Welcome to EWC

The Writer’s Craft CourseAn Overview for Students

February 2013

The Bicycle Model The teacher designs and builds the bicycle. You provide the power. You can customize and tweak your bike.

The skills and knowledge from this course will take you off the high school track and shape your ride on the paths of your lives.

The Bicycle Model An analogy for the relationships among

Teaching Practices, Learning Theories, Curriculum Documents, Course Strands, Course Outline, Assignments, Student Involvement.

The Bicycle ModelFront Wheel

Teaching Practices Learning Theory Curriculum Document

“…there is more to language than decoding and encoding, spelling and punctuation. There is a life of the imagination, and that makes a difference to human beings ...”

Bruce Pirie Reshaping High School English, page 3.

Teaching Practices

Teaching Practices

Unit 1: Reawakening Your Creativity

You don’t need to already be writing.

Just be willing to really try. Experiment.

Intertextuality Assignment:

multi-part, multi-source creativity

Teaching Practices

“Natalie Goldberg (1990, 1993) suggests that timed writings are necessary to unleash thoughts and ideas that are bubbling below the surface of our conscious daily experience.”

Dennis J. Sumara “Creating Interpretive Possibilities with Literature in the Teacher Education Classroom”. 1999.

Teaching Practices

Writer’s Notebooks

- Tuesdays

- timed writing

- some topics given

- three entries

per week

Learning Theories

Starting with the familiar is easier – shifting to the less familiar form recreates unease, even if the group is comfortable together. It takes time to listen and respond positively.

Paraphrased from Luce-Kapler et. al. “The Design of Writing: unfolding systems of meaning”. Changing English. Vol. 8, No. 1, 2001.

Learning Theories

• Last Unit: Poetry

- So we can used to - writing- revision- each other- sharing

Learning Theories

“In order for learners to gain insight into their learning and their understanding, frequent feedback is critical: students need to monitor their learning and actively evaluate their strategies and their current levels of understanding.” Howard Smith How People Learn. Chapter 3.

Learning Theories

Feedback:

- Small steps building to larger units

- Get peer assessment

- A lot of writing in class

- ask for my input BEFORE the assignment is due

Learning Theories

“The fact that experts' knowledge is organized around important ideas or concepts suggests that curricula should also be organized in ways that lead to conceptual understanding.”

Howard Smith How People Learn. Chapter 2.

Learning Theories

Each unit has

- new vocabulary,

- format information,

- analysis opportunities,

- writing practice.

Curriculum Document

Can be downloaded in PDF at:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/english1112currb.pdf

The Bicycle ModelBack Wheel

EWC’s Three Strands Investigating Writing

Writing, Writers, and the Writing Life Practicing Writing

Exploring Ideas, Forms, and Styles Drafting and Revising Editing, Proofreading, and Publishing Collaborative Writing

Reflecting on Writing Metacognition

The Bicycle Model Back Wheel

Course Outline Introduction Writer’s Notebook Summative Prose Elements & Short

Stories Media Poetry Exam

Evaluation Knowledge 15% Thinking 20% Communication 20% Application 15% Summative 20% Exam 10%

The Bicycle Model

The Assignment Chain Cycles through the three

strands of the course. Is powered by the student.

Can be customized for Student preferences I.E.P. needs Unexpected circumstances

Sample Assignments

Media Research with www Create in new formats

Publishing On-line Contests Bulletin Boards

Student Involvement

You can tweak your bike.

With each assignment, I have specific learning and evaluation goal. If you can think of a way to achieve those that would suit you better, talk to me. Often, assignments can be adjusted.

Find your passion, and reach for it!

Got Problems?

Contact mefor a fix.

tania.meldrum@ocdsb.ca

Last Step:

Have Fun!

The EWC Student- Enjoys writing

- Enjoys experimenting with / learning about writing

- Enjoys reading – both professional and peer

- Sees value in editing and revising

- Can work independently and quietly in class

- Can prioritize assignments

- Seeks clarification in a timely fashion

Wiki

http://meldrumewc.wikispaces.com/home

EWC Introduction form on the Introduction Unit page – complete for homework

Credits Thanks to K. Meldrum for help with PowerPoint. Modified from ppt created for Honors Cont590 Queen’s University,

Summer 2008.

Bibliography “The Design of Writing: unfolding systems of meaning”. Changing

English. Vol. 8, No. 1, 2001. Meldrum, Tania. Photos and images. Aug. 2008. Pirie, Bruce. Reshaping High School English. NCTE: Urbana, IL.

1997. Queen’s University. Continuing Education 590 online. Module 4.

Summer 2008. http://ctesummer.educ.queensu.ca/CONT590/ Smith, Howard. How People Learn. ebook. Accessed July 2008.

http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ Sumara, Denis J. “Creating Interpretive Possibilities with Literature in

the Teacher Education Classroom”. 1999. Accessed on June 23, 2008.