The following information was written by Deva Dalporto for WeAreTeachers (June 25, 2013) and perfectly summarizes why we chose to address writing across the curriculum:

Learning to write, and write well, is a crucial life skill. Not only does it help one succeed in school, it’s vital to success in the “real” world too. Writing has become essential in today’s wired world. We communicate through the written word on a daily basis via email and text.

And when today’s elementary and middle school children enter the work force, they will be expected to know how to fire up their computers and write coherent, intelligent content pretty much no matter what field they choose.

In addition, studies have shown that writing helps boost student achievement across the board because it actively engages children. It requires them to take in information, organize their thoughts, sort through all of the information they’ve received and then process it. “Writing is the most extensive brain workout a kid can get,” said Mr. Peha. “It includes reading, logic, motor coordination and if writing for an audience, social emotional intelligence.”

In other words, there are a lot of benefits to writing:

• Writing aids retention. It helps children remember and understand material much more than passive forms of learning like reading and listening. “Writing helps with mental recall,” said Mr. Peha. “It cements a concept in a kid’s brain more than anything else.”
• Writing increases the depth of knowledge of a subject and helps students master any specialized vocabulary or terminology related to the topic.
• Writing develops critical thinking skills. When a child has to research something, organize her thoughts and then write about it in a clear, concise way she’s flexing her mind.
• Writing promotes independent thinking. In order to write, you have to have a point of view.

Writing Across the Curriculum Benefits Teachers
As daunting as writing across the curriculum may sound to some teachers, there are a lot of positive things about incorporating writing into your lesson plans!

• Writing is a great way to engage all of your students! You won’t just hear from the kids who are always throwing their hands up.
• Writing helps teachers monitor student progress and gauge their strengths and weaknesses. “Writing lets you know where your students are at more than any test,” said Mr. Peha. With regular writing assignments as part of your curriculum, you don’t have to wait for a big exam to see if the kids are getting it.
• Writing helps you see gaps in instruction so you can adjust your teaching to insure that all of the students get what you’re talking about!
• Writing saves you time! Writing can be a very efficient way to cover multiple standards at once because it is such a complex, multifaceted task. In science, for example, you can get a glimpse of students’ hypothetical and procedural thinking by analyzing a written lab report.
• Students learn best by writing. “Kids learn the most through writing,” said Mr. Peha. “If you’re only going to do one thing, writing is the highest payoff activity you can pick.”

Getting students writing is a struggle. What about providing students time and space to just write? I'm not talking necessarily creative writing, but instead providing writing prompts (quick writes) where it's about students writing vs. a grade. Video Writing Prompts, displayed below, is a great place to start.

Here is a great site for resources for writing in math: The Best Resources for Writing in Math Class.

Do you have students who are hesitant to share their ideas with the class? Giving students time to write prior to small group work or whole-group sharing provides them with the opportunity to organize their thinking first.

Show students the video below and ask them to write about what the error in thinking is:

Here is a great website of resources for writing in science class: The Best Resources for Writing in Science Class.

Rather than turning every reflection into a lab report, collect many observations over time so students can choose from a number of experiences.

Require fewer transformed into a formal report that demonstrates skill around required formats. Allow students time to check each other’s, offering feedback on format and content. This reflects the social nature of real-world writing where teams of people--editors, friends, colleagues--contribute to writing before publication. If report numbers are reduced, class time can be repurposed for students to work collaboratively, digesting requirements, rather than repeating mistakes. With choice, students are more likely to succeed.

Writing prior to lessons gets students ready to learn. The best prompts offer choice that leads to personal connections. Good prompts start “Think about a time when....” For instance, “Think about a time when you noticed a weather event. What happened? What reaction did you have to the event? Did it make you wonder about anything?” Share so students learn from and about each other.

Here is a great website for resources for writing in social studies: The Best Resources for Writing in Social Studies Classes.

A great way to make students historians is to have them answer a historical question in your class. The Stanford History Education Group, or SHEG (sheg.stanford.edu), has created many lesson plans that have this premise. One of these is the “Battle of Lexington” lesson plan. Like many other things in history, there are open questions regarding this battle. This lesson centers around the question of “Which side shot first?”.

Asking students to provide an answer, in the correct way, to questions that remain unanswered makes them historians. Provide your students relevant primary sources that show multiple accounts of the same incident and allow them to find the answers on their own. Of course, to do this, you will have to provide them with some skills.

The Michigan Department of Education has great resources on writing across the curriculum.

English Language Arts

Math

Science

Social Studies

Power writing is a method for building writing fluency through brief, timed writing events (Fearn & Farnan, 2001). The purpose is to get students to put ideas down on paper quickly and accurately. During content area instruction, teachers can integrate a simple daily routine of three one-minute rounds of fluency-building experiences. This will ensure that students have daily practice with writing, which addresses part of the requirements of Writing Anchor Standard 10, the part focused on shorter time frames.

A content area word or phrase is posted on the board, and students are asked to use it somewhere in their writing. Students are reminded to “write as much as you can, as well as you can” (Fearn & Farnan, 2001, p. 196). The timer is set, and writing begins until it rings a minute later. When time is up, students reread what they have written, circling any errors they notice, then count and record the number of words in the margin.

This routine is repeated two more times, until students have three one-minute writing samples in their journals. They then record the highest number of words written (often it is the third sample) on a sheet of graph paper kept in their notebook.

The Carnegie Corporation published a report, Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading (2010) which finds that while reading and writing are closely connected, writing is an often-overlooked tool for improving reading skills and content learning. The report identifies three core instructional practices that have been shown to be effective in improving student learning.

1. Have students write about the texts they read.
2. Teach Students the writing skills and processes that go into creating text.
3. Increase how much students write

You can download the report here: Writing to Read

Graham, Steve, and Michael Hebert. Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading. Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education, 2010. Print.

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