Post 2

     After reading Adrianne's and Brittlyn's post I found out that we all are interested in the Elizabethtown pen pal assignment. Like Adrianne myself, I am not much of a writer and I think this assignment might help me overcome my fears of teaching writing.
    "Writing to learn across the curriculum" was an interesting article that included many different ways that writing can be used in the classroom. The most important idea from the passage is writing to learn instead of learning to write. Learning to write is simply just going over a topic to get a finished product. Writing to learn allows students to expand their knowledge on a topic, clarify what they already know and question themselves. When a teacher is giving a writing assignment, they can give the students a rubric to follow by. This will make the grading process easier and can be used as a self monitor for the students. More important ideas from the reading passage are the different strategies. The article list many different ways students can write to enhance their learning. Strategies that prepare students for reading allows students to activate their prior knowledge on a topic. What stood out to me was a statement about students needing frequent feedback from peers or teachers. It stated that this was important for the student's self esteem and image. Another thing that stood out was the creative writings. I hope to be able to use these one day in my own classroom. A question that I have about the article is, "Will we be using these strategies during clinicals?"

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