Br
M
Dr.
Ralph Wahlstrom
English
309W
6
May 2004
I-Search Paper
Strategies
for Teaching Writing in Middle School Social Studies
Beginnings
I was finally beginning
to warm up following the fifth annual “Holiday Snow Bowl” football game, played
just a few days before Christmas 2003.
I’d shed my simultaneously soggy and frozen game clothes, and happily
jumped into dry replacements. Now I was
basking in the warmth of the fireplace at my brother-in-laws’ house in
Considering that there
were two public school teachers by the fire, as well as yours truly, an
aspiring teacher, it should come as no surprise that the conversation
gravitated in the direction of education.
My brother-in-law John, who teaches high school art, mentioned that
Patrick had just finished another round of “high-stakes” testing at his middle
school, including some social studies assessments, and that the boy was very
glad to be rid of the pressure for awhile.
Knowing that Patrick would have been faced with DBQ’s
(document based questions), the recent dominant trend in social studies
“on-demand” writing evaluation, I asked John if he had heard anything from
Patrick on the topic. John suggested I
ask Patrick directly, and I could tell from John’s expression that I would have
no trouble in gaining a reply.
It wasn’t long before
Patrick joined the rest of us at the fire, and after the obligatory recounting
of his numerous game-time heroics, touchdown runs, and his defensive prowess, I
found my chance to ask him about DBQ’s. His response was immediate and more than a
little animated. “DBQ’s? DBQ’s? If I hear anyone say DBQ even one more time,
I’ll scream!” At this point he launched
into a scathing review of the test preparation he had endured, the seemingly
endless repetitions and practices of DBQ essay responses, and his disdain for
the whole concept. As far as he was
concerned, they had beaten DBQ’s into him to the
point that he was eating, sleeping, and dreaming DBQ’s,
and if he never heard another word about DBQ’s it
would be just fine.
As genuinely humorous as
my personal recollection of Patrick’s reaction to DBQ’s
remains, underlying his outburst lay a serious issue. It seems evident that the tiresome, product
oriented social studies writing instruction of the past, which focused on the
trinity of essays, reports, and research papers, has simply been replaced by an
equally tiresome, product oriented social studies writing instruction of the
present, focusing on DBQ’s, Web Quests, and research
papers. I had already become well
schooled in creating lesson plans that incorporated writing tasks using DBQ’s, Web Quests, and research papers, and I had been
given a cursory overview of how to incorporate the writing process into my
instructional approaches. But I
sincerely did not feel that I knew enough about how to successfully center
writing instruction on the writing process.
Most of my involvement with writing pedagogy was, unfortunately, product
focused. Perhaps we have only paid lip
service to the pre-eminence of the process of writing in the social studies,
given the hard focus on successfully preparing students for “on-demand” writing
product production in high stakes evaluations.
In the end, this focus could well result in the brand of animosity that
Patrick displayed, not only limited to DBQ’s, but
extending to writing in general.
It wasn’t much later,
early in this semester, that my memory of Patrick’s DBQ angst crossed paths
with my course work. I found myself in
two classes (Teaching and Evaluating Writing, and Methods and Materials in
Teaching Middle School Social Studies) which provided a springboard to my
investigation of approaches to writing instruction in middle school social
studies. I decided I wanted to uncover
ways of teaching writing in the middle school social studies classroom that
could avoid undermining developing writers in these crucial grades. I knew that in order to do so, I would have
to gain a greater understanding not just of writing instruction, but also of
middle schools and middle school students.
In short, I wanted to know what I could do, in a practical sense, to
directly implement social studies writing lessons that could move middle school
students, with their unique needs and characteristics, in a positive direction
as writers.
The Search
With this goal in mind,
my active search began. In addition to
the potential sources of information that lay directly in front of me (the
required texts I had obtained for these two education courses, access to the
course instructors, and my upcoming fieldwork at
Before too long, I had
amassed a functional stable of worthy reference sources on both writing
instruction and the middle school, including books, journal articles, and
reputable Internet sources. This did not
happen without some trial and error, and I read a good deal from all of these
realms that would prove either off target, counterproductive, off base, over my
head, or simply impractical. I also did
my best to speak to as many people who should be knowledgeable in the topic
area as possible. In some instances, my
inquiries were welcomed, while in other instances they were avoided or
ignored. Some of the toughest
individuals to arrange an interview with were (to my surprise) professors at
Disappointments and
Successes
Perhaps my biggest
disappointment during the hunt fell on my hopes to interview actual middle
school students. For reasons that I
should have probably anticipated, when I asked my cooperating teachers and my
methods professor how I could go about getting input regarding my search from
the students I was working with at Lowry, I was advised not to do so. This, coupled with Patrick’s warning of what
would happen if I pushed him any
further on the DBQ front, forced me to concede that in this instance my
somewhat gray status (as a pre-teaching student) in the educational universe
limited my ability to gain the “first-person” insights I desired. The students at Lowry were officially off
limits, and in Patrick’s case, he might be small, but he’s relentless.
