Perhaps “Writing across the curriculum” should be renamed “English across the curriculum.”
In the second half of the twentieth century, “English” as a subject somehow became disconnected from “experience.” What is the purpose of English, or of language arts? It should make possible the learner to communicate. The learner should converse (listen and speak) intelligibly, read with understanding and write coherently. This is as important in science, social studies and math as it is in English. In order to do this, “grammar” should be reduced to its lowest denominator: speaking, and writing of clear sentences, developing these into coherent thoughts that are easily understandable. It is, according to the research, debatable as to whether disconnected “grammar” lessons ever did anything to accomplish this. (There have been three meta-analyses of writing. One was in the sixties, the second in the eighties and yet another in 2007. All three show that, when the emphasis of the English class is grammar, the students show little if any improvement in their ability to write, to communicate their ideas on paper.) A framework of speaking and writing built into science and social studies facilitates this growth in a way that connects to the experiences of the students. In the English classroom, if the majority of time is spent in disconnected grammar lessons, the teacher is wasting the students’ time.
Practice in the art of writing and speaking has a perfectly natural forum in a social studies class, where the subjects range from cultures to geography to history and government. The same is true about science, whether it is knowledge of earth, physical or life science. Most students have interests and have knowledge brought from their life experiences, precious experiences that can be shared. I would submit that, by connecting these experiences, this knowledge to the class, the student will more quickly understand the state curricular benchmarks and objectives. It is truly a winning combination for student and for teacher. Writing about these experiences and conversing about this knowledge is certainly more important than merely reading a disconnected section of the book and taking a multiple guess test on that material.
I taught groups of language arts students in one school for a period of time (around fourteen years) in which their writing was their text. They wrote every day and worked on their writings every day. The subject? Whatever interested them. Most of them improved their abilities to write by around one standard deviation in a year, two in two years. Of those considered learning disabled in writing, over the time I had them, over 90% were not considered learning disabled in writing at the end of the period. Obviously, one cannot spend all of one’s time in science or social studies writing. If, however, the students are wasting time in a language arts class where the bulk of the student’s time is spent parsing sentences and completing rote drills, introducing and maintaining the writing connection in science and social studies would be of incredible benefit for the student.
Remember: Grammar instruction is a waste of time in the middle grades! If teaching that through disconnected lessons is the major of the language arts teacher, the science and social studies teachers can at least make a huge impact on the ability of the student to communicate.
Tags: teaching and learning, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing strategies
