WID Fellow Melanie Beck (Mathematics) passed on this recent Edutopia article on how low-stakes writing is employed across disciplines at University Park Campus School, a high school in Worcester, MA. If you browse the text article, you’ll find a host of simple but effective ideas for in-class thinking and writing, all of which are adaptable up to the college level. If you take a minute to watch the video, though, you’ll also surely be inspired by students deeply engaged in individual and group writing activities, and by UPCS teachers who grasp the pedagogical value of writing-to-learn activities.

The UPCS data on the impacts of extensive informal writing is impressive.  The school sets the bar high with an advanced honors curriculum, but supports students with a systematic approach to writing that helps the diverse student population succeed:

UPCS offers only honors curriculum. “In every class in this building, you have kids of all levels of prior academic achievement,” says Principal Dan St. Louis, including kids who are “high flyers,” kids with Individualized Education Programs who are receiving special education support, students with disabilities, and English-language learners. “And it’s an all-honors curriculum, which means that we’re providing high-level material that’s intended to scaffold them to do college work by the time they graduate,” he adds.

About 75% of UPCS students have learned English as their second language, and students enter the school two to three years below grade level in reading and math. “By the time our students take their high-stakes exams in tenth grade, 50% of them score advanced in ELA and math,” explains St. Louis. “The majority of the remainder of students score proficient, and no student has ever failed their English exam.”

The specific examples of prompts for low-stakes writing in different disciplines are tailored to a 7-12 audience, but the argument for employing the same approach in higher education is solidly grounded in the idea that students make new and complex concepts their own as they write about them:

Low-stakes writing engages your students, develops their voice, and fosters agency. “Low-stakes writing gets kids more comfortable in academia and more comfortable with expressing their ideas,” concludes James Kobialka. “In the educational climate we live in, we don’t always want students to express ideas. We want students to answer questions, and we want students to have semantic knowledge. Low-stakes writing allows students to have a voice.”

                                                                                                                 ——————————-