From
this setback, I determined that I should learn more about the middle school
philosophy, if not from the students, then perhaps from the opposite end of the
spectrum. For a better overall
perspective on the nature of the social studies in the middle school model, I
turned to the Internet site of the National Council for the Social
Studies. There I found information that
addressed the views of the council, to which I belong, regarding middle school
social studies. According to the
Council’s Internet site, in 1989, the publication of Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st
Century invigorated the middle school reform movement in the
Two years later, the
Council approved a report prepared by its Task Force on Social Studies in the
Middle School. In light of subsequent
developments, this 1991 report, entitled Social
Studies in the Middle School, which I read in full on-line, seems to have
anticipated both common mistakes made by some attempting to emulate the middle
school model, and typical criticisms leveled by detractors of middle
schools. This is achieved through the
report’s core recommendations regarding the adaptation of a rigorous and
coherent curriculum, in the form of scope and sequence options employed within
an interdisciplinary approach, with what it refers to as four “unifying
motifs.” These motifs, which allow for
the unique nature of middle level learners to function as a “driving force” in
program design, provide for the measured and appropriate consideration of the
physical, social, emotional, and intellectual developmental characteristics of
these learners within the context of the social studies curriculum and its
instructional approaches.
The
report also delineates in some detail the instructional strategies that the
task force found appropriate for consideration, which are included in what may
be seen as “best practices” recommendations.
These instructional strategies include experimental learning,
interdisciplinary instruction, cooperative learning, heterogeneous grouping,
the addressing of controversial issues, and performance-based assessment. Conspicuous in its absence from this section
of the report is active learning, a topic I was hearing quite a bit about in my
methods course.
But
the report did address some of my concerns regarding the emphasis placed on
writing product over process vis-à-vis high stakes testing. I found that the report’s recommendations to
meet this high stakes challenge did not contradict the necessary focus on
appropriate, formative writing instruction.
This could well be the Task Force’s greatest contribution to the
contemporary middle school movement. Too
often critics of middle schools will point to what they believe to be a lack of
focus on curriculum and core content, which they blame for any shortcomings in
standardized test results. What these
critics fail to recognize is that when properly integrated into the overall
approach and philosophy of middle school education, rigorous and coherent
curriculum, including process focused writing instruction, is better received
and retained by middle level learners.
This of course directly translates not only into better performance on
evaluation instruments, but it also better meets the goals set out in the
report of “advancing social studies education and responsible citizenship among
young people.”
For
these reasons, I found it clear that the responsibility rests with middle
school educators to avoid failing to meet higher standard’s requirements
because of poor program design and lack of attention to detailed curriculum and
instructional planning (including writing instruction), both within grade
levels and across districts. The
recommendations found in Social Studies
in the Middle School provide a valuable template to apply in such
planning. They should, perhaps, be more
often consulted, for if I aspire to become a committed middle school educator,
I cannot endanger the middle school concept simply because I have fallen short
in my implementation practices.
With
this in mind, and remembering Patrick’s reaction to his experience with social
studies writing instruction in the form of DBQ’s, I
reviewed a book which had been recommended to me as a potential replacement for
my “not-to-be” interviews with Lowry Middle School students. In her 1997 book 2000 Voices: Young Adolescents’ Perceptions & Curriculum
Implications, author Cynthia S. Mee shares the
results of her survey of more than 2000 middle school students. Mee investigates
young adolescents and their social realities, details their responses to
various questions in a summary format, provides an interpretation of their
“voices,” and makes extensive observations regarding curriculum
implications. In the summary section,
two questions and their summarized responses caught my attention.
