1_Introducing ERCW_Mini-Module

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Module Purpose:

The purpose of the portfolio module is to introduce twelfth grade students to ERWC 12; give them an opportunity to reflect upon and write about their reading, writing, thinking, and goal setting processes; review the importance of establishing and maintaining a portfolio; and learn metacognitive processes while reading in order to improve comprehension.

Key Learning Goal:

The mini-module provides an introduction to portfolios and metacognitive skills and knowledge while reading.

Elements of the Key Learning Goal:

• Understand how their portfolios will be kept during the course and how they will be used to monitor their progress toward achieving learning goals

• Explain what the learning goals for the ERWC 12 course are and how those goals are relevant to them in their own language

• Understand ERWC learning goals and set personal learning goals

• Understand what metacognition while reading is and how to apply metacognitive skills and knowledge to their own reading

Module Texts

Arnold, Matthew. “Dover Beach.” New Poems, 1851. Poetry Foundation, 2019, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43588/dover-beach.

Keats, John. “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Annals of the Fine Arts, January 1820. Poetry Foundation, 2019, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn.

Mini-Module End Task:

At the end of this mini-module, students are asked to write a letter to themselves in which they formulate learning goals for the course that they believe are likely to contribute to their success during the months ahead in ERWC 12.

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Activity 1: Self-Portrait – Reflecting on What You Know About Yourself as a Reader, Writer, and Learner

ERWC is designed to help you to strengthen your academic preparation for college. The following questions will guide an initial personal investigation of the way you read and write. Take three to five minutes per question to brainstorm and write responses to each of the following six questions.

(NOTE: You can use or modify any of the sentence stems provided. Also, notice how the sentence stems for questions #1-3 are using language from the

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1. How do you feel about reading? Describe a time when you really enjoyed something you were reading? What do you know about how you read? (For example, complete the following sentences: “When I come across a passage that leaves me puzzled, I usually _______________.” “I ask myself questions about what I’m reading when _____________.” “I am more

successful reading when _______________.”)

2. How do you feel about writing? Describe a time when you wrote something that you enjoyed writing? What do you know about how you write?

(For example, complete the following sentences: “When I don’t know how to organize my ideas for a writing assignment, I usually ________________.” “When I try to persuade my reader to agree with my beliefs and opinions, I usually ________________.” “I am usually more successful writing when ______________.”)

3. What would you like to learn about reading and writing? What reading and writing skills do you feel less confident about and would like to develop? (For example, complete the following sentences: “I would like to learn more about ___________.” “I feel less confident about _________, so I would like to develop / learn ___________.” “I would also like to learn more about _________.” “For this skill, I feel less confident about, _________, so I would like to develop / learn ____________.”)

4. Describe a time when you set a goal for yourself and how you went about working toward the attainment of that goal. What was the goal? How did you go about trying to achieve it? What or who helped you to move toward the goal? What got in your way? Are there any goals you are currently working to achieve? If you were to describe your degree of confidence in your ability to set and achieve goals you create for yourself, how would you describe your level of confidence in setting, undertaking, and achieving goals?

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6. When there’s a discussion in class about a book or topic, do you like to jump in and participate? Or do you prefer to listen to the conversation and take it in? Are you comfortable asking questions in class? Or do you prefer to figure things out on your own even though you may be having trouble understanding a text or an issue? Would you challenge someone’s opinion in class if you didn’t agree with it or saw the issue in a different way? Your answers to these questions may help you understand the degree to which you are the kind of person whose mental energy tends to be directed inward (introvert) or outward (extrovert). Whether we tend to be more introverted or more extroverted can have a profound influence on what we prefer to do with our time and how we learn. Given what you know about yourself, how much of an introvert or an extrovert do you think you are? (It might help to rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, first as an introvert and then as an extrovert, after which you could explain why you gave yourself those ratings.)

Self-Portrait: Using the information you have gathered about yourself and organizing that information into a coherent picture, compose a Self-Portrait that represents what kind of reader, writer, and learner you think you are at this time in your life as a student. Where possible, provide evidence, perhaps in the form of a remembrance or story from the past, to support observations you make about yourself as a reader, writer, or learner.

7. When you have completed your Self-Portrait, share it with a classmate and seek some feedback about your portrait’s strengths and features of the portrait that might be improved. (Record a summary of the response for #7.)

• You will be using this feedback in Activity 3 to acquaint yourself with ways in

which you can monitor your work and progress as a writer and set goals for improvement throughout the year.

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Activity 2: Establishing and Maintaining a Portfolio of Student Work Keeping a portfolio of your work helps you set personal learning goals and reflect on your progress throughout the year. Your teacher will explain its benefits and guide you in establishing your portfolio and maintaining it.

Your first entry into the portfolio will be your Self-Portrait completed for Activity 1. Your Self-Portrait will also be the first entry into the chart you will learn about next in Activity 3: “Where I Am and Where I’m Going.”

• Open up a Google Doc, and name the file ERWC Portfolio o Use “Self-Portrait” as the subtitle.

o Add your Self-Portrait details that you created for Activity #1.

