How To Do The How To

Finally, the authors bring the reader to the point of explaining one of the "How Tos." The writing break is structured to allow the teacher to take a break from the instruction treadmill. It also allows the students to reflect upon the things that are happening in the lesson. The authors create the image of the teacher taking a step back, stopping the out pouring of content and letting the kids take a break from the same content. They posit that most often we'll find that less content is actually more when there is time for reflection through writing. That writing-to-learn (WTL) will result in a greater level of understanding of the lesson material being presented.

   If we agree that this is a good thing, then next we must ask ourselves the when and why. Remembering from the last post Edgar Dale's cone-of-experience model, that students retain between 10 and 30 percent of what they read, hear and see, it stands to reason that we must examine our standard classroom activities. Examine them for what they try to do:

1. Sling content at receptive (don't we wish) minds.
2. Make the most of the perceived retention time limit.

The authors believe that sprinkling writing and sharing breaks into the lesson plan at 20 minute intervals will bring up retention levels to the 70 to 90 percent range.That is a strong claim. Let's see how it can be done.

The authors favor a step-by-step approach with what seems to be a rather long and drawn out teacher planning component. I'll try to boil it down to basics for the sake of brevity and the limit of 500 words.

Step 1: Decide when the writing breaks will occur. This sounds like my good grasp of the obvious is raising its head again. This is not as simple as it may sound because our attempts to transfer knowledge to the sea of inquiring minds with which we are confronted on a daily basis takes many forms. We use lectures, videos, assigned readings, large-group discussions, etc. Each is a different delivery method. Each has its positives and negatives. Each has a different level of effectiveness based on the content area being explored.

A good rule of thumb is to consider that average secondary school attention spans (in the general education classroom) range from fifteen to twenty minutes. A better rule to consider is that the APS teacher evaluations require lesson segments to be no more than twenty minutes in length. Hmmmmm....some enlightened self-interest is surfacing.

Now that we buy into the twenty minute rule consider this example. Using the Promethean Board flip chart process produces Powerpoint-like slide sets in which we can deposit text and graphics as well as embed videos. Students should be allowed to view graphics for a minute or two before being asked to write about what they see. Each slide then, should be presented in a measured pace. Use the IBM sales presentation method:

1. Tell 'em what your gonna tell 'em
2. Tell 'em
3. Tell 'em what ya told 'em

That will gain you the measured time to work up to the writing break. I will also let give you a handle on how many slides and how much content you can fit into this type of lesson segment.

Obviously videos, lab demonstrations and other forms of presentation will conjure their own unique timing patterns to fit differing teaching styles. The authors give the reader the freedom to go forth and discover and modify them as needed to fit the various content areas.

Step 2:  Once the timing situation is under control the direction of the writing break must be considered. The topics should be narrow and the students should be provided with easy-to-respond prompts. Some suggestions are:

• what piece of information stands out and why?
• what are you thinking about right now?
• what does this remind you of?
• what questions do you still have?
• rate your understanding of the material on a scale of 1 to 5.

That last one scares me. It sounds too much like a formative assessment aimed at me the student teacher.

These are general questions. What kind of specific questions can be formulated for your content area?

Finally, bring kinestheics into action. Form the students into different pairs for each writing break. Make them move around. Have them immediately share with their break partner. Remind them that clear, ledgible handwriting is the ticket for continuing these writing breaks.

Oh, don't forget to work the room to gage understanding and root out lack of engagement!

Power to the WTL

What does teaching consist of? My primary English teachers said never end a sentence with a preposition. Yet the authors do. Or, in the question beginning this paragraph they did.

The answers offered by the authors are: 1.) We assign some reading material and ask students to write answers to questions about it. And/or 2.) We offer presentations, either lecture or a lecture-discussion, during which students are required to take notes. These are methods that have been around forever and are part and parcel to every teacher's lesson delivery bag. But, do they work? They both use writing. They attempt to engage students with the material. The test is then, did they remember and understand what they read? Did a transfer of meaning occur? Was knowledge acquired?

Just as Confusius said, "I do and I understand," students too must act upon ideas in order for the learning process to occur. The authors argue that hearing or reading words is not enough by referencing Edgar Dale's cone-of-experience model. This sixty year old, intuitive model sounds a bit like Confusius. He believes that students and indeed all people generally remember

10 percent of what they read
20 percent of what they hear
30 percent of what they see
50 percent of what they hear and see
70 percent of what they say and write
90 percent of what they say as they do a thing

What does this all mean? It seems like reading is a loser, listening isn't much better and seeing doesn't help unless it is accompanied by writing. Students have to act upon what they have seen, heard and said. Did the authors mean act out? I hope not. I saw enough acting out by mid-schoolers  during my first semester of student teaching. Bad humor asside, the authors mean acting upon what is seen, and heard. Acting upon they argue, begins with writing. Specifically with writing to learn (WTLs). Therein resides the power of the WTL-it is the start of the writing process that solidifies learning. It makes all the other things teachers do to help students acquire knowledge to gel, to stick to their enquiring minds. Yes, don't we wish that were so?

