Thinking, Learning, and Writing Across the Curriculum

August 14th Writing PD

Thinking, Learning, and Writing Across the Curriculum

• Year Long Professional Development Partnership between CTWP and CMS

• Funded by the Department of Education and National Writing Project Grant

• Leadership Team: Joel Johnson, Leah Cochran, Jason Henke, Cassandra Chapa, Teresa Newhall, Bonnie Southerland, and Dr. Lori Assaf.

Goals1. Develop a shared and collective

responsibility among all teachers to use writing as an instructional learning tool in their classroom.

2. Provide opportunities for teachers to become writers and to use their insight as writers to design effective writing instruction.

3. Reconceptualize the importance of literacy instruction in content areas that include reading and writing disciplinary-based, real world texts, and using inquiry to enhance students’ thinking and learning.

4. Identify and use multiple writing strategies to scaffold student learning.

5. Create and utilize formative assessment tools to evaluate writing and learning in the content areas.

6. Develop teacher leadership, knowledge, and expertise in writing across the curriculum.

**Based on these goals, studentswill develop cognitive andfoundational skills as outlined in theTexas College and Career ReadinessStandards.** Student achievement evaluation based

on leadership team.

What Are We Asking of Each Teacher?

• Maintain an open mind and be willing to learn and experiment with writing in your content area.

• Share your learning with others, collaborate, and reflect on your teaching and your students’ learning.

• Build on what you are already doing- you are an expert in your content area and your knowledge and experiences are valuable to new learning.

• Identify and build on your students’ abilities, backgrounds, and strengths and take responsibility for engaging students in your classroom.

• Find your own personal and professional relevance- see this as an opportunity to grow and not as an initiative forced on you.

• Ask for help from your peers and the leadership team.

Writing is Learning

…writing is best understood as a complex intellectual activity that requires students to stretch their minds, sharpen their analytical capabilities and make valid and accurate distinctions. …writing is not simply a way for students to demonstrate what they know. It is a way to help them understand what they know. At its best, writing is learning. (The neglected “R”: The need for a writing revolution, 51).

•Writing facilitates learning (Deshler, Palincsar, Biancarosa, & Nair, 2007).

• Promotes critical thinking (Tierney & Shanahan, 1991; Tierney, Soter, O’Flahavan, & McGinley, 1989);

•Therefore, providing students with opportunities to write is extremely important for supporting learning across the curriculum (Dahl & Farnan, 1998).

More Specifically…

National and State Assessments• Despite the importance of writing, many students experience difficulty

with writing.

• Results from the NAEP 2007 writing test indicated that 74% and 65% of students in 8th and 12th grades, respectively, did not meet the proficiency skill level in writing (Salahu-Din, Persky, & Miller, 2008).

• Nearly 1/3 of high school graduates are not ready for college level English ‐composition courses (ACT, 2005).

• College instructors estimate that 50% of high school graduates are not

prepared for college level writing (Achieve, Inc. 2005).‐

National and State Assessments• The knowledge and skills required for higher education and for

employment are now considered equivalent (ACT, 2006, American Diploma Project, 2004).

• Writing and reading require their own dedicated instruction; what improves reading does not always improve writing (pg. 8).

• Private companies spend $3.1 billion on remediation; state

governments spend $221 million annually (National Commission on Writing, 2005).

• One quarter of new community college students enroll in remedial

writing courses (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003).

Why Writing In The Content Areas? Mastery of content is demonstrated not only through reading but also

through writing. Integrating writing with reading enhances comprehension (Brandenburg, 2002) because the two are reciprocal processes.

Writing to in the content areas engages students, extends thinking, deepens understanding, and energizes the meaning-making process (Newell, 2008).

According to Fordham, Wellman, and Sandman, “Considering a topic under study and then writing about it requires deeper processing” (CITE).

Writing in the content areas is an opportunity for students to recall, clarify, and question what they know about a subject and what they still wonder about with regard to that subject matter (Fisher & Frey, 2004, p. 151).

Written expression remains a primary means of communication in modern society, it is not surprising that students’ writing is used to assess knowledge across academic content areas (Newhall, 2006)

Consequently, students’ academic achievement often depends on the ability to write. Although some students may be able to critically analyze and draw conclusions from class activities and text, regrettably, many students have difficulty organizing ideas into comprehensible written language (Applebee, 2000)

Struggling writers will continue to face challenges as they attempt to meet future demands of education and employment (Moje, 2011).

