writing to learn science, technology, & engineering

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM DEAF & HARD-OF-HEARING (D/HH) COLLEGE

STUDENTS

Writing to Learn Science, Technology, & Engineering

Presenters

Patricia (Trish) Phelps Austin Community College Biology, Professor [email protected]

Erika Shadburne Austin Community College Assistant Dean – Arts & Humanities English for Speakers of Other Languages, Associate

Professor [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Agenda

The value of active learning in STEM coursesThe value of student writing in STEM coursesThe challenges of student learning by writing Resources and strategies of writing

assessmentsLow-stakes writing approachesScaffolding long-term class projectsThe role of revision in grading lab reports

and papers

Goals

To convince you that you can adopt writing strategies in your courses without significantly increasing your work load

To convince you that writing is an effective approach for deep learning and student success in your classroom

To provide you with tools and examples of how writing can be an important tool for active learning pedagogy

The value of active learning

NOT a new idea for science teaching

LABOR……………. ORATORY

LABORATORY = Active Learning


NOT a new idea for teaching, either

“Education is not filling a bucket, but igniting a fire”

- William B. Yeats

www.wikimediacommons.org

http://www.wikimediacommons.org/


Benefits to students Better

engagement Remember

content better Better teamwork Improved study

habits Enhanced critical

thinking and problem-solving skills

Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research, M Prince. J Eng Ed (2004)

“Flipping” a classroom

A new and extreme form of active learning lectures and readings done individually by students at

home homework done collaboratively in the classroom teacher as mentor & coach for learning “student-centered” learning

“Flipping” is a term used since the 1990s

Risks for the instructor

New and extensive classroom activities: will they cover all the material?

If the students do homework in class, how do you assess learning?

If students learn collaboratively, how do you assess teamwork?

Writing is Active Learning

Handout: Learning Activities to incorporate into a lecture taken from “From sage on the stage to guide on the side”. By: King, Alison, College Teaching, 1993, Vol. 41, Issue 1

Notice how often active learning strategies have a writing component the writing as the product of their learning the writing as the process of their learning

Writing as the process of learning

What has been learned from D/HH college students?

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) National Deaf Institute of Technology (NTID) NSF-sponsored project: DeafTEC

Donna [email protected] Center Director, DeafTECAssociate ProfessorInformation & Computing Studies

Gary Long [email protected] Co-PI, DeafTECAssociate ProfessorLiberal StudiesSenior Advisor to the President for Research

Myra [email protected] DeafTECAssociate ProfessorInformation & Computing Studies




Why D/HH students struggle with writing

Limited auditory access to EnglishText is memorized rather than a

reference for an inner voiceWorld knowledge gapsLack of Academic Language

training in their first language (L1 ASL)

ASL is a visual, spatial language with simultaneous grammar features while English is an auditory, linear language

why ESL students struggle with writing

Lack of time to achieve academic fluencyLack of exposure to new languageCultural differencesCurriculum and pedagogical differences

Why every student struggles with writing

Many students don't have the necessary skills for college level writing

Robert Kellogg - cognitive psychologist“10-year rule”:

-Takes 10 years of sustained practice to develop skills in any given area

Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers: A Story of Success-Takes 10,000 hours of practice to excel

But we expect students to learn writing in one semester of English composition!

Writing in the discipline

Benefits

John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the ClassroomI, 2nd Ed. (2011)

“When we make students struggle with their writing, we are making them struggle with thought itself….Often the struggle of writing, linked as it is to the struggle of thinking and to the growth of a person’s intellectual powers, awakens students to the real nature of learning.”


Misconceptions:1. Emphasizing writing and critical thinking in

my courses will take time away from content.2. Writing assignments are unsuitable in my

course.3. Adding more writing in my course will bury

me in paper grading.4. I am not knowledgeable enough about writing

and grammar to help students with their own writing.


Misconceptions:1. Emphasizing writing and critical thinking in my

courses will take time away from content.

Much of educational research (see AAAS: Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education, 2009) shows that “less is more”. Students benefit from substituting breadth for depth.

The STEM knowledge base is growing exponentially. We are in the information age where databases store and provide easy access to facts. Our students need to know the concepts and how to think about STEM topics.


Misconceptions:2. Writing assignments are unsuitable in my course.

Really??? Why do we assign lab reports???

