Parents Explore the Teaching of Writing at AE II: The ELOB Writing Workshop

Barbara Waxman, Curriculum Designer for AE II facilitated a parent workshop on March 3, 2004 about the teaching of writing in Expeditionary Learning schools.  Two themes addressed by Barbara and demonstrated in exhibits of students writing were process and content.

 Writing instruction in ELOB schools focuses on the writing process, which means crafting multiple drafts.  The stages of the writing process include prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.  Libby, an intermediate grade teacher at AE II shared that, in order to underscore the importance of this process, she invited a published story-writer to her classroom.  This writer explained that she had revised her story 60 times before it was published!  One of the many strengths of the writing process is that it allows students time to stand back and reflect upon their work.

The writing content receives much more attention in Expeditionary Learning than it generally does in other elementary schools, because students engage in deep learning of a particular topic.  They learn to acquire information from topic-area books, from the internet, from field trips, and from guest experts. When they put pen to paper, the students have something to say, knowledge to rework into their own pieces of writing.

This sounds suspiciously like the research process we learned in late high school or college doesn’t it?!