Two Strategies
for Writing Integration:
Write to Communicate
&
Write to Learn
David Bowen, English
david.bowen@colostate.edu
CSU Writing Resources
• Writing Across the Curriculum
http://wac.colostate.edu/intro
• The Writing Center (located in Eddy 6)
http://writing.colostate.edu/wcenter
• Writing@CSU
http://writing.colostate.edu
• g(uaranteed)t(ransfer)Pathways
http://writing.colostate.edu/gtPathways
Session Plan
1. Why Writing?
2. Two threads—WTC & WTL
3. WTC—Design and Sequence
4. WTL—Why it’s useful, Design strategies
5. WTL Challenges—mediums, logistics,
objections
6. Final Thoughts and Questions
Write to Learn
Describe how writing has been for you
a valuable tool while performing any or
all of the following roles:
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Teacher
Student
Professional
Citizen
Human being
Why Writing?
For Teachers:
• Writing assignments, both formal and
informal, help teachers gauge student
progress.
• Reflective and evaluative writing
provide teachers with a sense of the
students’ subjective experience of the
course.
Why Writing?
For Students:
• Writing—and its twin, Speaking—is an
indispensible mode of communication
across disciplines and throughout the
broader workplace.
• Writing assignments are uniquely
suited to help students discover,
explore, and retain new ideas.
Why Writing?
“I know what I think,
but I don’t know how to say it.”
• Writing is linear; as students move
from left to right and top to bottom,
writing forces them to choose, qualify,
clarify, organize, justify, and ultimately
discover exactly what they think.
• Writing practice is thinking practice.
Why Writing?
“Authentic thinking…takes place only in
communication.” —Paolo Freire
• Writing acts such as evaluating,
analyzing, and synthesizing make
students active subjects in the learning
process, as opposed to passive objects.
• Writing acts such as reflecting and
responding help students contextualize
and relate to new concepts.
Two Threads of Writing Integration
• Write to Communicate (WTC) — papers,
written projects, hard copy or electronic,
performative writing, professional genres,
multigenre portfolios, individual papers, portfolio
compilations — graded with teacher response
• Write to Learn (WTL) — in class or online
forums, exploratory writing, reflective writing,
critical thinking and engagement, preparatory
writing, intervention writing, comprehension
probes, classroom assessment — “minimal
grading” with reader response
WTC Product as
Learning Process
• Sequence major writing assignments
using multiple minor writing assignments
of graduated difficulty
• Breaking major writing tasks into smaller
units makes the work both more
manageable for students and more
valuable to their learning
Designing and Teaching
the WTC Assignment Cycle
Course Objectives
Learning Priorities / Hierarchy
Multiple Writing Tasks (inside or outside class)
Evaluation Criteria
Feedback/Response/Comments (from peers or teacher)
Revision Priorities or Grade
Revised Paper or New Paper
Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Knowledge: Remembering information
• Comprehension: Summarizing information
• Application: Using information in new contexts
to solve problems
• Analysis: Identifying distinct parts and
describing relationship between them
• Synthesis: Combining previously learned skills
and information to generate new, unique whole
• Evaluation: Generating and applying criteria in
order to produce a value judgment
Example WTC Cycle
• Quiz—Students remember ideas, developing a critical
and disciplinary vocabulary (Knowledge)
• Summary—Students describe ideas in their own words,
creating a building block for more sophisticated writing
assignments (Comprehension)
• Response—Students practice applying critical vocab to
new contexts, interpreting relationships between and
implications of new ideas (Application, Analysis)
• Argument—Students locate distinct interpretations of
information (research) and combine these to form their
own unique interpretation (Synthesis)
• Peer Review—Students use stated assignment criteria
to offer feedback to their peers (Evaluation)
From the Writing@CSU website:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/wassign/pop2f.cfm
Sample assignment: AG ECON 4XX
OVERVIEW: Good analytical writing involves a process of rereading and rewriting, and it is
common to do a half dozen or more drafts. Because our understanding of the material
will grow throughout the semester, we will complete the assignment in four stages. I will
read the drafts produced in each stage and provide comments to aid in your final
revision of the completed product. It will be worth one-half of your semester grade.
PURPOSE: This project will analyze the peoples and policies related to population, food,
and the environment of your chosen country, exploring each of these subsets and
highlighting the interrelations among them. Your research and final paper should
address the following questions.
Population - Explain the dynamic nature of population change in your country or
region and the forces underlying the changes. Better papers will go beyond description
and analyze the situation at hand: structure of growth, population momentum,
rural/urban migration, age structure of population, etc. DUE: WEEK 4.
Food - What is the nature of food consumption in your country or region? Is the
average daily consumption below recommended levels? What is the income elasticity
of demand? Use Engel's law to discuss this behavior. Is production able to stay abreast
with demand given these trends? What is the nature of agricultural production:
traditional agriculture or green revolution technology? Is the trend in food production…
Sample assignment: AG ECON 4XX
(Cont.)
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Food (cont.) …towards self-sufficiency? If not, can comparative advantage explain
this? DUE: WEEK 8.