The
first asked students to identify their favorite subject. Mee reports that
“although almost all subjects were mentioned, the absolute most common
responses by all grade levels were math and science” (36). Regarding their least favorite subject,
students stated “language arts, social studies, English, and literature”
(36). Although Mee
observes that “young adolescents who are somewhere between the concrete and
abstract cognitive levels of development find language arts, English, and
social studies as less clearly defined and concrete” (36), I could not help but
also make one additional connection.
These least favorite subjects share the common thread of an emphasis on
writing and writing instruction.
At
this point, I needed to find positive examples of social studies instruction in
the middle school that incorporated writing.
I also wanted to find examples that were more than just anecdotal. I checked with another professor I had
previously had for a methods class, Dr. Mitchell, to see if he could recommend
any journal sources that might give me some research based resources to
investigate. He told me that there was
one respected peer reviewed journal in the social studies that I should take a
look at, Theory and Research in Social
Education.
It
took quite a few false starts before I found articles in this journal that
included aspects of writing instruction, but eventually I found two. The first was an article entitled
“Scary Thing, Being an
Eighth Grader”: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in a Middle School U.S. History
Unit” published in the Spring, 2002 issue of Theory and Research in Social Education. At the time this study was conducted, one of
the authors, Jeanette Groth, was teaching middle
school social studies at the School for the Arts (SOTA) in
Other important
background information regarding the study includes the nature of the students
involved, their relationship with their teacher, and the nature of the school
itself. SOTA, a fourth through eighth
grade magnet school with about 250 students at the time, was predominately
attended by female students. The
students were generally very high achievers, both academically and within the
arts. Much of the outgoing personality
that marked them as performers carried over into the classroom and into their
study participation. Of the fifty eighth
graders who participated in the study, forty-one were female, and most had
excellent relationships with Ms. Groth, who had been
their social studies teacher throughout middle school. In addition, given the high level of academic
performance of her students, Ms. Groth enjoyed
considerable latitude in her social studies program design (234-237).
The study was centered on
a social studies unit that focused on women’s perspectives as the heart of
studying the antebellum period in
In addition to
investigating the academic impact of this shift in gender perspective, the
researchers gained insight into the realm of current adolescent gender and
sexuality perspectives in the classroom, the school, and in the broader
adolescent social context. In light of
the contiguous homophobia that tempered male student roles at SOTA, student
responses garnered regarding both the instructional approach and the adolescent
social setting gained increased value.
Based on their study, the
authors conclude a number of points that are important to consider in the
implementation of any middle school social studies program, including
instructional elements that involve writing.
As a limiting factor, they point out that although teachers can make a
substantial difference by providing classroom cultures which
support students in developing “open-minded, globally minded, and humane”
perspectives, each day students live in a social system comprised of peers that
may in practice often reject these same perspectives. Developing appropriate and broader gender
perspectives in the social studies classroom is important, but does not
necessarily translate into the social context of adolescents developing their
own individual sexual orientations. This
indicates that the active role of community in the middle school, which is one
of the foundational elements of a sound middle school program, should be
emphasized along with instructional program design. The associated ability to increase the
communal value of writing is essential to the success of developing life-long
writers as a goal of middle school social studies education (249-254).
Additionally, the authors
were encouraged to find that “teaching really does matter” (252). In this I saw that as a social studies
teacher, by constructing a social studies unit from a female centered perspective
(or other non-traditional perspectives), substantial improvement can be made
both in students’ factual knowledge as well as their ability to critically
discriminate on issues such as gender. (This is not to say that teachers will
not confront some natural student resistance to re-centered instructional
approaches.) For students, these
procedural skills can be applied both historically and in the contemporary
setting. Additionally, by examining individuals in the role of social
historian, students are able to gain a greater understanding of the diversity
of individual experience across gender, ethnicity, class, region, and time, and
gain an authentic purpose for their writing tasks (252-254).
Although I respect the
authors’ caveat regarding the atypical nature of the student group studied and
the important role of circumstance in supporting what some might consider an
atypical instructional approach, I am not overly discouraged from consideration
of the educational potentials this study exposes. It seems that “considering how important it
is to have a relatively safe place where adolescents can discuss and debate” and write is one consideration that
should be at the core of a middle school social studies classroom. To that end, it should also be a core consideration
in how I design and implement a middle school social studies program and my
instructional approaches to writing.
As I continued to browse
the article titles in various issues of Theory
and Research in Social Education, I finally found what I had been hoping
for – an article dealing with Web Quests.
