Assignment 7: Writing Across the Curriculum

 Writing Across the Curriculum 

Quotations	What it means to me
“Unfortunately, students often perceive academic writing tasks to be limited in scope; that is, short response to homework questions (National Commission of Writing, 2003). It is the wise teacher who can connect the enthusiasm associated with social writing to the academic tasks of the classroom” (253).	I especially appreciated this reminder that we need to create writing tasks that students can connect to, tasks that bring “social writing to the academic…classroom.” When we are trying to engage students and motivate students to write, this is a particularly effective way to do. Students are always more successful in their writing when they feel like their interests are being considered.
“Teachers of every discipline share in the responsibility of showing students how to think and write as scientists, historians, mathematicians, and literary critics do. When students engage in writing as a way of knowing, they are thinking on paper or screens (Moore, Moore, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 2010)” (253).	I loved this section because I had truly never thought in depth about how writing in other disciplines would look, other than the cursory writing prompt that asks students to answer a how question. Asking students to write like a historian or scientist asks student to think about their audience, their tone and diction, etc., and this really involves multiple skills.
“To promote their success, consider adjusting the length…Let them include pictures and write in nontraditional formats such as bubble maps, outlines, or bulleted lists. Remember, the most important thing is their expression of understanding” (254).	I love this idea; however, I will admit that it is something that I struggle with doing. I often want my students to present their information in a certain format (full sentences, paragraphs, etc). This is a great reminder that students can still show their knowledge of the content, and they can do it in a different format.
“When reading and writing are taught in concert, the union fosters problem solving and makes thinking and learning more powerful than if reading or writing is engaged in separately” (255).	This is so important, and I wish this could be plastered at the beginning of every teacher PD. As English teachers, we are told this constantly, but we also are innately aware of how reading and writing simultaneously foster comprehension. Unfortunately, I don’t always feel like other content areas know this. In my experience, writing is limited in those content areas, but I do believe that if all teachers were aware of how their students will better understand the content if they write about it, then we would see it happen more often in other classrooms.
“An English teacher used the concept of memes in her classroom to capture the idea of mood and tone. He students in her class read To Kill a Mockingbird. They each chose a character and a moment in the story that they felt helped shape the mood of the piece. They started by drawing the character. Drawing is one strategy to reinforce visualization strategies. Then the students wrote a short caption in the meme style” (257).	I actually remember doing something similar when I taught high school. Memes were extremely popular at that time, and my students were reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (I was teaching high school at this time). Students created memes for certain characters to symbolize their traits and personalities. I have not used memes to symbolize mood, but I really like this idea.
“[Biopoems] require students to play with ideas using language in a poetic framework. A biopoem allows students to reflect on large amounts of material within a poetic form” (261).	A biopoem is a great way to assess students’ knowledge gains after direct instruction. This provides another tool for formative assessment, but it also creates a new and exciting format for students to answer in. Plus, it provides a great refresher on poetry for students. I can see myself using this after direct instruction, but I can also see myself using this after reading a chapter in a novel. Students can summarize their knowledge of what happens in that chapter through a biopoem; it also can be a great tool for character analysis. I will use this when we being reading The Outsiders in 7th grade.
“Admit slips are brief comments written by students on index cards or half-sheets of paper at the very beginning of class. The purpose of the admit slip is to have students react to what they are studying or to what’s happening in class” (264).	I can’t believe that I had never thought of something as simplistic, yet brilliant as this. I am constantly using formative assessments, including exit slips, to better gauge my students’ comprehension of the concept at hand, and this is another great way to ensure that I know where my students feel like they are in terms of understanding. I plan on immediately incorporating this into my lessons.
“Templates allow English Learners to focus more on the why of their writing and less on the how. Templates are most effective when they support student engagement in both reading and writing” (274).	This is very important to me. I am constantly trying to learn new strategies to help my EB population, but sometimes, it is important to remember that a simple template can truly make a difference in their ability to learn the content. They can focus on what they are learning and not worry so much about how to format the knowledge they have gained.
“RAFT is an acronym that stands for role, audience, form and topic. FAFT allows teachers to create prompts for many types of discipline-specific writing assignments (Holston & Santa, 1985)” (275).	I had never heard of this acronym, but it is a reminder to be intentional about the assignments we make. We need to consider each aspect when designing assignments for our students. It is also a helpful way to help other content area teachers (other than ELA) to design writing tasks for students, especially when they are not used to incorporating so much writing into their content.
“Allowing choice of product type increases motivation and allows students to better understand use of genre” (283).	This is merely a reminder of how important it is to give students a choice in their assignments. Not only does it provide for differentiation, but it also increases students’ buy-in on the work. When students pick their own assignment, they are more willing to put in the effort to do well.