It's so interesting for me to think about this being implemented in high school! It was in vogue when I taught 5th grade, but it was workable for several reasons. You mention students writing up how they solved math problems, and how it works if you aren't correcting for technical writing errors and just looking for understanding of math. Yes! I had my students keep a math journal. We did a few problems together so I could demonstrate what I wanted in the journal. I just wanted words and pictures that showed their thinking and solution. They didn't need to necessarily write full sentences as long as I could follow their process. This is so helpful in understanding why they are getting things wrong, because you can identify the errors in thinking much more easily.
I didn't teach science because we had partners - I taught history/social studies to both classes and she taught science. It's easy to incorporate writing in history, and I would think most history teachers at the high school level had to do some writing in college? That doesn't mean they can teach it, though. For history, we did reports on the states. I had to guide my students step-by-step through the process, but hopefully that background helped them in later grades.
I've heard of schools requiring writing in electives and PE, too. That's ridiculous and I would want to see the research showing that it is helpful. My own kids felt that it ruined the appeal of electives! I don't blame them.
The only other subject is English, and of course we wrote in English - in my class, anyway. So I guess it is somewhat do-able in an elementary, self-contained classroom. In high school, I can see it working with lab notes in science plus what I've outlined above, especially if mechanics are not graded. If they want more than that (long division essays?) I would question the efficacy.
But then, I question the efficacy of most things that go on in schools these days...
I will never forget reading a 6th grade science research report where the writing was so bad I didn't know where to begin. to provide feedback. I looked at the student and asked, "What would Ms. _______ say about this?" (their writing teacher) The student gasped and grabbed the paper back from me. It made me realize they don't naturally transfer the skills they learn in writing to their other subjects. I was fortunate to work with a team of teachers who were empowered by our principal to problem solve these types of issues. We found areas we could agree on across subject areas, sometimes as simple as the terminology (1st draft instead of rough draft, revising and editing as distinct steps). The writing teachers helped me understand what they were trying to accomplish so I could reinforce it (prewrites, transitions, topic sentences...). They agreed to use class time for our students to revise their work. In exchange I agreed to include the writing as well as the content in my grading. I benefited by not having to read stacks of horrible writing. It was powerful because we came up with it ourselves rather than the normal top down approach. Collaborating with my team members to make our student's experience more meaningful was one of the most satisfyingly things I have done as a teacher.
This is timely as last week, a teacher with 50,000 Twitter followers got a lot of heat posting that specials/elective teachers who don’t think reading and writing are their responsibility “piss” her off.
To the writing teachers who feel like giving free advice:
I am a middle school science teacher. I know that science writing is a truly important skill and if I knew how to link to another Substack I would direct you to DrPlasmaNerd and her wonderful tips for science communication, but I digress.
What I would like is some feedback on my approach, I tend to focus on the student's ability to communicate what they know about the topic. So I have them include graphic images such as pictures, charts, graphs, and other relevant stuff and use their writing to describe what they have shown. I also demonstrate using voice to text as a first draft followed by editing for conventions. This is usually done as part of a lab report or as a response to an article or hypothetical situation. Do you have any advice for encouraging students to use the written word for science communication?
It's so interesting for me to think about this being implemented in high school! It was in vogue when I taught 5th grade, but it was workable for several reasons. You mention students writing up how they solved math problems, and how it works if you aren't correcting for technical writing errors and just looking for understanding of math. Yes! I had my students keep a math journal. We did a few problems together so I could demonstrate what I wanted in the journal. I just wanted words and pictures that showed their thinking and solution. They didn't need to necessarily write full sentences as long as I could follow their process. This is so helpful in understanding why they are getting things wrong, because you can identify the errors in thinking much more easily.
I didn't teach science because we had partners - I taught history/social studies to both classes and she taught science. It's easy to incorporate writing in history, and I would think most history teachers at the high school level had to do some writing in college? That doesn't mean they can teach it, though. For history, we did reports on the states. I had to guide my students step-by-step through the process, but hopefully that background helped them in later grades.
I've heard of schools requiring writing in electives and PE, too. That's ridiculous and I would want to see the research showing that it is helpful. My own kids felt that it ruined the appeal of electives! I don't blame them.
The only other subject is English, and of course we wrote in English - in my class, anyway. So I guess it is somewhat do-able in an elementary, self-contained classroom. In high school, I can see it working with lab notes in science plus what I've outlined above, especially if mechanics are not graded. If they want more than that (long division essays?) I would question the efficacy.
But then, I question the efficacy of most things that go on in schools these days...
I will never forget reading a 6th grade science research report where the writing was so bad I didn't know where to begin. to provide feedback. I looked at the student and asked, "What would Ms. _______ say about this?" (their writing teacher) The student gasped and grabbed the paper back from me. It made me realize they don't naturally transfer the skills they learn in writing to their other subjects. I was fortunate to work with a team of teachers who were empowered by our principal to problem solve these types of issues. We found areas we could agree on across subject areas, sometimes as simple as the terminology (1st draft instead of rough draft, revising and editing as distinct steps). The writing teachers helped me understand what they were trying to accomplish so I could reinforce it (prewrites, transitions, topic sentences...). They agreed to use class time for our students to revise their work. In exchange I agreed to include the writing as well as the content in my grading. I benefited by not having to read stacks of horrible writing. It was powerful because we came up with it ourselves rather than the normal top down approach. Collaborating with my team members to make our student's experience more meaningful was one of the most satisfyingly things I have done as a teacher.
This is timely as last week, a teacher with 50,000 Twitter followers got a lot of heat posting that specials/elective teachers who don’t think reading and writing are their responsibility “piss” her off.
To the writing teachers who feel like giving free advice:
I am a middle school science teacher. I know that science writing is a truly important skill and if I knew how to link to another Substack I would direct you to DrPlasmaNerd and her wonderful tips for science communication, but I digress.
What I would like is some feedback on my approach, I tend to focus on the student's ability to communicate what they know about the topic. So I have them include graphic images such as pictures, charts, graphs, and other relevant stuff and use their writing to describe what they have shown. I also demonstrate using voice to text as a first draft followed by editing for conventions. This is usually done as part of a lab report or as a response to an article or hypothetical situation. Do you have any advice for encouraging students to use the written word for science communication?
FCAs. Our consultant was Henry.
Very nice guy. Well-intentioned.
My ELA colleague ended up teaching the Pythagorean Theorem to make up for the time we all lost from my math class.
Bwahahaha. Your timing is on point! :-) The following message came via email.
Wed, Aug 9, 2023, 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM PDT
Day 2: Secondary ELA 2 of 2 (Writing Across the Curriculum)
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