception that we still face.

For many faculty members, participating in a Writing Across the Curriculum program constitutes a first pedagogical venture outside of their own field of expertise; consequently, many "feel unqualified to judge anything but content . . . [and] are unaccustomed to responding to writing in progress" ( Gill 1996, 167). Moreover, because faculty who have never taught writing before may never have worked with novice writers, have little experience with process pedagogy, and have not consciously articulated for themselves their expectations for student essays, they sometimes adopt what can be ironically characterized as the "assign and complain" method of teaching writing--that is, they present students with an often vaguely conceptualized writing assignment and then complain about the quality of the writing they receive.

To enable faculty to acquire strategies for working productively with inexperienced writers and to engage in actually teaching, not simply assigning, writing, it has been suggested that Writing Centers become a significant resource for WAC Programs. In "The Last Best Place for Writing


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Across the Curriculum: The Writing Center," Mark Waldo maintains that Writing Centers constitute "a definable space" for expertise in writing, because they encourage dialogue between diverse rhetorical communities, and offer a rhetorically neutral ground in that they do not privilege a discipline-specific "rhetorical agenda common to one discourse community" (1993). Similarly, Judy Gill claims that Writing Centers can become a visible and instrumental force for changing faculty attitude toward writing, serving as "translators" for students who are not familiar with academic writing.” (Harris)

Conceptual FrameworkOverview of Concepts for Learning Across the Curriculum


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Learning: Conceptual FrameworkResent research has provided insight into how the brain learns and application of those insights are essential for meaningful learning to occur and even more essential if the learner is to develop competence in an area of inquiry (discipline).

The foundation of across the curriculum activities is learning. Research on human learning to develop competence in an area of inquiry (discipline)


Integrating Learning, Reading,

Writing, and Math Across the

Curriculum

Learning = Dendrite Growth


Learning

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has confirmed that for learners to develop competence they need to develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, understand facts and ideas within the context of a conceptual framework, and to organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. Cognitive strategies and habits of mind for doing so are foundational to all reading, writing, and math literacy instruction.

Concept: Learning and the BrainThere are rules for how the brain learns naturally:

(a) Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. (b) Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow for what is actively, personally, and specifically experienced and practiced. (c) Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow from stimulating experiences. (d) Use it or lose it. The good news is that the brain prunes the bad along with the good. (e) Emotions affect learning. (Rita Smilkstein)

Concept: Learning to Develop Competence in an Area of InquiryTo develop competence in an area of inquiry, learners must to:

(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

Conceptual FrameworkOverview of Concepts for Reading across the CurriculumReading across the curriculum builds on the concepts of learning across the curriculum.


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Reading: Conceptual Framework

Concept: Develop a Deep Foundation of Factual KnowledgeTo develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, readers have to have strategies for moving new information from working memory to long-term memory – Rules of Consolidation

Concept: Understand Facts and Ideas in the Context of a Conceptual Framework




Curriculum

Rules of Consolidation

Cognitive Strategies

Internal Dialogue

Organize InformationTo Learn

Reading

Write to Elaborate

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A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly. The reader must be able to recognize, and where needed, construct the conceptual framework for content being learned – cognitive strategies, inquiry, and internal dialogue.

Concept: Organize Knowledge in Ways that Facilitate Retrieval and ApplicationDeveloping competence in an area of inquiry depends on developing neural networks of interconnections that facilitate retrieval and application – writing to elaborate by organizing and clarifying (reading journals, etc.), creating graphic representations of the organization of content.

Concept: Reading in the Disciplines: Reading to Learn“College textbooks have organization that reflects the logic of the discipline represented or patterns that dominate thinking in the field.” (Caverly, 1999)

Conceptual FrameworkOverview of Concepts for Writing Across the CurriculumWriting across the curriculum builds on the concepts of learning and reading across the curriculum. Writing should be in all undergraduate courses.


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Writing: Conceptual Framework

Concept: Writing to LearnWriting to learn should take advantage of what is known about learning, especially re-exposure to ideas to build a deep foundation of factual knowledge, the use of elaboration to make interconnections with prior knowledge, clarification of ideas, and organization of facts and ideas in a conceptual framework.

Concept: Writing to CommunicateThe common reason to communicate is to inform. Writing to communicate should take advantage of how learners learn to increase their understanding and long-term learning.

Concept: Writing in the DisciplinesWriting conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading and writing discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas.

Conceptual FrameworkOverview of Concepts for Math Across the Curriculum


Integrating Learning, Reading, Writing,

and Math Across the

Curriculum

To Learn

To Communicat

e

Writing in the

Disciplines

In all Undergrad

uate Courses

Writing Across

the Curriculu

mDiscipline Writing

Conventions

Explain to

OneselfExplain

to Others

Writing

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Math: Conceptual Framework

Concept: Increase math content across the curriculum.

Concept: Develop faculty capacity for teaching mathematics in context.

Concept: Improve students' understanding of the value and importance of math.

Concept: Improve students' ability to use simple mathematical skills to solve real problems.

Conceptual FrameworkOverview of the Systematic Organization and Integration of

Concepts for Learning, Reading, Writing, and Math Across the



and Math Across the

Curriculum

Math

Reading to Learn Math

Writing to Learn Math

To Learn

Increase Math

Content Across

the Curriculu

m

Develop Faculty

Capacity for Teaching Math in Context

Student Understanding of Value

and Importance

Student Ability to Use Simple

Math Skills

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Curriculum: A common Core of Learning, Reading, writing and Math Activities

“Literacy researchers, in attempting to identify a common core behind reading and writing activities, have proposed that both processes involve the construction of meaning. Comprehension involves a transaction between the reader and the work and that the reader's understanding is a new and legitimate text unto itself, subject to the context of the reader.” (Holmberg)

The Common Core Connections Between Learning, Reading, Writing, and Math

For learning to occur, the learner must make interconnections with their prior knowledge.

For information to be come “meaningful” it must first be interconnected with the learner’s prior knowledge. Once information has become meaningful, it can become useful.

To become useful, that is, can be used to develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to understand facts and ideas in the context ff a conceptual framework, and organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

Three Key Human Learning Research Findings

1. “Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to


Core Common

Connections Between Learning, Reading,

Writing and Math

Brain and

Learning

Construction of

Meaning

Making Meaning

Useful

New dendrites only grow

from dendrites of

prior knowledge

New information becomes

“meaningful” when it is interconnected

with prior knowledge

“Meaningful” information

becomes knowledge when it is understood in the

context of a conceptual

framework; it then is “useful”

When new dendrites

grow, learning has occurred

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grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.

2. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

3. A "metacognitive" approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.” (Bransford, How People Learn, 1999)


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The First Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later.

It is a simple fact, the more exposure a learner has to new information they want to learn the greater the likelihood that the new information will move from short term memory (working memory) to long-term memory.

From the Research“The typical human brain can hold about 4 pieces of information for less than 30 seconds. If something does not happen in that short stretch of time, the information becomes lost. If you want to extend the 30 seconds to, say, a few minutes, or even an hour or two, you will need to consistently re-expose yourself to the information. This type of repetition is sometimes called maintenance rehearsal. We know that “maintenance rehearsal” is mostly good for keeping things in working memory – that is for short periods of time” (Medina, 2008).

If the reader wants to hold on to the new information long enough for the brain to store and manipulate that information the reader needs to do something to give the working memory time to do its job. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you


Toward Self-RegulationInternal Dialogue

/WritingDevelop

deep foundat

ion of factual

knowledge

Organize

knowledge to

facilitate

retrieval

Organize

knowledge to

facilitate

application

Understand in contex

t of concept

ual frame

work

Cognitive

Strategies

Driven by

Internal Dialogu

e & Writing

Discovering

Conceptual

Framework by

Internal Dialogu

e & Writing

Refining Concept

ual Framew

ork Through Writing

Relentless Self-

Questioning

about Subject at Hand

& Writing

Internal Dialogue and Inquiry: Metacognitive strategies do not develop on their own for most readers, they must be taught? Students asking questions and posing problems forces the student’s mind to search and recall past experiences.

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want to retrieve it later is the first “rule of consolidation.” Highlighting the information in the textbook in order to come back to learn it later is just simply a mistaken strategy for learning. It is an example of trying to hold the information outside the brain – the trick is to re-expose yourself to the information in order for your own brain to store and manipulate the information if you want to learn most effectively.

The Second Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality.

“More elaborately” means thinking, talking or writing about what was just read. Any mental activity in which the reader slows down and mentally tries to connect what they are reading to what they already know is elaboration.

This means for the reader that he or she must slow down and have a conversation (reading, writing or talking) about what they are reading and wanting to learn in order for that information to be of a high quality. “High quality” means the information will be useable in the future for thinking reasoning or apply to new situations

From the Research“We know that there is a better way to push information into long-term memory. That way is called “elaborative rehearsal” and it’s the type of repetition shown to be most effective for the most robust retrieval. A great deal of research shows that “thinking or talking” about an event immediately after it has occurred enhances memory for the event.” (Medina, 2008). The same is true for the information you are reading in a textbook.

The Third Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be.

We saw in Chapter 1 that forgetting occurs very rapidly if something is not done to strengthen new dendrites (learning). Research show us that a learner (reader) must not only re-expose themselves to new information they want to learn, but hat they also must think or talk about that information if they want to remember the information. Research further shows that there are specific times for re-exposing ourselves to the information and elaborating on the information. We will go over the most important ones now:

Fixed Time Intervals for Re-exposing and Elaborating

1. As the reader identifies what is important while reading, stop re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate on the it (have an internal dialogue, what do you already know about what you are reading, write about it (take notes in your own words), explain it to yourself out loud.Note: This time interval is specifically for holding and expanding the time new information has in working memory, which gives you and your brain more time to manipulate the information before it can be forgotten.

2. When you have read a new topic or paragraph, explain to yourself what you have just read; this is re-exposure to the information.


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Note: This time interval and the remaining time intervals take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen newly grown dendrites.

3. When you finish studying, take a few minutes to re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

4. Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

5. Review again the next day as soon as you can.

From the Research“When a reader reads nonstop, new information is subject to being confused with other information. “The probability of confusion is increased when content is delivered in unstoppable, unrepeated waves. This causes newly encoded information to reshape (interference) and wear away previously existing traces. Such interference does not occur if the information is delivered in deliberately spaced repetition cycles. (This is where the reader can take control of learning.) Repeated exposure to information in specifically timed intervals provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain. When the electrical representations of information to be learned are built up slowly over many repetitions, the neural networks recruited for storage gradually remodel the overall representation and do not interfere with neural networks previously recruited to store similarly learned information. This idea suggests that continuous repetition cycles create experiences capable of adding to the knowledge base, rather then interfering with existing knowledge base” (Medina, 2008).

