Inviting English into other Subjects

     

                I can generally guess the reaction when I tell someone for the first time that I’m getting my license to teach English and Science at the middle school level.   It starts with a tell-tale head cock to one side and a quizzical repetition, “English and science?”  It seems like a strange combination, but being a student teacher in both subjects for the past school year, I can tell you that there is more overlap than you’d think; especially now with requirements in each subject to incorporate literature and writing standards.

                My latest issue of Science Scope magazine really opened my eyes to the unique position English teachers are in right now being that reading and writing is a focus for every class  - collaboration is going to be key in assuring that students meet the growing need to grow capable writers and readers across curriculum.  As the editor of the magazine, Inez Liftig, states, “collaborating with language arts and other content teachers is a necessity, as you step beyond the traditional boundaries of teaching writing science.” 

The big question is, of course, how do we do this?  As English teachers, what can and should we do?

                One of the biggest opportunities to share ideas about the writing process with teachers of other subjects would ideally be through collaboration.  Times and budgets being what they are collaboration time is hard to come by, but it would be to the students benefit if this happened more often.  “On their own students are unlikely to transfer literacy strategies and instruction across disciplines…It is therefore important for teachers to recognize the shared responsibility of writing instruction” (Pytash, Annetta and Ferdig, 22).  If this is the case for our native English speakers, imagine how much harder it is for English Language Learner students?  I really think as educators, we need to really focus on cross curricular collaboration for the benefit of the student and their ability to not only learn the skills necessary, but to learn how to apply knowledge from one content area to another.

                One suggestion from the article is that teachers collaborate on the writing process using apps.  The science lab notebook is a great tangible tool that you find utilized in many science classrooms, but if you have access to laptops, tablets or iPads there are a variety of journaling style apps that are akin to online science notebooks. Penzu – which is free – is one that even allows students to set reminders to keep adding to their notebook.  As English teachers, you could have them reflect on writing they did in science during English.  Have the students explore how writing differs from subject to subject and talk about why that is.  Science also opens the door for multi-modal projects using apps like Adobe Slate or Haiku Deck where students can work in a variety of mediums including writing.  Students could even take their work on these platforms into the English classroom for editing purposes or for collaboration with peers or even have an English teacher come in for a class period to do a short one day workshop. Come in and show the science teacher how to run a short workshop  and help to bring those essential literacy skills into the science classroom. Once the students start seeing literacy skills used across subjects, they will start applying them across subjects.  You and a science teacher could even set-up a shared space like Google Docs or a wiki or blog so students are using the same interface and tools in both subjects.  Get the students to start looking at writing through a multi-subject lens and they’ll start being more reflective about their writing process and the value of writing in subjects other than just English (and I suspect their performance in your English classroom will show marked improvement too - win win).

                The bottom line, of course, is always about the students and augmenting their ability to learn the skills they need to succeed, but the benefits of having students writing across subject areas is a huge boon for everyone (not to mention part of our current standards).  When you start to really look at the skill based needs in both English and science there is quite a bit of overlap. Think about it - vocabulary is huge for both subjects (more unique vocabulary in science than a foreign language), laying out process and procedure is shared by both subjects, discussing and supporting outcomes using evidence is something students do in both classes – the parallels between English and science are there we just need to find ways to use them to the advantage of our students.

                Knowing that I’ll be teaching science next year, I’m looking forward to being able to bring my English and literacy skills to light in the science classroom, but I fully plan to reach out to the English department in my school as well in the hopes that we can do some collaboration and encourage students to be more well-rounded engaged writers across subjects.   For all you heading to your own English classroom – think about collaborating with your science, math or even history team – it is likely to make things more interesting and engaging for our students and for you!

Reference:

Pytash, K., Annetta, L., & Richard, F. (2016, April/May). Using Apps to Integrate Writing into Science Eduation. Science Scope, 39(8), 21-26. 

The Long Road

The Long Road

Long late nights.

Desk lamp lit until well past midnight

or up long before the sun

to study, to write and prepare.

Classes three or four times a week filling days

filling nights.

Missing parent/teacher conferences, bingo nights and

occasionally performances and concerts.

Sorry kiddo – I have class/an exam/work.

Working during the in-betweens

scrapping by, biding time, watching each penny and dime.

Designing lessons, building units

watching the lightbulbs come on in the students.

This year – they feel like your students

your kids making you laugh, frustrating and yet you can’t imagine

being anywhere else.

May comes into focus, slowly page by page in your planner

marked in a myriad of colors for teaching, work, school, your family.

Slowly marking off days – the run towards May becoming longer

than the run to May.

Counting days.

Final tests for a license, final classes for a degree, final lessons for the school year

all waiting on the horizon – so close now

Interviews to anticipate, resumes to print, interview answer to prepare

Giddy and excited, worried and stressed – you live a duality

day by day, hour by hour, waiting – so soon now

so soon

a contract to sign, a classroom to decorate, a class of your own.

A teacher. 