In addition to DBQ’s, Web Quests have rapidly
become a instructional format of choice that typically
includes a substantial writing element within the context of social studies
instruction. There, in the Summer 2002 issue of the journal, was an article entitled
“The Internet and Inquiry Learning: Integrating Medium and Method in a Sixth
Grade Social Studies Classroom.” What
could I learn from this piece that could further inform my search?
Andrew Milson, primary researcher and author of this study,
introduces his research article with background information on the use of the
Internet as an instructional tool.
According to Milson, the Internet as a
component of computer assisted instruction has become increasingly popular and
evident as an element of teaching in middle schools. The Internet’s wealth of informational
resources can, when properly implemented, support social studies education
specifically in data collection and analysis, as a research resource to support
the composition of historical reports and analysis. Milson contends
that even though the Internet is being employed widely, research on the use of
the Internet in the classroom is insufficient.
Given the importance of inquiry based writing instruction and
exploration in middle school social studies’ classrooms, and the apparent value
of the Internet in supporting this style of writing instruction, Milson holds that further research is warranted. This study, conducted to add to the small
base of existing research, is an investigation of Web Quest instruction within
a sixth grade social studies classroom (330-332).
Milson defines inquiry learning as learning
that is based on posing meaningful questions, researching those questions, and
evaluating possible answers. Research
already supports inquiry learning as an effective way for students to learn
history. Web Quest is a specific
technique to involve students in the inquiry method. In this approach, students gather information
from the Internet. The teacher creates a
web page as a guided and structured form to support the students’ inquiry and
as a resource to support the associated writing task. This web page should include the five
critical attributes of a Web Quest: introduction, task, process, evaluation,
and conclusion (332-335).
Milson’s study took place in a sixth grade
classroom in what he characterized as a working class neighborhood school of a
medium size Mid-western city. Twelve
boys and eleven girls made up the class.
These students were mostly Caucasian and
included two African American students and one Hispanic student. Their teacher was a fifteen-year veteran at
the elementary level. Students worked in
heterogeneous cooperative groups on an Ancient Egypt Web Quest project, which
included both Internet based inquiry and traditional print resources. Students worked in teams to research and
record their inquiries/information in a “Time Travelers Guidebook” writing
composition task(336-338).
The data for this study was
obtained through field observations, interviews with students, and a journal
written by the classroom teacher. Milson presented his findings and interpretations of the
data in terms of three generalizations:
o
Finding One:
Students have differing perceptions of the value of Internet sources and print
sources, but many find print sources preferable to Internet sources (342).
o
Finding Two:
Students’ strategies for gathering and organizing information are initially
characterized by a quest for the path-of-least-resistance, but the teacher can
successfully guide students to more productive approaches (343-344).
o
Finding Three:
Students of varying academic ability levels can conduct inquiry-oriented
investigations, but they approach and perceive the value of such investigations
differently (346-347).
Milson asserts that his findings support
both inquiry learning and cooperative learning.
He concludes that Web Quests have value as an instructional approach
associated with writing tasks for middle school social studies by encouraging
inquiry and exploration through both print and Internet based resources
(347-349).
I think that an
implementation of instructional practice that takes into consideration Milson’s findings, if carefully planned, would prove
effective for the teacher of a middle school social studies class, and help
improve students’ engagement with writing tasks. I also believe that applying Milson’s findings would be beneficial within the
interdisciplinary context in which middle school social studies resides. It appears particularly important to note
that in this study, the class conducted the Ancient Egypt Web Quest in
conjunction with print materials about the same topic and acted in cooperative
groups. This provided for both varied
learning styles and social learning experiences, important elements to remember
in planning middle school writing instruction.
Milson’s finding that
a majority of students preferred print sources over Internet sources highlights
the necessity of varied instructional materials. This is perhaps especially important to
remember given the fact that all of the students who struggled academically in
the class preferred the print sources, reported the Internet was too fast, and
became distracted and impatient with irrelevant information offered on the
Internet (349). The middle school social
studies teacher providing diverse sources to students will more effectively
address the learning styles of all students and support their successful
engagement with the writing process.