In the following chapters we will be learning more powerful strategies for consolidation (converting information in working memory to long-term memory) that are built around how we learn and these “rules of consolidation.”


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Notes to write in a sensible form: Making sense of what is be learned requires the connection between what is being read and what the reader already knows – that is the construction of meaning. Learning an any meaningful way requires that information is not only understood, but more important it must

Re-expose – ongoing internal dialogue. – maintains information in working memory long enough for it to be manipulated- that manipulation must involve understanding in a conceptual framework -organization of information which helps move it to long-term memory - moving information

Re-expose with elaboration – writing is a very powerful elaboration, which provides re-exposure understanding, organization and moving information from working memory to long-term memory.

Integrated Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum


The Learning, Reading, Writing

Connection

Re-exposure

External Dialogue Re-exposure w/ Elaboration

Re-exposure in Fixed Time

Intervals

Internal Dialogue

while Reading

Writing to Learn

Clarify Organize

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Integrating Reading and WritingReading is the platform from which critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective expression are launched. Reading and writing to learn (WTL) across the curriculum activities have the most potential for softening resistance and clarifying misconceptions about across the curriculum programs.

Shared Philosophy of Reading and WritingReading and writing across the curriculum programs share a philosophy:

1. Instruction in reading and writing should occur in all undergraduate college courses.

2. Reading and writing are valuable methods of learning. Referred to as Writing to Learn (WTL)

3. Reading and writing conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading and writing discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas. Sometimes referred to as Reading and Writing in the Disciplines (R&WID).”

Note - Writing across the curriculum generally falls into two categories: Writing to Learn Writing in the Disciplines (The WAC Clearinghouse)

Meeting Ground of Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum and Discipline Instruction

First, discipline instructors want their students to develop competence in their discipline’s area of inquiry.

Second, Reading and writing across the curriculum share the philosophy above.

Third, research on human learning (crucial) has found that to develop competence in an area of inquiry the learner needs to:

develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual

framework organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and

applicationFrom the Research and Literature

Research on Connections Between Reading and Writing


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“Although the separation between reading and writing instruction can be traced back as far as the middle ages (Huot, 1988), the two fields have gradually moved closer together with the advent of constructivism. Over the past 15 to 20 years, literacy researchers, in attempting to identify a common core behind reading and writing activities, have proposed that both processes involve the construction of meaning. The constructive theory of reading and writing was foreshadowed more than 50 years ago when Louise Rosenblatt (1938) introduced a revolutionary approach to literature called reader response. Rosenblatt (1978) suggested that comprehension involves a transaction between the reader and the work and that the reader's understanding is a new and legitimate text unto itself, subject to the context of the reader. The theme was picked up in the 1970s by psycholinguists Kintsch and van Dijk (1978), who proposed that a reader employs cyclical processing of micropropositions, using selective memory and prior knowledge to create a new mental text.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, several researchers described how construction of meaning occurs through reading-writing linkages. Pearson and Tierney (1984) proposed a "composing model of reading" (p. 145) in which readers construct meaning by maintaining an ongoing dialogue within themselves about the text and its purpose, just as writers compose to convey meaning. During reading, the major activities of planning, composing, editing, and monitoring occur repetitively, recursively, and simultaneously in a process similar to the model described by Flower and Hayes (1981) in their cognitive theory of writing. More recently, Flower (1990), in addressing the concept of "reading-to-write" (p. 5), suggested that the critical literacy necessary for success in college includes an emphasis on questioning source information and transforming ideas to use them for new purposes. Furthermore, in her studies of the reading and writing that occur during composing from sources, Spivey (1990) found that construction of meaning involves creating a mental plan, selecting what is relevant and coherent to fit the plan, and connecting with prior knowledge by generating inferences and elaborating ideas. Influenced by Spivey's research, McGinley (1992) examined the reading, writing, and reasoning processes involved in composing from sources, concluding that individual reading and writing activities are used recursively throughout a task to accomplish multiple purposes.

A final idea, introduced by Bartholomae and Petrosky (1986), is that to maximize the benefits of the reading-writing connection, students must believe that they have the authority to generate ideas and to direct reading and writing strategies for their own purposes. Because developing these beliefs may be a difficult task in the context of traditional, separate reading and writing courses, Bartholomae and Petrosky developed a much-imitated combined reading-writing course at the University of Pittsburgh. Instead of teaching reading and writing subskills in separate courses, Bartholomae and Petrosky advocated an integrated reading-writing approach that encourages students to establish their


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authority to speak and helps them to locate and decide what they determine to be important. (Holmberg)

PART 4 NOTES:Learning Across the Curriculum


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Learning Across the Curriculum“Learning Across the Curriculum (LAC) is a comprehensive learning across the curriculum program that asks students to work on their learning skills in all disciplines and at all levels, placing responsibility for assigning and evaluating learning skills with every instructor.” (JCSU Model)

An interesting quote by Vacca & Vacca, 2005 in “Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum”, “We have never met a teacher who didn’t believe that the essence of artful teaching is in showing students how to think deeply and critically about the content underlying an academic discipline. Yet, when content is taught in a vacuum without attention to the process by which it is learned, students are apt to make few connections between the powerful ideas underlying an academic discipline and the prior knowledge and experience that they bring to classroom learning situations.”

The Five Brain Rules for How the Brain Learns Naturally

Rita Smilkstein has filtered the following five brain rules from the literature and research:



Writing, and Math Across

the Curriculum

Learning =

Dendrite Growth


Learning

Learning is physiological. Learning only occurs when the learner interconnects new information with what they already know (prior knowledge).

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1. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. The first time we experience a new subject, our brains must build a dendrite on a cell body for that topic or must connect to an existing idea. Only after that dendrite is in place or the related idea identified can we begin to know, remember, and understand a topic.

2. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow for what is actively, personally, and specifically experienced and practiced. Nothing will happen in the brain for someone passively sitting in a class. We MUST make lessons and lectures engaging.

3. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow from stimulating experiences. The more interesting we make the material, the more likely students are to learn it. Stimulation of the brain causes growth. Of course, this is also happening when we watch a stimulating horror flick, so be careful.

4. Use it or lose it. This is actually true; our brains prune off the unused dendrites and synapses to reuse the cellular material somewhere else. The brain will first deconstruct those ideas we haven’t practiced very much or haven’t used in a long time. The brain is more likely to need to do this when we aren’t eating right.The good news is that the brain prunes the bad along with the good. Wrong ideas and thoughts are also pruned if we quit using them.

5. Emotions affect learning. We all know it and now research supports it. For those who say, “I hate math,” or “I can’t learn this stuff,” learning is much more difficult. (Five Rules of How the Brain Learns, Roberta S. Lacefield, Waycross College from Rita Smilkstein)

Understanding How Learning Occurs


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How the Brain Learns Naturally

Learning is physiological. Learning only occurs when the reader interconnects new information with what they already know (prior knowledge). With this information the reader can consciously take control of their thinking and develop internal dialogue while they are reading to ask questions about what they already know. (Based on the work of Rita Smilkstein)




Axon End

BudsCell Body

Dendrites

Neurons

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“New structures grow in the everyone’s brain during learning, and learning is the growing of new brain structures (dendrites and neural networks). In other words, learning and growing new brain structures are the same thing.” (Smilkstein, 2003) All learning is the growing of new dendrites by interconnecting what the reader is learning and what the reader already knows. The physiological functions of learning are the same for everyone. Differences in learning occur not physiologically, but based on what each reader already knows.

Developing Cognitive Strategies Around How the Brain Learns

For example, let’s take the first rule for how the brain learns – New dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. Another way of saying that is – Learning only occurs when the reader interconnects new information with what they already knows (prior knowledge). With this information the reader can consciously take control of their thinking and develop internal dialogue while they are reading to ask questions about what they already know. This inquiry process is a cognitive strategy. A strategy is a conscious plan under the control of the reader. In this instance the conscious plan is to make connections between what the reader is reading and what the reader already knows as they are reading.

By understanding how the brain learns, the reader comes to understand that they can take control of learning while reading. Let’s take a look graphically at how the brain




Axon End

BudsCell Body

Dendrites

Neurons

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learns and at what is meant by learning only occurs when the reader interconnects new information with what they already knows.

How the Brain LearnsNeuroscience has now confirmed that there are basic rules and principles about how the brain learns. These rules provide part of the conceptual framework for adaptive reading. The reader who understands how the brain learns can take control of their own thinking and learning processes. The reader who understands how the brain learns can become a self-regulated learner in the process of constructing meaning and making that meaning useful (critical thinking).

The brain has one hundred billion brain cells (neurons), which are all trying to communicate with one another and make connections. Neurons carry electrical charges and make chemical connections to other neurons. A neuron has a cell body and attached to the cell body are dendrites (short fibers) that receive messages. When you, see, hear, feel external information, that information is received by the dendrites.


Axon

Neuron Ends

Cell Body

Dendrites -short fibers (surrounding the cell body) that receive messages

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The message goes to the cell body and on down the axon (long fibers) that transmit messages to the neuron ends (end buds),

When the message (new information the reader is reading) reaches the neuron ends (end buds), the end buds look for other dendrites on other neurons that have related information (prior knowledge). Remember, learning only occurs when the reader interconnects new information with what they already know (prior knowledge).


Axon -- long fibers (extending from the cell body) that transmit messages through the ends of neurons to other neuron dendrites.

Neuron Ends

Cell Body

Dendrites -short fibers (surrounding the cell body) that receive messages

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If end buds (end neurons) find other dendrites of related knowledge, a new dendrite grows. That new dendrite is learning.


Neuron Ends – dendrite-like fibers that connect to other neuron dendrites

Cell Bodyax

onneurotransmittersreceptors

synapse

dendrite

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Axon

Neuron EndsCell

Body

Dendrites

Rule 1: New dendrites, synapse, and neural networks grow only from what is already there.

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Every time we learn something new, brain cells grow new dendrites. In order for brain cells to grow new dendrite, new information being learned must find older dendrites with related information (prior knowledge).


Rule 1: Dendrites, synapse, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. (Smilkstein)

This is why activating prior knowledge in the construction of meaning is so important.

The black dendrites represent prior knowledge

The newly grown dendrite represents learning.

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Developing Cognitive Strategies Around How the Brain Forgets


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Most forgetting occurs within the first twenty-four hours if newly grown dendrites (learning) are not strengthened and this continues for what was read until the average college student forgets eighty percent of what was read after only two weeks. The more often the neural pathways of new learning are activated, the stronger and faster the those pathways becomes and the more resistant to being pruned (reabsorbed by the brain) they are.

Knowing this, the reader can use mental processes to strengthen newly grown dendrites. Anything the reader does to tie new information to old


(1)Constructing meaning, that is, growing new dendrites is just a third of the story if we want to (2)retain the new learning and (3)be able to use it.

The newly grown dendrite represents learning and is learning.

