Writing as a Vessel for Thinking: Incorporating Self-regulation, Metacognition, and Formative Assessment in the Middle School ELA Classroom
Description
Writing is not only a means of demonstrating what one knows, it is a vessel to knowing. Thus, secondary writing curricula should support students’ learning and knowing. Evidence from meta-analyses suggests that an emphasis on self-regulated instruction to teaching writing (Graham, 2018a; Graham, 2020; Graham & Perin, 2007), metacognitive strategies (Hacker, 2018; Madison et al., 2019), and an emphasis on formative assessment and feedback throughout the writing process (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Fleischer, 2013; Madison et al., 2019) are among the practices with the highest effect sizes on students’ thinking and writing. When purposefully integrating these approaches and practices, secondary-level writing teachers empower and support adolescents’ learning, including their thinking and sense making. Moreover, these approaches and strategies may also help students demonstrate a knowledge of the processes they implement as writers as well as increase their motivation for writing and thinking that are not solely linked to extrinsic factors like grades. To support such approaches, this project presents curricular resources that will enable secondary teachers to support adolescents’ thinking behind their own and others’ writing, including connections to genres such as narratives, explanatory/informative, and arguments. These curricular resources are intended to be used by secondary English Language Arts teachers so that they can readily integrate self-regulated instruction, metacognitive strategies, and formative assessment into their writing-based pedagogy and practice.
Writing as a Vessel for Thinking: Incorporating Self-regulation, Metacognition, and Formative Assessment in the Middle School ELA Classroom
Writing is not only a means of demonstrating what one knows, it is a vessel to knowing. Thus, secondary writing curricula should support students’ learning and knowing. Evidence from meta-analyses suggests that an emphasis on self-regulated instruction to teaching writing (Graham, 2018a; Graham, 2020; Graham & Perin, 2007), metacognitive strategies (Hacker, 2018; Madison et al., 2019), and an emphasis on formative assessment and feedback throughout the writing process (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Fleischer, 2013; Madison et al., 2019) are among the practices with the highest effect sizes on students’ thinking and writing. When purposefully integrating these approaches and practices, secondary-level writing teachers empower and support adolescents’ learning, including their thinking and sense making. Moreover, these approaches and strategies may also help students demonstrate a knowledge of the processes they implement as writers as well as increase their motivation for writing and thinking that are not solely linked to extrinsic factors like grades. To support such approaches, this project presents curricular resources that will enable secondary teachers to support adolescents’ thinking behind their own and others’ writing, including connections to genres such as narratives, explanatory/informative, and arguments. These curricular resources are intended to be used by secondary English Language Arts teachers so that they can readily integrate self-regulated instruction, metacognitive strategies, and formative assessment into their writing-based pedagogy and practice.