Marcy Stoddard
PDU: Slavens Writing Across The Curriculum
AsmtEval9461-2Spring2010-11
The ability to learn what
overwhelms you and change it.
It has been my heart felt consistent philosophy that a student’s power to choose
(either with certain assignments or on the subject matter for the curriculum) will have
the best outcome for student achievement.
So, I have endeavored to study this point of view with regard to student writing.
Jim Delisle writes, “With their (students) guidance, it’s time to do something adults
have refused to do far too long: LISTEN to their complaints about school and act on the
good ideas that many of them would share if they took the time to acknowledge the
legitimacy of their insights.”
As with all things educational, a process to prove my philosophy began to take shape. I
wanted it to reflect one of the BIG IDEAS in my curriculum: CHOICE.
How does CHOICE takes place in a middle school classroom. Most teachers are afraid
that nothing will be achieved if some adolescents are left to their own devices. In a
planned, manipulation of current curriculum, of course.
Example of a curriculum manipulation:
Step 1 – State the goals of the unit,
Step 2 – Ask students for their unit goals.
Step 3 – Consider carefully the melding of Steps 1 & 2.
Step 4 – Analyze curriculum unit activities.
Step 5 – Differentiate activities according to student need.
Step 6 – Alter assessments to fit new learnings.
Step 7 – Evaluate the assessment results
the TCI curriculum
encompasses the
best of theory and
researched-based
Active Instruction
“When students received a choice of
homework, they reported higher intrinsic
motivation to do homework, felt more
competent regarding the homework, and
performed better on unit tests.”
Journal of Educational Psychology
November 2010
Visual Discovery
30 Second 5 W’– aka Did You See? Did You hear?
Upon entering the room I ask students…
“Did You See? Did you Hear?”
 A student responds with something they saw on TV
heard on the radio or read on the Internet.
 As the student responds, the remaining students write in
their journal what was seen and the information shared.
Example… a student responds with…
“There were terrible tornados in the south yesterday.”
5 W’s Who: People in Alabama.
What: Destructive weather.
When: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Where: Tuscaloosa
Why: The time between when the sirens went off
and the storms hit was close together.
I ask for three or four responses.
Social Studies Skill Builder
Building an understandable graphic
starts with asking questions.
Cause and Effect
Women &
Children
live in
caves
Vicksburg
Starvation
Cannon
Bombardment
for 44 days
Surrender
Example: Talking about the battle of Vicksburg in the
Civil War.
 Students draw a circle and title it Vicksburg
(The Battle of Vicksburg is the cause)
 Women, children living in caves
(the effect then becomes the cause)
 Starving in the caves
 General Grant continued to bombard the city for
44 days.
 The people surrendered
Experiential Exercise
The What and How of History
Done as a unit review: This is where students “act out”
excerpts from the textbook.
I give the students topics that encompass the subject we
have studied.
 The students then have to go through the unit (which
can be multiple chapters).
 Students write choice skits by using a checklist to
determine which subject they are the most comfortable
choosing.
 Students create the props and sounds.
 The students write up a review questionnaire for the
audience (often younger students).
 Students then perform the skit.
Writing for Understanding
Research Paper
8th Grade Students:
(A three-week unit on research
paper writing and thesis
development is taught in
Language Arts before the paper
is assigned in Social Studies.)
Students are given a written
copy of requirements for their
research paper.
The students select their subject based on their own
personal interest.
They must relate it to American History.
The students submit their research topic for approval on
an 8th Grade Research Essay Approval Form.
In class we review the Research Writing Process.
Response Groups
Effective Opinion Writing
A process by which students place their opinion on a
continuum. Then students are required to rewrite their
opinion without using personal pronouns. Thus,
removing the emotional elements from the opinion.
I provide students with a list of written statements.
 They then must divide these opinions into categories.
 Then each individual student must form their own
opinion about a statement.
 Students then choose one statement to write their
opinion about without using “I”.
Example: Giving women the
write to vote changed the
number of opportunities
women have in the 20th
Century.
Agree with that statement?
Write your opinion using
historical evidence without
personal pronouns.
Problem Solving Group Work
“…. students with significant behavior or cognitive problems yielded better
performance under student choices than external choices 80% of the time.”
Brianna H. von Mizener and Robert L. Williams
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions
2009
Predicting Exercise.
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The class is divided into six groups.
Primary Source document titles are written on strips of paper.
Each group is given three strips.
The group chooses the one out of the three that raises the most
questions or the most intriguing to them as a group.
Each group is given a primary source document to read. (Each
document is 2 pages in length). The group, however, is given only
the first page.
Instructions at the bottom of the page indicate that the group
should come up with three possible solutions.
Those solutions sheets are exchanged with all the other groups.
The groups then select one of the three solutions from another
group. The solutions are read and one solution is selected. The
group then must list the pros and cons of that solution and write a
predicted outcome.
After this process is completed the groups are given page two of the
primary source document, which tells them what was the actual
outcome of that event.
The importance of an effective group
There are as many ways to design groups in middle school classrooms as
there are middle school students. While I often allow students to choose
group members, it is because I use the “plan for group cohesiveness”
before they begin the activity.
The Plan for Group Cohesiveness
Eating
Naming the
Group
Planning
group
meetings
Creating a
group code
of conduct
Chad McBride
Communication Teacher
2006
Self-Evaluation and Opinion Form
“Self-evaluation strategies contribute to helping students take control over
their own learning processes.”
Dany Laveault, Raymond Leblanc, Janice Leroux
Self-Regulated Learning of Young Adolescents
1999
“When given voice, choice, and ownership in their education,
social studies students gain opportunities to strengthen the depth
of engagement, expand their breadth of responsibility, and
increase their degree of satisfaction.”
Nancy Gallavan and Ellen Kottler
Social Studies Journal 2009
Works Cited
Delisle, Jim. Understanding Our Gifted. Summer 2009
Gallavan, Nancy and Kottler, Ellen. Social Studies Journal. 2009
Laveault, Dany, Leblanc, Raymond, and Leroux, Janice. Self-Regulated Learning
of Young Adolescents. 1999
McBride, Chad. Communication Teacher. 2006
Teacher’s Curriculum Institute. California Learning Resources Network. 2010
Von Mizener, Brianna H. and Williams, Robert L. Journal of Positive Behavior
Interventions. 2009