Expressive Writing
Overview
Writing freely about one's emotions about a specific activity, such as taking a test, can help students cope with negative Emotion, such as math anxiety. Expressive writing helps learners identify and understand the emotions they are experiencing, creating a distance between them and their feelings and making them more open to change the meaning of a stressful situation. This, in turn, frees up their Working Memory and thus can enhance their performance.
Example: Use This Strategy In in the Classroom
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Explain Everything allows students to share their thinking and reflect on what they have learned in a visual, interactive manner. By providing open-ended drawing tools and recording capabilities, learners can create video reflections that not only showcase their learning but also facilitate the reflection process.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Metacognitive Supports Strategies
Setting overall goals, as well as smaller goals as steps to reaching them, encourages consistent, achievable progress and helps students feel confident in their skills and abilities.
When students reframe negative thoughts and tell themselves kind self-statements, they practice positive self-talk.
Pre-assessments are tools or activities used before instruction begins to help educators understand what students already know, understand, or can do—and where they may need support.
Providing space and time for students to reflect is critical for moving what they have learned into Long-term Memory.
When students engage in a dialogue with themselves, they are able to orient, organize, and focus their thinking.
When students monitor their comprehension, behavior, or use of strategies, they build their Metacognition.
