This document provides examples of writing prompts and activities that teachers can use to incorporate writing into math and science classes. It discusses the benefits of writing in building disciplinary literacy and learning. Some key points: - Writing makes thinking and learning in math and science visible, helps students solve problems and gain clarity. It improves retention of content. - Prompts can start simply, asking students to reflect on their feelings about a topic, then progress to having students explain concepts or summarize group work. - Interactive notebooks/blogs allow students to record notes on one side and reflections on the other, modeling how scientists take notes. - Journals provide a low-stakes way for students to work through problems

1. Writing in Math and
Science
Laurie Stowell
Cal State San Marcos
San Marcos Writing Project
lstowell@csusm.edu

2. Why write?
 Dr. Stephen Tsui: physics professor, Cal State
San Marcos
 See also: “Why I write” from the National
Writing Project in which writers from all walks
of life write about why they write.
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resourc
e/3663
 “Why I write” Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vANYvj
LzQy4&list=PLF779B2AC42B123FA

3. Disciplinary Literacy
“Thus, the purpose of disciplinary literacy is less about trying to
give students the tools (e.g., study skills) to be better students
generally, and more about inducting them into the disciplines.
That’s the idea of reading like a scientist or writing like a
historian or literary critic. Instead of having students study these
subjects as outsiders, disciplinary literacy tries to engage them in
exploring content in the way that insiders would. That means
treating the content as more than information to be memorized
for a test. In other words, the point of teaching disciplinary
literacy is to engage students is the same kinds of analysis,
argument, and literacy use that would be common in the fields.”
-Timothy Shanahan

4. Research demonstrates that every field of study
creates, evaluates, and communicates
knowledge in specialized ways. To “know” in a
discipline means you understand the purposes
of that discipline how knowledge is created and
represented; how research is framed and
pursued; what counts as evidence and how data
generates claims; and how disciplinary experts
read and write, solve problems, and make
meaning.

5. Pedagogical Content Knowledge
 Since reading and composing are central to every discipline
and their meaning-making processes and advancement, it
follows that every teacher is a teacher of reading and literacy as
practiced in their discipline. Students need to understand how
disciplinary experts use literacy and particular forms of
textuality to do their work, and they need lots of scaffolded
practice doing such work (notice, for example, how all Core
standard focus on process—on the “how”). The activity of
exercising Pedagogical Content Knowledge does not take time
away from disciplinary teaching—it is, in fact, teaching
students how to do the discipline in ways that will require
them to deeply learn the whys and the whats.

6. This emphasis is in fact a focus on all next
generation standards, including the CCSS:
apprenticing students into how to do
various disciplines and how to be
literate in various disciplines.

7. 90/90/90 Schools Research
In the 90/90/90 schools in Reeves’ research the students wrote
everyday. Students processed information in a much clearer
way when they are required to write and writing gives teachers
a clearer idea of what help students need. But more
importantly, there was an association between writing and
performance in other subject areas. Many successful schools
reported that they had to sacrifice time in curriculum areas
other than writing, reading and math in order to “cover” the
entire curriculum. However more than 80% of the elementary
schools improved science scores. In addition when writing
scores went up, math scores went up. “It is difficult to escape
the conclusion that an emphasis on writing improvement has a
significant impact on student test scores in other disciplines,
including math and science.” (Reeves, 1999, p. 270)

8. Tierney’s H.S. Biology class
The experimental group kept reading logs, “neuron notes” (learning
logs), wrote practice essays, wrote to other audiences, end of class
summaries, did group writing and essay tests. The comparison
group did none of the writing except limited group writing and took
multiple-choice tests. Each group took a multiple-choice test at the
end of a unit, as well as recall tests. The results of the multiple-choice
tests were about the same for each group. But the results of the recall
test were substantially different. After sixteen weeks, the
experimental group scored 11% higher on the genetics recall test.
Tierney and Stookey concluded that the students who had the
opportunity to use expressive writing retained more of what they
learned. They believe the students “learn the subject matter more
thoroughly and their papers, reflecting what the student
understands, will be more interesting to read”. (Nagin & NWP, 2003,
p.54)

9. Writing:
A ticket to work or a ticket out
 College Board report: Writing: A ticket to work or a ticket
out.
 Surveyed 120 corporations
 “People who can not write clearly will not be hired”.
 “Writing is a “threshold skill” for both employment and
promotion, particularly for salaried employees. Half the
responding companies report that they take writing into
consideration when hiring professional employees. “In
most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in . . . or it
could be your ticket out,” said one respondent. “

10. Why write?
 To explain • To synthesize
 To inform • To summarize
 To describe • To define
 To argue • To prove
 To compare/contrast • To cite evidence
 To Problem Solve • To interpret
 To analyze • To report

11. Depth of Knowledge

12. Quickwrite:
• Things I already know or do about writing
to learn
 Why it is worth spending time on writing
in my class

13. Beginning and ending:
 Math, science, Physical Education, etc.
autobiography. Ask students to write their
own history with a particular subject: their
successes, setbacks, attitudes, highlights,
lowlights, etc. What is their math
autobiography?
 At the end of a unit or the year, ask students
to write how they are scientists,
mathematicians, etc. How do they or how can
they use what they learned in their life.

14. Quick, informal writing:
 Admit Slips: when entering the class, students
write on an assigned topic such as “What did you
notice was important in yesterday’s discussion”.
 Crystal Ball: Students describe what they think class
will be about, what will happen next in a science lab.
 Found poems: Students reread an assigned text and
find key phrase that “speak” to them, then rearrange
these into a poem structure without adding any of
their own words.

15.  Wonderopolis: wonderopolis.org: Write about the
“wonder of the day”. Write about your own
wondering.
 Yesterday’s news: Students summarize the
information presented the day before either from a
film, lecture, discussion or reading.
 Class or Individual Blog: Students can summarize
class content for each day on a blog or discuss
engaging topics online with each other or a wider
audience.

16.  “What if” scenarios: Students respond to prompts in
which information is changed from what they know
and they predict outcomes. Example: What would
happen if penicillin had not be discovered?
 Take a stand: Students discuss their opinions about a
controversial topic such as “Just because we can,
should we clone people?”
 Letters: Students write letters to others including
elected officials, family, friends, people who make a
difference. etc. Write to real or imaginary people. See
“Open Letter to the Universe” video.

17.  Exit slips: Used as a closure activity at the end of the
period, students write on a prompt such as, “The
three best things I learned today are…”
 Writing Frames: Frames are a good support for
English learners and struggling writers. They
provide a scaffold for writing that can be gradually
released.
 20 Things (or 10 things) You didn’t know about:
Discover Magazine features this on their back page.
Writers list 20 interesting facts displayed in
interesting ways.

18. Mentor Texts:
•What does it feel like from Esquire magazine: Choose
an experience and explain what it feels like The
experience could include scientific or mathematic
principles. In P.E.: what does it feel like to score a
goal, steal the ball, hit a double, etc.
• The Ocean is… by Kathleen Kranking: Choose a topic
and write what it is like using metaphors and similes.
• Diary of a worm by Doreen Cronin: Write about life
from any object or living thing’s point of view.
• Hello ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan: Write about a living
thing using all 5 senses, include relevant details.

19. Mentor Texts:
 The important book by Margaret Wise Brown: Students
write a paragraph about any topic citing the most
important thing and other aspects of the topic.
 Linnea’s Almanac by Cristina Bjork: Students keep an
observational journal over a period of time like a
moon journal, observing a patch of land over time,
changes in food that is not refrigerated, etc.
 Pigs will be pigs by Amy Axelrod & Sharon McGinley-
Nally: Create extended story problems and illustrate.
Create picture books of these story problems.

20. Designing Assignments
 Create topics that invite inventive thinking and
avoid topics that invite cliches or straight listing of
facts.
 Keep the assignment focused. A vague assignment
with confusing directions invites dull, vacuous
responses.
 Choose topics with purpose. The more purposeful
the assignment in students’ eyes, the more likely
your are to accomplish our teaching aims. Would
you want to do the assignment?

21.  Make the topic meaningful within students’ experiences.
Design topics that allow students to use their own experience
or the semester’s work for examples and support.
 Use specific terms such as define, illustrate, argue, compare,
contrast, evaluate as precise signposts of your expectations.
(Pull verbs from Webb’s Depth of Knowledge – at all levels)
 Use creative formats for some assignments. (See RAFTS)
 Whenever possible, allow for choice in writing assignments.
 Define the grading criteria you’ll use.

22. Assigning vs. Teaching Writing
When writing is assigned:
Students write only on teacher’s topics
When writing is taught:
Students have opportunities to create
topics that matter to them
Teacher selects topics for papers without
consideration of audience & purpose.
Audience & purpose for papers are
specifically identified in assignments.
Students are asked to analyze, compare,
describe, narrate, review and summarize
without the strategies to successfully
complete these tasks.
Students are given writing models,
assignments & strategies to guide each of
their different tasks.
Students are required to rewrite – in
some cases. But rewriting is usually
limited to correcting grammar, usage, etc
Students are encouraged to revise, edit
and improve-and to correct drafts and
then resubmit.
Students and teachers are bored by what
students write.
Students and teachers are excited about
what students write and make efforts to
display and publish.

