I have had many questions recently regarding content area writing instruction. Although writing across the curriculum is not a new term in education, most content area teachers still have little training in how to incorporate effective writing practice and instruction into their subject area.

This episode shared 4 techniques to not only help get more writing into your class as a content area teacher, but also how to more effectively meet the needs of your writers.

You will learn about:

• The impact of writing with your students
• Small ways to include more writing practice that also impacts reading success
• Implementation of Baseline Writing Pieces and a simply way to assess them
• Implementation of 2 ways to model writing strategies for students

After this episode, you will feel much more capable of incorporating writing into your content-area curriculum!

About Melissa:

About Melissa:

Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education.  Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.

Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction. 

Teaching to Transform, LLC was started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!

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Hey there teacher, if you want to feel

more confident as a teacher of writing

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and you want writing time to be an

effective and engaging and enjoyable

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time for your students and for you,

then you are in the right place.

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I am Melissa Morrison and I have

a passion for helping teachers to

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feel stronger about their writing

instruction and to really enjoy writing.

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I don't promise a quick fix, but I do

promise to provide you with the ideas and

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practical strategies that will transform

writing for you and your students.

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Hey there, wonderful teacher

and welcome to this episode.

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Of getting your students to write.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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And just so you know, this is the start

of jumping back into weekly episodes.

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So make sure you are tuning in each

week whenever you get a chance.

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And I hope that you would share.

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The podcast or a particular episode

with any friend or colleague who

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you think might be interested,

I would very much appreciate it.

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So today we are going to talk about.

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This whole idea of writing across

the curriculum and what that can mean

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for teachers who are not the language

arts teachers and what are some

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basics that you can be implementing

in your classroom pretty easily.

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To feel like you are actually doing

some writing across the curriculum,

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let's break it down and let's

make it accessible for everybody.

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And I hopefully will help you feel

comfortable with being able to get

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some real writing instructions on in

your classroom, even if you've never.

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Now, one of the biggest, I think,

motivating factors and just

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effective things to do in your

classroom is the relationship

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that you have with your students.

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And one of the ways to build a really

good and, you know, helpful relationship

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between you and your writers, we're

going to, you know, call them writers

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today, is just really connecting with

them on the writing that you're doing.

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It's really being able to share with

them what you do as a writer, even if

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you don't feel great as a writer, because

they're probably still going to think

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that you're pretty good compared to them.

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I'm just, I'm going to, you know, just

get that fear right now out of your head

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no worries Okay, but it's great to share

with them what you do and to just talk

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through it they want to hear what you

do as a writer and when you are Writing

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you're going to start to see What is

needed for writing and you're going to

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start to notice like, Oh, well, you know,

I actually don't always start with the

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beginning or the introduction or this

is really difficult for me to plan out.

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I'm actually going to start writing

first and you realize that maybe

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not all your students are going

to get all their planning done

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before they want to start to write.

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So a lot of things will come a bit.

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So even if you've just spent a little bit

of time planning when you are planning

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your lessons to also plan some of your

writing for whatever project it is that

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they're doing you're going to be able

to then share what you do with them

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and it's going to kind of help your

teaching anyway, because it's going to

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kind of put you in the student's shoes.

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When you share with them and you

are vulnerable enough to do that,

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it really does build a relationship

and it makes them a little bit more

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likely to to participate in what you're

doing because it's not just like,

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Oh, we're doing this for the teacher.

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It's like you're kind

of doing it together.

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So one of the first real steps in getting

started with writing, regardless of

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the project you're going to be having

them work on or the writing piece is

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going to be to get an understanding

of what your students are capable

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of, a sort of baseline writing piece.

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You want to be able to have

a very good idea of what your

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fighters are capable of doing

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What skills do they have mastered and what

skills are they really needing to work on?

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So I'm not necessarily saying you need

a baseline research paper before you

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can have them do a research paper, but

you do need them to write something.

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So maybe it would be if you're doing a

research paper, it would just be asking

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them to do some informational writing

on something they already know about.

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an event, like a real life event,

perhaps where it's going to be shorter.

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They might not necessarily do

research, or you can have them

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take a little bit of time and just

say, this is like a practice one.