DeafTEC video: Scientists need to be good communicators!!https://www.deaftec.org/stanford-universitys-writing-matters

Even in the most technical and mathematical of courses, the basics must be committed to memory before any problem-solving or critical thinking can be attempted: key works, basic concepts, and basic facts.

These basics are not truly mastered until they can be used by the students and placed in a conceptual framework.

NOTE: Students find writing assignments more engaging!

https://www.deaftec.org/stanford-universitys-writing-matters

https://www.deaftec.org/stanford-universitys-writing-matters


Misconceptions:3. Adding more writing in my course will bury me in paper grading.

Rethinking the writing assignment: non-graded when appropriateshort essays where flow and structure is not an issue

2-minute essay example: begin class with “What are 3 key concepts of this chapter?”2-minute essay example: end class with “What key concept are you still unsure of?”

The objective can be to engage students in their own learning, and to give you a “reality check” of their progress. (Completion grading?)



National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) research (Anderson, Anson, Gonyea, & Paine, 2009): It isn’t the amount of writing but the quality of the writing assignment that adds deep learning.

Effective assignments have these features:a. Interactive components

-brainstorming, drafting, feedback, inquiry & discoveryb. A meaning-constructing task

- a task that matters to the student and the intended audiencec. Clear explanations of writing expectations

- Specific objectives & grading rubrics



Methods can reduce the amount of time grading writing assignments:- grading rubrics for grading criteria- revisions, each graded with different rubrics- enlisting other students (or professionals) as first readers of

drafts- collaborative small group tasks- peer reviews of drafts- class presentations- distributing examples of quality work to model their work

Students perform better when interacting with their peers!


Misconceptions:4. I am not knowledgeable enough about writing and grammar to help students with their own writing.

ACC Learning Labs are available to you for grammar and spelling checks.

Your best feedback is to comment on students’ ideas:

“I don’t understand what you mean by …..”“You seem to be overlooking this:…..”“I agree with your point, you have you also considered…..”

Should grammar be a STEM concern?

Should the quality of writing be ignored?

How will students improve their writing if they aren’t challenged to practice good writing in all of their college courses?

“Expecting non-native writers to produce fluent, unaccented English is an unrealistic goal.”

- Gary Behm, Professor of Engineering, NTID

Should grammar be a STEM concern?

How can STEM faculty feel comfortable with grading grammar?

Importance of grading rubrics: decide how many points you want to award for good grammar and how to determine the boundaries between full-credit and lost points and let your students know your policy or rubric ahead of time.

ACC resources: You can require your students to go through a grammar- and spell-check prior to submission of an assignment.

Common concerns about grammar

All grammar errors do not have to be marked. Try to keep your grammatical corrections to two in the early assignments

More useful than red-inking: comment on patterns of grammatical errors

Prioritize: Errors that affect comprehensibility are more serious than surface errors.

Expect errors to increase with more difficult tasks; grading system should reflect this.

Attend to grammatical errors in a separate draft.

Discussion: How do you react to the point of view that correcting grammatical errors must be limited?

Tips for coaching grammar

Eliminate “it”, “that”, “they”, and contractions from their lexicon!

Learning grammar rules is ineffective – better learned by doing, practicing.

Give them a reason to care: a competition? peer-reviewing (“copy editors”)? Prepare for “publication”? (Discussion Board entries?)

Ask the student how much revision help they want from you – don’t overdo it.

No more than 3 revisions.Comments should be about what is “better”, less about

what is “correct”.Better at oral communication? Work with that!Have the student circle all verbs, pick a tense, and revise.

Should English composition be a STEM concern?

Low-level writing: knowledge-telling (encyclopedic)

High-level writing: knowledge-transforming

“Critical thinking tasks – which require students to use their expanding knowledge of subject matter to address disciplinary problems – motivate better study habits by helping students see their learning as purposeful and interesting”

- John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas (2011)

Learning science through writing

We want our students to learn more than discrete bits of facts and knowledge. We want our students to connect knowledge in deeper learning, to understand how to think within a discipline that is new to them.

The beginner college student often just wants the “right answer” from us. We actually want them to be able to sort out the answer for themselves by using their own reasoning.

A writing assignment asks students to do this sort of struggle, to reason out and to defend their own answers.


