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| Instructional Design, Application, and Strategies for Writing Instruction |
| Monday, May 29, 2006 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Inman |
| Area: EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Bradley G. Frieswyk (BGF Performance Systems, LLC.) |
| Discussant: Libby M. Street (Central Washington University) |
| Abstract: The teaching of writing, frequently overshadowed by the teaching of reading, is an extremely important and equally difficult task. Most “writing instruction” spends little time on the behavior of writing. Students who learn to write well are at a great advantage in high school and college, and strong writers tend to do well in other subject areas that rely on a student’s language skills for comprehension, such as history or social studies and even math in the area of word problems. This symposium is presented by instructional designers, teachers, and teacher coaches who reveal behavioral approaches to teaching an important skill that is often left to chance. |
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| Whimbey: Through the Morningside Mirror. |
| MARIANNE DELGADO (Morningside Academy), Adam G. Stretz (Morningside Academy), Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy) |
| Abstract: Arthur Whimbey’s Prototype–Construction Approach is implemented at Morningside through the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction. We will discuss how various Whimbey materials are applied throughout the three phases of learning: Instruction, direct and explicit instruction that establishes a new component skill; Practice, timings with peer or teacher coaching to reach fluency; and Application, performing the skill in a new context as part of a set of interconnected repertoires. We will also explore how Whimbey’s textbooks, Morningside fluency materials, and teacher/student editing sessions using the language of the prototype- construction approach are applied to each of these phases. We will introduce the addition of Morningside’s delayed prompting system to textbook instruction. A typical Morningside instructional sequence in grammar will be outlined, from instruction to application: through the acquisition of tool and component skills, practice using fluency timings, and application in our student’s expository and genre writing. We will also examine data on standard celeration charts using dropped floors and individualized aims for component skills based on students’ tool skills. |
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| My Love Letter to Art Whimbey's Instructional Design. |
| MYRA JEAN LINDEN-WHIMBLEY (BGF Performance Systems, LLC.) |
| Abstract: Art Whimbey's Instructional Design goes through three stages. In the first stage he separated thinking skills from subject matter. During this stage, he wrote Intelligence Can Be Taught, Beyond Problem Solving, a developmental math text and two developmental reading texts. In his second stage, he designed developmental skills programs and worked in classroom settings for eight community colleges, colleges, and universities, most of them traditional black institutions. His work at Bethume-Cookmand College marked his transition to the third stage. In this final stage, he integrates subject matter with reading, writing, and thinking skills. From his experience as an academic support specialist at Bethume-Cookman, he produced an innovative writing text: Analyze, Organize, Write. His I.D. of that text and another writing text combine text reconstruction and sentence combining. A variation of text reconstruction is used in interactive, electronic software biographies of outstanding minority figures and a United States history text. This software won one of the 2003 top 10 educational software awards However, he considered the I.D. of a series of grammar texts to be his masterpiece. But before he developed this new form of I.D., he had to develop a new grammar paradigm to replace traditional grammar. This I. D. is the foundation of the Prototype-Construction Approach to Grammar. |
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| Don't Proofread: Be an Editor. |
| MARILYN B. GILBERT (Performance Engineering Group) |
| Abstract: After struggling to first find a topic, next select the words and punctuation, and finally write a composition—most middle- and high-school students believe they’ve done their job. Of course, they’ve only done the first half of the job, and that half may not be worth reading without a careful edit. Yet editing is rarely the next step in writing exercises. Most students are told “now make your corrections” or “now proofread your writing.” But writers need to be editors, not just proofreaders. Proofreaders mark errors and typos. Editors are special readers who read and revise their drafts to make them engaging to their readers. In this paper, I’ll demonstrate how to edit a short composition. My assumption here is that students are able to recognize a simple sentence, and they have some general understanding of grammar and the most common punctuation marks. They’ll learn how to spot the warnings in the students’ first drafts—dull sentences, missing punctuation, loose grammar, useless words—and make improvements. Fortunately, the list of warnings can be greatly shortened if they are organized by their functions. I call the short list of warnings the Flags. In the classroom, students can practice scanning their drafts for Flags and revising their sentences so readers will find their pieces more engaging. |
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