My summary of the article from JBM

Viktoriia Dudar
Professor Barbara Gleason
Adult Language and Literacy
20 April 2010

Zamel, Vivian. “Engaging Students in Writing-To-Learn: Promoting Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum.” JBW: Journal of Basic Writing 19.2 (2000): 3-21. Print.

Engaging Students in Writing-To-Learn is a version of the talk about what writing-to-learn pedagogy represents that Vivian Zamel, Professor of English and Director of the English as a Second Language Program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, gave at a faculty development event. She was invited to advise the faculty of the City University of New York about the writing-across-the-curriculum initiative that they undertook for the first time in the 1999-2000 academic year. In her article, Zamel addresses difficulties with writing that diverse students face because they are not native speakers of English, and/or they are unfamiliar with academic writing discourse. She describes the range of different writing activities that can help students to acquire the content of a subject through writing and to develop students’ writing and reading skills. Also, she emphasizes the importance of the helpful feedback to the students’ writing assignments that should be an effective vehicle of improvement, but not a destructive critique.

Zamel is trying to dismiss the widely accepted assumption that English or other writing based courses are designed to teach language and writing in order to prepare students for other disciplines. This belief indicates that many professors do not recognize their courses as meaningful contexts in which language can be acquired because they think that students should have learned a language before. Zamel believes that students can acquire a language and develop their writing and reading skills only if they are engaged in the complex ideas of the course, are invited to participate in discussions, and are given opportunities to use different kinds of writing for reflection, articulation of their ideas and thought, and trying out the academic language. Consequently, she regards each classroom as a separate culture with its own expectations and conventions that can be acquired only through meaningful work that is built on students’ experiences and knowledge(8). Thus, Zamel encourages the faculty to look at learning as an ongoing and evolving process that can be supported by a meaningful course work, allowing students to grow through writing.

To better understand students’ needs and challenges with writing, Zamel asked students to reflect on their difficulties while composing in English. Students’ responses indicated that they were well aware about their needs as writers and pointed out the range of typical issues with writing, such as being too careful with choosing words, inability to express their thoughts, intrusion of other language when thinking about a given topic, and unfamiliarity with a given topic. Besides, students identified patience and encouragement of their teachers as the key factors of their success and asked for more explicit directions for assignments and course expectations. Students were afraid that their learning progress was underestimated because of their writing, sometimes confusing and full of errors (5).

These findings were supported and deepened by two case studies of students whom Zamel followed through the courses across the curriculum. For example, Martha, a student from Columbia who majored in biology, suffered because writing was not a part of her science courses. Consequently, she could not express her thoughts, questions, and confusions about the content, and that undermined her learning of the new subjects and interest in them. “There was not a drop of motivation to enjoy my journey of learning. I felt illiterate at the end of the semester. I did not learn a single new word,” (6) reflects Martha on her experiences. On the other hand, Motoko, a student from Japan who majored in sociology, had a successful experience in her philosophy course where a professor used writing assignments extensively. Although she was still making mistakes in her writing, Motoko felt that she was given an opportunity to build her knowledge on the previous experiences and to actively engage into subject discourse through writing (7). Zamel’s research demonstrates that writing is an effective tool that helps students to acquire academic vocabulary as well as the content of the courses across the curriculum.

Zamel argues that the multiple opportunities for writing help students to explain the course material to themselves, to establish connections between their experiences and learned information, and to discover their own thinking. She proposes a range of writing-to-learn assignments that can be easily incorporated into different classrooms. For example, a “one minute paper” written at the end of the class describing learned topics and points of confusion can be a source of establishing students’ needs and direction of future instruction. Also, journal assignments can help students to develop their critical thinking and active reading when they are responding in written form to course readings or particular questions. Another way to engage students in the meaningful use of language is a double-entry journal that gives an opportunity to respond to the passages that drew students’ attention. Through copying short passages of text in one column and writing their responses in another, students connect to their readings, learn academic language, and compile different course readings together. Besides, ungraded in-class writing can help students to construct their point of view and become an active participant of a class discussion. As a result of writing-to-learn assignments, students begin to understand that reading is not a passive activity, but rather “literally a process of composing” (13).

In addition to writing-to-learn assignments, the teacher’s explicit expectations about the course and a constructive feedback to students’ writing can promote learning. Zamel suggests teachers to test their assignments by asking questions about the purpose of writing or reading, expectations about the students work, the extend of guidance provided to students. The deep analysis of the task and explicitly stated requirements can prevent assignment ambiguity and students’ difficulties with writing. Furthermore, the opportunity to draft and revise allows students to think and to write about their ideas in complex ways. On the other hand, it helps teachers to give profound feedback that serves to improve students’ writing (15). Zamels states that teachers’ responses to students’ writing in the form of error correction are ineffective and do not contribute to their progress over the period of time. She believes that the teachers’ goal is the reduction of mistakes (that very often are the signs of progress), but not their entire elimination because language acquisition is a multi-dimensional, complex, and context-dependant process. The mistakes can be reduced through error instruction, and the writing can be improved thorough asking students to review their own writing and clarify their ideas and thoughts rather than simply insert teachers’ markings in their work (16). For example, the samples of Edwin’s writing clearly show his progress as a writer as he is able to articulate his ideas more clearly while using academic language discourse.

In conclusion, Zamel’s article emphasizes the importance of writing across the curriculum as it engages students into the rich and interesting world of ideas, allows them to take risks with learning, promotes their growth as critical thinkers and active readers, and helps them to acquire the language of academia. Furthermore, professors’ understanding of learning as an ongoing process, multiple opportunities to write for understanding and sharing ideas, time for drafting and revising, instructive and meaningful feedback can greatly contribute to students’ academic success. Martha highly appreciated and supported the importance of writing in her own learning, “[w]riting about all these experiences helped me be a resilient learner and to reclaim my voice and love for learning in a foreign country. It is like a metamorphosis with no ending…” (20).