COVERING NEW GROUND
Helping teachers understand the ELA Standards
An Online Resource for Understanding the 6-12 ELA Common Core Standards for Science, Social Studies, and Technical Subjects.
6-12 Writing for Science, Technical Subjects and Social Studies
WHST.1 - Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.To write argumentatively with intelligence and with supporting details and facts is a high level skill.
Students need to begin practicing how to do this in the early years so that they can understand their "feelings" are not fact... and not all opinions are shared by everyone. Your curriculum may be the best way to practice this skill! Students can convince others that the South should have won the Civil War, that chicken pox could be cured, that sugar should be banned... the options are limitless! Just be certain to help students organize their thinking first - and THEN start writing. Take a look at the graphic organizers and especially the Purdue Writing site. But most importantly - make certain your opinion is left to the side while encouraging students to express theirs.
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Argumentation Graphic Organizers
Persuasion Map - Student Interactive
Writing Graphic Organizers - Pick your structure
Lesson Plans:
SS 6-8: The South's Decision to Secede: A Violation of Self Interest
9-12: Developing Persuasive Arguments
WHST.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
Why is writing so important? We know students should be able to express themselves. But why all the hubbub? Writing is the brain's way of connecting ideas and creating meaning. And once students can take these ideas and, by using their memory-making muscles, turn them into cohesive meaning for others to enjoy and understand -- we have a true learner on our hands!
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Writing Graphic Organizers - Pick your structure
Lesson Plans:
FACS 6-8: Cooking Up Descriptive Language: Designing Restaurant Menus
9-12: Writing Technical Instructions
WHST.3 - Standard only used in the Language Arts Classroom
WHST.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Understand that there are stages of writing. Allow students to formulate their thinking with graphic organizers. Students should then create a rough draft - both for grammar and spelling but also rough in their ability to express their ideas. Then through revision by themselves and, most importantly, with their peers they are ready for final production.
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Lesson Plans:
SS 6-8: A Debate Against Slavery
SCIENCE 9-12: Foucault's Pendulum
WHST.5 - Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
Students become better writers in two ways; by writing and by reading good writing. Think about how you are asked to write in your job and mimic those skills with students. The critical idea here, however, is to have students write a bunch! Make certain to tap into rubrics to help with your grading. We should leave our opinions to the side and grade for content and ideas expressed.
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Lesson Plans:
6-8: Reciprocal Revision: Making Peer Feedback Meaningful
SS 9-12: JFK, Freedom Riders, and the Civil Rights Movement
WHST.6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
There, their and they're. Are and Our. To, too or two. Does it drive you crazy when you read typos in professional writings? Do you notice when someone doesn't have the ability to correctly tab or center a heading? Are you shocked when you receive a handwritten note in a professional setting? These are skills that we need to be certain students have mastered before leaving our schools for their futures. It matters! Keep a mindful watch on how writing looks that is turned into you. Purdue has some great guidance on this issue - but giving students feedback and demonstration of exemplary writing is the best way to teach these skills. And remember - we need to be certain that students understand that Spell Check and Autocorrect do not always work!
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Lesson Plans:
SCIENCE 6-8: Food Webs in the Bay
SS 9-12: Pioneer Values in Willa Cather's "My Antonia"
WHST.7 - Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Current researchers encourage teachers to have students write daily and generate shorter research projects -- not the 15 page paper! It's better to produce three 5-page papers instead. Consider the writing you have done lately in your job or even in your college classes. Most assignments are reduced these days - considerably. Students need to produce work that is concise in their thinking and reliant upon meaningful ideas rather than running on and on - just trying to fill the page. It's intimidating to consider offering this as an assignment if you haven't before. You might want to consider teaming up with your language arts department and co-teach a research activity the first time around.
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
A HELPFUL Website from Instructional Strategies Online!
Lesson Plans:
SS 6-8: Cultural Symbols and the Characteristics of Place
SCIENCE 9-12: Endocrine Disruptors
WHST.8 - Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
"Just because it's on the Internet does not mean it's true." You've said this - haven't you? How about the student that is gathering everything they can find online about a certain topic - but none of their research really pertains? This is a tough skill to develop. The truths are that students should know to be skeptical of information they find and they should practice several different techniques in finding information... not just Google!
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Lesson Plans:
SCIENCE 6-8: Planets in Balance
SS 9-12: The Declaration of Independence: "An Expression of the American Mind"
WHST.9 - Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Consider this activity; after your lecture, encourage teams of students to support the facts you provided on two or three different resources (Google, Wiki, library print materials, magazines, etc.) Make it a game. Encourage students to find resources that dispute what you've said! Perhaps consider planting a few "untruths" in your lecture and let them find which ones you used. Research can be fun and engaging... really!
Graphic Organizers / Tools:
Writing Graphic Organizers - Pick your structure
Lesson Plans:
6-8: Scaffolding Methods for Research Paper Writing
SS 9-12: Writing a Research Paper on the Civil War
WHST.10 - Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
The best way to improve at writing is to write! Current researchers indicate that students don't need to write ONE big 15 page essay or paper, they should write THREE 5 page essays or papers. Students should practice being concise and self-editing. Consider using quick writing assignments for reflection before they begin their homework. Students could present a quick paragraph expressing their questions for the next day before leaving class...a passport if you will. Instead of group discussion, students could write questions and answers to one another using a variety of technology. The points are - don't make the assignments stale and get them writing every day!
Tools: