Writing Accross the Curriculm

As I type this bog I am reminded that after hearing teachers talk about the amount of work it took to prepare lessons and what teaching was all about I decided early on that I would rather not enter the profession.  As God would have it - here I am.  As a teacher it is now interesting to see what my teachers meant by some concepts. I don't knwo when this concept of writing accross the curriculm came into practice but in high school I heard it in every class.  It got to be ridiculous when they said we had to write in math class and it wasn't word problems.

I despised this concept because we had an English and Composition class.  After all what does composition mean - to write. I had honed my writing skills in reach and gifted classes.  I had done so well that I received the highest average in English in 10th grade.  I had had enough of writing.  As I recall I almost failed Geometry because instead of using the time allotted to write in my journal I would do my homework from the previous night.  Here I was an accomplished writer (in my opinion) failing because I refused to do what I knew I could do.  I resolved to just complete the prompts and then finish my homework.

It wasn't until I started teaching that I understood what the purpose of writing across the curriculum was.  As a first year teacher I was still confused.  It wasn't until I read this book and discovered the various purpose and strategies that can be used for writing that I discovered if some of these had been used when I was forced to write it could have been a more enjoyable experience for me.  I must sorrowfully admit that because of my lack of knowledge I too simply forced my students to write.  Now I can use strategies such as admit slips, crystal ball, RAFT and teaching students to ask themselves questions. I am going to use these strategies in the classroom and document when the students desire to write change.