We as a profession do not see ourselves as writers. For many of us, the lack of writing confidence goes back to our own school experiences where we wrote for the teacher (never ourselves) and judged our mastery according to teacher comments and red correction marks on our papers. Certainly, that was true for me. Despite the fact that we all write letters, cards, newsletters, lists, notes (and research papers, if we are taking a college course), we rarely share these with our students to show them we are writers. When our students see how we struggle, organize, think, reread, revise, edit, and get ideas with and through our own writing, they are supported in their writing.
When they see our process because we show it to them, speak it aloud, do it in front of them, we are demonstrating the most powerful of practices while giving them a lifelong tool - using writing to remember, to organize our thinking, to reflect, to communicate effectively, to problem-solve, to understand our world, to inquire and make new meaning.
There are several reasons why we teachers must take the risk and write. I believe we have a responsibility to share our knowledge and talents with others as our own classroom stories give confidence, insights, practical suggestions, and inspiration to our fellow teachers that would make us better teachers by becoming more observant and reflective as when I am working in a classroom and something happens that I want to remember or think about further, I write it down within a few hours. Otherwise, it is gone. So many new things keep happening that I lose the insight unless I record promptly digitally (Google Document) or on a notebook.
For students writing helps students review and remember recently learned the material. A brief writing assignment at the end of a class as an exit ticket, focusing on the day’s lesson and discussions, is a great way to reinforce the material, support a long-term recall of the key lesson points and help build writing skills all at the same time.
Writing helps us as educators to assess student learning. Probably the most common use of writing in the classroom is for a given student to demonstrate that he or she knows and understands a concept. Whether the assignment is, for example, a compare-and-contrast essay, writing assignments help us see what material students have mastered and where there may be gaps.
Some instructional recommendations that can be implemented in conjunction with existing standards or curricula that I can use when planning instruction to support the development of writing skills among students in science class to increase their science literacy so students must be given the opportunity to process their ideas before, during and after new learning takes place that can be done in writing.
As in biology classes have specific requirements in the kinds of writing students are likely to do, just like every other subject. In particular, though, most writing assignments students would get tasked within different forms such as long, research essays that are in-depth evaluations of new findings and recent information on selected biology topics. Some short essays that focus on scientific topics that could be part of the course or unit or are in the media, review some articles or findings and some resources. The most writing practice we do in science classes is lab report. This paper document students’ laboratory projects and usually they follow a specific format. As with all forms of writing since students will be writing scientific papers, we as teachers should implement steps from the writing process to help student use writing strategies effectively in science.
What I would do is modeling how to do a sample of the expected writing and while modeling, I would talk aloud about the thinking that goes on while preparing to write and during writing; brainstorming ideas through mini-lessons or whole class discussions, then have students practice the strategy in small groups with me or with partners, providing feedback on the work, encouraging students to become more independent in their practices as they build their skills.
I would include reflections, questions, predictions, claims linked to evidence and/or conclusions when they write. By making these personal connections, students begin to challenge their prior misconceptions they may still have and start to develop an understanding of the scientific phenomena they are exploring in their studies.
From the materials and resources that were required in this activity of literacy module, the writing process is generally known to have five stages that are viewed as simultaneous: planning, prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing. All of these steps I working on implementing these in my future classroom and give the opportunity for my secondary students to be engaged by including them in most writing assignments or instructional units.
From my observations of some classes, many science educators feel that students should already know how to write effectively when they come to their classrooms but this is not usually the case. Students have learned to write from their English teachers, but they do not know how to apply these skills in science. I believe that as a science teacher I must provide scaffolding for some strategies before students will be able to implement writing for learning science or demonstrate scientific knowledge. I would start with planning so they would think about a piece of writing and deciding on a general direction or topic; prewriting activities include outlining, mapping, listing and other tasks to facilitate or reflect thinking. Then I would let them write down their ideas then review and make changes in scientific word choice, organization, or details included and editing, correcting errors in grammar, and punctuation. When I work on a unit, I want to determine which writing science process skills can be developed during that unit.
From my observations of some classes, many science educators feel that students should already know how to write effectively when they come to their classrooms but this is not usually the case. Students have learned to write from their English teachers, but they do not know how to apply these skills in science. I believe that as a science teacher I must provide scaffolding for some strategies before students will be able to implement writing for learning science or demonstrate scientific knowledge. I would start with planning so they would think about a piece of writing and deciding on a general direction or topic; prewriting activities include outlining, mapping, listing and other tasks to facilitate or reflect thinking. Then I would let them write down their ideas then review and make changes in scientific word choice, organization, or details included and editing, correcting errors in grammar, and punctuation. When I work on a unit, I want to determine which writing science process skills can be developed during that unit.
Resources:
- Understanding the Essential Characteristics of the Writing Workshops by Katie Wood Ray. Retrieved from chrome-extension://cbnaodkpfinfiipjblikofhlhlcickei/src/pdfviewer/web/viewer.html?file=http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Books/Sample/13176chap01.pdf on October 29, 2017.
- Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/wwc_secondary_writing_110116.pdf on October 30, 2017.
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