Annotated Bibliography
Writing Across the Curriculum
EDU 630
Fall 2014
Karen Tootle
William Carey University
The concept of writing across the curriculum (WAC) is a contemporary movement founded on the belief that writing in all content areas improves not only writing skills, but also increases content knowledge. In recent years, pressure from increased rigor on standardized tests and the push toward Common Core has created a shift in education. The days of memorizing and “drill and kill” are over, evolving into an environment where higher order thinking and making connections are standard practice. There is little objection to the idea that students need to be better writers and that practice is the best way to achieve
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Without thoughtful consideration from teachers, writing across the curriculum becomes busy work and loses its value. In addition, students will put less effort into writing when they know it will not be carefully read. Writing must be graded based content in addition to grammar, and should not require students to summarize, but to create a valid argument and provide support for this argument. When students are required to write across the curriculum, learning is enriched and the possibilities are endless.
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Daddona, Patricia. Writing across the K12 Curriculum. District Administration. v49 n2 p 33- 34, 36-37. Feb 2013 With the implementation of Common Core, many teachers and administrators are searching for methods of pedagogy that challenge students. Many district leaders are pushing teachers to write across the curriculum in an effort to not only increase writing skills, but to require higher order thinking from students. The Common Core standards were designed in an effort to challenge students to translate information, communicate their knowledge through writing, and make connections across disciplines. In both college and career, writing is a skill often seems to be lacking. This article stresses the importance of argumentative writing across disciplines. Argumentative writing requires more than summarization.
The real world’s standards are constantly evolving, growing ever more demanding on the public education system, yet despite this the primary indicator used for the success of the public education system is the high school graduation rate. The high school graduation rate is a deeply flawed statistic conceived many decades ago and hasn’t changed at all, failing to encompass better and broader definitions for public education system success. However, the focus on critical writing skills at New Dorp High School had the effect of dramatically increasing the school’s graduation rate from 63 percent before the “writing revolution” to 80 percent (Tyre). At face value the increase is a tremendous success, but just because a student can graduation high school does not mean they have the technical skills to prepare them for college or the workforce. A list of the fastest growing occupations in the United States provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics mostly includes jobs from the medical field or occupations that require
Writing is an essential skill that students will use and apply for the rest of their lives. Teaching students to become strong writers is a daily task and involves writing more than just an essay. Research indicates that by the middle school level students should be writing at least 60 minutes a day. A practice of daily writing helps build writing fluency that transcends across the curriculum. However, this can be a daunting task especially when students don’t like to write. In a time when writing is essential to the curriculum, how do we build a community of lifelong writers? (Especially when we are in the age of standardized testing that limits what and how students are being taught writing.) Many experts state that daily writing in
Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by
Instead of focusing on the different types of writing styles they will encounter in college and the workforce, most of the writing instruction students receive in their underclassman English courses at Carrizo Springs High School is primarily focused on preparation for the English Language Arts Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Written Composition test, which has standards that are different than the outcomes they will be expected to accomplish in their dual credit English class and future college writing courses. Therefore, there must be a method implemented at Carrizo Springs High School and Southwest Texas Junior College to help students become more successful in dual credit English before they even step foot in that class. Students must understand that how they perform in that class will have an effect on their
In chapter 9, Writing Across the Curriculum, the process of reading and writing was investigated and explained in comparison to one another. The reading-writing connection focuses on drawing from students’ prior knowledge and cognitive processes in order to build learning. The authors mentioned that the writing process is a strong tool for exploring and clarifying meaning and the two major instructional components used are writing to learn (WTL) and writing in disciplines (WID). The chapter also focused on the subareas of academic journals and writing disciplines.
In order to provide students with the best education and future possible, writing in schools needs to be focused on more in depth. Everyone needs to have a basic understanding of grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and other writing aspects. This is so they can communicate correctly when they get a job in the future and be confident in their writing and communication skills. If someone is not comfortable speaking and/or writing to communicate with others, they are not going to be willing to go out of their comfort zone when they have to communicate with others. With this being said, teachers and schools need to take larger steps to ensure that their students are receiving the proper writing skills needed to be successful in the near future.
The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.
Art Young, in the article “Writing Across and Against the Curriculum,” proposes an innovative and effective approach to promoting language skills and critical thinking amongst college students. As an English professor, Young describes a project in which his campus used poetry across the curriculum to stimulate learning in a variety of subject areas, including English, psychology, accounting, biology, and engineering. He also describes the element of the project which made it so cutting edge is that students did not write across the curriculum but “against it.” This approach not only
A great number of instructors in a writing college consider that writing makes your brain work and that it requires deep thinking. Jonathan Silverman is an author and a high school instructor in the past. Dr. Silverman once requested Strong to write for his pupils about how writing in school differs from writing in college. Strong said that the difference is “writing is thinking”. In secondary school students mostly write to be tested about their knowledge and what they were taught, but in college the students are required to be creative and explorative in their writings. College learners are responsible for all their behaviors and actions. They are in charge of themselves and professors won’t go after the students to tell them about their studies such as deadlines and test dates. Writings in higher education must be written in a higher level. University
Writing can also be implemented in all subject areas. The skills students learn during the writing block can be
Writing can be a very hard topic to teach. It can also be a very hard subject for a student to grasp on too. The amount of instruction on writing and the amount of writing students have done in middle school is very low. Unfortunately, the time dedicated for writing in middle school has been very minimal lately in classrooms. However, Common Core State Standards says writing needs to be done. Research has shown that the seventh graders at Solon Middle school have completed a unit on writing and they had a higher amount of engagement. This students were practicing the CCSS structure and the loved it.
Teachers need to create a daily purpose for their writing. “Teachers need to make ELLs aware of the purpose and form that different types of writing, and ultimately communication, can take in their respective disciple” (DelliCaripini, 2012).Therefore, the more times the students are exposed to the different variety types of writing the more comfortable they will be in writing in their content-area classrooms. “English teachers are in a good position to implement the types of supports that can move ELLs toward success in academic writing by providing exposure to and practice with different genres of academic writing, finding ways to provide time for ELLs to engage in the task, building academic vocabulary, and providing effective feedback that ELLs can use to improve on what they are doing” (DelliCarpini,
Writing is key in my classroom, even more so than reading. I do not want my students to read the textbook word for word, I want them to use it as a guide, and use readable "Math for Dummies" books if necessary. Writing on the other hand, is the end all be all for my class. They will write in their notes, they will write on their homework, they will write on their quizzes and tests, etc. To even show up to my classroom without a pencil is already off to a bad start for the day. To say that writing is promoted in my classroom is an understatement. Although, there are other methods of writing that I will incorporate in my classroom not discussed here but in Week 4 Discussion 2. Vacca (2008, p.243) states; writing facilities learning by motivating
Muriel Hall (1995), Founder and Director of the Purdue is Writing Lab, argues that writing center are not only integral to student success, but are also important to maintain retention (27). Texas A&M is one of the largest universities with high student population, and there are many students, especially freshmen’s and sophomores who struggle with their classes and seek for resources that help them with their academic struggles. UWC and ASC are two of the university initiatives that address the students’ need to help them with their classes and enhance their academic performance.
The current pedagogical methods of teaching writing are not necessarily effective. A “formulaic” approach to writing limits the originality of the students, thus fomenting a peculiar form of censorship: self- censorship. The experience of the students in learning about writing must “create opportunities for students to engage in meaningful writing” rather than focusing on specific structure (Huntley-Johnson 4). Writing should be made a personal experience, completely contrasting with the teaching of math or science.