What is a “write-to-learn” assignment?

Often, teachers use writing as a method of evaluating students’ learning, and testing their mastery of language conventions. Assignments like formal essays and essay exams fall into this traditional category, which might be called “learn-to-write” assignments—students must learn the concepts and conventions they need prior to the writing assignment, and then express that learning in the writing. While these assignments are useful, and hold an important place in academic writing, another type of assignment can help students to actually acquire new language and concepts. An assignment that is specifically designed to help students learn, and that is not evaluated for its formal or conventional qualities, is called a “write-to-learn” assignment.

When to use “write-to-learn” assignments:

When you can identify a particular concept that students have difficulty mastering, or a skill that students frequently struggle to acquire, a well-designed write-to-learn assignment can engage your students in a learning process.

Examples of “write-to-learn” assignments (from the University of Wisconsin’s source book for writing intensive courses, compiled by Brad Hughes)

In-class writing—give students a prompt at the beginning of class to focus them on a key concept, or stop during a key moment of explaining a new assignment to give students a chance to write their first thoughts. Invent the kinds of in-class writing that will be most useful to your students.

The mini-essay—a brief essay, written in class or as homework. Use the mini-essay to focus on specific cognitive skills, like summary, analysis, problem-solving, or hypothesizing from data. Or provide students with specifics that they must draw a conclusion from. Or ask students to apply a theory to a new set of facts. Or ask students to explain (perhaps in outline form) a process for solving a problem. An example from a large, introductory Anthropology course: “For each week of the semester, write to me informally about an anthropological experience you’ve had that week.” An example from a Finance course: “Choose one of the following propositions and defend it in two pages: The price-earnings ratio of a stock (does/does not) reflect the rate of return that an investor in that stock will achieve.”

Response Essays—focus students’ attention on a specific element of a reading assignment, discussion, or lecture. Response assignments can ask students to choose a perspective or even a specific persona from which to write the response. Instructors can specify the audience for the response, or otherwise define the situation.

Letters—ask students to write letters to specific figures, such as authors, notable historical or political figures, etc..

Other kinds of situational writing—an example from a Political Science course: “Imagine that you are William Buckley and you are getting ready to debate Noam Chomsky on American foreign policy in Central America. Write down the points you intend to make in your debate. In order to anticipate Chomsky’s own arguments, also write down what you expect to be his main points and how you will respond.”

Journals—journals can help students become aware of the learning that they’re doing, and to gain personal fluency with classroom concepts. Students can use journals to record thoughts and insights, ask questions, speculate, clarify, respond to readings and lectures, begin thinking about ideas for formal assignments, discover connections between course materials, and gain fluency in writing. Grading journals can be tricky, because it is important that students feel legitimately free to express their thoughts in the journal, yet instructors may need to take steps to ensure that students take the journals seriously. Some suggestions—grade on the completeness of the journal, not the quality of the content; respond briefly to selected entries that seem interesting (you could ask students to select journal entries for you to respond to); collect journals on a rotating basis to keep the workload manageable.

Text completion—have students read half a story, chapter, or journal article, or give students a partial data set, and then ask them to predict the rest of the piece and justify their prediction.

Class minutes—select one person each class period to take minutes. Then have those minutes duplicated for all class members, presented, and discussed briefly at the next class meeting.