A quote from Chapter 3 of Holding On To Good Ideas in A time of Bad Ones that really caught my attention was in response to the goal of writing in postprimary grades, "Using writing to respond to readings, deepen comprehension, and practice academic language" (Newkirk, 52). As an educator, this made me reflect upon how writing should be integrated into all subject areas as a means to enhance what students are reading, rather than a separate area in itself. Why writing has been neglected in other subject areas besides English classes I am not sure, but students need to be given the chance to connect the dots in their knowledge through writing.
Some examples of ways that my students used writing in the content areas this week in my class include some of the following examples: learning about artifacts in Social Studies and drawing illustrations of artifacts and writing about why they were important in history long ago, writing to explain similarities and differences between geometric figures, and writing a summary of what students had learned about our unit on space and connecting the stories to one theme in reading.
With the major shift in education towards implementing Common Core standards, it is a necessity for all teachers to work together towards one common goal to promote the embedded use of writing in all that the students learn. The greatest deficiency right now in the workplace relates to written communication, and students need to continually practice it to grow at it.
Here is an article that relates to reading and writing in the content areas: http://www.adlit.org/adlit_101/improving_literacy_instruction_in_your_school/teaching_reading_and_writing_content_areas/
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