So, how would we know if we were successful? Ahhhhh the time honored tradition of the test. Now known as assessments, they can be formative or summative. We can stop and see how the students are coming along (formative) or we can subject them to end of unit exams which are usually written. The authors come out against most forms of testing (excuse me assessment) except writing. Specifically writing-to-learn.

They really come down on fill-in-the-blanks questions that are bolstered by preceeding chapter text that is highlighted multiple times and ways for important points and arranged in order of contextual importance. I have to throw a big raspberry at the authors over this position. When I was in the military I encountered a knowledge transfer process called programmed learning. It looked an awful lot like what the authors described. All types of content was successfully absorbed by military students using this method. HMMMMM ....... military, discipline, expectations backed by sanctions, students aged 18, 19 and 20. Yes, maybe not the education model we are working within.

The Details of WTLs

Teaching the ability to "learn-how-to-learn" is one of my goals. In order to do this students have to be imbued with critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is linked to effective reading, writing, and communicating effectively.  Thus they can't help but build an education for their lives. Whether they like it or not, they will be learning throughout their lives. WTLs (writing to learn items) will help them harness their private linguistic reservoirs and get their minds to flow freely towards their immediate objectives.

The WTLs that I as a student science teacher will be trying to use this coming fall semester are taken right from the authors of my book (Content Area Writing-Every Teachers Guide). I have diligently copied them for you with little or no interpretation because I think they are very valuable to us all.

Short: Unlike a term paper or major project, WTLs - whether lists, notes or instant messages-tend to be brief in length and in composing time. They are bits of writing that students can do in quick bursts, not extended composition. They can be written in journal, logs, on index cards or scrap paper.

Spontaneous:  WTLs are done off the top of the student's head, just to get ideas or information down. They don't need to find their inner muse-just spill it onto paper. Don't make them plan lists or notes the way they have learned to carefully map out longer, more formatted pieces of public writing. WTLs ideas should come quickly and often while they write.

Exploratory: With WTL students use writing as a tool to help them figure things out, not as a way of announcing what they know or have learned. It is writing "in process." It may not know where it is going or even when it begins. It's used as a writing tool that helps the student develop a set of possibilities or goals for future action.

Personal:  WTLs are for the student writer.  They are usually not for public consumption. Don't make students hand them in for grading. Students don't use them to please or inform an audience (usually the teacher) they are just created to help them think, get some work done, plan or collect thoughts.

Informal: A grocery list doesn't have to say Kraft Mayonnaise-just mayo. Their instant messages and texts are a short hand that often only they understand. But, don't despair, with time most of these short cuts will enter the popular vernacular (if they haven't already). Look at WTL language as dressed down, a relaxed and ready to spend a quite evening at home.

One Draft:  In keeping with their very nature, WTLs are brief, spontaneous, utilitarian jottings that are not revised. I've never gone back and created a second draft of a grocery list. Have you? However, I will share this-my grocery list is a pre-printed form I have created as an aisle map of my local supermarket. It contains the names of the most common things my family buys every week with enough blank lines to fill in new stuff. My grocery list is built for speed.

Unedited:  Their is no correcting spelling or grammar with WTLs. What difference does spelling make in a WTL anyway? None!

Ungraded:  As mentioned earlier, these writings are not to be graded. After all, WTLs are not like the formal public writing products that Common Core says must be extracted across the entire curriculum. But, maybe they can be collected occasionally to give the teacher an idea of what's really happening out in the sea of student pre-public writing thought.

Finally, why are WTLs important? Hold that though for the next post.

Late for the party

Hey sports fans, having started this blog assignment 6 days late has put me on a 1,000 word per day jag. Binge? Penance? Or, as the Masonic Brotherhood might proclaim...."the Great Architect has me building magnificent (at least in this writer's very tired mind) blogs twice per day." Actually, my mentor teacher compared teaching mid-school science to throwing five parties per day. No matter how hard you try or plan you never know what is going to happen. So, on with the show.