The most forgetting occurs within the first 24 hours.While you sleep dendrites that have not been strengthened during the day are reabsorbed (lost).

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information not only helps construct meaning but also used following learning strengthens dendrites. For example, saying what was learned in the reader’s own words (reciting) ties new information to the reader’s prior knowledge.

PART 5 NOTES:Reading to Learn




Curriculum

Rules of Consolidation

Cognitive Strategies

Internal Dialogue

Organize InformationTo Learn

Reading

Write to Elaborate

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Reading to Learn

“The comprehension of written texts is an extraordinarily complex process. (The next statement will surprise some reading instructors who have not kept up with research on learning and reading, but it is past time to stop spending precious instruction and learning time on sophisticated conventions that that don’t make a difference.) Earlier research on reading comprehension focused on sets of discrete skills (i.e. getting the main idea, getting the facts, making inferences) or on the products of comprehension (i.e. what readers understood after reading). This research provided useful foundations for our current understandings, but did not address the more basic questions of what readers actively did while trying to get the main idea of a text or make inferences based upon the reading” (Carnegie Corporation, 2010). It is the intermediate mental processes with which Reading Across the Curriculum is concerned. “The ability to comprehend written texts is not a static or fixed ability, but rather one involves a dynamic relationship between the demands of texts and the prior knowledge and goals of readers. It is precisely because of these dynamic relationships that the teaching of reading in the academic disciplines is so crucial. This reality has important implications for both teaching and assessment” (Carnegie, 2010).

Why Is Reading Important in the Content Areas?

•One concern teachers express is that students do not have the skills to read and comprehend content-based text. Therefore, content area teachers need to be skilled in content-based reading strategies (Billmeyer, 1996).•Skills needed depend on the content and text. Content teachers are best qualified to help students comprehend the material presented by developing prior knowledge related to the topic.•If all teachers provide reading opportunities for students, students will be better prepared to meet identified standards in all areas.Background knowledge and content provide an essential link between what students understand and what they read (Anthony and Raphael, 1989). (Prince George’s County Public Schools)


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Reading to Learn

Understand How To Read To Learn: What does a discipline instructor need to know about reading to help their students learn?

First, to develop competence in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge. The average college students forget eighty percent of what they read within two weeks with the result that they often do not develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge.


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Moving Information to Long-Term MemoryWorking memory is where the brain stores and manipulates incoming information. New information is held in working memory for 20 to 30 seconds and then is forgotten if the learner does not do something to enable the brain to hold the information long enough to manipulate it.

Research into how the brain learns clearly shows that there are three things that learners need to deliberately do mentally in order to remember new information. These deliberate mental actions on the part of the reader are called “Rules of Consolidation.


10

0%

50%1

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ay1

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Read

i ng – F orge ttin

g Curve

50%

20%35%

Develo

p d

eep

foun

da

tion of

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kn

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What are the Three Rules of Consolidation?

1. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later. See Appendix A for core cognitive strategies for re-exposing one’s self to newly learned information.

2. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality. “More elaborately” means thinking, talking or writing about what was just read. Any mental activity in which the reader slows down and mentally tries to connect what they are reading to what they already know is elaboration. This rule provides the perfect breeding ground of integrating reading and writing. See Appendix B for reading/writing to learn activities.

3. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be. (Medina) See Appendix C for habits of mind for re-exposing one’ self to new information at fixed intervals.


Rules of Consolidatio

n(from working memory to long-term memory)

1. Re-expose

to Informat

ion

2. Re-expose

with Elaborat

ion

3. Re-expose

with Elaborat

ion in Fixed

Intervals

Recite

Next Day

Reading Journals

Write to Learn

Immediately after

Encountering New

Information

Deliberately re-expose yourself to

the information if you want to retrieve

it later.

Within 90 minutes

Say in own words out

loud

Internal Dialogue Inquiry

Summaries

Annotations

Response Papers

Synthesis Papers

Learning Log

Read to Learn

Ex. in class – minute papers,

muddiest point, one sentence

summary, application cards, etc

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1. When you have read a new topic or paragraph, explain to yourself what you have just read; this is re-exposure to the information. Note: re-exposing can be reciting or writing (integrated reading and writing)

2. When you finish studying, take a few minutes to re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

3. Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate.

4. Review again the next day as soon as you can.

Core Cognitive Strategies

Before Reading:Survey: getting an overview of the reading selection or chapter Example of Integrated Writing to Learn: The reader writes about what they already know about the information they are finding in the text clues.

During Reading:

Question: asking questions to focus the mind and tap prior knowledge Text Clue Questions Internal Dialogue QuestionsRead: read to answer the question the reader generates

After Reading: Timed IntervalsRecite: expressing in reader’s own words what they are reading to fix information in long-term memoryReflect/Relate: taking time during and after reading to mentally connect new facts, terms, and concepts with what you already knowExample of Integrated Writing to Learn: Summarize what was read.

Inquiry Questions for Internal DialogueHere are the some powerful Inquiry Internal Dialogue questions that are the focus for moving surface learning to deep learning by interconnecting new information with prior knowledge:


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Internal Dialogue Questions:1. What do I already know?2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of the concept being considered?3. How is what I am reading like or different than what I already know?4. Can I predict where this is going?5. How has the author organized the information in this reading selection and how does it relate to prior readings?’

Writing to Learn and Internal Dialogue QuestionsLearners can always use “writing to learn” activities to mentally respond to internal dialogue questions.

“Reflecting on what was just read helps clarify thinking and focus understanding. Full understanding cannot be achieved until students reflect in a meaningful way about their reading. Reflecting has a couple of very important by-products. First, it helps students think critically about what they have learned and have yet to learn about what they have read. A second by-product of reflective thinking is that it helps students retain material they have read” (Richardson, 2009).

Integrating Reading and Writing Through Internal and External Dialogue- Making Thinking Visible: Explore ways that discussion and social writing can foster learning. Projects should explore strategies for using communication to make the intermediate


Internal

Dialogue

Questions

Prior Knowled

ge ?Text

Elaborations

Examples?

Explanations?

Pictures, Charts?

Comparison /

Contrast?

Prediction?

Author’s Organizati

on?

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processes of learning more visible and to provide opportunities for students to develop personal and academic voice.

Example:Reciprocal Teaching

As opposed to asking students to read for homework or as a classroom assignment and then simply answer questions when they finish reading, literacy rich content area classrooms include a variety of instructional routines that provide guidance to students before, during and after reading. These routines may include the teacher modeling how he or she makes sense of the text. This long standing routine based on Reciprocal Teaching accomplishes two important functions. First, it shows the students that even expert readers such as teachers actively work to make sense of texts and can in fact be confused by texts (Lee, 2007). Second, it demonstrates how to deploy strategies purposefully such as predicting, asking questions, and summarizing. Teachers also use a variety of thinking tools that direct students to engage in the kinds of generic reading strategies we have described and that are well documented in the research on reading comprehension. (Reading in the Disciplines, Carnegie Corporation, 2010)

"Definition: Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue.Purpose: The purpose of reciprocal teaching is to facilitate a group effort between teacher and students as well as among students in the task of bringing meaning to the text. Each strategy was selected for the following purpose:

• Summarizing provides the opportunity to identify and integrate the most important information in the text. Text can be summarized across sentences, across paragraphs, and across the passage as a whole. When the students first begin the reciprocal teaching procedure, their efforts are generally focused at the sentence and paragraph levels. As they become more proficient, they are able to integrate at the paragraph and passage levels.

• Question generating reinforces the summarizing strategy and carries the learner one more step along in the comprehension activity. When students generate questions, they first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the substance for a question. They then


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pose this information in question form and self-test to ascertain that they can indeed answer their own question. Question generating is a flexible strategy to the extent that students can be taught and encouraged to generate questions at many levels. For example, some school situations require that students master supporting detail information; others require that the students be able to infer or apply new information from text.

• Clarifying is an activity that is particularly important when working with students who have a history of comprehension difficulty. These students may believe that the purpose of reading is saying the words correctly; they may not be particularly uncomfortable that the words, and in fact the passage, are not making sense. When the students are asked to clarify, their attention is called to the fact that there may be many reasons why text is difficult to understand (e.g., new vocabulary, unclear reference words, and unfamiliar and perhaps difficult concepts). They are taught to be alert to the effects of such impediments to comprehension and to take the necessary measures to restore meaning (e.g., reread, ask for help).

• Predicting occurs when students hypothesize what the author will discuss next in the text. In order to do this successfully, students must activate the relevant background knowledge that they already possess regarding the topic. The students have a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their hypotheses. Furthermore, the opportunity has been created for the students to link the new knowledge they will encounter in the text with the knowledge they already possess. The predicting strategy also facilitates use of text structure as students learn that headings, subheadings, and questions imbedded in the text are useful means of anticipating what might occur next.

In summary, each of these strategies was selected as a means of aiding students to construct meaning from text as well as a means of monitoring their reading to ensure that they are in fact understanding what they read. (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory)

Metacognition – Internal Dialogue: a little background


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Metacognition From the Literature: “Metacognition is broadly defined as thinking about thinking. When students are taught to think about their own thinking, they gain knowledge and control of factors that affect learning—the self, the task at hand, and strategies to be employed (Baker & Brown, 1984; Palinscar & Brown, 1981).

Note: Writing is a very powerful “thinking about thinking” mental process.

Metacognition is not an instinctive process; therefore deliberate efforts must be made by teachers and students to call attention to it when it is occurring. Doing so can be difficult because the process often occurs as an internal dialogue, meaning there are no tangible or verbal cues to aid in awareness (Bransford et al., 2000; Wolfe & Brush, 2000). Second, the most successful strategies for teaching metacognition require the complete reorganization of a student’s thinking process, which involves much more than simply pointing out when metacognition is occurring (Perkins & Grotzer, 1997).

Note: Internal Dialogue and writing can aid metacogoition – that is, give the learner control over thinking and learning.

Handelsman etal (2006) refers to metacognition as "the internal dialogue about what is being learned", and state that it includes "the process of setting challenging goals, identifying strategies to meet them, and monitoring progress toward them". (Lovett, 2008). (Appalachia Educational Laboratory, 2005)

Bransford et al. (2000), warned that educators often make the misguided assumption that because metacognition takes the form of self-imposed internal conversation that students will develop this internal dialogue on their own. They emphatically state that this is not true. The point is that the better understood the entire concept of metacognition becomes, the more sophisticated the thinking process becomes. When given metacognitive training, the degree to which transfer occurs in different settings has been shown to increase (Bransford et al. 2000). However, significant discussion and practice with metacognition are required before students are able to sufficiently comprehend and accommodate the concept. In a highly recommended book by Bain (2004) that discusses the practices of the best college teachers, the concept of metacognition is mentioned and strongly implied throughout. To get students thinking about their thinking is an essential first step to their mental processes of learning and synthesis that are critical harbingers of transfer. (Ramocki, 2007)


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Note: The combined use writing and internal dialogue through inquiry improves metacognition.

Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino (1999) describe metacognition as an internal dialogue that individuals develop in order to build skills for predicting learning outcomes and monitoring comprehension. (Gorsky, 2004)

Because metacognition often takes the form of an internal dialogue, many students may be unaware of its importance unless the processes are explicitly emphasized by teachers (Bransford, 1999).

Developing Internal Dialogue – SLOW DOWN

Metacognition is a thinking processes that help the reader take control of their reading – think about their thinking or make their thinking visible.

As we have just read, it is a mistake to think that readers will necessarily develop internal dialogue on their own or will learn how to engage in internal dialogue if the processes are not explicitly emphasized by instructors. It is very important that in developing internal dialogue driven by inquiry that the reader slows down and consciously engages in carefully designed inquiry and has an internal conversation with themselves and the text. This is the most difficult part of helping readers develop internal dialogue. Telling the reader to slow down and ask questions and engage in internal conversation with themselves and the text will not work. It takes a lot of practice.

Organization and Conceptual FrameworksUnderstanding facts and ideas within the context of a conceptual framework and organizing knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application as essential to developing competence in an area of inquiry.

Conceptual FrameworkA conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpretation of information. This provides the big picture for learning, making associations, and making interconnections between new information and prior knowledge, which is the foundation of constructing meaning.

Mind MappingMind mapping is a visual thinking tool that helps the learner organize information within the context of a conceptual framework. Mind mapping


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uses almost everything we know about how the brain learns, stores and retrieves information. Mind mapping is a powerful tool for preparing the learner for analyzing, comprehending, synthesizing, recalling and generating new ideas.Mind maps literally reflect how the brain organizes new information. When the reader uses the “rules of consolidation” for converting working memory into long-term memory, and the core cognitive strategies for understanding and retention of information in conjunction with mind mapping to visually represent relationships among concepts, thoughts, and ideas, information becomes much more useful in future applications. Using the internal dialogue inquiry questions along with mind mapping enables the reader clarify their understanding and move beyond surface learning to deep learn.

Teaching Content Knowledge and Reading Strategies in TandemIn successful content-area classrooms, teachers organize instruction in routine ways that

Reinforce conceptions of reading as a meaning making process; Provide guided support for making sense while students are engaged

in acts of reading; Shift responsibility for thinking and making sense of texts to students

themselves through guided supports in both small and whole group work;

Sequence discipline specific inquiry tasks and the reading of a range of discipline focused texts in ways that build knowledge and dispositions over time;

Focus classroom talk on how students make sense of texts and how they use what they learn from texts to carry out discipline specific thinking tasks, or what Resnick and colleagues call “accountable talk.” (Michaels, O’Connor, Hall, & Resnick, 2002);

Provide consistent supports so that students experience success and develop or reinforce their sense of efficacy as readers as well as students who value the practices of the disciplines as these are instantiated in authentic classroom tasks.

PART 6 NOTES:Writing to Learn


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Premises for Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing improves student learning Writing encourages critical thinking Writing is a process of making decisions and evaluating the effectiveness

of those decisions through drafting, feedback and revision opportunities Writing is a tool that can help students synthesize, analyze, and apply

course content Writing is a performance-based skill



and Math Across the

Curriculum

To Learn

To Communicat

e

Writing in the

Disciplines

In all Undergrad

uate Courses

Writing Across

the Curriculu

mDiscipline Writing

Conventions

Explain to

OneselfExplain

to Others

Writing

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Writing occurs in a context—when students learn the conventions of language use and style of a particular discipline, they can more successfully participate in the discourse of that discipline. (Cuesta College)

Writing to Learn

Understanding How To Write To Learn (WTL): How does a discipline instructor use writing to help their students learn?

World of Difference Writing to Learn: in order to explain the matter to oneself. Writing to Communicate: in order to express the matter to others. Impossible to explain the matter to others before the student has

explained it to herself. Course assignments generally focus on writing to communicate,

rather than on writing to learn. This focus too often fails to consider the intermediate stages of learning as it is product oriented.

Note: Most areas of study lend themselves easily to the standard research-based writing assignment. Those projects, however, can be time consuming and work-intensive. Writing across the curriculum is not really about formal research writing, but encouraging students to develop written communication skills that enhance their understanding of subject matter and their ability to share their knowledge with others. (Huddleston)


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Writing across the Curriculum"Writing across the curriculum" simply means that writing exercises are integrated into every subject matter so that students continue to improve written communication even while learning a specific discipline like math or science. This is accomplished with two main objectives; writing in the disciplines and writing to learn. Both of these are designed to improve your students' writing skills while focusing on different outcomes.

1. Writing in the disciplines involves integrating written assignments into every aspect of your curriculum. This means that you can incorporate learning activities involving writing that can be used, not just in English class, but in the math, science, and history, as well.

2. Writing to learn will help you focus your classroom content on ways to help your students use their writing skills as tools to increase their competency in thinking critically even while improving their ability to both learn and retain new information. (Bauers)

(See Appendix G for example of website that provides faculty with answers to common informal writing across the curriculum.)


Reading and Writing

to Learn Activities

Reading Journal

Generic and Focused

Summaries

Annotations

Response Papers The

Discussion Starter

Synthesis Papers

The Learning Log

Problem Statement

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Writing to Learn (WTL)“Of equal concern to educators are the alarming numbers of college students who are incapable of writing logical thoughts down as a preliminary step in engaging in the kind of critical thinking that leads to problem solving. The theory is that students, who are the most successful at formulating deductions, often do so by thinking their way through processes and writing down the necessary steps needed to reach conclusions.” (Bauers)

Writing in the Disciplines (WID)“Institutions of higher learning have become increasingly aware that when particular disciplines become the narrow focus of study, the art of written expression can become lost. Educators believe that students, who can write well, have a greater probability of maximizing potential. Students who are unable to document what they have learned are at a definite disadvantage when it comes to retaining and applying knowledge.” (Bauers)

For an excellent brief introduction to writing across the curriculum, see Appendix F from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.

Brief Introduction to Current Theories of Writing Instruction Below by Brewster & Klum:

1. Writing develops through meaningful practice: In order to improve, students need meaningful opportunities to put developing skills to use (Shanahan, 2004). Research indicates that the “development of student writing from approximate forms to conventional forms is best achieved through substantial time devoted to writing, multiple opportunities to write across the school day and focused instruction that builds from the writers’ efforts” (Egawa, 1998). Assignments should allow students to write for real audiences and purposes, and to make connections between home, community, and school.

2. Writing is a situated and recursive process: “Most research today supports the view that writing is recursive, that it does not proceed linearly but instead cycles and recycles through subprocesses” that include planning, drafting, evaluating, and revising (NWP & Nagin, 2003, p. 25). Though many textbooks present students with a prescribed version of the writing process”—first brainstorm, then outline, then draft, and so on—compositionists stress that there are in fact many writing processes that vary from student to student and task to task.

3. Writing and reading are interrelated: According to Tierney and Shanahan


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(1991), “numerous studies have shown that writing led to improved reading achievement, reading led to better writing, and combined instruction led to improvement in both reading and writing” (p. 258). Because reading and writing skills support each other, struggling students in particular should be encouraged to focus on both simultaneously, not wait for one to improve before working on the other

4. Different writing situations impose different demands: Writing is not an isolated skill that, once mastered, can simply be called up and put into the service of new writing tasks. Students who write effectively in genres and subject areas they know well may encounter enormous difficulty with others. Strong writing programs provide students practice in many genres and emphasize strategies for identifying different conventions and constraints.

First, a Little Information from the Literature:

“Writing to Learn is low stakes writing. The goal isn't so much good writing as coming to learn, understand, remember and figure out what you don't yet know.” (NTLF)

Writing to communicate--or what James Britton calls "transactional writing"--means writing to accomplish something, to inform, instruct, or persuade. . . .

“Writing to learn is different. We write to ourselves as well as talk with others to objectify our perceptions of reality; the primary function of this "expressive" language is not to communicate, but to order and represent experience to our own understanding. In this sense language provides us with a unique way of knowing and becomes a tool for discovering, for shaping meaning, and for reaching understanding.” (Fulwiler & Young)

“Generally, writing-to-learn activities are•short, •impromptu or •otherwise informal writing tasks

that help students think through key concepts or ideas presented in a course. Often, these writing tasks are limited to less than five minutes of class time or are assigned as brief, out-of-class assignments.” (The WAC Clearing House)

“Writing in the content areas often consists primarily of “knowledge telling” – students answering questions at the ends of chapters or on worksheets; writing traditional reports; and recording what they know, what they want to know, and what they learned. There does, however, appear to be an increasing focus on using writing to promote learning students reformulate and extend knowledge topics.” (Armbruster, McCarthey, & Cummins)


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Writing can be a process for learning. “Writing aids critical thinking skills as well as lower levels of learning. Emig believes, "Writing represents a unique mode of learning - not merely valuable, not merely special, but unique." To learn we must place new knowledge into a cognitive framework. Writing provides the process needed to relate new knowledge to prior experience (synthesis). Finally, the written material, the product of this process, is concrete and visible and permits review, manipulation, and modification of knowledge as it is "learned" and put into a framework” (Emig, 1977; Fulwiler, 1982; Tomlinson, 1990).

Writing to Learn/Learning to Write: “Proponents of writing across the curriculum are quick to clarify that writing to learn is not the same as learning to write; but as flip sides of a single coin, the two support one another. Anne Walker (1988) calls the two parts the "virtuous circle." When content area teachers incorporate writing in all areas of the curriculum--social studies, math, science, vocational education, business, foreign language, music, art, physical education, and language arts--students benefit in three ways: they have a resource for better understanding content; they practice a technique which aids retention; and they begin to write better.” (Walker, 1988; Kurfiss, 1985)

Using Writing to Learn Mathematics: “Incorporating writing assignments into a mathematics course helps students develop as both writers and mathematicians. Drake and Amspaugh (1994) observe that teachers who add writing to their class often find it easier to recognize and diagnose the nature of students’ conceptual problems. In addition, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) states that, “the very act of communicating clarifies thinking and forces students to engage in doing mathematics" (p. 214).It is also clear that writing-to-learn activities—writing strategies that give students space to think through their problem-solving processes—have a place in mathematics courses. Professor of Education at UNC-Charlotte David Pugalee (1997) argues that “writing can help students interpret unfamiliar texts, construct arguments, struggle to understand complex systems, and develop new approaches to problems” (p. 308). Quinn and Wilson (1997) acknowledge that incorporating writing-to-learn into the mathematics classroom has benefits for teachers as well. They find that “teachers gain important information from students’ writing that can inform their instruction” (p. 14), such as the benefits of specific assignments and changes to instructor pedagogy.”