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Activity 3: Monitoring the Progress of Your Portfolio Over the Course of the Year and Preparing for the “Final Reflection on Learning: The ERWC

Portfolio”

In order to keep track of your progress over the course of the year, fill in the chart below after the writing assignments for each module are returned. Use rubric markings and/or teacher comments and peer-response comments to assist you with this task. The first writing assignment that you will enter into the chart will be the Self-Portrait from Activity 1, for which you have gotten peer feedback. You can use that feedback to describe strengths and weaknesses of the portrait along with goals for your next writing

assignment that are likely to reflect paths toward improvement in your writing that you want to pursue.

“Where I Am and Where I’m Going” Chart

Module Title and Writing Assignment (for example, essay, summary, quickwrite, etc.)

Rubric Score and/or Teacher Comments

Strengths (using language from the rubric, teacher’s com-ments, peer-re-sponse comments, or your own perceptions)

Areas to Improve (using language from the rubric, teacher’s com-ments, peer-response com-ments, or your own perceptions)

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Module Title and Writing Assignment (for example, essay, summary, quickwrite, etc.)

Rubric Score and/or Teacher Comments

Strengths (using language from the rubric, teacher’s com-ments, peer-re-sponse comments, or your own perceptions)

Areas to Improve (using language from the rubric, teacher’s com-ments, peer-response com-ments, or your own perceptions)

Where I’m Going: Goals for My Next Writing Assignment (using language from the rubric)

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Activity 4: Translating ERWC Learning Goals into Your Own Language The following learning goals indicate what the ERWC is supposed to teach. They were composed primarily for teachers rather than for a student audience.

Working with a partner or a small group, translate the learning goal(s) your teacher assigns you into your own words. (Make sure that you use the file

named, “1_Translating Learning Goals” to record your responses.) Then discuss whether you and the members of your group know how to do the kinds of tasks the learning goal involves.

Learning Goals: Students who complete the ERWC will be able to

What does it mean in your own words?

On a scale of 1-5, indicate the degree to which you have met the goal.

(1 = I don’t know where to begin. / 5=I’ve fully met this goal.)

Explain how you could progress in meeting this goal.

1. Value reading and writing for communication, learning, and pleasure

2. Read intentionally for a variety of purposes, including to learn content, to understand a vari-ety of perspec-tives, to critique, and to learn writer’s craft

3. Understand the ways in which reading and writing inform and support each other

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es-Learning Goals: Students who complete the ERWC will be able to

pecially audience, purpose,

occasion, and genre, influence communicative choices

5. Engage in intellectual conversations about important issues, including personal, societal, and academic topics

6. Evaluate argu-ments,

considering their purposes, audiences, struc-ture, methods of persuasion, evidence, and reasoning

7. Write effectively in a variety of academic, civic, and workplace genres

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Learning Goals: Students who complete the ERWC will be able to

9. Examine and re-flect on

strategies, pro-cesses, tools, and practices for ongoing learning and development

10. Be inquisitive, motivated, and self-directed learners

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Texts 1-2 – Arnold, “Dover Beach” and Keats, “Ode on a Grecian

Urn”

Activity 5: Thinking Aloud to Discover How You Think When You Read

Find the module text poem, “Dover Beach.” Listen carefully as your teacher reads the poem once and then reads a second time to demonstrate the think-aloud skill for learning. Having listened to your teacher demonstrate a think-aloud while reading Matthew

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When each one of you finishes the first three stanzas, the other student reads and thinks-aloud through the last two stanzas of the poem. While one of you is thinking thinks-aloud, the other takes notes to record what the reader says while thinking aloud about how that reader is constructing meaning and using strategies to do so.

Thinking about your own thinking in this way is called metacognition. The discoveries you and your classmates make about the processes and strategies you use during the think-aloud experiences can be recorded and kept in the classroom for future reference.

Additional discoveries may be added to the collection as days and weeks progress. This information serves as a growing source of metacognitive knowledge related to reading and meaning making.

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Activity 6: Describing My Own Learning Goals for ERWC in a Letter to Myself Having been introduced to ERWC, reflected on your past reading and writing

experiences, and learned about metacognition while reading, what learning goals for yourself can you create in order to increase your chances of experiencing success this year? Write a one-page letter to yourself in that you describe those learning goals designed to help you develop as a reader, writer, and learner. You may want to focus on the development of your ability to write an essay, analyze a character, or persuade a reader to view an issue as you have come to view it. You may want to develop your vocabulary or your knowledge of grammar or punctuation, or some other aspect of your writing. There may be a particular writer or book you have heard about that you would like to read. Are there skills, such as writing poems or essays, you’d like to acquire? Would you like to gain knowledge about grammar or punctuation? What else would you like to work on to become a more expert learner? In any case, you are likely to be revisiting and reflecting on this letter later in the school year.

Dear __________,

Body Paragraphs Option #1:

§ Reader goals

§ Writer goals

§ Learner goals

§ a paragraph that focuses

on strengths

§ a paragraph that focuses

on weaknesses

§ a closing paragraph that

focuses on the goals

§ Goal #1 - strength, weakness,

how you want to grow/improve