You've probably figured out by now that the book I chose for this assignment is a scholarly written "how to" about writing for content areas.  The "how to" format for opening up theories and concepts resonates with me.  During my first semester in the ALP STEM program my cohort and I were introduced to the "how to" theory of teaching science via the UNM COE MSET 589 class. One of  our classmates, an in-practice teacher, said that our job is to teach our students how to learn how to learn.

The authors of my book extend learning how to learn to writing to learn in school. They offer several tricks (as they put it) of the thinking trade as tools for helping students "delve into" any subject area. Yes, the WTLs (writing to learn methods) I talked about in the previous post are not the same as the public writing tasks I have been taught to assign to my science students. To help neophyte teachers they provide a quick T-Account; oops sorry, I meant T-Chart that compares WTLs to public writing. I have reproduced that chart below because it is a simple way to get a handle on the differences between WTLs and public writing. My classmate will tell you, that I have a good grasp of the obvious. It's tools like this that help me fine tune that skill.

Writing to Learn                        AVIDs/Cornell Notes                   Public Writing    

short                                                                                                  not short, substantial
spontaneous                                                                                      planned
exploratory                                                                                       authoratative
informal                                                                                            conventional
personal                                                                                            audience centered
one draft                                                                                           drafted (more than one)
unedited                                                                                            edited
upgraded                                                                                           accessible

I've inserted the AVID program's Cornell Notes as a bridge between WTLs and Public Writing. I did this because although the authors portray note taking as uncritical copying down of words as they fly by,  Cornell notes can be a bridge between the WTLs and Public Writing. This is because they provide a simple methodology for acting upon the information contained in the WTL. Confusius said: I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand. This saying is undated. But, the connection to WTL is clear - students can't transition from private thought about a subject easily to public writing without the ability to grapple with ideas, transform them and put them into their own words (the authors words).

I would argue that the jump from WTL to Public Writing can benefit from Cornell Notes as a scaffolding device.

More on AVID and Cornell notes can be found at the APS website.

In the next post I'll give a glimpse of the author's view of the elements of the T-Chart.

Deep Thoughts with Frankie: Post #4

Deep Thoughts with Frankie: Post #4: Buehl, D. (n.d.). Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines (p. 31-46) The question “What does it mean to read, write, and think t...



I've skimmed for specific information  through uninteresting text. In fact, I do it all the time. I think this is still a valuable tool for developing comprehension of or about a body of knowledge. It helps me do  six of the seven things you mentioned; i.e., make connections to prior knowledge through synthesizing. These are for my learning. I'd agree that the seventh is what we as instructors would apply to student work.

The Missing Ingredient

According to the authors, the missing ingredient in teaching writing is "writing to learn (WTL)." It can be defined many ways. The authors spend most of their time defining it via example and through contextual inclusion. All of it boils down to two basic outlooks. The first is private, informal simplicity. The second is public formality. Their next step describes a continuum from formal to informal.

I object to this characterization because in their writing they tell the reader that the informal is the start of any writing and the formal is the outcome. To me this indicates that informal should be the anchor of the continuum while formal should be the end result of the progression from informal. In other words; informal on the left with a line connecting formal on the right.

Never the less, they come up with examples from everyday life that have made me more aware of the distinction between the two ends of the continuum. They describe the informal/private as lists we make to jog our memory for certain events. My favorites are grocery lists, cue cards for presentations and reminders jotted into a calendar in a palm pilot. Palm Pilot? Most readers of this post are probably too young to remember this first attempt at a personal electronic assistant. Electronic personal assistantl? Hmmmmm.... that would be a speechless Seri. Or is it Ceri?

In any event, these are writings for our own personal consumption that are short, not grammatically correct, devoid of attention to spelling and maybe even contain our own personal graphics. Could they mean hand drawn mind maps?

These writings start us on the road to "tuning" our thinking about a subject, an event or an expected result. The authors term is a "tool of thinking." As such we use this tool as a way of getting what's in our head out onto paper where we can manipulate it; i.e., moving it around, adding to it, and taking from it to form a cogent idea or idea stream. Whether words, sketches or mind maps, or quick outlines, the informal private list is a description of how we are thinking.

The how we are thinking idea carries over to reading as well. We engage in different kinds of reading on a daily basis. We are all do some deep reading from the first capital letter of an opening sentence to the final period in the sentences and paragraphs that spill the ideas contained in books, opeds and many other types of documentation we encounter daily. We also "skim" all of the above documents from time-to-time. We skim to get highlights. We skim when time is short. We skim when the material is not very interesting or not very important. So, just like with writing we have different ways of reading.

