Writing to Learn - Discussion - the before and after

The difference between writing to learn and learning to write shouldn’t really exist, but it sometimes does.  If you are learning to write, you are exploring and developing yourself as a writer, honing your skills.  If you are writing to learn, you are using your writing as a tool, a way of “going deeper” with a topic.  You are flushing it out more, going more in depth.  These two styles are interconnected, I think.  

When you are learning to write, you get better over time.  You start off one way and end up another.  Your writing gets more interesting with feedback from people and peers.  You develop your voice as a writer.  

When you are writing to learn, you are taking a topic and running with it.  You control the direction you go, or how far down that path you walk through your writing.

Ideas about what to do for Writing to Learn

The most important idea I heard in this discussion was to come up with the meaningful stuff that I would want to do if I were a student, and then DO this with kids.  It will fit into the curriculum in its own way.  Come up with the assignment, then do it.  Tailor things to fit into the schoolyear, and have an idea at the beginning of what you want your kids to come away with.  If you have that goal in mind, and your assignments support this, things will fall into place.