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I just want to see what we know already.

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If you are comparing and contrasting

two civilizations, you might just

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want to ask them to do the compare

part and see what they come up with.

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So just breaking it down and asking for

a little bit in some way or any type of

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piece that is somewhat similar to what

you're going to be asking them to do,

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just so you have something to go off of.

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It is going to give you a good idea of

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What students can do.

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So that you know where to start, because

what tends to happen is when you have

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a project you want them to complete,

maybe instead of a research paper, it's

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a persuasive letter to a government

official, or it's an article that you want

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them to write as if they're from a certain

time period where an event has occurred.

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You.

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Are going to, you know, show them the

structure, perhaps give them a rubric.

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And oftentimes you're going to give

them some sort of a planner or graphic

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organizer that lays it out for them.

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And so really you're jumping into

having them do this assignment without

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knowing what they're capable of.

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So you could be pushing some students

quite further than what they're ready

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for, or you could be holding students

back from writing it in a way that is more

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unique than what you're asking them to.

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It's also just very common that

teachers are flat out expecting

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way more than what their class.

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Is able to do, or, you know, thinking

that they have some baseline knowledge

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or foundation knowledge of this type

of writing that they may not have

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and therefore need you to teach them.

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Prior to.

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Completing this project.

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Be sure to keep in mind that when these

students are doing this baseline piece

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of writing, it has to be independently.

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You want them to do their own planning.

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You don't want to give them a

planner that they would fill out.

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You want them to do all of it.

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You may give them guidelines as to the

type of writing you're looking for.

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You may give them reminders of

some of the key components that you

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would want to see in this type of

writing, but you want them to be

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doing it as independently as possible.

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So that would include maybe even

choosing a topic, but doing the planning,

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doing the revising and all of that.

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Once they have.

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Completed a baseline piece of writing.

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You now have something to look

at that is going to help you see.

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The difference between what your students

are capable of doing on their own.

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And what you are hoping to see

or what that expectation is.

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Of the finished product.

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So let's say, for example, in this

baseline writing you had asked

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them to do a persuasive letter.

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And you know that you wanted them to

have persuasive language, you wanted them

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to have a good hook in the beginning.

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If they were writing it as a historical

figure or to a historical figure, you

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know you wanted them to use the language

of the time and vocabulary of the time.

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So you have certain things

that you're looking for.

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You are now going to look at each piece

of writing and compare what you want

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them to have to what is happening, right?

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Or to assess them, whether you have

a rubric for it or if you just want

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to kind of take a look at them and

say, all right, this kid has got

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the persuasive language, but they

don't have the historical language.

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Or this writer is doing really

well in the opposite way.

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This writer really doesn't

even have complete sentences.

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That might be something that is going to

come up that you're really looking at.

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So, you could just do an overall high,

medium, and low pieces, but I would also

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suggest that you look at them separately.

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And see what do you notice coming up

again and again, or what are some big

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things that are standing out to you?

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Not having complete senses is

something that you know, then

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you're going to need to work on.

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And at least, you know, now, wow, okay,

we're not, we're not even there yet.

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I really thought that wouldn't

be a problem, but it is, you

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know, so it's going to open your

eyes to what they are doing.

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And then it's going to give you an idea.

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as a whole class where they

are and what are the things

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you're going to need to work on.

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I really suggest going through and

either looking at it one lens at a

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time, like persuasive language, and then

putting them into piles, high, medium,

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and low, or looking at it overall,

but And then just taking some notes.

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And when you're done, you

look at it as a class.

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Like, most of the students

are doing this well.

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Most of the students

are not doing this well.

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And you, it really helps

to guide your instruction.

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I would not start.

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As a beginner of this process to worry

about individual instruction, I would

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just help it to inform your overall

unit and the things that you know you

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need to work on with your students.

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If you happen to have a couple

of outliers that seem to really

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struggle, then you know you're going

to need to give them more support.

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Now if you're thinking, but Melissa,

I really don't even have big writing

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projects into built into my curriculum

for my content area right now.

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And that's okay.

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You can start very small.