The formal end of the WTL continuum is occupied by public writing. Or, more precisely, writing for public consumption. It is (hopefully) grammatically correct, free of misspellings and is the crystalization of our thinking. As students we are very familiar with the formal/public form of writing. It has been an assessment tool used against us since first grade! In fact, isn't this blogging experience an assessment of our interpretive skills? Our ability to synthesize? Or, maybe just making sure we have read what we have said we read?

Public writing then is twisted up with the tyranny of summative assessment. The authors put out an interesting twist on writing and assessment. They suggest moving daily to formative assessments via WTLs. They suggest stopping instructions, lessons and labs for two to three minutes. During those few moments have our students write down everything that is swirling around in their engaged, inspired minds at that moment. These writings aren't to be graded. They are just a break to stimulate thinking.

I like the idea. It reminds me of the student created KWL (know, want to know, learned) beginning of science unit artifact I have come know during my first semester of student teaching. Here's a tool for my teaching bag. Sorry, I mean my public lingusitic repertoire.

Merlinda's Blog: Strategies

Merlinda's Blog: Strategies: "What is important is that the task and the classroom grouping are the most effective for the particular teaching focus at that point.&...



I was at first daunted about trying to teach ELL's during my first semester of student teaching. In our multicultural environment, it is assured that I will face this challenge on  an ongoing basis. I appreciated the tools and methodologies you mentioned in your post. They will be of help to me during my upcoming second semester of student teaching.



Thanks again!

Miles of Learning: Don't Tell Me Video Games are for Kids

Miles of Learning: Don't Tell Me Video Games are for Kids: Don



Miles I agree that video gaming based on the definition of reading and writing we've been getting from readings and books is an interesting take on this entertainment form. It implies that it is a learning tool. Is it a learning tool?



Despite the popularity you delineated via the mass of statistical data, I'm wondering what other value (other than entertainment) that video gaming brings to its mass of enthusiasts. The better the hardware and software become, the better at simulating reality this venue becomes. I see the value it has as a simulator type tool. It certainly is cheaper than the mechanical simulators pilots used to labor through.



But, what value does the constant barrage of "shoot 'em up" games bring us?



Thanks for listening.



Warren Weber

How to go Deeper

The authors argue that four main criteria for determining the big ideas we need to impart and those ideas which should be discarded.  Hmmmm..... I wonder how much success I would have as an individual teacher pushing this idea towards a former text book executive?

Their research gleaned from Understanding by Design (2005) indicates that we should:

1. Determine if a topic sits at the guts of a discipline. Is it a concept upon which understanding of your content field depends?
2. Does the topic require "uncovering?" Does it engender inquiry in students? Is it vulanerable to misconception and continued misunderstanding?
3. Can you relate the topic to relevant situations in your students lives?
4. Is the topic engaging or just plain boring to students?

The authors give the example of the social studies faculty at Skagg High School, in a district outside of Chicago. They had a"sweat-the-big-stuff" weekend retreat, and did just that. They developed consensus on the necessary big ideas that were the foundation of their content area and went back to build new courses around them.

I would argue this was possible because this came out of a small school district. It's size makes it more agile, flexible and nimble when it comes to decision making. I doubt that larger districts with larger constituencies, large boards with ingrained "stances" would find it difficult or impossible to let their teachers facilitate this kind of change? But if not professional educators, then whom?

The Importance of Content

Content is important to the secondary teaching community because it is why most of got involved in teaching. We wanted, according to the authors "to bring our passion for our field of interest to the churning masses of students longing for meaning and guidance (in our subject areas)." Now, I'm not sure if I agree with my paraphrasing or if I fit into this category of educator. What I do know
(according to The American Association for the Advancement of Science {AAAS}) is that learning requires engagement of the student in thinking, reading, listening and writing.

Our state mandated curriculum maps and "collar to the grindstone" standards absorbtion requirements force us to teach wide in our content areas. I think the current practice of "spiraling" through these wide content areas from the primary grades through middle school and onto high school is meant to develop mastery that can be displayed via standardized test results. Unfortunately, the "stick-to-it-ivness" of this process doesn't work.

The solution according to the authors is obvious. Go deeper, young teacher, go deeper into your content field. Find the big ideas that are most important for shaping young minds during the semester or year in which you have their attention, or at least their presence in your classroom. Get beyond the curriculum of mentioning and sink your teeth into what really matters. It is the job of all departments, and teachers to uncover the big ideas, the concepts, and major skills necessary to transfer the meaning of our readings, lectures and labs (in the case of science). The authors argue that one of the best ways to do this is through writing.

Writing to learn, as we've learned from previous readings, can facilitate the transition from the student's private experiential reservoir to the public linguistic reservoir with which they are confronted.

But, how to do this? More in my next posting. I've got to read further into my book.

