Promoting Literacy in the
Classroom Through
Writing-to-Learn
Strategies
Creative Writing
Harry G. Lang
Rachel C. Lewis
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Rochester Institute of Technology
Active Learning
The creative piece is one of many
“writing-to-learn” activities that can
be used to examine how deaf
students are constructing
knowledge as they learn science
and mathematics.
Active Learning
In this PowerPoint slide show we
will demonstrate this strategy
with examples as well as
samples of student writing.
But, first, we want you to try the
approach yourself.
Activity
• In film clip C1, a few drops of water
are placed in an empty aluminum
can and the can is heated. When
steam is seen escaping from the
can, the can is quickly placed in
some cold water. What happens?
See Film clip C1
Activity
• Imagine that you are taking a
science class and you are studying
air pressure. When the temperature
increases inside the can, air
escapes and the pressure in the can
decreases.
Activity
• When the can is placed in cold
water, the pressure around the
outside of the can is much greater
than the pressure inside the can.
An implosion!
The Creative Piece
After viewing film clip C1, please write a short
essay of 5-10 sentences.
Instructions a teacher would give to students:
• Please write a short essay of 5-10 sentences.
Title it “I am an Air Molecule in the Pop Can”
• Include a description of the science concepts
you have been learning (energy, temperature,
pressure, heat, etc.)
The Creative Piece
Writing to Learn Science - A
Naturalistic Study*
Samples from Classrooms
Around the Country
*Lang, H.G., & Albertini, J.A. (2001). Construction
of meaning in the authentic science writing of
deaf students. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf
Education, 6, 258-284.
The Creative Piece
"I am an air molecule in the pop can."
One fine day I was in the Coke can, hanging
around with the billions of friends, when things
got heated up. We started to move around faster
and faster, till the water molecules joined us
from down below.
Suddenly, everything slowed down, after a
lot of friends had left. The only thing was - the
door was closed, so my friends outside tried to
get in other ways. Instead, the can crumbled
under their pressure.
The Creative Piece
Other teachers in the Lang & Albertini
(2001) study tried the creative piece
during various science activities:
Students were asked to imagine themselves
as
• Bacteria
• Chemical elements
• Simple machines
• Soap bubbles
• Falling bodies
• A cookie passing through the digestive
system
The Creative Piece
• Film clip C2 shows a mathematics
teacher who is teaching “polygons.”
At the end of the class, she asks
each student to imagine that he or
she is a particular polygon. They
are to attend a “Polygon Party” and
introduce themselves to each other
and describe their characteristics.
• See Film clip C2.
The Creative Piece
Variations of the creative piece used by
other teachers:
• Students drafted a one-act play with the
characters being two plants discussing
their genetic differences
• In math classes, they imagined
themselves as
– Fractions
– Slopes
Math Class Example
Why Is It Interesting to be a Fraction?
“I think it’s interesting to be a fraction because I
have a bottom number and a top number. The
people call my bottom number the denominator,
and for my top number, the numerator… What I
can do is make myself smaller, and bigger. For
example I give the people a four for the numerator
and a eight for the denominator, the people who
work on me would take my four and turn me into a
one. And for my denominator number is eight, the
people turn me into a number 2 for a new
denominator. I don’t know why the people do that
to me, but I hear the people’s teacher told the
class, students, that it’s called simplifying, which
means to reduce me to the lowest term. To me it’s
an odd name, but then again I have a lot of names,
people called me after I change. Oh yea!”
Science Example:
Igneous Rock
• Some students were asked to write
a creative story from the point of
view of an igneous rock. They were
mainly to write about their formation.
Science Example:
Igneous Rock
“Beauty Pink”
I live in Italy. then my name is beauty pink. the heat
and hot thing keeps pressure me I don’t like it! then
the volcano eupt I poped out! I flew all over to other
country and land in California of Hollywood. then I
was so hot so I land in a water finally I’m so cool not
hot anymore! Whew! then I was flowing in a beach
some cute guy found me he picked me up and
brought me to a new home it was his place a guy
Who named a [boy’s name]. I was dull but later on
for days [boy’s name] took be to a rock store. asked
the man to make me look beautiful now I look
beautiful I’m color of pink, white, dark pink mixed
together! So now I’m a beautiful crstayal now I’m so
happy that [boy’s name] found me and kept me
forever!
-8th grade deaf girl
Earth Science
• A preservice teacher candidate also
experimented with writing to learn in her first
student teaching. Here is one sample she
shared from Earth Science:
“Core to Crust”
• When I in core and it very hot and I want to
come out and so I have dig out and I arrive at
mantle and I became lava and I go flat through
rock and it really hard go to through rock and I
melt fast and I was so liquid lava and I go up
fast through rock then I arrive crust and I push
land and land become bump then I come out
like volcano. Now I am cool.
Earth Science
Reflections as a Teacher Candidate
It was fascinating to see the evolution of
the students’ confidence to write because
the first piece they did was this project
and they were not sure what to do. The
more we did writing to learn activities, the
more confident they became and that
was the ultimate goal of mine for the
students. I thank you for teaching me this
method. :)
Another Example:
Recycling
“My Life as Paper”
The first was seeds, the plant grows. The
next day it grow so huge. The men cut
me to put me in the tree cut machine to
make a calendar. When the people
finished with May calendar, and they tear
me. The people must use me! It helped
them to memorize the date. I was so
proud that I helped people lots. People
liked me because I was an calendar. The
calendar were all in the whole world.
The Creative Piece
How to Work with Students Who Are Beginning
Writers
• Begin with pictures, diagrams, illustrations; then
label the parts of the pictures. Finally, encourage
the students to write short sentences connecting
the parts.
