What works in schools--day 2

Writing across the curriculum
Cathy Douglass

Writing is a tool that non-English teachers can use to calrify, think deeply, communicate, explore,extend, record, evaluate, explain, apply, organize, make connections, and build confidence about any subject area--not just English.

Teachers who do not traditionally teach wrtiting can do the following to build opportunities for writing in ther classes such as: Provide time for writing in class, let students choose own topic, monitor student work, model own writing, provide framework, provide a variety of audiences, share student work, enourage students to use personal insights.

In writing across the curriculum, especially for ELL students, content is the most valuable thing to be assessed. Writing is simply an assessment of what the student has learnd. The ideas are the most important thing--organization, diction, grammar--all that English stuff--just determins the level to which the student is able to communicate his or her ideas to the evaluator.

Teachers need to allow students to use their own voice and acknowledge the different purposes of writing and forms of writing.
Sample of Creating a metaphor:
Parts of a cell compared to a factory ie: the nucleus=executive offices, cytoplasm=factor floor, mitochondrion=furnace rooms, etc...
OR
Taking a que from nature
ex: how is space exploration like a plant? a form of water? an animal? weather? a form o light? Season? If kids make metaphors and similes, they are more likely to recognize metaphors and similes on standardized exams--IT'S ABOUT THINKING! I want to do this with a character from literature, or a poetic form, or an author, or a story/novel, or a
OR
Write a technical manual for math ie. 2 column notes--column 1 solving the problem, and column 2 is explaining the soultion.
OR
Pass around--a communal piece of paper is passed around to help focus topics and gather feedback from the class.--it's really cool--try it with poetry essay to help students determine thier individual topics--the overarching idea is poetry, the rest is up to the groups.
--