Hi Everyone,
Welcome to this special AEFL Week discussion about how to prepare adult students for postsecondary writing success!
An OCTAE priority is promoting greater access and supports for adults to engage in learning, succeed in postsecondary education, and increase their employability in high demand occupations. In support of this effort, I will be doing several posts about helping adult learners develop writing skills for successful transition to postsecondary education and training.
I became concerned about this issue early in my career. I knew many of our high school equivalency completers wanted to graduate from the community college where our program was located, but I saw very few walking across the stage with any type of college credential.
I was intrigued by David Conley’s Redefining College Readiness that described how “writing may be by far the single academic skill most closely associated with college success. . .Writing is the means by which students are evaluated at least to some degree in nearly every postsecondary course. Expository, descriptive, and persuasive writing are particularly important types of writing in college. Students are expected to write a lot in college and to do so in relatively short periods of time. Students need to know how to pre-write, how to edit, and how to re-write a piece before it is submitted and, often, after it has been submitted once and feedback has been provided. College writing requires students to present arguments clearly, substantiate each point, and utilize the basics of a style manual when constructing a paper. College-level writing is largely free of grammatical, spelling, and usage errors” (Conley, 2007).
Dolores Perin, Professor Emerita of Psychology and Education at Columbia University, further describes the challenge. “In college writing is usually not taught, it’s just assigned, unless students go to a writing center or are in a writing class, but there’s writing in every course, but the instructor is not going to teach writing, the instructor will teach the content area. Students need to be able to write in order to learn and benefit, but many can’t. So I think the opportunity to get ready for college by learning writing skills at the adult basic education level can be very helpful” (Perin, 2011).
Now that we have identified the challenges, how can we help our students prepare for the demands of postsecondary writing? I’ll be sharing some thoughts in future posts.
How do you prepare students for postsecondary writing?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Comments
I am looking forward to this discussion. For the past decade, my colleagues (esp., Zoi Philippakos) and I have been developing and evaluating instructional approaches for developmental writing courses in community colleges. These courses have the express purpose of preparing students to be successful in college writing. Our approach, which we call Supporting Strategic Writers, is based on research on self-regulated strategy instruction. Students learn strategies for planning, self-evaluating, and revising their writing, as well as strategies for critical reading of sources. All these strategies are based on the rhetorical purposes of writing and the varies types, or genres, of writing including explanatory, comparative, and argumentative forms. In addition, and critical to success we think, students work on learning strategies for setting goals, monitoring progress, and reflecting on their learning. Design research and 3 experimental studies have found large effects on student writing, as well as effects on motivation. We have just begun work on a new project, directed by Cynthia Puranik and Daphne Greenberg, to adapt these instructional ideas to adult education. You can find more information on our website, supportingstrategicwriters.org; though the website might be 'under construction'. I've listed a couple of references below.
I'm looking forward to the discussion.
Charles "Skip" MacArthur
MacArthur, C. A., & Lembo, L. (2009). Strategy instruction in writing for adult literacy learners. Reading and Writing, 22, 1021-1032.
MacArthur, C. A., Philippakos, Z. A., & Ianetta, M. (2015). Self-regulated strategy instruction in college developmental writing. Journal of Educational Psychology. 107, 855-867. doi:10.1037/edu0000011, ERIC Number: EJ1071555.
MacArthur, C. A., & Philippakos, Z. A. (2013). Self-regulated strategy instruction in developmental writing: A design research project. Community College Review, 41, 176-195. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091552113484580
Skip, Thanks for mentioning the new writing project! We are very excited about trying out strategic writing instruction for adult learners. This is an IES funded project, and I encourage people to visit our website:https://sites.gsu.edu/w-ase/about-2/ to learn more about it! This project is part of a larger network of funded projects, called the CREATE Adult Skills Network, and I encourage people to learn about this network at: About the Network | Create Adult Skills Network
Daphne
Hi Everyone,
This post continues our series on preparing adult basic ed students for post-secondary writing success.
My first two years of college were academically disappointing. A collection of C’s and B’s (and one D) littered my transcript. In my junior year, I changed my study habits. I heard that recopying class notes as soon as possible after a lecture ended increased retention. Instead of studying in the library (too many distractions), I moved to using deserted classrooms. I found that working math practice problems was far more effective for my learning than reading through textbooks.
Of the above strategies, recopying my notes and writing summaries of what I learned made a huge difference in my scholastic achievement. Grades for my last two years were almost exclusively A’s.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had embraced the strategy of writing to learn (recopying notes and writing summaries) to improve my study habits. There are many other ways of using writing as a learning strategy including exit tickets and one-minute papers.
Jeff Goodman, a colleague of mine when I worked at Appalachian State, did a fantastic session on writing to learn at our summer institute a few years ago. I include his handout HERE.
How do you help your students write to learn?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Hi Everyone,
This post continues our series on preparing adult basic ed students for post-secondary writing success.
