Write to LearnLearning Strategy to Drastically Improve Thinking, Deepen

Comprehension of Content, and Adding Assessment

Reasons for Using Writing to Learn

Writing Develops Higher-order Thinking

Insures Readiness for College and Career

Communicates!

Self-revelation!

Why Write?

I write to remember what has happened and also what might have happened but didn’t. I write in order to smuggle complex situations from my mind into the mind of another person. I write not to demolish my doubts but to get a clearer view of their contours. And I write because it’s a consolation to bring into this world something that didn’t exist before, something that someone else might find beautiful, that someone else might find consoling.

I write because when I’m writing I get a break from being me. I get to inhabit someone else, see the world through their filter, wear their clothing, flaunt their body, do their job instead of mine.

Why Write?

I write to transmit the life that I have lived, that others have lived. When I write as a journalist, I do so to put my rage at ease, to bring myself to a place where I no longer feel impotent in the face of injustice. When I write non-fiction essays I do so to look closely at the culture that raised me and the culture that holds me now. When I write fiction I do so to dwell in compassion, to love the unlovable, to understand the humanity of those with whom I would disagree to the bitter end. When I write poetry I do so to share myself, unfiltered, an asking rather than a telling. To be without a piece of paper and writing instrument (pen, pencil, lipstick, eyeliner, blood, if nothing else!), or a screen and keyboard, and without words on paper, preferably in hardcover, I don’t think that has ever happened in my life. Writing = joy + gratitude. I am blessed and I cannot and never will see writing as work. It is, every step of the way, a gift to dwell within words.

Why Write?

I write to engage with a world that feels fuller than full, realer than real. Sometimes, life feels so limited, so incomplete, half-realized only. And in fiction, we can make everything matter, everything poignant, everything expressed as it could be, might be. On good days. I read for that. And I write for that. At least, that’s the goal. And also, writing has become a habit, a crucial part of the way that I process the world. I calculate everything in sentences. And if I don’t write them down, I overfloweth. So.

Three Types of Writing:

Provisional Writing

Readable Writing

Polished Writing

Provisional Writing

Quick Writing – like Brainstorming

Spontaneous and Concise Time Period

Purpose to generate, clarify, or extend ideas and reactions to content

Variety of Uses include: capturing interest, draw on prior knowledge, spur reflection, etc.

Assessment not based on Convention accuracy

Learning Log – Form of Provisional Writing

Write at least once every day – date entries!

Be willing to pair-share responses

Plan on submitting once every two weeks

Use loose-leaf paper housed in a flat, bradded notebook.

Readable Writing

Intended for an audience

Includes essay tests or one draft writing assignments

Requires writer to clarify thoughts and develop an organization structure

Assessment Tool

Assessments include evaluation of conventions considering time limitations involved

Text Types – Forms of Readable Writing

Argument

Informative/Explanatory Texts

Narratives

Comparison

Analysis

Description

Polished Writing

Engages the full writing process:

Pre-writing

Initial draft

Partner feedback

Revision

Second draft

Writing circle assessment

Revision and Proof reading

Final draft, self-assessment

Polished Writing = Published Writing

Expects and appreciates an audience

Assessment includes process as well as product

Fulfills College Requirements

Conventions Count!