The document discusses Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC). WAC involves using writing strategies within various classrooms and disciplines to promote learning content. It encourages student participation, supports critical thinking, and helps students organize knowledge. WAC has two components - writing-to-learn strategies that engage students during lessons, and writing-to-demonstrate-knowledge strategies where students show what they've learned. The Common Core State Standards require literacy skills across disciplines, including writing routinely for various tasks.

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.