418+-+Module+4+-+Writing

//**Holler If You Hear Me**//

 * We're going to do double-duty with //Holler//and use it as a context for beginning to think about student engagement. "Engagement" is a concept that is heavily assessed on the TPA and is important for you to have a clear understanding of. Relating to engagement, the TPA asks two questions which you answer through your lesson plans, commentaries, and videos of your teaching.
 * How does the candidate actively engage students in developing students’ abilities to _?
 * How does the candidate elicit and monitor students’ responses to deepen their abilities to ?
 * In particular, the TPA looks for four aspects of engagement: active, intellectual, connected, and rigorous.
 * **Active** engagement (vs. passive)
 * **Intellectual**ly engaged (vs. superficial and procedural)
 * **Connected** (vs. disconnected from students’ prior knowledge and experience)
 * Engaging with content in challenging ways that represent the **rigor** of the discipline (vs. fun, easy)
 * **Before reading**: Consider these four ideas by filling out the table on page 1 of the document below. Copy and paste it to your googledoc journal. Label it "Module 4"
 * **Read,** pp 99-118. As you're reading, look for examples of these four concepts. You will be asked to provide two examples from the text for each of the engagement characteristics: active, intellectual, connected, rigorous. A template is on page 2 of the document below. Copy and paste into your journal.
 * [[file:418_module 4_mitchie_engagement.docx]]

**Writing Across the Curriculum**
1. What types of writing typically happen in classrooms in your subject area? Make a list. 2. What are "real world" writing tasks you could imagine preparing your students for? (a list) 3. How do you see your role in regards to teaching writing and having students write in your class? (one paragraph) 4. What excites you about having students write in your classes? (a paragraph or list) 5. What worries you about having students write in your classes? (a paragraph or list) 6. Read this link. Mark up sections that seem particularly useful to you. Also, jot down questions that arise. [|http://www.ttms.org/PDFs/06%20Writing%20Across%20the%20Curriculum%20v001%20(Full).pdf] 7. Read Zwiers, chapter 8. Be prepared to share ideas you could imagine implementing in your future classroom.

Designing a Writing Task - Due Oct 18
//* I suggest that you start thinking about this now, but you don't need to start it just yet.//

Think about a lesson or unit you can imagine teaching. How could you incorporate writing into your instruction? Your task is to design two writing tasks to support learning of the content. One task should be a "writing to learn" task. This will be a less-formal task that helps students process and deepen their understanding of the content. (In the article above, this is referred to as "casual writing." The second task is a "writing to show learning" task. This will be a formal task that is designed to help students demonstrate their knowledge. (In the article, this is called "formal writing.")

A. For each task, please respond to the following prompts in about one page for each writing activity. This is intended to be a clear description of the task and your rationale for your decision based on your professional knowledge. 1. What is the task? 2. Why did you choose this task? 3. How does this task support content learning? 4. Who is the audience for the writing? 5. How will you scaffold the process for your students? 6. How will the writing be assessed?

B. Design a one-page handout for each task that you could give to students. The handout should explain the task and reason for doing it in student-friendly language. It should also include information about how the task will be graded. It might also include some examples or models and if applicable, the format (e.g. relevant charts, etc.)

http://gonzagateach.wikispaces.com/Writing+Assignments
 * For more information about writing across the curriculum, browse this page - **