It’s Time To Think Differently About Writing In The Classroom

It’s Time To Think Differently About Writing In The Classroom The shifting emphasis on general literacy is one of the most significant modifications to contemporary academic standards. Now, all instructors across all subject areas are expected to teach reading and writing instead of just “writing teachers” (something we’ve discussed before).

Writing instruction being restricted to a single subject area has changed the way students think in ways that are only now coming to light as math teachers are being instructed to teach writing. Students are increasingly accustomed to spouting basic understandings on exit slips in fragmented sentences, taking notes that carefully curate the thoughts of others, and otherwise avoiding the everyday obligation to develop convincing arguments that synthesize various points of view.

So we—English-Language Arts teachers—respond by handing them fill-in-the-blank graphic organizers that coax them to give reason 1 reason 2 and reason 3 in clear sentences that shun complexity or intellectual endurance, provided their ‘writing’ adheres to an expected form.

And handing those same graphic organizers out when other content area teachers ask for resources.

Now, generations later, the idea of writing about math or science seems not just challenging, but forced and awkward. Science and Math, properly taught, are more akin to philosophies and ways of making sense of the world than “content areas,” offering an infinite number of prompts to spur students to write.

This is the 21st-century, and 21st-century thinking is different.

While it is full of connectivity and collaboration and stunning possibility, the 21st-century learning era is one of infatuation with image, visual spectacle, flashing alerts, endlessly accessible whimsy, and cognitively stunted communication patterns.

And in capable response, writing could be the answer we’ve been looking for, right beneath our noses the whole time.