Integrating Writing into All Content Areas
By Brianne McGee
The academic content we teach our students has drastically changed over the years. The curriculum has become increasingly more rigorous. Educators are consistently overwhelmed by the amount of content that has to be taught during the school year. I am sure many of us have experienced sleepless nights worrying about whether our students would be prepared by the end of the year. This stress can cause tunnel-vision. We begin to focus solely on our curriculum, our content. We forget that our student’s education revolves around more than just the subject we teach. I understand why tunnel-vision occurs, but I also know how harmful it can be to our students.
Our students need to understand the value language arts has within the content areas of math, science, and social studies. Students who can clearly articulate the academic material tend to have a better grasp on the content. Thus, experts in the field of education have recommended that educators begin to incorporate writing into all content areas. The call for an increase in academic writing might cause some to feel slightly anxious, which is why I want to provide all educators a few simple solutions that can help them bump up the amount of writing in his or her classroom.
Types of Writing
Educators can easily implement quick writes into the daily lesson plans. A quick write is a short, timed writing activity that can be used to build background knowledge, promote critical thinking, or initiate problem solving. Quick writes can be used at any point during the lesson depending on the purpose of the writing activity. Below are a few examples of how content teachers could utilize quick writes in their classroom.
What do you think of when you hear the word, photosynthesis? What thoughts or images come to your mind? You have five minutes to describe any ideas that occur to you.
If you were teaching fractions to a peer, what key ideas would you want to mention?
Choose one of the statements below. Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
People under the age of eighteen should be allowed to vote.
The voting age should be increase to twenty-five.
Eighteen is the appropriate voting age for our country.
Students will also benefit from participating in collaborative writing because it allows them to verbally discuss the academic content while they construct their writing piece. This type of writing has been shown to benefit struggling readers, as well as, students who are just now learning the English language. Through collaborative writing, students are able to work closely with their peers to discuss not only the academic content, but also specific aspects of each writing genre such as composition, grammar usage, and word-choice.
Collaborative writing can easily be integrated into the curriculum, but there are a few specific questions educators need to answer before implementing this strategy in their classroom.
How many students are going to be in each group?
We do not recommend putting more than three students in a group, because then students do not have the opportunity to communicate as much with their peers.
How will you select which students work together?
It has been noted in the education field that homogenous pairing during this type of activity prevents students from growing academically. It is better for your students to be paired heterogeneously. This means one of your struggling students should be paired with a student who is typically an average performer. It is recommended that you do not pair a struggling student with a student who performs above grade level because they won’t be able to learn as much from each other.
Educators can also incorporate informational writing into the curriculum, which allows the students to explain a specific topic that was discussed during class. This style of writing easily connects with many of the content standards math, science, and social studies teachers are expected to teach during the year. Informational writing requires students to explicitly explain and/or define academic concepts. Below are a few examples of prompts that can be used by content-area teachers.
Explain how you solved the problem 3(8x + 5y) – 2(3x + 2y) using complete sentences.
Why did the solution change color when heat was added?
What trials and tribulations did Martin Luther King Jr. face during his lifetime?
What did the protagonist learn throughout the story? Why was this lesson important?
Writing Supports
Incorporating writing to each subject-area will be a difficult task. Each student in your classroom possesses extremely different writing competencies. There are going to be some students who can construct a five-page essay with absolutely no problem. There are going to be other students who are still learning how to write in complete sentences. As an educator, I understand how difficult it can be to meet the needs of all students which is why I am providing a few simple supports you can utilize to help your students be successful in their writing endeavors.
It is imperative you model each writing activity. The students will have a better understanding of their expectations when you take three minutes to model what a quick write should look like.
Sentence stems are going to be extremely helpful for both your English language learners and your struggling students. By providing sentence stems, you are helping these students learn how to construct a complete sentence.
Provide graphic organizers when the students are going to be constructing a longer piece of writing. This will help them organize their thoughts, before they begin the writing process.
Citations
Patterson, Schaller, and Clemens (2008).
Zhu (2001).
To Further Your Learning
Cult of Pedagogy: Seven Easy Ways to Support Student Writing in Any Content Area
Reading Rockets: A Range of Writing Across Content Areas