• Concept maps may also be very helpful. There
are excellent websites to help teachers learn
more about the use of concept maps and other
graphical organizers, which may aid both writing
and the construction of knowledge.
Chemistry Example:
“Atom Party” written by “Neon”
• I’m just went to party. My protons
and electrons are 10. My shell is
K=2 L=8. It’s satisfy. I’m repel
oxygen, fluorine, lithium, sulfur, and
gold. That’s why I mostly repel with
them. I’m alone atoms!
The Atom Party
Teacher Reflection: “Calcium initially said she had
2 electrons for grabs and found oxygen or sulfur
for “an equal fit.” Fluorine summarized that he
needed one more electron in his last shell and
could fit with lithium, but not with neon or
calcium (although he really could fit with
calcium). Oxygen is a creative student and
describes how he sees elements fighting for
electrons during the party but manages to
introduce himself to lithium and get one
electron. On the way out chlorine tried to steal it
but he beat him up to keep the electron. While
there are some small errors in their writings, the
goal of the activity was for students to have
practice with the idea that number and
placement of electrons determines chemical
reactivity and tendencies for behavior.”
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Lilly: How as the village life in Israel?
Aliliah: Most villages have farm and
people are very poor. Villagers often
believe in the old ways and work hard
to perserve their traditions. It’s same
as your home areas? [look like
puzzled]
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Lilly: Wow! Yeah, we only have few
place that do that. What about city
life?
Aliliah: Villagers who were expected to
get high pay job moves to city.
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Lilly: Pardon me for my rudeness. My
name is Lilly, what’s yours?
Aliliah: That’s alright. It’s Aliliah
Lilly: Whew! Nomadic life is difficult?
Aliliah: Well, depends. But nomads is
very rare, because people finally
decided to stay in one place. Same as
yours?
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Lilly: Well, I doubt. Wow, Middle East’s
life is very interesting!
Aliliah: Hey. Why aren’t you dressing
like muslims or something else?
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Lilly: Oh, (laughing). I’m not from around
here. I live in America, the state is
Pennsylvania.
Aliliah: You’re American! It’s my first time to
meet a pure American.
Lilly: Yeah. It’s my first trip to the Middle
East. I always want to touch this land and
finally my dream came true!
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Aliliah: That’s wonderful. How old are
you?
Lilly: 16, you?
Aliliah: Same! Wow, what a small
world.
Lilly: You can speak English. How
come?
Social Studies: Cultural
Differences
One Act Play: “Difference Between Us”
Aliliah: My parents went to live in America
while they are having me. They want me to
be Israel citizen.
Lilly: Cool! I got to go. See ya tomorrow! It’s
late!
Aliliah: [puzzled] Hey, it’s still day break!
Lilly: I know. In America, it’s nightbreak! Good
night!
The Creative Piece:
Social Studies
Teacher Reflection on her lesson
about cultural differences:
• “I realized that they understand
traditions, culture and life in a
Muslim country. However, they
totally missed the point that Israel is
NOT an Islamic state. That really
surprised me since we had
discussed it in depth.”
Science Example: The
Digestive System
Teacher’s Objectives
1. Understand the sequence of organs
and their functions in the digestive
system
2. Summarize hands-on lesson about the
digestive system
Activity: Students made 3-dimensional
paper organs of the entire digestive
system to fit into a life-size skeleton.
Science Example: The
Digestive System
“I Am Lost In Kevin’s Body”
My friends and I am a chocolate chip
cookies. My friends and I are sitting
on a plate for people to come and
eat us. Later on there was a young
boy named Kevin. He took one of
the cookies, which was me. I was
scared to death!
“I Am Lost In Kevin’s Body”
Kevin put me into his mouth. His
mouth looked sharp and had many
over lapping teeth. Then suddenly
he bit me. Half of my body was
bitten off. After that my body was all
broken up in many small pieces and
I was squeezed into his very thin
esophaung which was very dark.
“I Am Lost In Kevin’s Body”
I saw something white below. After a
while all of me was slipped into his
stomach which had a bunch of other
foods and drinks. I was stuck in his
stomach until I was alls squeezed
into his small intestine I was all
mushed up like a baby food.
“I Am Lost In Kevin’s Body”
When I was in the small intenstine
the blood cells were cleaning me
like “Seprating the parts.” After that I
went out the anus into the toilet and
flushed down to the pipe.
The End.
The Creative Piece
• “Students generally showed
understanding of the digestive system
and the functions of various parts of the
body involved in digesting a cookie. The
trip through the body was generally
accurate, although the description of the
functions often lacked depth.”
• This teacher planned a matching game to
follow the creative writing in order to
further evaluate comprehension of the
functions.
The Creative Piece
Teacher Reflection: “I must admit this
set [of Writing to Learn activities] was my
favorite and I really got excited by some
of the work! The students enjoyed this
type of writing more so than the others. . .
everyone wanted to share their writings
after they finished. In these creative
writings, the student also wrote more.
They had more to share and did not
realize they were putting so much down.”
Summary
• The creative piece as a writing-tolearn strategy is not only an
approach to assess students’
construction of knowledge, but also
an opportunity for them to show
creativity
• Teachers can see when students
are developing misconceptions
Summary
• Teachers can assess many topics
over a period of time
– Example: In mathematics, slope,
decimal, graph, number line, algebra…
• Teachers felt it beneficial in seeing
various levels of writing abilities
Summary
• Teachers also believed that the
writing activities helped students
develop self-efficacy, the belief that
“I can learn to write well”