Kristin C.

Professional Writing Assignment

C&T 743 Dr. Donita Shaw
June 27, 2016

Citation:
Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2013). Designing an effective writing program. In S.
Graham, C. A. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing
instruction (2nd ed., pp. 166-189). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Summary:
Reading helps students learn. That is why reading comprehension is such a huge push in
schools. Writing to learn, however, receives less attention. Certain subject areas, such as social
studies, utilizes written responses and essays as tools for learning, but theres only been a
handful of studies done to try to prove its effectiveness. Writing to learn is not common in
teacher education, either, and there are few resources for it. Writing to learn is used to help
students understand a discipline or topic (i.e. science, social studies, literature, etc.). It varies
from informal journals to major reports. Ultimately, though, the goal of writing to learn is that
the student will better understand the concepts and theories in a subject. Writing helps
students memorize facts, learn modes of reasoning, and how to inquire on a topic in a given
subject area. Writing to learn must be conducted in the proper manner, as it does not
automatically lead to learning. Increased research has helped determine the writing activities
that made medium and large contributions to learning.
Reflective writing to learn consists of journals (or learning logs) where students
document their thinking and learning in an area. This helps provide evidence of progress and
helps cement major concepts. They are short and informal. KWL journals and example of
writing to learn and are based on the reading comprehension strategy. The K is where
students document what they already know about a topic, the W is what they want to know,
and L is for what they learned. The K and W is done before learning, and the L is after.
The results of 39 writing to learn studies showed that effective curriculum units contained:
metacognitive prompts, brief writing activities, sustained programs and marginally important
characteristics. Surprisingly, too, it was found that writing to learn was effective in grade 1-5
and high school and college not middle school.
Common Core states that students should learn to write arguments and
informative/explanatory texts. These types of writing help students think analytically and
understand relationships among concepts. Argumentative writing, specifically, can help
students understand ideas and theories and help them to think critically.
Studies show that students learn more if they write using multiple sources. Its
demanding, though, and students must be equipped with the proper tools and strategies to be
able to do so. While there isnt much research yet to support it, it is also thought that writing
explanations might help students address the informational/explanatory strand of Common
Core. Science Writing Heuristic combines lab work with additional peer group reading,
discussion, and writing and is effective with low-achieving students.
 The text suggests that the choice of the approach depends on the goals of the teacher.
In addition, the education level should be considered. Lastly, an important component of
writing to learn in all three approaches is the teaching of writing strategies.