The Book-Content Area Writing: Every Teacher's Guide

Well sports fans, I'm  late to this party because of previous technical problems. If I'm honest, I have to admit to technological incompetence on a grand scale. Rather than continue whining I'll get on with it. I am going to use my linear analytic hat to approach this work. I am a science and math geek of a student teacher so, working through my book in a step-by-step orderly manner fits my need.

My chosen book is, Content-Area Writing:  Every Teacher's Guide. It is a weighty tome, not in terms of volume of pages but, in its depth of coverage of its topic. A great deal of "education" reading I have done since joining the ALP STEM program can be characterized as screaming, yelling and knashing of teeth about various things that are wrong with the education system today and the denizens that inhabit it-teachers, politicians, administrators, and worst of all the students who are the beneficiaries of the wrong doing the system is foisting upon them.

The authors of my book are very good at pointing out that student writing at all levels is quicklygoing to hell in a hand cart, quickly. They postulate that several things have been happening over the past 20 + years to facilitate this process. Their laundry list includes:

1. The tyranny of testing that leaves little time for teaching
2. The state curriculum gurus who demand that we teach widely through our content areas
3. The rise of and unbridled usage of disruptive technology (some of which is beyond my ken {for those of us from Rio Rancho, ken means understanding})

But, unlike most authors I have come across, these folks pose some interesting solutions right in the first chapter. More on my favorite solutions in later postings.

Gettin' In Tune

My father fancied himself a good cook. I took exception to that claim 30 years ago. However, one recipe of his has stuck with me my entire adult life-Raw Fried Potatoes. He was an artist. His sketches of the Lake Michigan shoreline once decorated our house in the Bay View area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That artistry however, did not carry over into the kitchen. His avocation, art, did carry over to me and from me to my oldest daughter who rangled a bachelor of fine arts degree from our local university and became an art teacher.

My interest in art has been life-long. It initially led me from grade school to a local high school that had an outstanding art and music program. It followed me to Vietnam where I completed several sketch books and then home when my service time was completed. I did not follow my avocation as a college program nor as an occupation, turning to science and business instead. As I said earlier, I've maintained my interest throughout my life via indulging in pencil, pastel and ink sketching, acrylic based painting and visiting art museums where ever I have lived and traveled for business.

I recently discovered the world of art blogs. There are literally thousands of art blogs out in the internet. Two of my favorites are dcdocent.com and eyelevel.si.edu. The docent is an anonymous blogger who is an art museum docent in the Washington D.C. area. He blogs behind the veil of concealment about art museums, art galleries and art happenings around the United States and especially the Washington D.C. area. A docent, by the way, is a person who leads guided tours through museums and art galleries. It is a noble profession of would be scholars of various types that pass on to visitors to their museums or galleries their passion for their particular content area. I identify the majority of docents as "would be scholars" because they are very often hobbyests in their field working for very little or as volunteers.

Eyelevel is a blog of the Smithsonian organization in Washington D.C. It is a highly professional bog that features interviews with expert curators and conservators as well as producing first-rate articles about their current and future art exhibits. One exhibit that jumped to my eye level was "Mingering Mike: Just for the Record." It is a collection of vinyl music ephemera (record albums recorded in analog format on vinyl platters) collected between 1965 and 1979. The owner has chosen to remain anonymous but, his collection stays with Smithsonian visitors. You can visit his collection at eyelevel.si.edu/2013/02/mingering-mike-just-for-the-record-html.

While art blogs are fun and even relaxing-I like to comment on what I read and see, my favorite blog is talkingpointsmemo.com. This is an up-to-the-minute following of political happenings in our nation's capitol. News junkies can stay in touch with what is happening with the movers and shakers and the events that eventually make the network news. And that's the fun of it. I feel informed before the like of NBC, ABC and CBS can slather their diatribe across the airwaves.

But, these are not the most important blogs out in the ether today. I would argue that the mini blogs like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have far more impact upon our school age children than we care to admit. As a student teacher I have encountered a generation of composers who can only write for these electronic hosts and their followers. They have translated the sound byte to their cell phones via 144 characters inventing acronyms and codes I can't begin to understand. Therein lies the writing problem for this generation. Many are resistant to the formal language arts training that results in the ability to communicate effectively in writing.

This translates into my main concern about blogging-it is changing the vernacular I grew up learning via my mid-western education. How can I teach children science writing such as lab reports when I can get past 144 characters of attention span?

I think a possible solution might be to endeavor to engage students via their interests and point them towards blogs that encompass those interests. At least well written blogs that purvey some of the content that I offer. Maybe, just maybe I'm onto something.