Environment - Show the environmental impact of agricultural production techniques
as well as any direct impacts from population changes. Use the concepts of
technological externalities, assimilative capacity, property rights, etc. to explain the
nature of this situation in your country or region. What other environmental problems
are evident? Discuss the problems and methods for economically measuring
environmental degradation. DUE: WEEK 12.
Final Draft - The final draft of the project should consider the economic situation of
agriculture in your specified country or region from the three perspectives outlined
above. Key to such an analysis are the interrelationships of the three perspectives.
How does each factor contribute to an overall analysis of the successes and
problems in agricultural policy and production of your chosen country or region? The
paper may conclude with recommendations, but, at the very least, it should provide a
clear summary statement about the challenges facing your country or region. DUE:
WEEK15.
Write-to-Learn
Strategies and ideas
to get your students engaged
Why Write to Learn (WTL)?
• WTL can engage learners just as the iclicker does. Writing may do it better.
• WTL can yield essential classroom
assessment information.
• WTL can get students started on larger
projects and offer opportunities to redirect
these projects throughout.
• WTL can teach students that their ongoing
learning matters, not just the end products
of their learning.
WTL
media & logistics
• Hard copy in-class or online forum out of class
• Simple point system for participation—check, check
plus, check minus (3, 4, or 5 points), etc.—culminates
in 5% or 10% of semester grade
• Collect, read quickly, provide whole-class response.
Record participation scores immediately. Do not
reward minimal efforts. Dock for absence. Send
signal that engagement and participation matter.
• John Bean compares grading daily writing to grading
scales that a new pianist practices daily before the
weekly lesson. Daily work doesn’t receive the same
scrutiny as the weekly performance, but does the
daily practice matter? You bet!
Use WTL to Encourage & Document
a Recursive Writing Process
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Assignment early stages:
– “List three possible research topics posed as inquiry questions”
– “Choose one question to exchange with a partner and spend the next three
minutes answering his or hers; discuss before sharing with the class”
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Assignment mid-stages:
– “Describe the most important questions your research seeks to answer and
explain how your research so far has addressed them and generated new
questions.” This can lead students toward an interpretive problem-thesis
structure rather than descriptive “and then, and then” writing
– “Two Sentences: Question and Thesis—Write a one-sentence question that
summarizes the problem your paper addresses and a one-sentence thesis
statement that summarizes your answer to the question.”
– “Write an abstract of at least 250 words that distinguishes between the main
ideas and supporting ideas of your argument.” A WTL like this clarifies thinking
and reveals organizational problems that prompt revision.
– Individual 15-minute conferences—required or voluntary based on time, needs,
goals, etc.
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Assignment final stages:
– Peer review—in-class or take-home workshop. Feedback should reflect the
evaluation criteria, and should be directed by specific questions or prompts.
– Consider assigning a “postscript” that asks students to reflect on the different
stages of their writing process, or describe their application of concepts from
previous assignments.
Use WTL to Motivate and Direct
Classroom Discussion & Activities
• Write at the start of class to review previous material or
launch new concepts
• Write to “ramp-up” a group activity or pair work
• Write when discussion lags or students seem confused
• Write at the end of class to sum up
• Record simply as participation as check, check-minus
or check-plus. Vary your collection methods:
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Student-generated questions for discussion
Article main ideas
Reading logs and double-entry journals
Concept maps for exam prep or general review
Designing WTLs
that Contribute to Learning
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Assign writing prompts that help students to link course concepts to
their personal experiences or prior knowledge.
Ask students to explain difficult course material to a new learner.
Ask students to generate an imaginary dialogue that questions a
hypothetical “expert” about difficult course material.
Ask students to describe the relationship between important terms.
Give students raw data (such as lists, graphs, or tables) and ask them
to summarize, analyze, or evaluate it.
Give students a “seed sentence” and ask them to use it to complete a
critical response or argument by “growing” the seed sentence into a
bigger idea using generalizations and supporting details.
Have students role-play unfamiliar points of view, playing “devil’s
advocate” or “their side” (vs. my side) in a brief argument.
Select an assigned, important article and ask students to write a
summary or abstract.
Other ideas?
The Double-Entry Journal
A double-entry journal takes the form of two vertical columns of text,
one of which comments on the other. Your journal will place critical
reading alongside close reading. In the lefthand column, type the main
ideas of the text. When you’re through, print this column of ideas and
read them over, recording your own questions and reactions in the
righthand column with a pen or pencil. These notes are often very
useful for larger projects you’ll do later.
This process is a slow-motion version of what your mind does all the
time as it interacts with itself in a dialectic fashion, a word derived from
the Greek for “art of debate.” Ann Berthoff writes in The Making of
Meaning: “The reason for the double-entry format is that it provides a
way for the student to conduct that ‘continuing audit of meaning’ that
is at the heart of learning to read and write critically.” By writing about
your writing, you’ll be thinking about your thinking, and as a result
you’ll become a stronger, more deliberate writer and thinker.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Might every class begin with the posing of
a problem? Might every class end with
one?
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What discipline-specific questions might
your students discover, explore, and
answer via writing?
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Consider concluding your classes with a
WTL for course assessment and
development.