Presentation on Writing Across the Curriculum.

1. Writing Across theWriting Across the
CurriculumCurriculum
Dinner & Dialogue
January 31, 2012

2. Agenda
 Welcome and Introductions
 Opener/ Community Building & Discussion
 Writing Across the Curriculum Overview
 Introduction to Moodle
Dinner
 Using the Discussion Forum
 Course Expectations
Writing Across the Curriculum

3. Video: Stuck on the Escalator
 Video Link

4. How can you help your students
get off the escalator?
How can we get off the
escalator?
Writing Across the Curriculum

5. Writing Across the Curriculum
 Writing within a variety of classrooms
and disciplines
 Learning content using a diversity of
writing strategies
 Practicing writing in a variety of contexts

6. Writing Across the Curriculum
 Promotes learning the content of the writing
 Encourages student participation
 Supports a diversity of student voices
 Provides tools to support critical thinking and
higher-order thinking skills
 Produces resources for learning
 Develops better writers

7. Writing Across the Curriculum
WAC Helps Students:
 Activate prior knowledge
 Learn new content
 Build a deep foundation of knowledge
 Understand new information within a context
 Organize knowledge for retrieval and
application
 Reflect on their thinking and learning process

8. Writing Across the Curriculum
WAC Helps Teachers:
 Plan instruction
 Initiate discussion and introduce new content
 Develop the use of higher-level thinking skills
 Support differentiated learning efforts
 Reinforce content
 Conduct formative and summative assessment
 Reflect on professional practice to improve
instruction

9. Writing Across the Curriculum
Writing across the curriculum has
two components:
Writing-To-Learn
Writing-To-Demonstrate-Knowledge

10. Writing-To-Learn
A Writing-to-Learn strategy is one that
teachers employ throughout and/or at the
end of a lesson to engage students and
develop big ideas and concepts.
 Requires higher-level thinking skills.
 Focuses on ideas rather than correctness
of details.

11. Writing-To-Learn
There is a strong connection between
Writing-to-Learn strategies and
Assessment FOR Learning.

12. Writing-To-Demonstrate-Knowledge
A Writing-to-Demonstrate-Knowledge strategy
is one that allows students to show what they
have learned by synthesizing information and
explaining or applying their understanding of
concepts and ideas.
 Students write for an audience with a
specific purpose. Products may apply
knowledge in new ways or use academic
structures for research and/or formal
writing.

13. Writing-To-Demonstrate-Knowledge
A Writing-to-Demonstrate-Knowledge
assignment:
 Requires a report, essay, project or other
more formal paper.
 Is a “finished product” which adheres to
format and style guidelines or standards.
 May require a period of weeks of work
including revising and editing.

14. Writing-To-Demonstrate-Knowledge
There is a strong connection between
Writing-to-Demonstrate-Knowledge
strategies and
Assessment OF Learning.

15. WAC & CCSS
Common Core State Standards
 The standards set requirements not only
for ELA but also for literacy in
history/social studies, science and
technical subjects (math).
 Just as students must learn to read,
write, speak, listen and use language
effectively in a variety of content areas
so too must the standards specify the
literacy skills and understandings
required for college and career readiness
in multiple disciplines.

16. WAC & CCSS
Standard 10:
 Write routinely over extended time
frames (time for refection and
revision) and shorter time frames (a
single sitting or a day or two) for a
range of discipline-specific tasks,
purposes, and audiences.