Thinking, writing and learning

Thinking, Writing and Learning presented by Dr. Stephen Bernhard

In this workshop the presenter used new technological techniques in teaching writing. He used the WebCt.
Writing is a means of communication. It pulls together thinking, analyzing and learning, so the presenter talked about different ways teachers can use to improve student writing and communication skills.
Why Write?
Sometimes we write to demonstrate learning, to integrate new learning, to encourage verbalization, or to manage a large project.
Writing could also be used as a feedback on learning and ownership of ideas.
Formal or Informal Writing?
There are different ways of writing ranges from exploratory, questioning, tentative to polished, published and delivered.
All ways help the teacher know about the level of his students and where they really are.
A lesson from WAC (Writing Across the Curriculum)
It helps the students to be good learners, so writing is sometimes used to promote learning.
Communicating and Thinking
Communicators need a context- it could be a sense of purpose, audience, genre or a sense of how it will be evaluated.
Writing offers the chance to own information and understand things in a better way. Writing is thinking and discovery.
College students are most engaged with courses that assign writing because it is the one skill they want to improve as often as any other skill.
What kinds of writing (GENRES)?
Letters, short stories, essays, biographies, memos, reports, forms, charts ...etc.

What kinds of Speaking?
Expert interviews, rehearsals, progress reports, team discussions........etc.
What makes a good assignment?
It should relate to course goals, define clear situations and set standards for communication.
How do we integrate communication?
By reflective writing, using technology, modeling, clustering, etc.

Attendees’ comments:
The workshop was interesting. The teachers liked the idea of using modern technology with modern methodology and they also liked the interacting through writing in the chat.
For some teachers, the workshop fell short of their expectations. They hoped they would learn specific new techniques to guide their students to better writing.