Writing to learn

The main point that I got out of this article is that writing is an ongoing process that should help the student become a better learner throughout their life. Writing to learn means that writing must be used across content areas. writing can be used in many different content areas in order to learn about other subjects. Writing helps connect the learner to the subject. When writing to learn the student must make connections to the text. They activate their prior knowledge and begin to think about the text. Writing is a process that is never finished. It is a learning process. In my future classroom I hope to interest students in writing by allowing them to write about things that they are interested in. I also intend to use quick writes and other strategies to help my students learn to use what they read immediately and connect to the text by activating their prior knowledge about whatever subject it may be. I plan to have many informal writing situations in my classroom so that my students will become more comfortable with writing and continue writing throughout their lives. I really liked the Biopoem strategy that we used in our class this week. It interested me and helped me retain knowledge that I never would have remembered in a history lecture. I also was able to use my own creativity, although there were guidelines to go by, so that I was not just overwhelmed with what to start with. I think that the best thing about writing is that it can be used in so many different areas. I love the way that so many subjects can be integrated into language arts by reading and writing. Not only does it make reading and writing more fun, but it also helps the learning process when teaching other subjects. I plan to use quick writes, reading logs, biopoems and many other strategies to incorporate many different subjects into my classroom someday.