Helping Students Write
"Lateral Reading: A Modern Tool to Help Students deduce which Online Sources are Reliable" (Sarah Prasad)
With technology moving at the speed of light, lateral reading helps to level the playing field and supports all our students. In 2015, Stanford’s Graduate School of Education studied students’ ability to evaluate “online content by investigating the source of information, by interrogating the evidence presented, or by seeking out information from other reliable sources” (Breakstone et al. 11). Dr. Sam Wineberg's team studied over 3,000 students across the nation and saw what most teachers see, that our students don’t know how to assess “claims, sources, and evidence” (McGrew et al.). The results showed that fact checkers uncover weak sources using lateral reading, by getting off the web page and opening multiple tabs to research the source and see what others are saying about it (Breakstone et al. 4). A 3-minute video here explains: https://youtu.be/GZvsGKvqzDs
Lateral reading can be a tool that allows students to become lifelong consumers of reliable information and makes them less likely to be sidelined by misinformation. It’s important for these skills to be taught everywhere, so that all students can engage safely in the abundance of information on the internet for school, for health decisions, for voting choices – the list could go on forever.
I used the materials on Stanford’s Civic Online Reasoning website to organize the teaching materials into a one-week, easily imported, detailed lesson plan so instructors can teach lateral reading with ease. The audience will see what lateral reading is, why it’s important for our students, and how easy it can be to teach. Handouts with links to resources and QR codes will be distributed in the session.
"Insights for Instructors from Students' Views of Their Own Writing" (Katherina Sibbald)
This presentation offers insights about supporting students in developing writing self-efficacy--persistence and confidence in their own writing capabilities--from a study of first-year college students' reflections on their own writing and writing experiences. The study examines 248 essays in which students making the transition from high school to college writing described their writing identities, processes, products, and journeys. By analyzing the essay content differences between students who positively described their writing and writing selves versus those with negative views of their writing and their experiences as writers, we work to understand how both college and secondary writing instructors can support students to develop confidence in their writing skills and identities. Findings indicate the importance of designing meaningful prompts, using process writing activities, and engaging in meaningful reflection and goal setting.
"Let me Show You Around: Leveraging Student Knowledge and Expertise in Location Research Essays" (Heather Parker Devrick)
Students sometimes enter their first university year thinking they are not bring much to their writing and research classes. Personal experiences are devalued -- go empirical or go home. In this first-year writing course, a location research essay prompt asks students to blend their own observations and experiences with outside research to write about location. Through writing about a known topic, these students learn critical research and writing skills in familiar context. Additionally, student writers are often more enthused about and engaged with this writing task.