Wrangling Reluctant Writers

               

               My 8^th grade students are in the midst of writing their first five paragraph essay of the school year.  In continuing with the theme with these students this year, writing is like pulling teeth from a chicken or herding cats – in other words – HARD.  I realize that with middle school aged students the push back on writing is not unheard of or even uncommon, but this group of young people is especially reticent and chatty (in other words largely unfocused). 

                This is when I am thankful for my methods class, time to talk with my Mentor Teacher (MT), and the bevy of texts and journals at my disposal to fine tune how I can better approach this negative attitude about writing as an exercise and try to combat it in my own teaching – both next semester and in my future classroom.  I sort of relish this time as a pre-service student teacher to take a bit of a backseat and learn from my MT as we struggle with this class and their attitude toward writing.  It really forces me to consider what I might try to do to have a different outcome in my own classroom as well as watching my MT differentiate and change instruction as needed to try and coax these students to be more engaged in the writing process.

                One thing I think is truly missing for my students is the exercise of writing.  By that I mean seeing writing as a sort of muscle that you need to work out and build-up. Something that requires daily attention to keep it sharp and always available. For these students they are only writing a couple days a week and never really for themselves – other than text messages and Twitter - and I wonder how much different things could be if writing were a daily exercise.

                Randy Bomer is probably one of my favorite authors on the subject of adolescents and writing and he firmly espouses the belief that “it’s not enough just to write in response to other authors’ texts” (Bomer 167).  He is a staunch and continued believer in students having writer’s notebooks where they can get their own thoughts on paper and hone and develop them.  Through this they learn to value their inner voice and explore their own thought processes.  I wonder how differently my current 8^th graders would feel about writing an essay had they been writing each day of the school year in a writing notebook?  Perhaps a better way to start their morning (this is a first hour class) is to give them those 10 minutes of bellwork  as distraction free to write for themselves and get comfortable with the physical and mental act of writing so it doesn’t seem to daunting. 

                Another idea that really sticks out in my mind as a way to motivate students through the hardest part of writing is one that Kelly Gallagher discusses  frequently- the idea that “when it comes to writing, the best way to know how is by seeing the writing process consistently modeled by the best writer in the classroom – the teacher” (Gallagher 48).  

                Watching the teacher write – this makes so much sense to me. If students can watch someone else writing and see for themselves that writing, even for the supposed “expert” in the room,  is not an easy task.  We have fits and starts, we constantly revise and edit, tweak a word here or there and move around sentences.  Writing – for us mortals – is a messy process whether you are the students or the teacher. I do think Gallagher perhaps overstates our position as the “best” writer in the classroom and I prefer to think of myself as having more experience at writing than my students.  I truly believe there are great results to be had if we can share our writing process live with our students.  Yes, mess and all.

               I actually did this on a small scale with my students for a unit I taught when we were discussing fear.  As soon as I got up the whiteboard to start brainstorming and creating my sentence to define fear I had students offering encouragement, more adjectives, and eventually spurring me to finish so they could see my final sentence.  Seeing me up there working through the process, adding words, relating ideas and not dashing off a sentence immediately seemed to encourage their own creative process.  Yes, it was only one sentence per student, but it was authentic work that bore the hallmark of the individuals in that class (for the most part – there were of course a few who did not want to go through the process).  I want more of that effort and that ability to reinforce each other’s writing in my own classroom.

                A third idea that I find compelling and in know that my daughter's 8th grade teacher urged her students to do it as well as knowing a fellow teacher who did it with great success with her 7th graders  last year - is participating in Nanowrimo for Young Writers (http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/how-does-nanowrimo-work-for-young-writers). Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month and it takes place each November. They offer a free (my favorite price) workbook for elementary, middle and high school students that includes all the materials they need to work toward a specific word goal for the month and to develop and work on a novel. The program offers tools that encourage students to consider character and plot development and walks them through the process to help them grow the tool set they need to write daily for the month of November. 

           Used in tandem with writer's notebooks and even with me modeling my own work for my students I think this would make for a powerful community building exercise. We could workshop together as a class on ideas or helping peers get un-stuck if they have writer's block.  We could share passages of our own work that we particularly enjoyed writing or write for a few quiet companionable minutes together - teacher and students - as a community of writers.  What a gift to be able to give them!

                As always, I’m looking at where I am and what my students are doing and trying to find ways that I could broaden or enrich their experience when I am the lead teacher.  I enjoy seeing how my MT tackles these tough issues and also enjoy finding experts like Bomer and Gallagher who oftentimes align with what I would like to see my students doing.  Of course, there are the details of how to implement writers’s notebooks and modeling my own writing, but I have high hopes that through next semester and before I have my own classroom I will continue to explore, plan and solidify my ideas for my first year of teaching and take that experience and continue exploring, planning and solidifying each subsequent year for the benefit of my students.

Works Cited

Bomer, Randy. Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995. Print.

Bomer, Randy. Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2011. Print.

Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Portland, Me: Stenhouse, 2006. Print.