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I would imagine that you already have

your students taking notes of some sort

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I'm sure you also have them answer

questions if they're at the end of a

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lesson and they have to write them down.

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But one really good way to help your

students understand what they are

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learning and also to get some writing

in your curriculum is to just have

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them do some paraphrasing, summarizing,

just little responses to what they've

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read to just clarify their thinking

and to just to see what they even

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understand about what they've just read.

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This could begin with something

as simple as giving them post-it

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notes and as they go through their.

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Reading, they put a little note,

like, I don't understand this.

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Or this is really interesting.

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So it could just start

with those little things.

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And then you would show them

how to take, let's say a part.

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They're not sure they understand.

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And do this with them, right.

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And model it for them, which is now

getting into another step and how you can

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do some writing across the curriculum.

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We'll get to that in a

minute, but show them, okay.

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I read this part and I'm really

confused because I don't understand

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this one word here, or they

were just talking about this.

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And now they're talking about

this, like go through why someone

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might be confused and then right.

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Have them write that down.

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I am very confused on this part.

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When they say blank, I don't understand

that word and just have them kind of

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write it down because now we're getting

that practice of complete sentences.

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And just taking what we have in our

brains and putting it down on paper.

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It's also having them take time to

think about what they just writing

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over both of my own children.

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One of the strategies that they use was I

always call it a check for understanding,

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and it was just having them read until

they felt like they needed to stop and

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say to themselves, what did I just read?

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And so this is a way to not only

make sure we understand the reading,

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but also to get some writing in

so we can start really simple.

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Like I said, what they don't understand.

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A question they have that,

you know, it makes me think

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of something also a question.

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They have something

they found interesting.

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It could even be like, this reminds me of

this, or I learned about this something

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that's connected to what they just.

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One of the reading standards

is about connecting like the

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parts to a whole of the text.

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And so when they take notes like

this, they're going to also start

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to come up with, or you can have

them come up with all these little

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pieces that go together, you know?

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So a lot of times a question in social

studies, a social studies book, let's

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say, might be why is this significant?

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You know, why is this event significant?

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Or why is this, I don't know.

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This is a paragraph, so significant, and

they'll be able to look back at some of

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the notes or since they've taken time

to really understand what they've read

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or write down a little bit about it.

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Hopefully those connections

will come more easily to them.

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And yeah, just writing in general,

this is more practice for writing.

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And so they will more easily be able

to answer some of those questions

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that they do have and the things

that you want them to be doing on

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their quizzes and their tests, and

then eventually on some of the larger

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writing projects that you might include.

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so now we've talked about having students

complete a baseline writing that will

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help inform our instruction or just

help us understand what it is students

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have and don't have when it comes to

this type of writing that we're doing so

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that we can help them through it, right?

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And we've talked about small ways

to start getting more writing into

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your curriculum if you don't have

some of those larger projects.

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And even if you do, I think

it's great to have them do these

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little little bits at a time.

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To just get more fluent and have

more practice in writing and feel a

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little bit more comfortable with it.

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So the last thing I want to talk to

you about is some modeling and how

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this technique of modeling writing is

going to help with your instruction.

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It's a nice basic technique that is

used in ELA classes as well, but it's

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going to be needed in your classes,

especially if there are types of writing

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that students have not done before.

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The two types of modeling I

wanted to discuss are modeling,

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writing, or modeled writing.

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And the use of a mentor text.

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Okay.

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I am going to start with mentor

texts because I think it's the one

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that you would move more easily.

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Apply or implement in your classroom?

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So a metric text is basically any

type of text, any piece of writing.

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That can be used to show.

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Writing technique.

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Okay.

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You want it to be a

quality piece of writing?

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I've also found that using students'

writing can be very effective not to

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say that that's not probably writing.

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But you just might not

have had that in your mind.

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But if you save student writing or you

find any other examples, it's nicer

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students be able to see like, oh, okay.

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Like someone, my age could.

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Right.

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Something like this, and

this is how they've done it.

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Okay.

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But it's any piece of writing.

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And so depending on what the

writing is, you want them to

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do is what you're looking for.

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So if you're doing a persuasive

letter, that's what you want to find.

