Writing Across the Curriculum K-12 Creates Skills

     Writing across the curriculum helps students gain practice writing about a full range of academic subjects, not just literary topics. 

As your child's teacher, you will have her practice writing across the curriculum  when she writes sentences, paragraphs, and essays from all of her subjects, not just English. Each subject has its own method and technique for presenting material.  But if you "get in its face" now, writing will be a pizza pie in no time.

I'm ready; are you?

Kindergarten and 1st grade Get the Ball Rollin'

Your child will begin the habit of writing across the curriculum by describing, summarizing and evaluating her science, reading, and history worksheets.

After each assignment in each subject, ask her a question about the material. 

• What do you think is the most important point you learned?
• Tell me what the story was about. 
• Why do you think the character acted that way?

Here's an example: Your child has finished a lesson about the importance of healthy teeth.

• Help her sound out and spell the words.
•  Remind her that sentences start with capital/uppercase letters and end with the appropriate punctuation. 
• Review her previous contractions lesson that It's has an apostrophe.
• After she writes it, have her read the sentence using the phonetic guidelines she has learned. 

What Has Your Child Learned?

     Think about this for a moment. In one eight-word sentence, your child has

• reviewed contractions, capitalization, and two different punctuation symbols
• written words by thinking and evaluating a worksheet 
• practiced her reading and handwriting skills
• created (the highest level of thinking) a thought and
•  proved that fact by writing a sentence. 

     Your child did all that in one lesson for one subject. You've just witnessed a miracle. Do you think I've gone overboard?

Try it yourself. Sit down and write one paragraph explaining how to wash a load of dishes. Writing crystallizes our thoughts. It clears out the cobwebs. Well, I better stop now or this will become a book.

Why Write At the Bottom of the Worksheet?  

I have good reasons for asking you to have your child write her sentence/s at the bottom of the worksheet pages, and this is why:

• A sentence that states the main point should be written on that page. It will help your child recall the learning time. One could compare it to "returning to the scene of the crime." 
• It will reinforce the lesson. 
• Write the date on the worksheet and file it, as this documents writing across the curriculum, which shows that you are implementing contemporary pedagogy. 

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but who can be sure that will last. 

• And the most important reason is that it 

Writing doesn't need its own page or heading. The idea that It can't have scratch outs or be "outside the lines" needs to be killed before it ever takes hold.

kills the idea that "neatness counts."

Writing can be done anywhere, even at the bottom of a napkin, my personal favorite. 

 The fact is that fewer taboos about where and how one should write, such as at the bottom of pages, in the margins, on the back of letters and other scratch paper, will liberate and unblock many writing skills. 

By writing across the curriculum, writing can become a honed skill.

If they're going to learn to write, children must get their ideas on paper. Tweet This

Another fact of life is that Ideas are often fleeting, and the quicker an idea gets "put to paper," the quicker the writer can move on to the next great thought. 

Writing Across The Curriculum in History

     Repeat this same writing process with history. When your child studies a lesson, ask her to describe two or three characteristics about the person.(This habit of listing three adjectives that describe the character will help her when she must write a paragraph for each one by the 7th grade.)

Have her describe at least two characteristics of the historical figure. When she gives one adjective describing, let's say, Thomas Jefferson, ask her, "What else did the paragraph say about him?"  

To learn more about the five-paragraph essay, click on the link. 

     In a relaxed and easy tone, try to draw out more details from her, but never let your child be self-conscious or nervous about the writing process.

Eventually, the reading, the string of adjectives, and the writing will all come together, bit by bit, and as it flows from one subject to the next, your child will become more competent in her writing across the curriculum. If you'd like to study more about this concept, this is a really good downloadable booklet. 

Before the end of the first grade, your child will be writing three and four sentences until it's a full, descriptive paragraph as she works her way through the second grade.

Go to Writing across the curriculum for other grades by clicking on the link.

      Have you seen my  "Your Child's Writing Sample"page? Are you ready to do that? Let me encourage you to share your child's first sentence or first paragraph. I'd love to see it and publish your child's words. Just fill in the form below and you're halfway there. All comments will be sensitive and encouraging. I promise. 

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