Their lack of writing skills limits their opportunity to articulate ideas and demonstrate learning (Gunning, 2002).

Students need to write efficiently and effectively to express their ideas and fully demonstrate knowledge (Langer & Applebee, 2004).

Casual Writing to Discipline-Based Writing

Moving from note taking, brainstorming, and mapping…..To more formal, discipline-based writing that includes the kinds of texts found in the real world.

Research on real world writing, such as persuasive and argumentation, in which students examine relationships among ideas, lead students to think more deeply about material than they do in more restricted writing tasks, such as taking study notes (Langer & Applebee, 1987; Newell, 2006).

The purpose of real world/discipline based writing is not simply to retain more information but to understand it differently-to think critically about it (Newell, 2006).

Casual/Informal Writing

Formal Writing

Discipline Based/Real World Writing

Why I Write…

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x330nt_why-i-write-final-01windows-media-v_news

Tim Swain

Share!

Let’s look at writing in our lives

What is the difference between real world texts vs. school texts?

What are some real world texts that you encounter in your daily lives? Think about their purpose.

Kyle calls for taxes, utility rate increases: City employee salary raises account for almost half of budget increase

Kyle City Council and staff members meet for a budget workshop to hammer out the finer details of the fiscal year 2013 budget. (Photo by Andy Sevilla)

by ANDY SEVILLA

Kyle homeowners could see an average increase of $50 on their annual property tax bill, and utility customers can also expect their bills to be a little more expensive, as City Council members consider an increase of 20 percent on water and waste water rates.

City employees will also see an increase in their pay.

Kyle City Manager Lanny Lambert has proposed a $41.6 million budget for Fiscal Year 2012-2013, which calls for a property tax rate of $0.5244 per $100 of taxable property valuation, a jump of $0.0399 cents from the current fiscal year. Lambert said the tax increase would raise about $554,668 and would pay for a reduction in interfund transfer, increased debt service, increased fuel costs, contracted EMS services and police department step pay increases.

Council members voted last Wednesday to move forward with the proposed tax rate, with only Bradley Pickett dissenting.

City documents show that Kyle’s average homestead, valued at $125,097, will pay $49.91 more on their property tax bill, or $4.16 per month. Meanwhile, city employees will receive a pay jump of 3.5 percent.

The cost of living adjustments city employees will receive is estimated to cost the city about $260,000, or almost half of the projected tax-rate increase revenue.

Lambert did concede that the tax rate could have been proposed at a lower rate, but that would have called for either no city employee pay increases or city layoffs, or cuts in city programs – a move he said he wasn’t willing to take.

“We didn’t give (city employees) a raise last year, and the year before we gave a one percent raise. So I feel like we’re falling behind on our ability to attract and retain quality employees,” Lambert said about the prospect of proposing a lower tax rate if no pay increases were offered to city employees. “If we don’t address our salary issues, we wouldn’t be able to recruit employees

Gallery Walk

• On each chart sign there is a type of writing. In your groups, brainstorm different texts that would fit under that category.

Evaluative

* Movie review

Express/Reflect

Inform and Explain

Evaluate and Judge

Inquire and Explore

Analyze and Interpret

Take and Stand and Propose a Solution

Demonstration Lesson: Science Writing and Thinking

Maps

http://prezi.com/ee03pnhb9p62/interference-of-waves/

Janet Patterson -

Review of Thinking Maps and Writing

Break-Out Sessions

Math – Jason ELA – Joël (208)

Science – Cassandra (215) Elective –Teresa (Lib.)

Social Studies – Leah & Bonnie (206)

Small Group Discussions: Thinking Maps, Writing & Performance

Indicators(In demo rooms)

How do Thinking Maps fit in?

In what ways can thinking maps scaffold and differentiate for students?

What scaffolds do you use in your classroom right now?

How do thinking maps and writing fit into your current instruction?

Future PD Dates

October 8th Mentor Texts and Mentor Sentences January 3rd or 4th Inquiry and Responding to Students’

Writing February 18th Assessment: Content and Process March TBA- CTWP/CMS Writing Retreat May- TBA Share Student Writing Samples and Insights ½ day workshops for content area teachers (TBD

based on calendar) Peer observations and coaching (TBA based on need)