Significant Takeaways from Jim Burke’s “The 6 Academic Writing Assignments”

As an aspiring English Teacher, I was extremely interested in Jim Burke’s many methods of teaching within the first three chapters of his book, The 6 Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey. I felt that these specific examples were beneficial to both the students, and the teacher. Burke calls them Writing To Learn (WTL) assignments. The exercises Burke used include the Digital Daybooks, the Topic Target style organizers, and the Short Answer Assignment style he demonstrated.

Digital Daybooks

The Digital Daybook Burkes discusses in his book, is much like a journaling book that many teachers recently incorporate into their daily classroom activities. The teacher generally assigns a specific WTL task; many of which Burke lists within the text. Some of these assignments include asking the students to “reflect on their progress,… demonstrate their understanding through informational assignments such as exit tickets; or write in their notebooks… [relating] to what we are reading, discussing, or learning.” (Burke 14-15)

One assignment that Burke had his own students do stuck out to me. He brought his students outside to their football field and had each student stand on a yard line according to their age; so basically, everyone was around the 17-18 yard line. He then asked them to write for twenty minutes “about what it feels like to be the age they are.” (Burke 15) Once the time is up, he brings everyone back inside and works off what the students have written to segway into a discussion about Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. Additionally, in Figure 1-1a, we see two students on the field; one writing in a notebook and the other on his phone. Burke mentions that the student had forgotten his notebook yet could write the entry on his phone.

I think changing the student’s surroundings is a great idea, especially bringing them outdoors. It helps the students write freely when they are outside compared to a small classroom desk. I also liked how Burke allowed the student to use his phone to write his entry. Many teachers develop such a hatred for technology due to their student’s use of cell phones, which is understandable to some extent. But I would handle the situation like Burke, and allow the student to make good use of his cell phone instead by writing his entry in it. The best part about this exercise is how Burke connects their activity to the topic they will be discussing in class. I think it is very important, if not essential, to be able to relate an activity such as that one to a topic inside of the classroom, which in this case was Into The Wild.

The Topic Target Organizer

This was a WTL form I was not familiar with, but I find it to be useful. When I tutor fellow peers and students, I often find that they do not know how to organize their thoughts in their essays. I think this Topic Target organizer could be useful to many, if not all students. According to the description, it helps “students generate and organize their ideas by writing about them in more structured ways.” (Burke 22) The structure of the organizer is somewhat self-explanatory. The student writes their topic in the middle of the target, which is surrounded by eight categories/ aspects that the student would like to expand upon. Then, for each category they write a description or notes. With this, not only will the students be able to organize their ideas, but they would be able to use this organizer when they start writing, therefore allowing the ideas to flow more easily and create a thorough and organized final product.

Short Answer Assignments

This assignment caught my attention because as a current student I know most people dread short answer responses, so I was curious as to how Burke would go about doing this. Burke uses varying levels when creating short answer questions. The levels are as follows: Before Beginning to Read, On the Surface, Below the Surface, and Above and Beyond the Surface. The levels gradually increase in difficulty and the student must progressively use more critical thinking. This is an incredible strategy that I plan to use to aid me in creating short answer questions for my students in the future.

Overall, I felt that these three WTL assignments would be most beneficial to both myself and my students in the future. The Digital Daybook, the Topic Target organizer, as well and the Short Answer format explained by Burke are all effective methods I could use to organize my future curriculum.