Another finding in the
study that I think should be incorporated into middle school social studies Web
Quest format writing instruction pointed to the need for greater teacher
involvement in guiding students’ Internet experience. Students were often observed using a search
engine rather than relying on links included in the teacher created Web Quest
page. Milson
referred to this as a path-of-least-resistance strategy. He states that “…most students at all levels
naturally engage in a search for a quick, efficient, and easy solution to
academic tasks” (344). These student
quick-fix strategies often prove more time consuming and less productive than
the teacher guided approach. Middle
school social studies teachers need to model and reinforce both meta cognitive
and problem solving writing strategies for students engaged in inquiry
learning, as this age group is actively refining and integrating these higher
order thinking processes. It is
important for teachers to realize that they should not assume students’
familiarity and experience with the Internet indicates their mastery of the
thinking modes necessary to successfully navigate and utilize the Internet as
an inquiry tool.
Perhaps the most
important finding to implement within the heterogeneous middle school social
studies classroom lies in Milson’s observations
regarding how the Web Quest writing process empowered special needs
students. All of the special needs
students involved in the study reported that they enjoyed finding online
answers for their classmates. These
students enjoyed the experience of becoming sources of information for their
peers. Unfortunately, special needs
students are often taught with a narrow emphasis on direct instruction, while
here we see that an inquiry approach enhanced their learning, their engagement
with the writing process, as well as their self-esteem. This highlights not only the importance of
implementing similar approaches for heterogeneous group writing instruction,
but further supports the needs for variety and differentiation across the
spectrum of middle school social studies instructional practices (346-349).
At this point in my
search, I had also gained an opportunity to interview Professor Doreen Dell, a
member of the History and Social Studies Education Department at
I now understood that
students who possess multiple writing strategies use those strategies to
problem solve as they write. As a
reflective social studies educator, especially in the middle school, I share
the task of developing student writers in concert with my teaching
colleagues. Therefore, anticipating my
role as a middle school social studies teacher, I’ve concluded that I must be
able to select and implement from the broad range of available writing
strategies those specific, practical strategies that best meet the needs of
young adolescents. Such writing
strategies, when compatible with the social studies standards and the
developmental needs of adolescents, would become an important part of any
social studies teacher’s instructional practices in the middle school setting.
So just what exactly do I
mean by writing strategies? My search
had taught me that Collins and Collins define writing strategies as “cognitive
strategies writers use to guide their work during the act of writing” (1). These strategies are active ways for writers
to thoughtfully and consciously solve problems as they write. According to Tompkins, strategies are
different from skills, which are information processing techniques that writers
use automatically and unconsciously (69-98).
As students learn, practice, and apply a writing strategy, they build
independence as writers. This
independence supports students’ developing self-identity, and provides needed
opportunities for success during their middle school years.
Tompkins cites research
that supports the tenet that strategic writers are capable writers
(70-73). When writers possess strategies
that they can use as their own, they are able to navigate the writing process
with more control than novice writers.
Capable writers can monitor their ability to communicate to their
audience and can self-assess their writing.
Tompkins states that
among the strategies that writers use are tapping prior knowledge, organizing,
visualizing, summarizing, making connections, revising meaning, monitoring,
playing with language, generalizing and evaluating (93). Middle school teachers in all content areas
can develop lessons that allow students to practice and apply these
strategies. Strategies are often taught
during mini lessons - brief direct instruction lessons that provide the teacher
the opportunity to present and model the strategy. Within the mini lesson, the teacher
introduces the strategy, demonstrates the strategy, provides guided practice to
the students as they try out the strategy, then helps
the students review the strategy and supports the students as they apply the
strategy (93).
I believe that developing
active writers is an important part of meeting the overall objectives of middle
school social studies instruction. This
instruction should support the five New York State Learning Standards for
Social Studies, as well as the ten thematic strands that form the basis of the
National Council for the Social Studies standards. Additionally, instructional approaches must
lead to student outcomes in the form of relevant performance
indicators/expectations both in the social studies and in writing.
I also believe that
underlying all of this must be a consideration of the unique developmental
needs of middle school students. As
outlined by the New York State Education Department, two basic goals that must
be incorporated in the education of middle school students are “the
intellectual development and academic achievement of all students, and the
personal and social development of each student.”
Lucy Calkins notes that
adolescence has been characterized as “the best of times and the worst of
times” (101). During this period,
students exhibit a unique set of physical, intellectual, psychological, social
and moral characteristics. These needs
must be addressed in the design of a middle school writing program, which
should be interdisciplinary and include the social studies.
Calkins
discusses two characteristics of adolescence that strongly impact
writing.