Low-stakes writing examples Writing at the beginning of class to stimulate

interest in what’s coming

Writing at the beginning of class to create cognitive dissonance (“burning questions”)

Something the text suggests is true or controversial and/or posing a problem that has multiple solutions or interpretations.

Example: “Is a carrot dead or alive?”


Low-stakes writing examplesWriting at the beginning of class to

probe a subject: “What questions do you want to ask about

last night’s reading?” “What does it mean when the article

says…?” “Write down everything you remember

from….”


Low-stakes writing examplesWriting during class

to focus a lagging discussion (“Write about the point….”)

To cool off a heated discussion (“Now write from the opposing viewpoint….”)

To ask questions (“Ask me a question you need answered about….”)

To express confusion (“Tell me what is confusing you most about ….”)


Low-stakes writing examplesWriting at the end of class

to sum up a lecture or discussion, ask students to write a question and submit it on a piece of paper to be used for review in the next class.

“What’s the most important thing you learned today?”

“What continues to baffle you about this topic?”

“What do you expect/need to learn about this topic the next time you come to class?”


Low-stakes writing examples

Discussion:-What are you using in your courses? (or would like to try?)

-How do you prepare your students for these assignments?

-How do you grade these assignments?

-How well do these assignments meet your objectives?


Low-stakes writing applications

Discussion: “At this point, how do you see yourself using

one or more of these strategies?”

“How would this benefit D/HH and ESOL students?”

Supporting English Acquisition web sitehttps://www.deaftec.org/resources/english

https://www.deaftec.org/resources/english

https://www.deaftec.org/resources/english


Out-of-class writing activities: Journal WritingOpen-endedDirected responsesContemporary issues, science in the

newsExam preparation journalStudy journal, reflecting on how to

learn


Out-of-class writing activities: Reading JournalsUse margins to summarize a section,

argue, or ask as question as you readReading logs: write about what you are

reading A summary Analysis Evaluation Connection to personal experience


Out-of-class writing activities: Creativity Exercises Writing dialogues: imagine meeting the author

of this theory or the developer of this software or the winner of the Nobel prize; have a conversation with her/him about his/her work.

Writing bio-poems Playing metaphor games ( this is to that as ….) Discussion Board game: “….and then….” (each student submits one sentence in series to map out the steps of a process)


Writing Activity

Discussion: Choose one of the informal writing ideas that you

have never used in the classroom before, and write a prompt or activity for students that will engage them in an informal writing task.

Share with others


Scaffolding long-term writing activities Break up the big project into small pieces that will fit

together in the end of the project Scaffolding provides the structure for the student Scaffolding provides the scheduling to meet a long-

term deadline Learning by conversation, a process of learning:

your feedback and responses help the student to sort out their thoughts; writing encourages deep learning

(It is a process that includes practice…practice…practice….)


scaffolding long-term writing activities Start with low-level writing tasks:

Engagement of the student by asking how the project fits into the context of their lives

“data-dumping” or “all about” exercises: the bits of facts and knowledge needed for background information ( “World Book” essays) can be used to organize a higher-level writing activity.

Once well prepared, continue by addressing the thesis, the discovery, or the problem to be solved, the more challenging part of the project.


Example: a cancer project for BIOL1408 Introductory Biology (handout) Aligned with common course objectives, with an

emphasis on scenario-based learning, short essays, written reports, and class presentation

Students work on an authentic issue, activities including both teamwork and individual work

Scaffolded activities features in-class activities and homework assignments

Includes writing activities with revisions, peer evaluations and reviews, in addition to instructor grading

Combination of low-stakes and high-stakes writing

NTID Examples of learning science through writing

Gary Behm, Engineering Writing assignments of progressive length, quality

Week 1: “Write three sentences that explain Ohm’s Law.” Week 2: “Describe the process in four sentences and a

final sentence describing what you enjoyed most about this activity.”

Week 3: “List three different parameters required for speed calculations. Explain in three sentences why these parameters are important in calculation speed.”

Week 4: “In a paragraph, describe the tool you like the best and explain why you consider it superior.”


Gary Behm, Engineering Student outcomes of writing-intensive activities:

At the beginning of the course, many underprepared students were hesitant or not comfortable with writing.

