Writing Across Disciplines

1. Writing Across Disciplines Or perhaps Reading and Writing Would be more appropriate

2. Disciplinary Literacy • the shared way of reading, writing, thinking and reasoning within academic fields • Each discipline has unique way of asking questions and solving problems. • Each discipline has unique expectations for the types of claims that are made and the way those claims are supported

3. Let’s take science, for instance • Experimental scientists value observable evidence as the way to produce knowledge. • Their primary method of knowing is through experimental inquiry • Development of scientific questions • Use of scientific evidence • Connection of explanations to scientific knowledge, and the ability to justify those explanations. • Use of precise technical language to most efficiently communicate with one another

4. What does this mean for a high school Biology student? • Should be able to ask—orally and in writing—a researchable question • Review and synthesize the findings of relevant studies already conducted in relation to that question • Form a hypothesis to test in an investigation • Keep appropriate data records and/or take systematic notes on observations of phenomena • Interpret data • draw conclusions • Communicate claims and conclusions--orally and in writing--again

5. What about History?Students should be able to . . . • Read across multiple texts, not only to gain information about the nature of historical research that has already been conducted about an event or a person, but also to interpret those artifacts—those data– and draw conclusions about them. • Students reading and writing history need to develop skill in synthesizing the perspectives and voices of many different observers, none of whom they can interview. • How to use one set of accounts to corroborate or dispute another set (Wineburg, 1991).

6. In addition • They need to have regular access to and scaffolding for opportunities to read across texts. • They need to be able to examine accounts with historical empathy (Bain, 2006) putting themselves in the place of the people who produced the account. • They need to be able to produce their own data-based accounts that argue for a particular interpretation.

7. And ELA?Students . . . • Need to learn to make meaning from a range of literary works at both a literal and an inferential level • Need to analyze the author’s craft—how does the author use figurative language? rhythm, or form? How do these choices affect the reader? • How do theses choices contribute to the overall meaning of the text? • Need to learn to identify themes based on textual evidence • Need to attend to the word choice used in a particular poem or short story Wait, there’s more

8. They also need . . . • To be able to synthesize pieces of literature of similar time periods, themes, and authors • To learn the practice and value of close reading • To learn to read critically and communicate their critiques in ways that align with the conventions of the discipline (Lee, 2007).

9. Some scholars hypothesize that disciplinary differences may be contributing to the literacy challenges that adolescents seem to have in secondary school, particularly because attention to these differences is rarely included as a part of pre-service teachers’ course work in schools of education or content courses they take within their discipline

10. Isabella • 12th grader • High-achieving • Hard working • Identifies as Latina • Parents are both highly-educated professionals

11. Take Isabella or Isabella’s take on English “this is kind of silly, but I think about it as the invisible ink, because the author is always trying to say something that he’s not just blatantly going to write across the page . . .So, I’m looking for symbols, themes, mood, what the author is trying to say basically.”

12. Social Studies • “With those sort of documents, , they’d probably be interested to look at the handwriting and spelling to see what era it comes from and what level of education the person had, and the more educated back then the prettier your handwriting. So, if the handwriting was messy or had a lot of mistakes, they probably weren’t that educated. You can also just talk about, if it’s more of a candid letter, or politician to politician trying to cajole one another, you can probably see the effects of whatever is going on in that era on the personal lives of people involved. You could also probably get some societal norms from it , too, from the way it’s addressed or the syntax they’re using when they address one another, to see what was appropriate at that time.”

13. And what about Science? • “I guess the difference is that when I tackle that I tackle it with, it’s still an analytical mindset, but . . . I think it’s more like trying to relate it to other things that all understand” • “it would be interesting to talk about the difference between the borosilicate glass and the soda lime glass, like, the difference. It would also be interesting to talk about why borosilicate glass doesn’t expand as much, whereas soda lime, what properties its components give it, and why it still expands.”

14. Our students must be able to navigate across literacy contexts and domains

15. Teach young people how to capitalize on the similarities and navigate across the differences of the many subject areas they traverse in a given school day Will they be prepared? Will they have the tools?

16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_2jI010WU&list=EC913348FFD75155C6&feature=player_detailpagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_2jI010WU&list=EC913348FFD75155C6&feature=player_detailpage

17. Writing Samples and RubricsAppendix C • Read Writing Samples • Create your own rubric using the annotation at the end of each piece of writing. Each of the samples exhibits at least the level of quality required to meet the Writing standards for that grade. The range of accomplishment within each grade reflects differences in individual development as well as in the conditions under which the student writers were expected to work.