ITERATIVe writing
When studying how biology students make meaning of evolution and examining reflective writing essays, I found that students who supported their claims with both academic/scientific evidence and personal evidence, were those who demonstrated a more complete understanding of evolution (Balgopal, 2007; Balgopal & Montplaisir, 2011). I classified students as four types of writers: objective (using only scientific evidence), subjective (using only personal evidence), authentic (using both scientific and personal evidence), and superficial (making unsupported claims). Using these findings and codes, my colleague Alison Wallace (Professor, Biosciences, Minnesota State University Moorhead), and I developed the CAB WTL. We tested this heuristic with both elementary education majors (Balgopal & Wallace, 2009) and then with biology majors and Native studies majors (Balgopal, Wallace, & Dahlberg, 2011). We have found that learning outcomes increase when inquiry activities, reading, and class lectures/discussions are supported with WTL activities. We (Balgopal, Wallace, & Dahlberg, 2016) have also found that writing allows students the opportunity to bring their own "funds of knowledge" about natural phenomena to academic science classrooms and subsequently negotiate meaning. Hence, WTL can support strategies that are culturally relevant and responsive to student learning needs.
CAB WTL HEURISTIC
The central premise of our CAB WTL heuristic is that students should consider a socio-scientific issue from three perspectives before constructing a final persuasive essay.
1) What do they know about the issue
2) What do they feel/how do they connect with the issue
3) What can they do to resolve the issue/dilemmas surrounding the issue?
Since 2007 Alison and I have implemented many different socio-scientific prompts that we have used in biology and education courses. Students can either write several short free-writes or can "collect their thoughts" using graphic organizers. Here is an example of an undergraduate writing assignment about aquatic hypoxia. Here is another undergraduate writing assignment that centers on treating cancer.
K-12 teachers may realize that these prompts (with some tweaking) support three genres of writing that are often taught as part of the English Language Arts curriculum (expository, narrative, and persuasive essays). Here is an example of how my colleagues, Lynn Gilbert (middle school science teacher) and Pam Breitbarth (middle school English teacher), modified the CAB WTL to fit their curricula.
CAB WTL HEURISTIC
The central premise of our CAB WTL heuristic is that students should consider a socio-scientific issue from three perspectives before constructing a final persuasive essay.
1) What do they know about the issue
2) What do they feel/how do they connect with the issue
3) What can they do to resolve the issue/dilemmas surrounding the issue?
Since 2007 Alison and I have implemented many different socio-scientific prompts that we have used in biology and education courses. Students can either write several short free-writes or can "collect their thoughts" using graphic organizers. Here is an example of an undergraduate writing assignment about aquatic hypoxia. Here is another undergraduate writing assignment that centers on treating cancer.
K-12 teachers may realize that these prompts (with some tweaking) support three genres of writing that are often taught as part of the English Language Arts curriculum (expository, narrative, and persuasive essays). Here is an example of how my colleagues, Lynn Gilbert (middle school science teacher) and Pam Breitbarth (middle school English teacher), modified the CAB WTL to fit their curricula.
Using iterative writing does not mean that each iteration needs to be a complete essay. The purpose of writing multiple times about a topic is that it allows the writer/thinker to organizer his/her thoughts. If it is not practical to assign multiple essay writing assignments to a class, instructors can encourage students to use graphic organizers to collect and record their developing ideas.
references
- Balgopal, M.M. & Wallace, A.M. (2013). Writing-to-learn, writing-to-communicate, & scientific literacy. The American Biology Teacher, 75(3), 170-175.
- Balgopal, M.M., Wallace, A.M., & Dahlberg, S. (2012). Writing to learn ecology: A study of three populations of college students. Environmental Educational Research, 18(1), 67-90.
- Balgopal, M.M. & Montplaisir, L.M. (2011). Meaning making: what reflective essays reveal about biology students’ ideas about natural selection Instructional Science: An International Journal of the Learning Sciences, 39(2), 137-169.
- Balgopal, M.M. & Wallace, A.M. (2009). Dilemmas and decisions: The use of guided writing to increase ecological literacy of elementary education majors. J. Environmental Education, 40(3), 13-26.