First, she stresses that middle school is a place where “…concern about
error
can overshadow everything, like a heavy
grey cloud” (107). Fear of making
mistakes must be minimized so that students can grow as writers. Secondarily, Calkins points out that peer interactions are paramount with this age
group. The social tendency for
adolescents to bond with peers and rebel against adults should be factored in
as writing strategies are considered (108).
Much
of educational research tells us that all learning is tied to motivation. Students’ motivation to write is influenced
by opportunities for self-expression, choice, and peer sharing (Tompkins
80-81). Because all three of these
factors are also specific developmental needs of adolescents, their importance
is highlighted in selecting middle school writing strategies.
Conclusions
As
an interim conclusion to my search, I selected the following four writing
strategies to present as methods that support the middle school social studies
standards and themes yet also address key characteristics of the
adolescent. I selected these strategies
because I think they increase opportunities for social relationships, self
expression, and choice, and decrease the risk for error, all while meeting the
general framework for social studies writing instruction in the middle school
that I have previously discussed.
The first of my
recommended strategies is known as summarizing through “Learning Logs,” or the “Write to Learn Strategy,” as detailed by
Hanson, Schwartz, Silver, and Strong.
“Learning Logs” allow students to explore ideas in the content areas by
putting pen to paper. “Learning Logs”
are on-going tools that help students process new
information and integrate that information into previous knowledge. “Through writing, students
make visible the inner conversations which they use to discover what they know”
(227). Writing in
“Learning Logs” can take many forms, including quick writes, summaries, lists
and notes. Using this strategy, students
focus on a key question to shape their response. They write in their logs to address this
question. Then students share their
responses with others. Goals of the Write to Learn Strategy include empowering
students to write as a means of learning, problem solving, and reflection, as
well as a means of creating a framework
for disciplined discussion of content (227-230).
“Learning
Logs” have an advantage over class discussions in middle school social
studies classrooms. All students can be actively involved in the
topic when they are
writing in their journals (Tompkins
180). The written response helps
students to express themselves without the fear of a class discussion “wrong
answer.” Regardless of the form of each
log entry, the log is far from the “fill-in-the-blank” writing that denies students
a sense of choice. Furthermore,
“Learning Logs” offer the opportunity for personal perspectives and
reflection. This introspection can
fulfill the adolescent need to explore knowledge as well as personal
identity. Finally, the third step of the
Write to Learn Strategy, sharing with a peer, supports the strong adolescent
need for social relations.
The next of my
recommended writing strategies, which I think is a pre-writing strategy of
great value for middle school social studies students, is known as organizing
through “Critical Squares.” This
strategy, also described by Collins and Collins, is used to promote elaboration
on a topic. The student asks questions
about a topic and then responds to these questions, concentrating on content
over mechanics. The writing elicited
from the “Critical Squares” strategy contains improved focus and detail. The steps in the strategy are: the student
divides a sheet of paper into four quadrants; the student writes one
self-selected question about the topic in each quadrant; the student answers
the questions using key words in each box; finally the student writes a
response passage by converting each section into a fully- developed paragraph
(7-12).
“Critical
Squares” is a strategy that enhances students’ active, self-directed
learning.
In the social studies, student writers may produce disorganized, brief
responses on a topic when they don’t possess a method for determining what they
want the reader to
know about their topic or a tool for
organizing their thoughts. I propose
that “Critical Squares” hands over ownership for the writing process to the
student by allowing the student to generate the questions that she is capable of responding to.
My
third recommendation is actually a combination of writing strategies for
tapping prior knowledge through “Mailbags” and “Miscellany,” which I discovered
in a book entitled Practical Ideas for Teaching Writing as a Process at the
Elementary and Middle School Level, edited by Carol Booth Olsen. These strategies key on the concept that adolescents are motivated by the need
to communicate what they know in a unique way.
“Mailbags” and “Miscellany” are two closely related strategies that
build students’ ability to tap their prior knowledge and express it in a new way. “Mailbags” offers students
the opportunity to “show off” what they know about a particular time and place
through letter writing. During a unit on a historical period and setting,
students create a mailbag for that community.
Each student chooses a person/role and writes a letter as if they were
that character, writing to another member of the community. This strategy supports students in producing
creative narratives that reflect their knowledge of previously learned subject
matter. Similarly, “Miscellany”
encourages students to “create the debris of an important historical
event.” This “debris” may include
letters, speeches, agendas and diary entries based on thorough research
(148-153).