23. Starting Out Gently with Affective,
Open-Ended Prompts
 Writing about thinking is challenging. For this reason, it's
best not to start out having students write about unfamiliar
mathematical or scientific ideas. First get them used to
writing in a math and science class:
 Begin with affective, open-ended questions about students'
feelings.
 I learned that I…
 I discovered that I …
 I was surprised that…
 I noticed that I…

24.  Once students have become accustomed to writing about
their attitudes and feelings toward mathematics in their
journals, they are ready to write about simple, familiar
math concepts. It is important not to make the writing too
difficult by asking them to write about unfamiliar math
ideas. Using writing to review familiar math ideas will
increase confidence and skill in writing as well as revisit
important math concepts.
 Explain what is important to know about fractions

25. Moving On: Writing About More
Advanced Math Concepts
 When you feel your students are ready, ask them to write about
more complex mathematical ideas, including concepts being taught
at their current grade level. To help move students into this more
advanced level of writing about their thinking. Here are some other
suggestions to help :
 1. Encourage students to use drawings and graphs to explain their
thinking.
 Research shows that using simple visual aids (diagrams, graphs,
etc.) improves mathematical problem-solving ability, especially in
female students.
 2. As student writing progresses, ask students to write about their
small group work.
 Ask the group to write a summary of how they reached a solution,
including any "false starts" or "dead ends."

26. Interactive Notebooks/Blogs
Real scientists keep notebooks:
Think as a scientist…
Record as a scientist…
Reflect as a scientist…
Write as a scientist.

27. Math Journals/Blogs
Why Journal?
1. Solve tricky problems: write about it from
our point of view until solve them.
2. Make thinking visible
3. Gain clarity
4. Get feedback
5. Verify progress

29. What goes on the right side?
 Start the page with the date and subject title at the top of the page.
 ONLY odd numbered pages.
 The right side is for writing down information you are given in
class.
 Notes from lectures, books or videos.
 Vocabulary Words and their Definitions.
 Notes for labs and lab instructions, procedures and materials.
 Teacher Questions and Sample Problems
 Any other type of INPUT you get in class.

30. On the left side:
 Brainstorming •Diagrams
 Mind mapping •Drawings
 Concept Maps •Writing Prompts
 Venn Diagrams •Commentary
 Pictures •Flow chart
 Drawings •Reflections
 Significant Statements

31. What goes on the left side?

32. Interactive:
 Writer, teacher and/or peer returns to the notebook to
reflect and interact with it!
 Students can discuss their notebook entries with each
other.
 Examples of interesting thinking or good writing can
be shared with the class with doc cam.

33. Show what you know!

34. Student Blogs
 Middle School Students’ math blogs
 Ten commandments for science blogs:
http://scienceblogs.com/digitalbio/2013/0
3/03/the-ten-commandments-of-student-
science-blogging/

35. Good sites for student blogging
Kidblog.org is a free safe blogging site for schools.
Teachers control and monitor student blogs. All
student blogs are private by default, but teachers can
choose to make certain posts public or share them
with parents.
Edublogs.org is a secure blogging site that provides
different levels of paid accounts depending on the
number of teachers using the subscription.

36. Writing about
Vocabulary
Many high concept terms can be learned more
deeply and remembered longer by thinking
about and writing about them in interesting
ways.

37. Student sample
Perpendicular
Right angles; divergent paths
Sharp and upright
From that corner, that
Point; that bend that began us
Our shapes move in opposing
ways
Spreading and shifting
Out from each other
Passing the same blocks and
squares
In this grid of a city.
At night, I pass the tiny
Dots that make up our world
Bits of light scattered evenly over
Our web of steel and stone
I look up to the stars
Their light reflects the lattice
Of bulbs beaming up from the
buildings
I wonder
If there
Our lines might run parallel
Or if we are still
Perpendicular
-Jessica Swan

38. Rotate (by Tracy Tiers)
Active ingredient: movement…………………..100%
Uses:
Temporarily relieves vertical alignment of pdf file due to improper
scanning technique
Temporarily relieves substitution player from sideline duties when her
volleyball team regains the serve
Temporarily relieves Earth from permanently facing the sun
Temporarily relieves soil from nurturing the same crops each season
Temporarily relieves the evening security guard from an all night shift
 Warnings: Do not take rotate if you are prone to motion sickness or
have an allergic reaction to change.

