Students’ age range: 14-16
Topic: Better Writers make better readers and better readers tend to produce better writings.
Description: Understanding that better writers make better readers and better readers tend to produce better writers, my desire will be to introduce each student to focus intently on the text. Students will be given a paragraph to read aloud, and then summarize in three to four sentences. A discussion will follow where students impart their understanding of the text. Students will be guided through the four experiences when they are engage in critical thinking during writing assignments. We will explore, their thinking, and whether or not their assumptions are valued or reliable guides for action. Evident through experiential, authoritative, and discipline research evidence. They will discover how different view points, determine if their assumptions are accurate. Thought and analysis are key areas to impart during critical thinking. Students will explore the three types of assumptions that everyone makes according to Stephen Brookfield: i) Paradigmatic - How we frame the world; ii) Prescriptive - How we think the world should work and how people behave; iii) Causal - Why things happen the way they do. Finally, students will uncover through writing assignments the different writing purpose. Areas such as Summarizing, Narrating, Responding, Arguing/Persuading, Examining/Investing, Analyzing, and Evaluation. To do this they will be persuaded to engage in critical writing by starting with small, easily completed activities, making sure that students analyze a paragraph or a single page, before moving onward to advance writings. Critical reading and writing will be fully practiced during each class session. Their critical thinking and writing skills will be discovered. Peer review will also be encourage. Students will model ways to critique contents by using popular texts. Strategies such as graphic organizers, questioning fast writing, group composition, changing view points, varying forms and cubing.