Scaffolding, providing extra support for learners as they develop their skills, is an effective way to guide learners as they prepare for post-secondary writing. One type of scaffolding is sentence frames (also called paragraph frames). Frames are outlines of words or key phrases with plenty of blank lines that provide a structure so learners can focus on what they want to say. Frames remove the “I don’t know where to start” problem, and they help students gain confidence in their ability to write. As students become more confident writers, frames can become less detailed and then dropped altogether.
According to research, novice writers spend 99% of their time generating content (Flower and Hayes, 1980). With that in mind, frames provide a springboard that allows developing writers to more easily express their thoughts. Frames are not cheating and can be used throughout a students' journey in adult basic education and beyond.
HERE is a frame for argument writing that can help with high school equivalency argument writing.
How do you use writing frames with your students?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Hello all,
In our work with basic writers and adult education learners, we do use sentence frames, but only after they have generated ideas and begun drafting. Our reasoning is that it is better to delay thinking about sentence wording until after the ideas are generated. For idea generation, we use brainstorming and graphic organizers based on the elements of the genre, or type of writing. For example, for an argument, students use a T-chart to brainstorm reasons on both sides of an issue, thinking about who would be on each side. Then students use a graphic organizer (G)) based on the genre to make a plan for which ideas to use in their essays. For example, the GO for an argument includes Issue, Position, Reasons and Evidence, Opposing Reasons with Evidence, and Conclusion. The completed GO becomes the plan for the essay. Then students can focus on the wording and adding details.
During drafting, we do use sentence (but not essay) frames. For example, introducing opposing reasons is difficult, so here is one sentence frame for that:
"Some people argue (believe, say, think, suggest) that ____________." Note that it includes options.
For more info, check our website - supportingstrategicwriters.org
Hi Charles (Skip),
Many thanks for both your comments in this discussion!
I love your point about brainstorming before writing. Talking before writing is one of my favorite writing strategies as learners are much better formulating their thoughts verbally than in written form. A simple T chart can be an effective thought organizer for a compare/contrast or argument writing essay. Your writing plan shows great scaffolding as students build their writing from talking, to a T chart, to a graphic organizer, and then to sentence frames.
Thanks again for your thoughts as your wisdom and experience make this discussion so much better!
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Hi Steve,
Brainstorming is one great opportunity for peer interaction and collaboration. Ideally, it provides a free space for students to bring their own ideas and backgrounds into class in ways that strengthen their writing. Peer interactions can happen at several points in the writing process. We have always used peer review and have found that it works well as long as students receive preparation for how to evaluate writing. As we began to focus on writing with sources and taught students how to read closely and take notes, we figured out that it would be helpful if students got together in pairs after taking notes on a source article to compare what they saw as the main ideas and their overall understanding of the source. They often gained a better understanding of the article and its implications.
Peer interaction is important for developing active learners who bring their own cultural perspectives into their reading and writing.
Skip MacArthur
Hi Everyone,
This post continues our series on preparing adult basic ed students for post-secondary writing success.
Write alouds provide valuable opportunities for our learners to improve their writing skills and prepare for postsecondary writing demands. Write alouds are sessions where instructors model the writing process. They think aloud, demonstrating for students how they write in real time. Students watch and learn how skilled writers go through each step in the writing process. Instructors might also show models of good writing, explaining why they are effective.
Graphic organizers, tools that aid students in organizing their thoughts before writing, can also assist learners with more challenging writing tasks. HERE is an example graphic organizer for argument writing.
Writer’s Workshops, a group writing process described in detail HERE, also give instructors a tool for helping their students improve weak areas in their writing.
I’m anxious to hear your thoughts on preparing writers for postsecondary success!
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Hi Steve and all! I really like the write aloud strategy as a good starting place. I like to take a topic everyone knows something about (a store or restaurant in our community, a policy at our school, a Disney movie, etc.) to use for the first write aloud. I walk students through my thinking as I write a thesis statement, make an outline of my main points, and brainstorm some evidence. I invite them to do some of that thinking along with me, collecting thoughts on a shared outline we can all see.
I also find it a good strategy to break writing down into its smallest components when working with inexperienced writers. Is there a writing prompt? Put it on the board/Jamboard and walk through how to break it down into Do/What steps. Does the prompt ask for compare/contrast? Make a T-chart as a group before anyone begins writing. Does the prompt require use of evidence? Help students identify and underline pieces of evidence (and rate them weakest to strongest evidence) before trying to put anything in paragraph form. Helping students break writing tasks into smaller chunks makes the task more approachable for them. Thanks!
Hi Everyone,
When I worked at Appalachian State University, I listened to many campus tours while I walked across campus. During these tours, students learned about the various services offered by the campus writing center. Writing centers, located on college campuses and virtually on the web, assist students in learning postsecondary research and writing skills. With help from writing centers, students learn more about writing as a process and different writing genres. Campus libraries also provide sessions on research resources and skills.
Purdue OWL, a longtime online presence, provides many resources to benefit emerging postsecondary writers. There is a section dedicated to secondary learners that can help bridge the gap to postsecondary writing.
What writing resources do you use with your students?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group