39. Dear Obtuse Angle:
I have come to the conclusion that we are no longer able to be
together. As an obtuse angle, you are very large. You can be up
to 180 degrees! As an acute angle, I am small and can only be
up to 90 degrees. I want someone who can always live with me
the same line. If you are 130 degrees then I can only be 50
degrees! What will happen if I grow to be 89 degrees? I just
don't think it will work. For our future's sake, we must break
up. I will pack up your stuff and place it at the end of the line
by the end of the day.
Sincerely,
Acute Angle -Sarah Stone

40. Perpetual
Perpetual, the going and
going
The pedaling of a bike
Round and round without
stopping
Perpetual, the going and
going
Like the drizzly leak of a
faucet at night
The continued,
unrelenting, drip, drip,
drip
Perpetual, the going and
going
Relentless, persistence
without desisting
The continued returning
like that of the seasons
Perpetual, the going
and going
A time of timelessness
Like the ever turning
gears of a clock
Perpetual, the going
and going
Like a ceaseless
metronome
Without tire or break,
waving back n' forth
Perpetual, the going
and going
No sequel just auto-
replay
Like a bad movie
continuously viewed
Perpetual, the going
and going
The non stop rhythmic
pattern
Like the beating heart
of an immortal
Perpetual, the going
and going
No change, no
beginning, no end
The wheel of motion
bound by nothing
Perpetual, the going
and going…

41. Argument:
The Universal Writing Genre
 The reason the CCSS focus so heavily on
argumentation as a genre is because of its frequency
of use in the real world.
 Argument is more evidence based and persuasion is
more emotion based.
 Argument serves every content area.
 An argument is a claim supported by evidence.

42. “Slip or Trip”
Writing Arguments
 Claim
 Evidence
 Warrants: what makes sense in the
natural world? A warrant ties the
evidence to the claim.

43. Writing Argument with
Evidence
• Mythbusters: Moon Hoax (see resource list
for video links)
 Mythbusters Moon Hoax google form Evidence
Chart:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UOif_F
5XEldQrMxT3-
tpkKSKyOs494MpvvZglPIMSnU/edit#gid=0

44. RAFTS

46. Math RAFT sample

47. Math RAFT sample

48. Science RAFT sample
 8th grade teacher shares how she used RAFT to write
in her science class.
Greatest Scientist of All Time
Role: you
Audience: scientist from a past era
Format: written interview
Topic: the greatest contribution to science
Strong Verb: write and document

49. What would RAFT look like in
your class?
 Choose a unit you teach
 Draft some possible RAFTs students could
choose.
 Leave some blank spots in your chart that
students could fill in.
 RAFT Student template:
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resou
rces/printouts/RAFTWriting.pdf

50. RAFT rubric

51. Inquiry Study
Engaging Students in
Deeper Learning

52. What is inquiry?
“The process of addressing
problems expressed by
guiding questions.”
(Wilhelm)

53. Inquiry Based Learning
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLqi0raxldc&feat
ure=related
 Inquiry based learning in an 8th grade science class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Lh5MfyE-
E&feature=related

54. Why inquiry?
 What are the most effective modes of instruction in
the teaching of composition?
 He analyzed all the studies on teaching
composition and categorized the modes into:
 Grammar instruction
 Free write
 Sentence combining
 Models
 Scales
 Inquiry

55. Hillock’s Research

56. “Inquiry focuses the attention of students on strategies
for dealing with sets of data, strategies that will be
used in writing. For example, treatments categorized
as inquiry might involve students in finding and
stating specific details that convey personal experience
vividly, in examining sets of data to develop and
support explanatory generalizations or that present
ethical problems and in developing arguments about
those situations.”

57. “…the teacher plans and uses activities that result in
high levels of student interaction concerning particular
problems parallel to those they encounter in certain
kinds of writing, such as generating criteria and
examples to develop extended definitions of concepts or
generating arguable assertions from appropriate data
and predicting and countering opposing
arguments…This mode places a priority on high levels
of students involvement… This mode places priority on
structured problem solving activities with clear
objectives, planned to enable students to deal with
similar problems in composing.”

58. Setting up an Inquiry
1. Identify an essential question and associated
enduring understandings
2. Identify a final project: what can students do at the
end of the unit that will demonstrate their knowledge.
3. Create a backwards plan: a carefully ordered set of
activities that support students’ progress, text by text
and activity by activity.