David A. Reid, Professor of Mathematics Education at Acadia University, continues this thought: “Writing plays an integral part in problem-solving. The view of writing as a process emphasizes brainstorming, clarifying, and revising; this view can readily be applied to solving a mathematical


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problem. Not only does writing help organize information and procedures, it helps us to learn more about our own thinking processes."

A Quick Note About Assessing Writing to Learn Activities

Do I as an instructor have to be an expert in grammar to assign writing? Not at all! If you assign write-to-learn tasks, you won't want to mark any grammatical flaws because the writing is designed to be impromptu and informal. If you assign more polished pieces, especially those that adhere to disciplinary conventions, then we suggest putting the burden of proofreading squarely where it belongs--on the writer. (The WAC Clearinghouse)

Ferris State University: The sort of writing that most facilitates learning is informal, relatively unstructured, and has an emphasis more on what is said (the new ideas and concepts being struggled with) than how it is said (correct spelling, grammar and usage). These things are important, but to what extent depends on the purpose of the writing. When students are writing to learn their attention should be on ideas more than on "correctness." If they later seek to convey this information to others, then correctness becomes important.

HintsStudents may be hesitant to show a lack of knowledge in writing, yet this ability to be tentative is essential to building new knowledge. Remember to encourage, rather than discourage whenever possible. Pose questions and offer suggestions that will help them form correct concepts.

• Encourage students to write to themselves for themselves or to you as a facilitator of learning rather than a judge. Don't be dismayed by the surface appearance of what they write; in "writing to learn" the ideas and thought are most important.

• Make assignments clear and realistic. Know exactly what you expect students to get out of an assignment, how you expect it done, and let the students know, too. Write the assignment yourself, whenever possible, to make sure it works. If you grade writing-to-learn assignments, share your grading criteria with the students.

• Use writing-to-learn to serve your ends, to teach and reinforce your subject. (Ferris State University)

Benefits of Writing to Learn (WTL)

1. WTL promotes active learning. 2. Students use their own language to understand course concepts; they "own" rather than "rent" the language and ideas.


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3. WTL stimulates participation and discussion (every student has a response to the question). 4. Teachers discover what students are thinking and learning, what's clear and what isn't. 5. WTL creates opportunity for teacher/student and student/student dialogue. 6. Students can "rehearse" ideas and strategies before tackling formal writing assignments; they can "practice" before the "big game." 7. WTL creates a way for students to reflect upon what they are learning, to think metacognitively and personally about their learning processes in the course. 8. WTL assists students in discovering what they know and what they don't know. 9. WTL gives everyone a stake in the class. 10. WTL can be adapted for whole group or small group activities. 11. WTL creates opportunities to write for audiences other than the teacher. 12. WTL allows for formative (assisting in the process) rather than only summative (evaluating a product) assessments. (Saginaw Valley State University)

Strategies for Starting Class (also see Appendix B)

•Have students ask a question they have about the previous class presentation.•Have students write a question about the day's reading assignment.•Have students describe a problem they have in understanding course material.*•Have students reflect on previous learning--by summarizing main ideas or citing a single specific example from previous presentation or the day's reading assignment.*•Have students prepare for today's class by describing what they already know about the topic.•Give students a key word from the day's presentation and ask them to write down everything they know about it--or everything they don't understand about the concept.*•Have students write a brief outline of the reading assignment.•Have students write what they expect to learn from the day's class.•Pose a problem based on the reading assignment or previous class presentation and have students propose a solution. (Saginaw Valley State University)

Strategies for Ending Class

•Have students define what was most important about what they learned in class that day.*


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•Have students describe how they could make use of something they learned in class that day.*•Have students describe how the day's material is connected to the previous period's material.*•Have students describe how the day's material is connected to the reading assignment.*•Ask students to briefly summarize the day's presentation.*Ask students to briefly outline the day's presentation.*•Ask students to devise an exam question or a writing assignment based on the day's material.*Have students describe what they still don't understand about the day's material. (Saginaw Valley State University)

PART 7 NOTES:Math Across the Curriculum


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Math Across the CurriculumMath Across the Curriculum, Why?

Math Across the CurriculumMath across the curriculum seeks to do more than just insure that math is represented in the disciplines; the goals are much more ambitious. Math across the curriculum also seeks to develop faculty capacity for teaching mathematics in context, to improve students' understanding of the value and importance of math, and to improve students' ability to use simple mathematical skills to solve real problems



and Math Across the

Curriculum

Math

Reading to Learn Math

Writing to Learn Math

To Learn

Increase Math

Content Across

the Curriculu

m

Develop Faculty

Capacity for Teaching Math in Context

Student Understanding of Value

and Importance

Student Ability to Use Simple

Math Skills

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Increase the mathematical content across the curriculum . Develop faculty capacity for teaching mathematics in context. Improve students' understanding of the value and importance of math. Improve students' ability to use simple mathematical skills to solve real

problems

Mathematical Literacy is Defined As: “An individual's capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well- founded judgments and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual's life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen.”- Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA, 2000)

“Quantitative literacy is more about habits of mind than specific mathematical content. Therefore, the responsibility for developing quantitative literacy, like writing across the curriculum, is shared by the entire college faculty. However, mathematics faculty should lead the quantitative literacy movement by helping to establish a set of outcomes expected of students in each program.” - AMATYC Beyond Crossroads

“Quantitative literacy (QL) - the ability to understand and use numbers and data analyses in everyday life.” (National Council o Education and The Disciplines, 2003)

“The capacity to deal effectively with quantitative aspects of life is referred to by many different names, among them quantitative literacy, numeracy, mathematical literacy, quantitative reasoning, or sometimes just plain ‘mathematics’.” - Mathematics and Democracy

Integrating Procedures for Learning, Reading, Math and Writing Across the Curriculum: What does the Instructor Need?

1. Conceptual Framework for Learning: Accept a conceptual framework for learning to understand.(what conceptual learning framework will guide learning activities)2. Math Concept and Learning Objectives: Establish the concept and learning objectives.3. Integrated Reading Activities: Establish what reading to learn activities within the conceptual framework for learning enable the learner to meet the learning objectives.4. Integrated Writing Activities: Establish what writing to learn activities will help the learner clarify and organize concepts being learned.


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5. Integrated Math Activities: If math is involved, establish if prior knowledge is necessary to understand and work the math problem, as well as establish what concepts need to be learned to go beyond procedural learning to conceptual understanding (learning objectives).

PART 8 NOTES:Standing on the Threshold of Integrating

Learning, Reading, Writing, and Math Across the Curriculum Using

Technology to Connect Faculty, Students, Content Courses, and

Learning Centers


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Integrating Across the Curriculum with Technology

AdvisorTrac, TutorTrac, and SAGE were purchased as advising, learning center, and early warning management and tracking software.TutorTrac (learning center tracking and management) and SAGE (early warning software) were purchased as part of as part of a CPE grant. The exceptions are software purchased for Donna Edgar (Advising - AdvisorTrac) and Stacy Taylor (Writing Center - TutorTrac), who have been asking for these Trac softwares for years. There is a bigger picture than providing learning center management and early warning management for which the software was purchased. That bigger goal is developing a holistic communication and referral plan, which integrates academic support centers and especially across the curriculum activities for students and faculty.

Jefferson is in the process of installing AdvisorTrac, TutorTrac, and Sage. TutorTrac is a powerful web based tutoring, and learning center management and tracking software. AdvisorTrac will allow advisors, learning center staff, students, and faculty to have access to their records via the web. With TutorTrac faculty and students have 24-hour scheduling access to all the campus tutoring and learning centers. Sage is an early warning software; it is a tool that allows professors, or other persons using TutorTrac to indicate that a certain student is having difficulties and requires special attention.


Integrating Across

the Curriculu

m with Technolog

y

AdvisorTrac

SageTutorTra

c

Early Warning System

Track Student Use of Academic

Support

Writing Center

Learning Workshops

Math Lab

Tutoring Program

Share information

among faculty and

centersFaculty or Students

make online appointments with learning

centers

Faculty or Students

make online appointments with learning

centers

Advisors identify

potential problems and make online

appointments with learning

centers

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Across the curriculum initiatives need to take advantage of the campus academic support centers and labs. These initiatives also need to be proactive in securing student support in a timely manner. Across the curriculum activities (learning, reading to learn, writing to learn, writing in the disciplines, and math) can be integrated into and supported by the academic support centers. Access and communication can be enhanced by technology to support these endeavors.

The writing center, under Stacy Taylor, is light years ahead. If you saw Stacy and Sandy Eubanks presentation on writing to learn a couple years back at the SuccessNow Learning Conference and are aware of Stacy’s efforts to bring faculty into the referral processes for the writing center, you can begin to get a picture of how, with technology, Jefferson can also begin to support an integrated learning, reading, writing, and math across the curriculum support system using the software’s powerful referring, scheduling, early warning, recommendations, communication, and reporting features.

PART 9 NOTES:Integrating Learning,

Reading, Writing, and Math Across the Curriculum


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Reading and Writing as Intermediate Stages of Learning and Transfer

Intermediate Stages “The most effective professional development program, as with any learning activity, starts by developing the prior knowledge (basics) for reading and writing to learn before broaching sophisticated conventions. Reading and writing across the curriculum is more about mental processes than about products. Content area teachers too often fail to focus on reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the context of


Integrating



m

Learning =

Dendrite

Growth


To Learn

To Communic

ate

Rules of Consolid

ation

Cognitive

Strategies

Internal Dialogu

e

Organize

Information

Writing in the

Disciplines

To Learn

In all Undergra


Across the

Curriculum

Discipline Writing

Conventions

Explain to

Oneself

Explain to

Others

Learning

Reading

Writing

Math

Reading to Learn

Math

Writing to Learn

Math

To Learn

Increase Math

Content Across

the Curricul

um

Develop Faculty

Capacity for



Value and Importan

ce


Skills

Write to Elaborat

e

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their subject. It is easy to assume that the basics of learning, reading and writing are already understood. In any learning endeavor, it is important to identify the reading and writing strategies and habits necessary for reaching the intended learning outcomes. Failure to address these intermediate stages (strategies and habits) can severely limit potential learning. For example, most areas of study lend themselves easily to the standard research-based writing assignment. Those projects, however, can be time consuming and work-intensive. Again, writing across the curriculum is not really about formal research writing, but encouraging students to develop written communication skills that enhance their understanding of subject matter and their ability to share their knowledge with others.” (Huddleston)

Intermediate Stages For Developmental Reading and Writing Across the CurriculumIt is not uncommon for developmental reading and writing instruction to neglect intermediate stages of learning, reading and writing. Reading instruction for freshmen survey courses can fail to integrate learning and writing to learn and expressing that learned or focus on sophisticated conventions (main idea, etc.), while writing instruction can make assumptions about learning and reading by focusing on products (research paper, etc.) or sophisticated conventions rather than processes that are foundational to writing for producing a product. If this statement seems of center, please review above reading to learn, writing to learn, and math to learn above. Note: many current reading textbooks continue to focus on the main idea, even though research has moved well beyond that line of thinking about constructing meaning and making it useful.