Students improved in spelling, new vocabulary acquisition, and grammar

Biggest area of improvement: better written lab reports generated

Students’ writing quality was improved Writing assignments helped instructor better

understand students’ writing and communication difficulties.


Tom Simpson, Information and Computing Studies Wanted to improve writing levels in students, but did not

know how to approach the problem Solution:

Students write review after each lecture; start with bullets & progress to full sentences, paragraphs

Important: always provide feedback for revisions (communicate with them)

Students’ writing becomes their everyday activity.

Improve engagement – make it fun! Role-playing scenario: students manning a “Help Desk”


Tom Simpson, Information and Computing Studies Student outcomes:

Helped students to understand the revision process and documentation

Grading rubric helped students understand weaknesses and gave them the opportunity to improve – and reduced grading time and effort

Improvements in student success & learning Students did not mind the extra writing (!) Was able to progress students to higher level questions (know,

apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate) Student test & quiz responses less “canned” and more student-

generated


David Templeton, Chemistry Goal: improvement in formal laboratory reports. Wanted students to respond to a learning experience,

rather than just answering questions Modified Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Evaluative writing

Analytic writing

Descriptive writing


David Templeton, Chemistry Start small: descriptive writing, learning lab skills

I demonstrate a lab technique; they take notes and develop an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)

Revisions to SOPs, peer evaluations, final drafts go into their lab portfolios.

As lab techniques increase in complexity, the demands on their descriptive writing skills increase.

Analytic writing Flow charts of experimental strategy in a lab exercise;

concept mapping Used later to scaffold formal lab report writing


David Templeton, Chemistry Analytic writing

Flow charts of experimental strategy in a lab exercise; concept mapping

Used later to scaffold formal lab report writing Call the point in a protocol when the culminating event

or result occurs a “Magic Moment”: tell them to record, and document results

Make use of “descriptive facilitators”: before and after photos of Magic Moments


David Templeton, Chemistry Evaluative writing: formal lab report

Prelab mapping (PREPS): Procedure, reagents, equipment, “Points to Consider” (describing the experimental Magic Moment), safety

Structured report, by convention:TitleIntroductionGoalEquipment/MaterialsMethod/ProcedureDataAnalysisConclusion


David Templeton, Chemistry Formal lab report revisions

Draft 1: a format pass; if there is incomplete or missing information, a revision is recommended

Draft 2: data & calculations are assessed; if there are problems, a revision is recommended

Draft 3: analysis and conclusions are assessed; if there are problems, a revision is recommended

Draft 4: problems with grammar? Suggest a one-on-one consultation or outside help (tutoring lab on campus)

NOTE: “If you give students too much feedback, they cannot deal with it.”


David Templeton, Chemistry Student Outcomes of formal lab report revisions

A “mastery” based learning and grading Students got to choose the number of revisions they want to

do Students like this – they notice other teachers who do not use

this approach and complain that they are not “given a chance” to improve

Steady improvements observed: with each report, the number of drafts required was reduced

Student mastery of expression and the use of appropriate scientific lingo was improved

Student understanding of experimental approaches and the importance of careful documentation was improved

Internship sites gave these students rave reviews and preference in hiring (!)


David Templeton, Chemistry Important to add variety in the curricular activities to

engage students better: Scenario-based activities An analytical lab Role-playing: students take on different roles (safety

officer, supervisor, technician, data analyst, etc) Product: project wrap-up meeting with presentations &

written report (professional memos) to clients with a focus on the analytic results and conclusions from the data

Students learn the culture of the science lab

Important to…. “be patient and encourage the student to ‘own’ their work and take pride in it.”


Lab reports scaffolded by revisions Asking the student to rethink and revise An “apprentice” style of learning: working with you

as a mentor or co-researcher. An effective strategy for improvement in writing.

Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better, by Doug Lemov et al- Students attain mastery more quickly when practice is purposeful and skills are broken down in to baby steps, in dialog with a coach.

What would work well in your courses?

Discussion:

What project would work well for one of your courses? How do you see this improving student outcomes, compared to what you are currently doing?

What scaffolding strategies and grading rubrics would you need to develop in order to implement this project?

What kind of support would you like to have while developing or implementing this project?

writing to learn science, technology, & engineering

Documents

learning writing

active learning strategies

writing strategies

active learning pedagogy

learning activities

learningthe writing

deep learning

writing component