59. Getting started with a question:
Reframe standards as essential questions
 Go through your standards and circle all the verbs. The
higher level thinking skills the standards call for, the easier
they can be met by inquiry:
* “identify”, “discuss”, “use” are low level thinking
* “identify and define” and “discuss craft” are mid level
* “evaluate”, “relate”, “connect”, “question”, “analyze”
are higher level thinking.

60. What are the questions worth
pursuing?
• What would you do for love? What makes good relationships?
 Civil rights movement: What are our civil rights and how can we
protect and promote them?
 Is war ever necessary?
 What is courage?
 What happened to the dinosaurs?
 Is Holden Caulfield a typical teenager or pathological adolescent?
 What’s wrong with our school and how can we improve it?
 In what ways do present cultures relate to their past and future?

61.  Can liberty and security be balanced?
 What makes an influential historical figure?
 What are the costs and benefits of cloning stem cell research?
 What is our proper relationship to nature?
 What are the effects of genetically altered organisms?
 Is progress always good?
 What is a good leader?
 What makes a good home –for us, for lobsters, bears?

62. An essential question:
 Honors students “reality principle”. It addresses
their point of view and need for inquiry to be
interesting and relevant in their terms.
 Addresses the “heart of the discipline” being
studied. Essential disciplinary knowledge is
required to answer it.
 Possesses “emotive force, intellectual bite or
edginess”. It invites students into ongoing
conversation and debates about real world
disciplinary issues.

63.  Is open-ended, possible to contend, arguable. It must
be complex enough to house multiple perspectives
and possible answers.
 Is concise and clearly stated
 Is linked to data. There are available resources to use
in the pursuit of answers.
 May lead to new questions asked by students

64. What could be questions worth
pursuing in your class?(related to
your curriculum)
After identifying goals, brainstorm
what kinds of writing that would
demonstrate student attainment,
understanding, mastery or use of
concepts and procedures.

65. Ozobots Inquiry
 Ozobots: http://www.ozobot.com
 Ozobots app
 sphero: http://www.gosphero.com
 Middle School Sphero projects:
http://blogs.southfieldchristian.org/middlep
ages/2015/03/sphero-challenges/

66. Inquiry
 Students determine questions
 Students develop proposals
 Students determine criteria for moving forward
on proposals
 Students conduct experiments
 Students “publish” results

68. Multi-genre writing
• Another way to pursue inquiry and
demonstrate understandings.
• Multigenre, inquiry, project based learning,
CCSS are all very compatible.
• Using multiple sources of information,
analyzing and synthesizing then producing
multiple genres to demonstrate learning.

69. Genres can be combined in one
format:
 Magazines
 Zines
 Newspapers
 Informational picture books
 Anthology

70. Multi-genre writing
Or students and teachers can enter into
a kind of contract identifying a
particular number of different genres
to answer their question.

71. Getting Started:
Identify question(s)
Identify sources
Identify forms
The project should be arranged in
some logical order. The writer
needs to create a cohesion or flow to
the project.

72. How do spiders spin webs?
 Two voice poem
 Diary of a spider
 6 word memoir
 Song (using old Spiderman tune)
 Comic strip
 Obituary
 Recipe for a web

73. Student samples:
Salem Witch Trials

74. Ben and Jerry’s

75. Digital Multi-genre projects
 Walt Disney:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMopnh0QRyo&feature=
related
 Alcohol Awareness:
http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/multigenre/alcohol/inde
x.htm
 Samples of multi-genre papers:
http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/multigenre/index.htm
 Tom Romano’s site with many resources including rubrics:
http://www.users.miamioh.edu/romanots/Tom_Romano.ht
ml

76. Designing Rubrics
 Match criteria to assignment goals, i.e. what
concepts did you want students to learn.
 Match writing criteria to content area: clearly
communicated science concepts, math concepts, etc.
 Used appropriate terminology correctly
 Emphasize communicating ideas and organization
 Keep grammar, usage, spelling in perspective (don’t
over-emphasize)

77. 1 2 3 4 5
Scientific
Accuracy
Clearly
communic
ated
Quotes &
paraphrasing
Appropriate
evidence
Grammar
and
spelling

78. Resources
 Writing Fix has a RAFT prompt builder: RAFTS
home page:
http://writingfix.com/WAC/RAFT.htm
 Writing Fix: Writing across the Curriculum,
Number Fix:
http://writingfix.com/WAC/NumberFix.htm
 Writing Fix: Writing across the Curriculum, Science
Fix: http://writingfix.com/WAC/ScienceFix.htm
 See Resource list