Learning and Transfer

The question of transfer is the fundamental educational question; therefore, reading, and writing instruction across the curriculum should always be asking the question:

How can reading and writing enhance learning and transfer?

“A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater transfer; that is, “it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly” (Bransford, How People learn).


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“An underlying element of all literacy learning in general is `thinking.' In combined writing and reading instruction, learners engage in a greater society of experiences that lead to better reasoning and higher-level thinking than is achieved with either process alone (McGinley, 1988). Since thinking is a critical part of meaning construction, classrooms that actively foster meaning construction through reading and writing will produce better thinkers (T. Tierney and Shanahan, (1991).” (Cooper, 1997)

This leads to another question:

What are the reading and writing activities – cognitive strategies and habits of mind that facilitate learning and transfer? (see PART 5 and 6 above and Appendixes A and B below)

Reading and Writing as Intermediate Stages of LearningFoundation of General Education Competencies


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In any learning endeavor, it is important to identify the reading and writing strategies and habits of mind necessary for reaching intended learning outcomes. Failure to address these intermediate stages (strategies and habits) in all courses can severely limit potential learning. For example, assigning a project that requires the use of constructed meaning from readings when the learner has not learned how to use cognitive strategies for constructing meaning and especially for moving that understood to long-term memory or organized the information for easy retrieval in unfamiliar contexts.This is also true for helping faculty incorporate reading and writing to learn across the curriculum. Faculty professional development should begin with the intermediate stages of reading and writing to learn – how to use reading and writing to construct meaning, organize and clarify information, etc.

General Education RequirementsCompetencies will be met at the level appropriate to the credential.

A general education core curriculum will enable KCTCS colleges to graduate men and women who are intellectually flexible, articulate, reflective, creative, and prepared for continuous learning. For all students, this implies some understanding of the value of higher education and the world of work and career fields related to their own abilities, interests, and needs. The general education core competencies will enable students to develop their own values, pursue goals, and contribute to the political, moral, social, and cultural enrichment of society.


Reading and

Writing as Intermediate Stages of

Learning and

Transfer

Skill Cours

es

Reading instruction incorporates learning

and writing instruction

Math instructi

on incorpor

ates learning, reading

and writing

instruction

Writing instruction incorporates learning

and reading

instruction

Avoid

Ex. Find the main

idea without reading

and writing

instruction on

intermediate

processes

Sophisticated

conventions for which

reader or writer

has little prior

knowledge

Products w/o

integrated intermediat

e process instruction

Learning and

Transfer

Organize information

into a conceptual framework for transfer

Ex. Essay based on readings for which

writer has little

prior knowled

ge

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“Language capacity is the root of all student performance. The success of a classroom learning experience rests on student language capacity. Whether it is listening to directions, reading a passage, writing a response, or discussing a point of view, the individual student’s ability to perform and grow in a classroom rests squarely on his or her corresponding language capacity. The reading, writing, speaking, and listening strategies necessary for student engagement cut across disciplines. In the world of formal education, these strategies are requisite at every level all students. The need to read, write, speak, and listen effectively is fundamental to every subject, and in every class these learners will ever attend.” (Jacobs) A quick look at the general education competencies below or a quick look at the reading and writing conventions in the disciplines and it is readily apparent that literacy skill development has to extend beyond developmental and skills classes.

General Education Competencies

I. Communicate Effectively1. Read and listen with comprehension.2. Speak and write clearly using standard English.3. Interact cooperatively with others using both verbal and non-verbal

means.4. Demonstrate information processing through basic computer skills.

II. Think Critically1. Make connections in learning across the disciplines and draw

logical conclusions.2. Demonstrate problem solving through interpreting, analyzing,

summarizing, and/or integrating a variety of materials.3. Use mathematics to organize, analyze, and synthesize data to

solve a problem.III. Learn Independently

1. Use appropriate search strategies and resources to find, evaluate, and use information.

2. Make choices based upon awareness of ethics and differing perspectives/ideas.

3. Apply learning in academic, personal, and public situations4. Think creatively to develop new ideas, processes, or products.

IV. Examine Relationships in Diverse and Complex Environments1. Recognize the relationship of the individual to human heritage and

culture.2. Demonstrate an awareness of the relationship of the individual to

the biological and physical environment.3. Develop an awareness of self as an individual member of a

multicultural global community.


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Requires ScaffoldingScaffolding: “All too often in education, we are focused only on final products: the final exam, the grade, the perfect research paper, mastery of a subject.

•”How do we get students from here to there?

•What are the intermediate stages that help students develop the skills and habits of master learners in our disciplines?

•What kinds of scaffolding enable students to move forward, step-by-step?

•How do we, as educators, recognize and support the slow process of progressively deepening students’ abilities to think like historians and scholars?””(Bass and Eynon, Capturing the Visible Evidence of Invisible Learning, 2009)

Reading and Writing to Learn Across the Curriculum Basics

Recall that reading and writing across the curriculum programs share the philosophy that reading and writing are valuable methods of learning.

Instructors Need To:

1. Understand how learning occurs2. Understand how to read to learn3. Understand how to write to learn

Learning, Reading, Writing Connection Across the Curriculum“To understand the changes WAC programs aim to make, it is useful to look at the theoretical bases for these programs. There are two approaches to WAC, approaches that are not mutually exclusive but complementary, as two of the main proponents of WAC have pointed out (Maimon, “Writing"; Fulwiler, ''Friends"). We might think of them as being along a continuum in terms of the kinds of writing they advocate: in James Britton's terms, expressive (to the self as audience) to transactional (to another audience, usually the teacher, for a grade). The first approach, sometimes referred to as cognitive, involves using writing to learn. This approach assumes that writing is not only a way of showing what one has learned but is itself a mode of learning—that writing can be used as a tool for, as well as a test of, learning. The work of James Britton and of Janet Emig undergird this approach, which is based on constructivist theories of education. Knowledge is not passively received, the theory goes, but is actively constructed by each individual learner; these constructions change as our knowledge changes and grows. One of the most powerful ways of helping students build and


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change their knowledge structures is to have them write for themselves as audience—to explain things to themselves before they have to explain them to someone else. In the curriculum, this approach advocates write-to-learn assignments such as journals and other ungraded writing assignments aimed at helping students think on paper (for examples of such assignments, see Fulwiler's Journal Book). The best-known program using this approach to WAC was developed by Toby Fulwiler at Michigan Technological University; it is described in Fulwiler and Young's book Language Connections: Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum.It is important in discussing writing-to-learn assignments with faculty that we clarify what we mean by learning. One of the first questions a WAC director hears from colleagues is this: “What empirical evidence do you have that writing aids learning?” If one defines learning as simple recall of facts, the answer to that question is that we have little such evidence (Ackerman). In fact, if we are interested in having students only remember information, we would be better off instituting other kinds of assignments—memorization of mnemonic devices to aid recall, for example. But most of those involved in WAC efforts use the term learning as synonymous with discovery, as a way of objectifying thought, of helping separate the knower from the known; as a little girl once put it, “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” (Wallas 106). We might think of writing to learn as a “knowledge-transforming” rather than a “knowledge-telling” task (see Bereiter and Scardemalia). For those interested in this question of how writing aids knowledge transformation, a recent article discusses how we might go about measuring such learning (Schumacher and Nash).The second approach to WAC, sometimes termed rhetorical, involves learning to write in particular disciplines, or in what researchers have begun to think of as discourse communities. Although this approach does not exclude writing-to-learn assignments, it emphasizes more formal assignments, teaching writing as a form of social behavior in the academic community. The work of theorists on the social construction of knowledge, summarized by Kenneth Bruffee, underlies this approach. Knowledge in a discipline is seen not as discovered, but as agreed upon—as socially justified belief, created through the ongoing “conversation” (written as well as oral) of those in the field (see Maimon et al.).Writing across the curriculum may be defined, then, as a comprehensive program that transforms the curriculum, encouraging writing to learn and learning to write in all disciplines.” (McLeod)


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PART 10 NOTES:


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Reading and Writing in the Disciplines

Reading and Writing in the Disciplines

Recall that reading and writing across the curriculum programs share the philosophy that reading and writing conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading and writing discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas.

Reading in the Disciplines (RID)(all the generic and specific reading strategies below can be reinforced using writing across the curriculum)

Generic Reading Strategies Monitor comprehension Pre-read Set goals Think about what one already knows Ask questions


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Make predictions Test predictions against the text Re-read Summarize

Discipline Specific Reading Strategies Build prior knowledge Build specialized vocabulary Learn to deconstruct complex sentences Use knowledge of text structures and genres to predict main and

subordinate ideas Map graphic (and mathematical) representations against explanations

in the text Pose discipline relevant questions Compare claims and propositions across texts Use norms for reasoning within the discipline (i.e. what counts as

evidence) to evaluate claims

Common Characteristics of Large Comprehensive Textbooks What do these courses often have in common? They have large, comprehensive textbooks. Most, but not all of these textbooks, have the following characteristics (Caverly):

High conceptual density Compression of information A paragraph may represent a volume of research Use special terminology Multiple ways of presenting information through print Organization that reflects the logic of the discipline

Many of these textbook characteristics do not:

Invite reader construction of meaning Honor the knowledge the reader brings to the text Lend themselves to critical reading

Features of Inconsiderate History Texts(also found in text in other disciplines)

Failure to make logical (i.e. causal) connections between propositions explicit (Black & Bern, 1981; Kintsch, Mandel & Kozminsky, 1977; Stein & Nezworski, 1978.);

Use of references that are ambiguous, distant or indirect (Fredericksen, 1981, Cirilo, 1981; Lesgold, Roth & Curtis, 1979,


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Haviland & Clark, 1974; Just & Carpenter, 1978); The inclusion of information that is irrelevant to the main ideas

(Schank, 1975; Trabasso et al., 1984); Density of ideas within individual sentences (Kintsch & Keenan, 1973;

Kintsch, Kozminsky, Streby, McKoon, & Keenn, 1975). (Reading in the Disciplines, Carnegie Corporation, 2010)

Writing in the Disciplines (WID)Writing in the Disciplines (WID) assignments are designed to introduce or give students practice with the language conventions of a discipline as well as with specific formats typical of a given discipline. For example, the engineering lab report includes much different information in a quite different format from the annual business report.WID assignments are typically, but not exclusively, formal papers prepared over a few weeks or even months. The final papers adhere to format and style guidelines typical of the professional papers they are helping students learn about. Teachers comment primarily on the substance of these assignments, but teachers also expect students to meet professional standards of layout and proofreading (format and mechanical correctness). (The WAC Clearninghouse)

Writing in the Disciplines (WID): Writing in the disciplines is premised on the idea that students become better readers, thinkers, and learners in a discipline by working with the forms and conventions specific to it. A biology teacher might ask students to write lab reports, for example, while an art teacher might assign artists’ statements or gallery reviews. Journalistic articles, business plans, memos, and oral histories are additional examples of genres common to particular fields. (Brewster & Klump)

Further recall that reading and writing across the curriculum programs share the philosophy that reading and writing conventions are different in different disciplines across the curriculum, and reading and writing discipline-related conventions are learned best in those areas.


