A common error in teaching is to skip over the vast possibilities that asking students to write, even in class, has for student learning and engagement. We associate student writing with writing classes, English classes, papers, homework, or perhaps discussion assignments. Note that all of these kinds of occasions for student writing involve two things: students receiving some kind of grade or score, and faculty reading (and evaluating, sometimes marking) student writing. To only consider these occasions for student writing is to miss out on one of the most durable, convenient, and effective tools for in-class learning.
What writing does for learners: initiates cognitive processing
“language provides us with a unique way of knowing and becomes a tool for discovering, for shaping meaning, and for reaching understanding”(James Britton)
A few research findings on the value of writing for learning:
- First-year biology students: summary writing of class sessions increased comprehension and problem-solving on post-test (Horton et al)
- First-year biology students: Journal writing on processes and problems as a supplement to lab report increased scores on MC exam (McCrindle & Christensen)
- High school social studies students: Restricted (Q&A, summary types) writing improves recall, analytic writing improves comprehension (Apple & Langer)
Yet instructors do not assign much writing
Study after study reveals that most disciplinary faculty provide little time and space for writing in class, or even writing after reading. Faculty provide many reasons for why they do not ask students to write:
- No time to read & evaluate more writing
- Class time is too precious — need to cover more content
- Students don’t like writing in class
- Students won’t write in class — will surf, text, daydream
- Feels strange, awkward, and like I’m not doing my job as an instructor
- I’m not a writing teacher and so don’t feel equipped to teach writing
Assign writing without pain
Faculty can overcome all of these challenges and engage students with the generative, brain-feeding act of writing about one’s learning. Change your approach to assigning writing.
- Don’t mark-up & grade all student writing! Assigning writing ≠ assigned grading
- Instead, employ light (or no) evaluation:
- explain the light evaluation approach to students: that it improves learning, that you’re not reading, marking, and grading traditionally
- give credit for a number of words, frequency of writing, or simply the act of writing
- grade simply: complete/incomplete
- Assign peer feedback: students write, students read, students comment
- be directive in peer feedback. For example, “Read peers’ feedback and 1) summarize in two sentences; 2) offer a countering perspective, and 3) offer a suggestion
- Vary the writing to learn activities, modalities, formats, etc.
- e.g., On index cards by hand vs on a live google doc;
- e.g., Instruct to write freely, to write to a specific question, to write to an imagined audience such as a student new to the discipline, etc.
Select writing activities that focus on learning, including
- Pure freewriting: focuses the mind for engagement, making it receptive to listening and learning
- Focused freewriting: focuses the mind on a topic or idea
- Responding to an open-ended prompt: furthers thinking on a topic or idea
- Responding to a specific prompt: promotes understanding of a topic or idea.
- Writing a summary: prompts re-reading and aids recall
- Writing a draft “essay” [essay = “to try.”]: promotes true comprehension as writers try out their ideas in relation to others’ ideas.
Ideas for content courses
Writing-to-learn ideas for early in a module
- Focused reading summary: Write a paragraph response in which you identify the author’s main argument and summarize three supporting examples
- Annotations: Write out key ideas of assigned reading and briefly evaluate the strengths & weaknesses of an article’s argument or research.
- Connections: Select two authors we have read and write a dialogue between the two authors in which they reveal two points of difference and two points of agreement.
Writing-to-learn ideas for the end of a module
- Teach others: At the conclusion of a unit, write out to an absent classmate the major themes, discoveries, and questions of the unit.
- What did I learn? A focused quick write detailing to oneself what one has learned. This exercise can be made more concrete by directing students to identify 5 specific learning points.
- Identifying the conflicts: Review the major issues that have been discussed during this class/unit, and identify conflicting opinions, stating the opinion of each side.
After writing, engage students further
- Ask students to move from writing to speech (writing to enable better discussion)
- Ask students to simply share their writing with peers
- Ask students to share their writing with peers and receive a written response. Direct students to summarize back, offer a counterpoint, offer a substantiating report, offer a personal reaction.
- Share, collaborate, and reduce writing to small summaries
- Rewrite writing for another assignment
Strategies for assessing students usefully and simply
- Provide no or little assessment: rely on teacher authority and internal value.
- Assess writing-to learn as part of a class participation grade
- Assess through a complete/no complete activity (which can double as attendance)
- Use plus/check/minus mark
- Complete writing activity within Canvas and assess each activity but keep it simple through such strategies as:
- simply attending to word count
- not commenting
- automatic assessment (complete/incomplete)
- CAVEAT: don’t do anything that makes you hesitate to assign writing
Summary
- The act of writing improves learning
- Writing to learn can happen in a variety of different ways
- on the spot or as homework
- online or in person
- with any level of guidance or direction
- Writing supports collaboration
- Writing to learn can be assessed quickly
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