Málfríður - 15.03.2011, Qupperneq 12

Málfríður - 15.03.2011, Qupperneq 12
particular genres or text types together. E.g. teach the reading of scripts and writing of scripts at the same time, along with the use of particular conventions like colons and parentheses that pay off in the reading and writing of that kind of text. Instead of focusing on reading or writing generally, focus on teaching a specific text type and teach reading and writing that text type together. Different composing situations impose different demands on composers. Composing consists of general processes of writing that are necessary but insufficient for specific acts of writing. That’s because specific acts of writing place text- and task-specific demands on writers that go beyond the general. Students who are good at writ- ing narratives in a literature class may suffer great dif- ficulties in writing lab reports in science because the demands for conceptual knowledge, genre knowledge and conventional knowledge are so different. The takeaway: every teacher in every subject needs to be a teacher of reading and writing inducting students into the conceptual and procedural demands of read- ing and writing in the particular situations she is teach- ing for. In the Classroom: Writing to Learn Content and Language: Some Social Strategies The Writing to Learn movement (WTL) argues that writing is not primarily a way to record what one already knows, and is instead a powerful way dis- cover new knowledge and construct new understand- ings by sorting through new insights, uncovering new ideas, seeing patterns, drawing conclusions and the like (NWP & Nagin, 2003). WTL activities can activate what is already known, help students see connections, reflect on concepts, language and processes, improve metacognitive skills and self-regulation. The Writing in the Disciplines (WID) (see the writing situation princi- ple above) approach layers onto WTL as it maintains that people become better thinkers, problem-solvers, readers and composers within a discipline by practic- ing the kinds of informal and informal reading and writing that are specific to that discipline. The con- clusion is that students in all content areas, including those learning language, should constantly be writing in ways congruent with how disciplinary and language experts compose. Following are just a few examples of informal com- posing techniques pursued at our Boise State Writing Project site for doing just these things. In all cases, it is very important for students to understand the purpose of the writing, how these purposes fit larg- er purposes for the course and for doing real world work, and directions must be clear. The use of models of the kind of writing that is desired is always help- ful. learned in a context of use. Though writing is widely understood as a process that begins with activating background knowledge (brainstorming) then devel- oping new knowledge, analyzing and organizing that knowledge (e.g. outlining), drafting, revising and peer editing, researchers know that this process is recursive. “Most research today supports the view that writing is recursive, that it does not proceed linearly but instead cycles and recycles through subprocesses” of plan- ning, getting the stuff to write about, forming the stuff, drafting and revising (NWP & Nagin, 2003, p. 25). The takeaway: students should be writing every day and in ways that support them through every aspect of the writing process and in ways that help them solve a problem. Give students time to respond to each oth- ers’ writing. Give substantial time for informal writing and practice that leads to the writing of more formal assignments. Composing involves multiple modalities and technologies. Composing is widely understood to be any proc- ess where meaning is represented in any form, be it through visual art, music, or standard written com- munication. Composing is also considered to be most powerful when it uses multimodalities and digital technologies (Bolter, 1995). The takeaway: have stu- dents compose visual and dramatic and multimodal texts with and without technology. Value this kind of composing in itself, and also use it in conjunction with more traditional writing and as a bridge to that kind of writing. Composing develops through repeated meaningful prac- tice. Students need multiple daily informal low-risk opportunities to practice putting developing skills and evolving concepts to use (Shanahan, 2004). Research indicates that “the development of student writing from approximate forms to conventional forms is best achieved through the devotion of sub- stantial time and provision of multiple opportuni- ties” to write (Egawa, 1998). The takeaway: provide the opportunity to write every day for multiple pur- poses, and various audiences in ways connected to the overall inquiry or problem to be solved. Build on student interests and strengths in ways that help to address what they still need to know. Over time pro- vide guidance that helps students to layer on more and more formal features. Reading and composing are symmetrical and mutually reinforcing processes. “Numerous studies have shown that writing led to improved reading achievement, reading led to better writing, and combined instruc- tion led to improvement in both reading and writing (Tierney and Shanahan, 1991, p. 258). The takeaway: all students will learn language and textual conven- tions best if we teach the reading and composing of 12 MÁLFRÍÐUR

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