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PART 11 NOTES:Planning a Math Across the Curriculum

Lesson


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Planning a Math Across the Curriculum Lesson

Example: Teaching Grade Point Average (GPA)

in GEN 100 & GEN 101First, the GEN 101 instructor needs to determine what math across the curriculum goals they want to accomplish.

The Math Across Curriculum Goals are: Increase the mathematical content across the curriculum. Develop faculty capacity for teaching mathematics in context. Improve students' understanding of the value and importance of math. Improve students' ability to use simple mathematical skills to solve real

problems

Increase Math Content: Finding Grade Point Average already part of the Gen 101 content, so increasing mathematical content across the curriculum is a given in this instance.


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Developing Faculty Capacity: Depending on the instructors level of expertise in math, there may need to be professional development for calculating a grade point average if the instructor wants to help the student develop conceptual understanding of the concept of grade point value. For example, finding the grade point average can be taught as a mere procedural steps or it can be taught as concept that involves procedural steps.

Improve Student Understanding of Value and Importance of Math: Math has value and importance to the student when it increases understanding or helps them solve problems, such as how am I doing in college, which grade point average provides some answers?

Improve Student’s Ability to Use Simple Math Skills to Solve Read Problems: Opportunities to encounter and practice real problems such as calculating grade pint average improves that students cognitive skills.

Second, the instructor needs to incorporate an integrated learning, reading, writing, and math across the curriculum approach to instruction?

Typical Integrating Across the Curriculum Questions Instructors Must Answer

Does the student use prior knowledge to construct meaning when reading math text or math procedures in their academic success course textbooks?

Does the student use cognitive procedures for moving information from working memory to long-term memory?

Has the student developed a deep arithmetic foundation? Does the student understand the math concepts and procedures for

calculating grade point average in the context of a conceptual framework?

Does the student use writing to clarify concepts and organize that information so that it can be retrieved or applied?

Is the focus of writing activities on “writing to learn” or “improving writing conventions within the discipline” or both?

Finding an average is typically a simple operation involving two operations – addition and division.

How to find a simple average when one has a set of values (numbers)?

First: add all of the numbers in the series together. If one is trying to find the average number for 7, 8, 10, and 11, for example, add then all together to get the total of 36.


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Second: Divide the total numbers of numbers in the series. Since there were four numbers (7, 8, 10, and 11) that went into the total, divide 36 by 4 to fine the average. The average is 9.

Again: The Math Across Curriculum Goals are: Increase the mathematical content across the curriculum. Develop faculty capacity for teaching mathematics in context. Improve students' understanding of the value and importance of math. Improve students' ability to use simple mathematical skills to solve real

problems

Finding a Grade Point Average is more complicated in that letter grades must be given numerical values in order to perform mathematical operations of them. For example, the letter grade A may be given a value of 4, a B the value of 3, a C a the value of 2, a D the value of 1, and a letter grade of E the value of 0. All of this can be done on a memorization (rote level) or it can be taught using the Math Across the Curriculum Goals immediately above. Conceptual understanding is very different than mere procedural understanding.

Before a student can perform the two operations for finding grade point average, they must give their letter grades a numerical value, determine how many credit hours were attempted, multiply the grade value by the credit hours attempted to get a numerical value called the grade point. Then the student can follow the mathematical operations of finding an average for the grades they earned.

In the example below in the “Typical Grade Point Average Calculation Chart”, the student earned an letter grade of B in the reading course (RDG 185), a letter grade of A in the academic success course (GEN 101), a letter grade of C in the math course (MT 55), and a letter grade of B in the Writing course (ENC 91).

A letter grade of A has the grade value of 4, a B has the grade value of 3, and so on. Typical Grade Point Average Calculation Chart

Course Grade Value

(Times) Credit Hours Attempted

(Equals) Grade Point

RDG 185 B = 3 X 3 = 9

GEN 101 A = 4 X 3 = 12


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MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6

ENC 91 B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals: 12 36

Grades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters (for example, A, B, C, D, or F), as a range (for example 4.0 - 1.0), as descriptors (excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement), in percentages, or, as is common as a Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA can be used by potential employers or further post-secondary institutions to assess and compare applicants. A Cumulative Grade Point Average is the mean GPA from all academic terms within a given academic year, whereas the GPA may only refer to one term.

Planning a Math Across the Curriculum LessonExample: Teaching Grade Point Average (GPA)in GEN 100 & GEN 101

The Math Across Curriculum Goals are:

Increase the mathematical content across the curriculum. Develop faculty capacity for teaching mathematics in context. Improve students' understanding of the value and importance of math. Improve students' ability to use simple mathematical skills to solve real

problems

1. Conceptual Framework for Learning Math: Accept a conceptual framework for learning to understand.

Conceptual Framework for Learning

Research on human learning has found that in order to become competent in an area of inquiry, the learner needs to:


Divide Grade Point Total (32) by Credit Hours Attempted Total (12):GPA = 3.00

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Connect what is being learned to prior knowledge Develop a deep foundation of factual information Understand facts and ideas within the context of a conceptual

framework Organize information in ways to facilitate retrieval and application

2. Concept and Learning Objectives: Establish the concept and learning objectives for the concept to be learned.

Grade Point Average (GPA) Learning Objectives

Concepts to be Learned:Grade Point Average is a concept that measures a student’s academic achievement in college. There are many concepts that the learner needs to understand to develop a conceptual understanding of Grade Point Average – among them are:

Attempted Credit Hours - the credit hours of each course being taken in which a student is enrolled after the drop/add period ends. Attempted Credit Hours Total - include all credit hours (Total) in which a student is enrolled after the drop/add period ends. Grade Points - the product (multiplication) of Grade Value and Credit Hours Attempted. Grade Point Totals - the sum of all the grade points all the course attempted.GPA - is found by dividing Grade Value Totals by the Credit Hours Attempted. Calculating GPA:Calculating GPA involves a number of arithmetic operations.(how to perform arithmetic operations should be a deep foundation of prior knowledge at this point)

Operations:Multiplication – repeated addition of the same kind of objects in a group. For example, for every Credit Hour Attempted, how many Grade Points do we get?


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Addition – the combining of two or more groups of the same kind of objects (for calculating GPA, one group of the same kind of object is Attempted Credit Hours Total; another is Grade Point Totals).Division – The process of separating a quantity into parts is called division. For example, when separating Grade Value Totals into parts (GPA) by dividing Credit Hours Attempted

3. Reading Activities: Establish what reading to learn activities within the conceptual framework for learning enable the learner to meet the learning objectives.

Reading to LearnThere are a number of reading cognitive strategies and habits of mind that enable the learner to read to develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge, understand ideas within the context of a conceptual framework, and organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

Examples: •Rules of consolidation, •Core Cognitive Strategies, •Internal Dialogue Inquiry Questions, • Organizing Strategies - Mapping

– all of which can be strengthened by writing-to-learn activities, and contribute to developing the prior knowledge for writing-to-demonstrate-knowledge.

4. Writing Activities: Establish what writing to learn activities will help the learner clarify and organize concepts being learned.

Writing –To-LearnGenerally, writing-to-learn activities are short, impromptu or otherwise informal writing tasks that help students think through key concepts or ideas presented in a course. This makes writing to learn ideal for

•clarifying and organizing information in the learners thinking


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in ways that facilitate retrieval and of application Writing to Learn activities and strategies.

5. Math Activities: If math is involved, establish if prior knowledge is necessary to understand and work the math problem, as well as establish what concepts need to be learned to go beyond procedural learning to conceptual understanding.

Consider all the concepts and operations that are involved in calculating Grade Point Average

What do the readers know about grade point average and how to calculate it? What activity will help the instructor and student find out? What activities or professional development would help the student gain this knowledge?

Grade Point Average (GPA)

Grade Point Average is a concept that measures a student’s academic achievement in college.

GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted.

Are any of the concepts for calculating grade point average unknown or unclear? What activity will help the instructor and student find out? What activities or professional development would help the instructor and student gain this knowledge?

Calculating GPA involves a number of concepts that are systematically organized.Course Being TakenGradesGrade ValueCredit Hours AttemptedCredit Hours Attempted TotalGrade PointsGrade Point Total

Does the instructor understand the role math (operations: multiplication, addition and division) plays in the calculation (conceptual understanding) – not just the procedures for calculating grade point average)? What activity will help the instructor and student find out? What activities or professional development would help the instructor gain this knowledge?


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Calculating GPA involves a number of arithmetic operations.(how to perform arithmetic operations should be a deep foundation of prior knowledge at this point)MultiplicationAdditionDivisision

Calculating Grade Point Average Chart

Course Grade Value



RDG 185 B = 3 X 3 = 9GEN 101 A = 4 X 3 = 12MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6ENC 91 B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals: 12 36

Reading: Calculation - problem solving that involves numbers

Reading: Calculating Grade Point Average is problem solving that involves numbers



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WRITING TO CLARIFY: What are the numbers in the problem? What are NOT numbers in the problem and, if not, do they represent numbers or operations? What concepts do these numbers represent?

Course Grade Value



RDG 185

B = 3 X 3 = 9

GEN 101

A = 4 X 3 = 12

MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6ENC 91

B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals: 12 36



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The First Set of Numbers:

Reading: Grade Value: letter grades are given number values1.A = 42.B = 33.C = 24.D = 15.F = 0

Course Grade Value



RDG 185 B = 3 X 3 = 9

GEN 101 A = 4 X 3 = 12

MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6

ENC 91 B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals: 12 36

The Second Set of Numbers:Reading: Credit Hours Attempted: Courses have credit hours attached to them. Credit Hours attempted are the



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total number of credit hours for all the courses a student attempted during the semester.

ex. GEN 185 is a 3 hour courseex. GEN 101 is a 3 hour courseex. MT 55 is a 3 hour courseex. ENC 91 is a 3 hour course

Note: if a student is taking ENG 101 (3 hr) and GE 100 (1 hr), you are attempting 4 credit hours.

