Teaching Writing Across the business curriculum

Teaching Writing “The ability to express one’s thoughts in writing is an essential part of being educated.” ASCD, Curriculum Update, Summer Almost 15% of first year college students in two-year and four- year institutions required remediation. In a recent study, nearly 75% of employers said that recent high school graduates had poor grammar and writing skills. Achieve, Inc.

Teaching Writing The great danger to workers is not outsourcing and computerization… …it’s the continued decline in earnings opportunities for people who lack skills for expert thinking and complex communication The Solution: The problem: Raise student achievement in Math, Science, Reading, Writing

Teaching Writing Every job requires that we process information. Processing rules-based tasks (using logical rules and following steps) is now done by computers and kiosks. New jobs require expert thinking and complex communication ie. Manual labor – expert thinking Convey an interpretation – complex communication

One common purpose for writing is to develop students’ voices and confidence in print. Personal or narrative ---- as journal or free-writing Another purpose is to allow students to demonstrate mastery of content or of written form. As in comparison/contrast, persuasion, cause and effect; and as a five paragraph essay Writing is used to engage student in learning; inquiry and problem-solving. As an investigatory tool – response writing (as a critical reaction) Loop writing – examining a topic from different perspectives Dialog writing – conversing with a fictitious person about a topic Teaching Writing Writing’s varied goals

Teaching Writing Language Demonstrate control of standard English, articulate, usage, grammar and spelling Communication Make effective presentations and interpret the effectiveness of others Writing Strong writing skills; write clearly and quickly on demand Research Evaluate credibility of research, reject or refine products; marshal evidence in support of… Logic Ability to reason, think critically, logically and dispassionately In a 50 state review of high school graduation requirements called “The Expectations Gap”, employers and professors developed a set of readiness benchmarks. Achieve, Inc. For English -

Planning the idea Organizing ideas Translate ideas Review revise  engage in prewriting  create draft  revise text  edit for conventions  publish Process writing = accomplished writers engage in… Form writing = Five paragraph essay Teaching Writing

Analysis of grant writing Utilizes constructivist learning theoriesconstructivist Demonstrates problem-based learningproblem-based learning Can be recognized as Project-based learningProject-based learning Develops process and on demand writing skills Encourages cooperation among professionals in a learning community Engages community

...is designed to help differentiate between the lowest order (knowledge; recall data and information) and the highest order (evaluation) of human cognitive activity. One way to think about the scale is that it starts at rote memory of data and information with little or no understanding, and it ends at the highest level of understanding and critical thinking. Bloom's taxonomy nomyVerbs.pdf