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If you're doing more of a research

paper, that's what you want to find.

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And then this mentor text can be

used not only to show the overall

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structure of a piece of writing like

this, but also to show the techniques

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that writers use in that type of

writing, you can be very explicit.

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So if you know that one of the

things students struggle with

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is using commas in a list.

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That's something very basic that

all I'll take, but that could be

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something you find and show them

why it's needed and how it's used.

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It could be that could even be

used for more complex instructor.

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Because there is a dependent clause.

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And you want to show them that it could

be showing them the persuasive language.

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We talked about that before it could

be showing them how they cite evidence.

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So there are any, any technical wine.

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It should be the Metro text that

matches the writing that they're doing.

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And then you would be able

to use it as an example.

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You could use the mentor text that

you found from the multiple models.

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In multiple lessons and then it can

also be something that students go back

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and look at in order to learn from it.

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Now Moto writing is writing that you

would do in front of the students.

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You are going to be showing them how you

would write there, how you are writing it.

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And you're able to think aloud and you're

able to walk them through your process.

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You're able to show them, uh, tell them

what you're thinking as you were writing.

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You could be doing the planning part of

writing that is still modeled writing.

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You could be doing the revising part

of writing that still modeled writing.

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Um, what you don't want to do

or, or actually just, just to

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say that, let's say you wrote a

piece and then showed it to them.

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Well, that's not really modeled.

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Now a mentor text, you

can certainly do that.

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You could be the writer

of the mentor texts.

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Um, and that way you're really getting

you to have control over what you can

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show them from the piece, but in order

for it to be modeled writing, you're

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gonna have right in front of them.

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Now you're probably thinking I'm

not going to write a whole research

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paper in front of students.

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No, they don't want you to do that either.

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You could, however, do parts of it.

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And so there are going to be some parts

that they could probably handle pretty

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: 00:16:43

well and you don't need them all for them

and other parts, meaning you need to see.

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: 00:16:45

And so you can just do those parts.

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: 00:16:47

You could do a paragraph, you

could do a section and it doesn't

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: 00:16:49

have to be all at one time.

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: 00:16:50

You can write a little bit at a time.

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: 00:16:51

You could also start a piece.

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: 00:16:53

And then in front of them, all of

the parts that you want to show them.

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: 00:16:55

So there's a lot of ways that you can go

about it, but it's just really helpful.

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: 00:16:57

Sometimes, sometimes for them

to be able to see someone

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: 00:16:59

go through with the process.

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: 00:17:00

So especially if you're.

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: 00:17:01

You're doing a research paper

and you have all these notes

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: 00:17:02

and they have, um, the, you.

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: 00:17:04

Sources where they have the facts that

they want to put in and to be able to

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: 00:17:07

take that and then put it in their people.

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: 00:17:08

That could be something that you want

to show them how you would do it.

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: 00:17:10

So just sharing it with them, showing it

to them, explicitly modeling it so that

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: 00:17:13

they have a better idea of how it goes.

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: 00:17:14

And then they can try to

then apply it in their own.

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: 00:17:51

So teacher, I have really hope I've

helped you kind of get to the point where

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: 00:17:55

you're ready to try some more writing

or feel a little bit more confident

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: 00:17:59

about the writing in your content area.

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: 00:18:02

I want you to pick one of

these things and give it a try.

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: 00:18:05

Remember, we can't do everything at once.

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: 00:18:07

So pick one thing that you think would

be most effective and helpful for you

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: 00:18:11

and for your students and give it a try.

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: 00:18:13

I would love to know how it goes.

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: 00:18:15

Send me a comment, send me an email,

send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram.

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: 00:18:21

I'd love to hear about it.

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: 00:18:23

I know it will make a big

impact on your teaching.

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: 00:18:28

Hello again, and thank you for

joining me on this episode.

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: 00:18:32

I have a question and a favor to ask you.

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: 00:18:34

If you are enjoying the podcast, could

you please share it with a colleague?

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: 00:18:38

I would love to be able to get this

out to as many teachers as possible, so

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: 00:18:43

send them a text, let 'em know when you

see them, that it is worth the listen.

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: 00:18:48

Thanks so much.