Course Grade Value



RDG 185 B = 3 X 3 = 9

GEN 101 A = 4 X 3 = 12

MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6

ENC 91 B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals:

The Third Set of Numbers are TOTALS:

Reading: 1. add the Credit Hours Attempted to get a SUM or TOTAL


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Reading: 2. add the Grade Points to get a Sum or TOTAL

Course Grade Value



RDG 185 B = 3 X 3 = 9

GEN 101 A = 4 X 3 = 12

MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6

ENC 91 B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals: 12 36

The Fourth Number is the Grade Point Average (GPA

Reading: There are Three Operations in Finding GPA:1. First, multiplication (multiply the Grade Value to the Credit Hours Attempted)

2. Second, addition (add the Credit Hours Attempted); (add the Grade Points)



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3. Third, division (divide Grade Point Total by Credit Hours Attempted)

The Grade Point Average is found by dividing the Total Grade Points by the Total Credit Hours Attempted. (36 / 12)

Course Grade Value



RDG 185 B = 3 X 3 = 9

GEN 101 A = 4 X 3 = 12

MT 55 C = 2 X 3 = 6

ENC 91 B = 3 X 3 = 9

Totals: 12 36


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APPENDIXES

APPENDIX A Reading and Writing to Learn Activities

Examples of Writing to Learn (WTL) Activities from the WAC Clearinghouse:

Writing to learn activities can happen frequently or infrequently in your class; some can extend over the entire semester; some can be extended to include a wide variety of writing tasks in different formats and to different audiences.

The Reading JournalFirst, students use the left half of the page or the left


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sheet of an opened notebook for recording what the reading is about. Teachers can ask for quite a lot of detail in this half of the reading journal so that students get practice in summarizing entire articles or summarizing particular arguments, identifying main ideas, noting key details, and choosing pertinent quotations, among other crucial reading skills.

On the right half of the page (or right page of the notebook), students jot down any questions they have or any connections they can make between readings or between readings and class discussions. At the beginning of the semester, the right half of the journal is dotted with questions, most of which can be answered quickly at the beginning of a discussion session in class. By the end of the semester, students will sometimes fill two right-hand columns for every reading. At this point, the questions are far richer (rarely about content) and the connections point out that students are integrating the readings and class work on their own.

Generic and focused summariesDepending on the level of detail that might be useful for each assignment, have students write out a paragraph or a page of summary for each assigned reading.

AnnotationsUnlike the summary that attempts an objective rendering of the key points in a reading, an annotation typically asks students to note key ideas and briefly evaluate strengths and weaknesses in an article.

Response papersStill another type of writing to learn that builds on assigned readings is the response paper. Unlike the summary, the response paper specifically asks students to react to assigned readings. Students might write responses that analyze specified features of a reading (is the information believable). Or they might write counter-arguments.


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Synthesis papersA more complex response to assigned readings is the synthesis paper. Rather than summarizing or responding to a single reading assignment, the synthesis paper asks students to work with several readings and to draw commonalities out of those readings. Particularly when individual readings over-simplify a topic or perspectives on a question in your course, the synthesis paper guarantees that students grapple with the complexity of issues and ideas.Like other writing-to-learn tasks, the synthesis paper can be shorter and less formal, or you can assign it at or near the end of a sequence leading to a more formal paper.

The discussion starterSometimes students feel baffled by a reading assignment and express that frustration in class, but they often understand more about the reading than they believe they do. When this situation arises, having students write about the reading can be especially valuable, both for clarifying what students do and don't understand and for focusing students' attention on key points in the reading.

The learning logThe learning log serves many of the functions of an ongoing laboratory notebook. Students note key point from the reading. Sometimes, students write for just one or two minutes both at the beginning and end of a class session. At the beginning, they might summarize the key points from a reading At the end of class students might write briefly about a question such as:• What one idea that they read about today most

interested you and why?• What was the clearest point we made today? What

was the foggiest point?• What do you still not understand about the concept

we've been discussing?• If you had to restate the concept in your own terms,

how would you do that?


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• How does today's reading build on yesterday's?Such questions can provide continuity from class to class, but they can also give teachers a quick glimpse into how well the reading content is getting across.

Problem statementTeachers usually set up the problems and ask students to provide solutions. This gives students practice with both framing and solving problems:

After you introduce a new concept in your course, ask students to write out a practical problem that the concept might help to solve. Students can exchange these problems and write out solutions, thus ensuring that they understand the concept clearly and fully.

Believing and doubting gameFirst espoused by Peter Elbow, this writing activity simply calls for students to write briefly• first, in support of an idea, concept, methodology,

thesis;• second, in opposition to it.As students complete this writing activity based on a course reading or controversy in the field, they become more adept at understanding the complexity of issues and arguments.


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APPENDIX B Core Cognitive Strategies for Re-exposing One’s Self to Newly Learned Information – Classroom Assessment Techniques

CAT (Classroom Assessment Techniques) - (Angelo and Cross, 1993)

Classroom Assessment Techniques differ from tests and other forms of student assessment in that it is aimed at course improvement, rather than at assigning grades. The primary goal is to better understand your students' learning and so to improve your teaching.

The Minute PaperDescription: Students respond to two questions: 1) What was the most important thing you learned today? 2) What questions remain uppermost in your mind as we conclude this session?Purpose: Understanding the extent to which students are learning presented material helps instructors to decide whether instructional adjustments need to be made. When instructors respond to students’ responses, students learn how experts in a given discipline distinguish major points from details.Procedure:1. Decide what you wish to assess with the Minute Paper. This will help you to know when to administer this CAT. If your interest is in the understanding of a


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homework assignment, the first few minutes of class may be most appropriate. If you wish to assess their recall of the content of material presented in class, then last few minutes of class may be most appropriate.2. Using the two basic questions from the Description above, write prompts that fit your course and students. It is often a good idea to try your prompt on a colleague or teaching assistant before using in class to ensure clarity of the question.3. Plan to use 5 to 10 minutes of class for the initial implementation and 5 to 10 minutes in the subsequent class to discuss the results.4. Prepare the one or two questions to be display-ready by writing it on the board, a transparency, ordigitally projected. They could also be written on a half-sheet of paper and distributed to the students. It is important the prompts are presented in writing. Do not only read the question(s).5. Hand out index cards or half-sheets of paper. It is best if students do not write their names, unless there is a very good reason to know who wrote which comments.6. Explain the time limit, appropriate format of answers, and when they will receive feedback. Two to five minutes is usually enough time. Responses range from words or phrases to short sentences.

The Muddiest PointDescription: Students respond to the question: 1) What was the muddiest point in ______? This can assess a lecture, discussion, homework assignment, play, film, etc.Purpose: Understanding what students find least clear or most confusing helps instructors decide whether instructional adjustments need to be made. When instructors respond to students’ responses, students learn how experts in a given discipline distinguish major points from details. Additionally, students’ questions are made visible in time to facilitate further learning.Procedure:1) Decide what you wish to assess with the Muddiest Point. If your interest is in the understanding of a homework assignment, the first few minutes of class may be most appropriate. If you wish to assess their recall of the content of material presented in class, then last few minutes of class may be most appropriate.2) Using the basic question from the Description above, write a prompt that fits your course and students. It is often a good idea to try your prompt on a colleague or teaching assistant before using in class to ensure clarity of the question.3) Plan to use 5 to 10 minutes of class for the initial implementation and 5 to 10 minutes in the subsequent class to discuss the results.4) Prepare the one or two questions to be display-ready by writing it on the board, a transparency, or digitally projected. They could also be written on a half-sheet of paper and distributed to the students. It is important the prompts are presented in writing. Do not only read the question(s).5) Hand out index cards or half-sheets of paper. It is best if students do not


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write their names, unless there is a very good reason to know who wrote which comments.6) Explain the time limit, appropriate format of answers, and when they will receive feedback. Two to five minutes is usually enough time. Responses range from words or phrases to short sentences.

The One Sentence SummaryDescription: Students answer a prompt in a single informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence. (Who did what to/for whom, when, where, how, and why? = WDWWWWHW)Purpose: This allows instructors to find out to what extent students can summarize a large amount of information on a given topic concisely, completely, and creatively. It also gives students practice in using a technique for chunking information – condensing it into smaller, interrelated bits that are more easily processed and recalled.Procedure:1) Select an important topic or work that your students have recently studied in your course, which you expect them to learn to summarize.2) Working as quickly as you can (as the instructor), answer the question in the Description in relation to that topic. Note how long this first step takes you.3) Next, turn your answers into a grammatical sentence that follows the WDWWWWHW pattern. Note how long this second step takes you.4) Allow your students approximately twice as much time as it took you to carry out the task. 5) Prepare the question to be display-ready by writing it on the board, a transparency, ordigitally projected. They could also be written on a half-sheet of paper and distributed to the students. It is important the prompts are presented in writing. Do not only read the question(s).6) Hand out index cards or half-sheets of paper. It is best if students do not write their names, unless there is a very good reason to know who wrote which comments.7) Explain the time limit, appropriate format of answers, and when they will receive feedback. Two to five minutes is usually enough time. Responses range from words or phrases to short sentences.

Application CardsDescription: After students have studied an important principle, generalization, theory, or procedure, the instructors asks them to apply what was learned to real-life situations or other specific areas.Purpose: Students can see more clearly the possible relevance of what they are learning. This CAT prompts students to think about possible applications and, as a consequence, to connect newly learned concepts with prior knowledge.Procedure:1) Identify an important – and clearly applicable – principle, theory, generalization, or procedure that your students are studying or have just studied.2) Decide how many applications you will ask for and how much time you will


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allow for the assessment. One is often enough, and Angelo & Cross suggest no more than three. Three to five minutes is usually enough time.3) Prepare the question to be display-ready by writing it on the board, a transparency, or digitally projected. They could also be written on a half-sheet of paper and distributed to the students. It is important the prompts are presented in writing. Do not only read the question(s).4) Hand out index cards or half-sheets of paper. It is best if students do not write their names, unless there is a very good reason to know who wrote which comments.5) Remind students to come up with their own “fresh” applications rather than repeat applications they have hear din class or read in the text.6) Tell students the time limit, appropriate format of answers, and when they will receive feedback.

Directed ParaphrasingDescription: Students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience in two or three sentences.Purpose: This CAT allows instructors to assess how well students have understood and internalized the learning by seeing if the student can translate highly specialized information into layperson’s terms.

Procedure:1) Select an important theory, concept, or argument that students have studied in some depth. This should be a topic with some implications outside the classroom.2) Determine who would be a realistic yet challenging audience for the paraphrase of this topic, what the purpose of such a paraphrase should be, and how long (number of words or amount of speaking time) the paraphrase should be.3) Respond to the Directed Paraphrase yourself. Can you complete it within the limits given?4) Prepare the question to be display-ready by writing it on the board, a transparency, or digitally projected. They could also be written on a half-sheet of paper and distributed to the students. It is important the prompts are presented in writing. Do not only read the question(s).5) Hand out index cards or half-sheets of paper. It is best if students do not write their names, unless there is a very good reason to know who wrote which comments.


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NOTES


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