Writing to Learn Strategy Gropel, 1

There are many opportunities for writing activities in a history or social studies

classroom. For this activity, students will be asked to create a Weebly portfolio at the beginning

of the year and share their link or URL with the teacher. Students will be informed that they will

utilize this History Portfolio daily throughout the semester/school year. While students are

building their portfolios in the beginning of the year, they will be instructed to create a

“Bellwork and Exit Tickets” blog page along with other sections that will be used throughout the

curriculum. Students will create a single post on this blog page each day in class. Each post,

students will be expected to answer the bellwork question that is on the board when they walk

into class each day. Oftentimes, this bellwork question will require students to think back and

assess what they had learned the previous day and ask any questions they still have about the

content. Essentially students will be summarizing, making connections, comparing and

contrasting, and utilizing other critical thinking strategies to complete this assignment. At the end

of class students will answer the exit ticket question or summarize what happened/what they

learned in class that day. At the end of each week or lesson, the teacher can access each student’s

Weebly to provide grades and feedback as well as assessing student progress.

Although this is a simple activity, it can be extremely beneficial to the learning

environment and offers plenty of opportunities to make accommodations or modifications

depending on different variables. For example, students could complete the same activity in a

designated notebook that will be collected if they do not have access to a computer. A physical

notebook could also be used if classes are being performed synchronously instead of

asynchronously. In addition to the flexibility of this activity, students can also utilize this section

of their Weebly to help them study for upcoming tests or assist them in answering questions

while completing other assignments and activities.