Middle
school social studies students should find both of these strategies highly
motivating.
Once students see one of these strategies carefully modeled, and have an
opportunity to practice it over a
number of units, in the future they will have an experience to aid in recall of
what they learned during a historical unit of study. Also,
both of these strategies are
characterized by the kind of choice that makes them attractive
to adolescents. Finally, I think that the letters sent and
received by peers in “Mailbags” would serve as vehicles for building community
in the middle school social studies classroom.
The
fourth writing strategy that I would recommend comes from noted teacher and author Nancy Atwell, which she calls “Revising
Meaning through Peer Conferencing.” Revising
meaning through peer conferencing is a strategy that allows writers to “try
out” their social studies writing tasks with a classmate. Atwell suggests that during a peer
conference, one student meets with another and reads his work-in-progress. The listener offers suggestions to the author
through active dialogue. Students verify
meaning, question meaning, encourage each other, and compliment their peer’s
efforts. These conferences can include note taking by the author, or be
combined with a checklist for use in future revision (10, 42, 98).
Both participants in a
peer conference can profit from this strategy.
The author
receives immediate feedback and the listener
becomes more conscious of another author
and style. Perhaps the greatest value and risk associated with peer conferencing
is a
product of the way middle school students so
closely identify with their peers. A
piece of
writing praised by a classmate can elicit
increased feelings of self esteem in the author.
Conversely, writing that has been
panned by a peer can generate feelings of failure, with
an associated negative impact on the
adolescent student’s often fragile self esteem.
Therefore, peer conferencing is a
strategy that requires heavy teacher modeling on the
front end.
Atwell advises “peer conferences won’t work unless writers can trust
that their
peers won’t shoot them down, so I show my
kids how to confer, talking to them just as
I’d like them to talk with each
other” (42).
Having determined to
recommend these strategies, I had arranged one final step in my search. I scheduled an appointment for
Unfortunately, when I
arrived outside Dr. Leist’s office door a few minutes
before the appointed hour, with my virtually completed I-search paper in hand,
I found the door locked and the office itself vacant. I waited until I had to leave for my class at
My summary conclusion,
therefore, lacks the informed expert opinion and review that I hoped for. Even so, I am confident that I not only have
arrived at a valid point in my search, but that the process I undertook will prove
valuable in my future practice as a social studies teacher. I take with me the understanding that
students who possess multiple writing strategies use those strategies during
the writing process and to meet performance indicators and/or expectations in
support of the social studies standards.
I know that in order to select
writing strategies that work well for middle school students, I need to keep in
mind the unique developmental needs and characteristics of middle school
learners.
If I assist students’
exploration of content ideas through the Write to Learn Strategy (Learning
Logs), their organization of information through “Critical Squares,” their
revising of meaning through peer conferencing, and their tapping of prior knowledge through
“Mailbags” and “Miscellany,” I will have implemented four practical
writing strategies with high value for middle school social studies students.
These four strategies increase students’ opportunities for social
relationships, self expression, and choice, and decrease their risk for error. They focus on the process of writing more so
than on writing’s product. I have found
that these are important attributes of writing instruction for social studies
teachers working with young adolescents to consider in meeting the challenges
of developing all students intellectually and academically, and each student
personally and socially.
What’s Next?
Where do I go from
here? If my luck should hold, many, many
avenues of experience and exploration await me.
I hope that I will have an opportunity to meet with Dr. Leist, and gain
further insight into teaching writing in social studies, both in the middle
school and perhaps in the high school. I
need to continue to review the available literature, seeking out new ideas and
strategies that I can implement in my instruction. I have to continue to seek out the advice and
experience of other educators, and remain a willing participant in professional
development programs and staff training.
I must be eager to try numerous ways of incorporating the process of
writing into my social studies instruction, and be ready to both monitor its
effectiveness and alter my approaches as necessary. I still need to find out about many other
writing strategies that I could employ, and be sure to ask the same questions
about writing instruction in the future that I have raised in this search.
With my student teaching
ahead of me, as well as my first full time teaching assignment and my master’s
work, the future holds many chances for me to continue to refine my
understanding of writing instruction in the middle school social studies. Also, along with the many other goals I have
as a teacher, I know of one particular goal that will remain clearly in my
mind.
That goal can be simply
stated. I want to help my students, the
future Patrick’s of my classes, to become not just life long learners, but also
life long writers.
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with Adolescents.
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