The document discusses how writers observe details, ask questions, make interpretations, and draw connections when writing. It provides examples of how writers in different subjects such as science, social studies, math, and language arts engage in these practices. Writers freely wonder about meanings, issues, and solutions. They also become aware of their own perspectives and how they differ from others. When writing, connections are made to things that come to mind beyond the main topic. Ideas are put together and relations found between topics.

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6. Writers see something of interest and attempt to capture it in writing.
Observations may involve describing what is actually visible, summarizing and
interpreting details, or recalling key ideas.
Examples:
Science: When the water boils, it evaporates.
Social Studies: Destruction from hurricanes has an economic impact such as gas prices increasing.
Math: When multiplying numbers, a pattern occurs.
Language Arts: The boy in the story is faced with many difficult choices.
Lynn Mair, 2005

7. Writers formulate and record questions they have including personal doubts,
points of confusion, validity of information, and/or how things are done.
Examples:
Science: What happens when the water cools again?
Social Studies: Couldn’t we just get more oil from somewhere else?
Isn’t there some other fuel we could use?
Math: Does dividing make a similar pattern to multiplying?
Language Arts: Why didn’t the author give the boy a name?
Lynn Mair, 2005

8. On paper, writers are free to wonder aloud about the meaning of events,
issues, facts, readings, patterns, interpretations, problems and solutions.
Examples:
Science: If this works for water, it might work for other liquids too.
Social Studies: Global Warming could cause more of these powerful hurricanes to occur because the
water is warmer.
Math: If I learn and remember the patterns, I’ll be able to refer to them later on.
Language Arts: The author may be connecting his own experiences with the boy’s life to teach us a
lesson about survival and the power of the human spirit.
Lynn Mair, 2005

9. Writers become conscious of who they are, what they stand for, and how they
are different from others.
Examples:
Science: I had an easier time working on this lab not only because the data was easier to record, but
also because I picked a better lab partner.
Social Studies: If these disasters keep happening, I won’t have to worry about getting a car,
because I won’t be able to afford the gas to drive it.
Math: I wish I had figured this out earlier. If I had, I would have been able to answer that
multiplication of decimals question on the MEAP.
Language Arts: I’m not sure if I’d have the strength to survive the storm like the boy did. I’d want
to live too, but I don’t have the same skills he does.
Lynn Mair, 2005

10. As they write, writers depart from the subject to connect to something that
“comes to mind”.
Examples:
Science: I tried something like this at home once, but I forgot the water boiling in the pot and by
the time I had remembered it, I burnt the pot.
Social Studies: After the last hurricane, a family came up here to live since the mom and dad had
both lost their jobs and home. Our church fixed up a run-down house and gave it to them.
Math: Patterns can be seen just about anywhere. When I was playing checkers with my brother, I
used multiplication and the pattern on the board to figure out how many squares the board had.
Language Arts: This story reminds me of the story of Wilma Rudolph because she had so many
obstacles to overcome in order to live her life the way she wanted to.
Lynn Mair, 2005

11. Writers put together ideas and find relations and
connections between topics.
Examples:
Science: If the earth continues to heat up, will the water on earth evaporate?
Social Studies: Seeing pictures online of the hurricane over Louisiana makes me think about the
movie The Day After Tomorrow and wonder just how possible the movie actually is.
Math: When we studied the Inca people, they used patterns of knotted strings to communicate with
each other. They had to learn/know the patterns to figure out what was being said.
Language Arts: I think the author would have admired people like Wilma Rudolph, John Glenn and
other American heroes we’ve learned about because they all possessed a determination that helped
them beat the odds.
Lynn Mair, 2005